Performing Orthodox Ritual in Byzantium

The first full-length, interdisciplinary study of the Greek performing arts - theatre, rhetoric and ritual - between antiquity and the Renaissance.

Andrew Walker White (Author)

9781107073852, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 October 2015

288 pages, 12 b/w illus. 4 music examples
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.7 cm, 0.61 kg

'Andrew Walker White, professor at Stratford University (Virginia), is the first American theatre historian who has deeply analyzed Byzantine performance. This monograph is the result of his long research, which includes the staging of the Service of the Furnace at the University of Maryland campus.' Maria Pia Pagani, Sinestesieonline

In this groundbreaking, interdisciplinary study, Andrew Walker White explores the origins of Byzantine ritual - the rites of the early Greek Orthodox Church - and its unique relationship with traditional theatre. Tracing the secularization of pagan theatre, the rise of rhetoric as an alternative to acting, as well as the transmission of ancient methods of musical composition into the Byzantine era, White demonstrates how Christian ritual was in effect a post-theatrical performing art, created by intellectuals who were fully aware of traditional theatre but who endeavoured to avoid it. The book explores how Orthodox rites avoid the aesthetic appreciation associated with secular art, and conducts an in-depth study (and reconstruction) of the late Byzantine Service of the Furnace. Often treated as a liturgical drama, White translates and delineates the features of five extant versions, to show how and why it generated widely diverse audience reactions in both medieval times and our own.

Introduction
Part I. Byzantine Spatial, Performance and Musical Practices: 1. Spatial practices in Byzantium
2. Ritual versus theatrical performance in Byzantium
3. Musical practices in Byzantium
Part II. A Study of the Service of the Furnace: 4. Origins of the Service
5. The Service's historical context
Conclusion
Appendix 1. The Service of the Furnace, Athens 4027
Appendix 2. The Service of the Furnace, Athens 2406
Appendix 3. The Service of the Furnace, Iviron 1120
Appendix 4. The Service of the Furnace, Sinai 1527
Appendix 5. The Service of the Furnace, Lavra 165
Appendix 6. Archbishop Symeon's Dialogue in Christ
Appendix 7. The Russian Furnace Play
Glossary.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]