Hikanatoi - Epic Byzantine Music

Music and vocals by Farya Faraji. The Hikanatoi were an elite section of the Byzantine army based near Constantinople. They were founded in the 9th century and ended in the 11th. Please take note that this isn't actual Byzantine music, nor does it seek to be--it's modern "Epic" music which mixes a "film soundtrack" style with Modern Greek musical language to produce an image of Byzantine civilisation, not a reconstructive work. I don't claim any authenticity with this piece beyond a very general Greek and Byzantine "vibe," nothing more.

For the pronunciation, I tried doing some research to reproduce the pronunciation of very Late Antiquity to Early Byzantine times--the "x" sound in "pataxadi" would have likely been a mix of "kz" instead of "ks", and the "ντ" cluster would have been pronounced literally as it is written, as a combination of "n" and "t" pronounced together instead of the modern hard "d" sound that you get in Modern Greek; I won't vouch for the utter certainty of that claim though, I might have been wrong. A pretty major anachronistic mistake I made however is in the phrase: ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ, πιστός βασιλεὺς καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ Ῥωμαῖων (en Christó tó Theó, pistós vasilèfs kaí aftokrátor Romaíon)--I've been delving a little too long into Classical Greek literature and pronunciation, and so my natural reflex was to pronounce "Romaíon" as it "Romayion," which is how it was pronounced in the Classical era of Socrates and Pericles. I later remembered that this pronunciation was already extinct by the 3rd century A.D, so keep that anachronism in mind, it's not accurate to any Byzantine era. Also the Latin pronunciation is all over the place, I think I just wasn't focused enough on that day, so some phrases retain Classical Pronunciation and others use Ecclesiastical.

Transliterated lyrics and translation:

To pataxadi basilis megalus, Alliluia!
(To him who defeated great kings, Aleluiah!)

Roma invicta, Roma aeterna, Roma caput mundi
(Rome undefeated, eternal Rome, Rome capital of the world)

Polataetiton vasileon!
(Many years to the Kings)

Vivat Imperator!
(Long live the Emperor)

In Christ, Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans

[faryafaraji]

Alot of people criticize the song for sounding too oriental, eastern or Turkish. I've been receiving these comments over and over again, so I'll just pin the response here instead of answering individually every time. The first basic thing to remember is that this song isn't actual Byzantine music, it's Byzantine-themed music. It has no pretenses at being historical Byzantine music; it is however representative of modern Greek music with slight orchestral additions.

The people criticising the song as being too oriental do it out of a basic assumption:

Some are simply unaware of the deeply "oriental/eastern" sound of Greek music and are likely only familiar with the music of the Ionian Islands, the Italian-like, Zorba music; and like many non-Greeks, they have only been exposed to this highly specific and regional style of Greek music, and therefore project it as being the entirety of all Greek music—most of which doesn't sound like that at all.

Others recognise that Greek music of today does have an "oriental" sound, but they attribute it to Ottoman influence, their assumption being that before the Turkish conquest, Byzantine music had a Western European sound, and that Turkish influence made Greek music the way it is today, therefore Byzantine-themed music should have a Western European sound.

The main aspect of this song that makes it sound oriental is the scale/mode used, which involves a tetrachord (series of four notes) found in the Double Harmonic Major, called by various names by other cultures, such as Phrygian Dominant or Hijaz. The earliest attestation of this tetrachord is found in ancient Greek music, in the Lydian Chromatic Mode and the Hypolydian mode, and Arab writers of the early Islamic Golden Age mention in their writings that they are adopting the tetrachords of Ancient Greek music and basing their nascent musical style on this ancient system. Therefore the notion that such scales were brought after the Turkish conquest is nullified: these scales existed as far back as the Hellenistic Era, and Octavian and Caesar heard these very tetrarchords in their culture's music.

In fact, google "Double Harmonic Major, " and you'll see it referred to by another name: the Byzantine Scale. This "oriental, too Arabic to be Byzantine" scale is so important, so central to Byzantine music, that it is called, literally, the Byzantine scale.

Another thing many people respond negatively to is Byzantine chant itself, the style of singing. The idea usually being: "this sounds Islamic, this can't be how Byzantines sang, " or: "yes Greeks sing like this today because of Turkish and Islamic influence, but in the days of the Byzantine Empire, their religious chants would have sounded like Gregorian chanting."

