Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993 TAG: 9312290001
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The program will feature traditional and modern interpretations of pieces dating as far back as the sixth century. It will be sung in Greek, with text in the printed program.
The show is an outgrowth of a ``Night in Byzantium'' presentation in 1990 during the Campus on the Mall program of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, says Paul Dallas, a Roanoke general internist, who sings with the group.
``They were so enthused they decided to give a shot at taking it on the road,'' Dallas says. The singers are members of the Friends of Byzantine Music, who live in several states but gather several times a year to rehearse and sing.
The performance will be conducted by Harilaos Papapostolou, who is choir director at St. Sophia's Cathedral in Washington. The singing will be unaccompanied.
``You can't really play it on a musical instrument,'' Dallas says, ``only a fretless one, because the intervals between the notes are irregular.''
Instead of the half-steps and whole steps that separate notes in Western music, Byzantine music employs 12 little steps.
``It takes lots of practice, years, to hit those steps,'' Dallas says.
The pieces will mostly be ecclesiastical, with solos by Papapostolou.
Byzantine music has no harmony line but consists only of the melody plus a droning note in the background. The result is a form of unison that initially sounds strange to Western ears but becomes ``extremely beautiful,'' Dallas says. The program will include a narrator, John Yiannias, an associate professor of art history at the University of Virginia. He specializes in Byzantine art.
Dallas, who is on the medical education staff at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, took up study of the musical form in 1990.
The concert ``exposes people to Byzantine music and brings a Smithsonian co-sponsored event to the Roanoke Valley, which I like because we don't often have this kind of event come down.''
\ Tickets must be purchased in advance. None will be sold at the door. They cost $10 for adults and $7.50 for students, and they are on sale at the Mill Mountain Theatre box office. They also can be obtained by calling 981-8180.
by CNB