I would like to inform you about this doctoral thesis, because it has not only an accurate codicological description (different hands of scribes and notators, local features of the manuscript like the feast for St Barbaros with an edition and transcription of its idiomela) of this particular manuscript (which is very helpful also to describe other sticheraria), but also an introduction into the history of Orthodox and Byzantine chant in Albania and a description of Byzantine chant manuscripts preserved at the Arkivi Qendror i Shtetit of Tirana. The PDF uploaded here has bookmarks.

Gjoroveni, Argita (2016) The Byzantine Musical Tradition in Southern Illyria. The Sticherarion Br. 81 of the CSA of Tirana, Albania: Repertory and Notation. [Ph.D. thesis 1 February 2016]

http://paduaresearch.cab.unipd.it/9529/

Abstract

This doctoral thesis aims to investigate some aspects of the liturgical and musical tradition of Southern Illyria, a specific region of the Byzantine civilization in the Balkans. Focusing on a group of manuscripts conserved today at the National Archive of the State in Tirana the project will help expand and deepen the knowledge about medieval Byzantine music of the Western Balkans. The methods adopted include the cataloguing, the study of the notation, the classification of the neumatic signs, as well as performing the transcription and critical analyses of texts and music, through a comparison with other authoritative MSS, representative of the Middle Byzantine musical notation. Among the six manuscripts in Greek and Byzantine notation currently preserved at the National Archive of Albania in Tirana (which cover a period from the 13th to the 19th century, and document the last two phases of the Byzantine notation) the research focus will be on the MS Br. 81, the only Sticherarion surviving in Albania. An initial investigation based on the identification though the indexing the repertory included in the Sticherarion Br. 81 was further extended by transcribing the texts and the intonations of some groups of musical compositions. The chants were selected according to the following criteria: 1) compositions considered significant for possible textual and musical comparisons with other concordant sources; 2) the repertory of unica chants included in the Sticherarion Br. 81.

Through a comparative study of the repertory, i.e. by confronting the compositions obtained from Sticherarion Br. 81 with the concordant sources in the Middle Byzantine notation, the thesis aims to clarify the nature of the chants present in Sticherarion Br. 81, as well to identify the significant musical and textual variants through an in-depth analysis of the melodies. The analysis of the content of the MS has also permitted to address issues related to the origins of Sticherarion Br. 81. Since the Albanian musical MSS have not yet been comprehensively studied from a musicological perspective, this thesis, by providing a description and a first analysis of the repertory of Br. 81, aims to address this lack, and to provide scholars directions for future research. This is the aim of the Appendices with musical transcriptions too, which, besides making accessible a significant group of unique chants, also offer an interesting material for new investigations on the notation and on the local variations of the musical and liturgical repertory of a larger area of Byzantine culture.

 

Resoconto

La presente tesi di dottorato si propone di esaminare un aspetto della tradizione liturgico-musicale presente nel territorio dell’Illiria del sud, parte specifica e integrante della civiltà bizantina dei Balcani. Rivolgendo l’attenzione a un gruppo di manoscritti oggi conservati a Tirana, presso l’Archivio Centrale Nazionale di Tirana, il progetto si è posto l’obiettivo di approfondire la conoscenza delle testimonianze della musica bizantina medievale nei Balcani occidentali, effettuando la catalogazione, studiando la notazione, classificando le scritture neumatiche, eseguendo la trascrizione e l’analisi critica dei testi e delle musiche, attraverso il confronto con altri testimoni autorevoli in notazione bizantina. Tra i sei manoscritti in lingua greca e in notazione bizantina attualmente conservati nell’Archivio Centrale Nazionale dell’Albania a Tirana (che abbracciano un periodo dal sec. XIII al XIX e documentano le ultime due fasi della notazione bizantina) è stato scelto di studiare il ms. Br. 81 del sec. XIII-XIV, l’unico della tipologia degli sticheraria. Una iniziale indagine basata sull’identificazione, l’indicizzazione e alla stesura dell’incipitario di tutti i brani si è estesa trascrivendo contemporaneamente testi e intonazioni di alcuni gruppi di composizioni musicali. La selezione dei canti è stata effettuata secondo i seguenti criteri: 1) composizioni ritenute significative per i possibili confronti testuali e musicali con altre fonti concordanti; 2) unica presenti nel manoscritto Br. 81.

Attraverso lo studio comparativo del repertorio, mettendo di fronte le composizioni ricavate dallo Sticherario Br. 81 e le rispettive fonti concordanti in notazione medio bizantina, la tesi mira a chiarire la natura dei canti presenti nello sticherario Br. 81, nonché individuare le varianti significative musicali e testuali tramite un’approfondita analisi delle melodie e dei testi. L’analisi del contenuto ha permesso inoltre di affrontare le problematiche legate all’origine e alla provenienza dello sticherario Br. 81. La tesi risponde soprattutto all’esigenza di avviare la ricognizione, la descrizione e una prima analisi di un repertorio rimasto finora ai margini degli studi musicologici, mettendo a disposizione degli studiosi gli elementi per successivi e specifici approfondimenti. A questo scopo risponde anche l’appendice di trascrizioni musicali che, oltre a rendere noto già un gruppo significativo di unica, offre anche un materiale interessante per nuove indagini sulla notazione e sulle varianti locali di un repertorio comune a una vasta area della cultura bizantina.

References

Argita Gjoroveni's doctoral thesis fills a very serious gap concerning the description of Byzantine manuscripts of Tirana (RISM has so far not even sigla for Albania!). Joan Lena’s article, for instance, does mention Ms. 81, but refers Theofan Popa’s classification as “Oktoechos” (which is only correct for the last part of the manuscript: ff.180v-220r). It is probably one of the earliest sticheraria known with separated kekragaria (usually only later sticheraria write out the evening psalm together with the first eight stichera heothina). The reference to Asen Atanasov’s article where a second sticherarion with the collocation Ms. 82 is mentioned, is missing (see the discussion of his classification on page 27). Hence, I added it here. The catalogue by Andi Rembeci and Sokol Çunga has one coloured table for almost each manuscript of the collection 488, although their description of Ms. 81 is neither reliable. A first catalogue of the chant manuscripts was published by Meri Kumbe in 2013 (see bibliography of the thesis, p.201).

 
Atanasov, A., 2012. Musical Manuscripts in Ohrid and Tirana. Българско музикознание, 2012 (3-4), 81–88.
Lena, J., 2013. The Byzantine Manuscripts in the Central State Archive of Albania (Tirana). In A Catalogue of Byzantine Manuscripts in their Liturgical Context: Challenges and Perspectives. Catalogue of Byzantine Manuscripts in their Liturgical Context. Subsidia. Brepols Publishers, 215–234. doi:10.1484/M.CBM.1.101396.
Rembeci, A. & Çunga, S., 2012. Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Manuscripts in Albania. Catalogue of the Exhibition for the 100th Anniversary of the Indipendence of Albania, Tirana: General Directorate of Albanian Archives. researchgate.

GjoroveniSticherarionTiranaB81.pdf

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