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292 CURIOSITIES OF MUSIC. |
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Many of the songs and prayers in the Syrian liturgy, ascribed to St. Ephraem are spurious. It is related that at the first interview between him and St. Basilius, the former was endowed by the Holy Ghost with sudden power to speak Greek, and the latter Syriac, thus giving them a choice of languages in which to converse.
It is impossible to give a thorough account of the music of the Syrian Church, as although the first instruments mentioned in the Bible (the tabo-ret, a tambourine held in one hand and struck with the other, and Hinnor, a seven stringed triangular harp) are Syrian, yet the people have never, from time immemorial, written down their melodies, but always handed them down orally, father to son, or teacher to pupil.
The mass in Syrian liturgy, is very different in its form, from the Catholic: there is neither Kyrie Eleison, Gloria, nor Epistle, contained in it.
There are two distinct sects in the Syrian church; the first Ephraemitic, or followers of the Orthodox saint; the second, heretical and followers of Jacob Baradaeus, a Syrian monk of the sixth century. These are called Jacobites, and hold Eutychian doctrines.
The music of the latter is ornamented to excess; that of the Ephraemitic rite nobler and plainer.
THE ARMENIAN CHURCH.
The rise of Christianity among the Armenians, goes back to the third century, but they early developed the doctrines of Eutychius, and the Monophysites. At times, portions of the Arme- |
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