Gregorian Chant is not the original style of Christian liturgical chant. Old Roman Chant is. Old Roman Chant is the style of liturgical Christian singing of the Late Roman Empire. It is the common ancestor of both Gregorian and Byzantine chant, as both traditions evolved from Old Roman Chant. Here are a few examples of Old Roman Chant:

The similarity with Byzantine chant is blatant. Old Roman Chant has that "Oriental/Islamic" thing going in the singing, which is simply a high degree of vocal ornamentation that is melismatic with a high degree of microtonal inflection. The modern style of singing found in today's Greek Orthodox Church (among others) is not a product of Ottoman and Islamic influence--instead, it goes back to the common roots of the earliest forms of Christian liturgical chant. Once again, it's historically impossible for this style of chanting to be the product of Turkish influence, but it is a very plausible hypothesis that it's Islam that adopted this style of chanting from the Christian Mediterranean basin at the onset of its conquests, and not the other way around.

The assumption that Turks wiped out a nonexistent, Western European style of native Greek music is completely contradicted by historical research. Many of these "oriental" sounding elements existed in Ancient Greece and were in fact Greek influence upon Middle-Eastern music, which is a testament to the fact that culture does not turn altogether "Western" upon crossing from Anatolia into Greece. Despite being foundational to Western civilisation, Greece has always been more similar to its neighbours in the East than the English or the French on many cultural levels; music being one of them.

Just to be clear: I'm not saying Turkish music is 100% Byzantine or that there has been no Turkish influence on Greek music. Bilateral influence has been occurring between these two cultures ever since the 1000's. What I'm saying is that the "oriental" vibe of Byzantium is native to it, and that Turkish influence did not fundamentally change Greek music from a Western one to an "Eastern" one. It was already "Eastern" in style before. Therefore using the sound of modern Greek music is not inappropriate for representing Byzantium, as modern Greek music is not an imposition, and is in fact, very much a direct continuation of Byzantine music and carries the echoes of it.

[thepunisher]

People who think it's too "oriental" don't understand that Greece is at a crossroads between weat and east. They were influenced by both cultures.

[arbanu.comics]

Salento and Calabria: last greek byzantine strongholds in southern Italy against the Lombards!🇮🇹❤️🇬🇷

[ElGold]

I'm addicted to this masterpiece. Love from Sicily to my greek brothers.🇮🇹❤️🇬🇷

[TheManuelSeijo]

Long live the Eastern Roman Empire!🇬🇷🦅

[felixfresh]

Her: So what kinda music do you listen too?

Me: *well it's kinda complicated*

[swedishempire]

I love this, since I am literally Obsessed with Byzantine History

[mikoer]

I played this to my beer.
It became wine.

[melvinsaji]

Love and respect from
Indian Syrian Christian 🙏✝️☦️

[luisdetorresnavarro]

🇮🇹🤝🏾🇪🇸🤝🏾🇬🇷
Being Mediterranean Chads And the True Roman Empire Descendants

[captainpanus]

I love the combination of Greek and Latin... This is one of the beautiful thinks about Byzantine Empire

[achmeingott]

Imagine being a Varangian experiencing Byzantium for the first time

[rebetis-bdjr]

Your pontian lyra part (2:14) was epic.

Salute from a pontian greek

[hadriananton]

Beautiful work. As an Italian with a bit of Greek heritage I highly approve! Those eastern notes really capture the spirit of the age

[felipealejandroreyes]

In LatinAmerica we all learn Greek Language in our Bible Studies i love being an Spanish Speaker but i love more the Greek language 🇬🇷☦️⛪️📖❤️‍🔥

[basedkaiser]

People complaining about this sounding too « oriental » should really look at a map and see where Greece is. Not to mention that Greece and the Orient influenced each other even before the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) was a thing.

[Billswiftgti]

I am Greek and it doesn't sound oriental at all to me. I understand why Western people call it like this though. I would call it imperial, I can hear the "imperial" pentatonic (I call it like this, maybe it has another name). Very interesting!

[crappusmaximus]

Wow... the Latin lines are giving me chills... great work

[lewalliser]

As a frankish barbar, this is a banger

[xcixneptune]

I played this on loud speaker and my neighbor texted me "We march at dawn" .