Semantron
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The semantron (
It is also known as a semandron, semanteriom (σημαντήριον), simantra (σήμαντρα), xylon (ξύλον) and talanto (ταλαντο). In other languages, it is called as follows:
Description
The instrument comes in three main varieties: portable, consisting of a long wooden plank held in the player's non-dominant hand and struck with a wooden mallet in the dominant; a larger, heavier, fixed timber block suspended by chains and struck by one or two mallets; and a fixed metal variety, often horseshoe-shaped and struck by a metal mallet.[1]
The semantra are usually suspended by chains from a peg in the proaulion (porch of the catholicon) or perhaps outside the refectory door, or on a tree in the courtyard.[2]
Portable wooden-made
In the portable wooden form, at the centre of the instrument's length, each edge is slightly scooped out to allow the player to grasp it by the left hand, while he or she holds a small wooden (or sometimes iron) mallet in the right, with which to strike it in various parts and at various angles, eliciting loud, somewhat musical sounds (κροῦσμα, krousma).[2] Although simple, the instrument nonetheless produces a strong resonance and a variety of different intonations, depending on the thickness of the place struck and the intensity of the force used, so that quite subtle results can be obtained.[3]
Fixed wooden-made
The fixed wooden semantron is made of a long, well-planed piece of timber, usually heart of maple (but also beech), from 12 feet (3.7 m) and upwards in length, by 1+1⁄2 feet (46 cm) broad, and 9 inches (23 cm) in thickness.[2]
Metal-made
A metal semantron, smaller than those of wood, is usually hung near the entrance of the catholicon (the monastery's main church).[4] The metal variety is made of iron or brass (ἁγιοσίδηρα, hagiosidera / клепало, klepalo);[5] formed of slightly curved metal plates, these give out a sound not unlike that of a gong.[2]
Use
In the traditional monastic
Gallery
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A wooden semantron in Staraya Russa museum, Russia -
-
A metal semantron hanging atNeamţ Monastery, Romania -
A fixed wooden semantron beneath bells atCăpuşneni church, Romania
History
Origin & Byzantine rite
While continuing in daily use at monasteries and sometimes featuring at funerals for their deep notes sounded at long intervals, as well as at other services, semantra have played a long-lasting part in Orthodox history. Their origin has been traced to at least the beginning of the 6th century, when the semantron had replaced the trumpet as the agent of convocation in the monasteries of Palestine and Egypt, including Saint Catherine's in the Sinai; the rhythms struck on wood were soon vested with the aural memory of rhythmic blasts from earlier trumpets, an iconography of trumpeting that was eventually transferred to the zvon of Russian bells.[8]
Of Levantine and Egyptian origin, its use flourished in Greece and specifically on Mount Athos before spreading among Eastern Orthodox regions in what are now Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia. It both predates and substitutes for bells, which were, according to one account, first introduced to the East in 865 by the Venetians, who gave a dozen to Emperor Michael III,[6] being used to call worshipers to prayer.
The joy shown at
Larger and smaller semantra have been used, the smaller being sounded first, followed by the larger, then by those of iron.
Semantra, from their size and shape, furnished formidable weapons, and were sometimes so used with fatal effect in a church brawl.[2][8][11]
Ottoman Empire
One reason why semantra continue to be used in southeastern Europe in particular is that the ringing of bells was outlawed during Ottoman times under Islamic rule, forcing monasteries to use the semantron instead; the practice then became customary.[11][12]
Modern-period use by country
Bulgaria
In Bulgaria it largely fell into disuse after independence.
Russia
In
Syriac Orthodox
The
Modern composers
Modern classical composers who have written for the instrument include Iannis Xenakis, James Wood[16] and Michael Gordon.[17]
References
- ISBN 1-444-39254-9.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Smith and Cheetham, p. 1879.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-816616-8.
- ISBN 1-893361-78-0.
- ^ The root of било (approx. "hitting/striking thing") is бит ("to hit/strike); that of клепало is клеп via клепать ("to hit", but more precisely, "to strike upon something"). In Middle Russian, the term клепило meant "the bell". Dal', V. I., The Interpreted Dictionary of the Living Great-Russian Language.
- ^ a b c Riley, Athelstan (1887). Athos: or, The Mountain of the Monks, pp. 90-91. London, Longmans, Green. However, some doubt has been cast on the veracity of this account, but Greek resistance to bells certainly lasted some centuries; for details see Williams, E.V. The Bells of Russia: History and Technology, pp. 21-24, 31ff. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1985.
- ^ Robinson, N.F. Monasticism in the Orthodox Churches, p. 147. London, Cope and Fenwick, 1916
- ^ ISBN 0-521-41310-9.
- ^ Except in the city's Latin churches, which featured them as early as the 10th century.
- ^ Burnett, John. Overview of the Origin and History of Russian Bell-Founding
- ^ a b Hall, John Manley. Greek Life: An Account of Past and Contemporary Conditions and Projects, p. 147. Bay View Reading Club, Detroit, Michigan, 1908.
- ^ Denton, William. Servia and the Servians, p. 209. Bell and Daldy, London, 1862.
- ^ Pylyaev, M. I. "Historical Bells"
- ^ a b Smolensky, S. V. On Bell Ringing in Russia
- ^ O'Brien, John. A History of the Mass and Its Ceremonies in the Eastern and Western Church, pp. 148-149. Benziger Brothers, New York, 1879.
- ^ James Holland, Practical Percussion, p. 42. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD, 2005, ISBN 978-146-1670-636
- ^ Adam Strohm, Dusted Reviews in Dusted Magazine, September 16, 2011
Bibliography
- Smith, William, and Cheetham, Samuel. A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, p. 1879. Hartford, Connecticut: J. B. Burr, 1880.