Blogue

Sa contribution pour la conférence à Genève 2011 est publiée maintenant:

Alexandru, Maria. 2013. “Byzantine kalophonia, illustrated by St. John Koukouzeles’ piece Φρούρηζον πανένδοξε in honour of St. Demetrios from Thessaloniki. Issues of notation and analysis.” Studii Şi Cercetări de Istoria Artei. Teatru, Muzică, Cinematografie 49-50. Serie Novă 5-6: 57–105.

Abstract

The present paper explores some aspects of the so-called kalophonic musical style which flourished during the last centuries of Byzantium. It focuses on a masterpiece by St. John Koukouzeles, namely the epibole Φρούρησον πανένδοξε (Ο Allglorious, keep watch over the city), in honor of St. Demetrios, the protector of Thessaloniki, and is complementary to some previous musicological analysis of this piece by Stephania Meralidou. After a brief presentation of the old sticheron Ἔχει μὲν ἡ θειοτάτη σου ψυχή, whereof St. John takes his departing point for the kalophonic composition, the paper concentrates on a multi-level analysis of the epibole, firstly on the ground of the late middle-Byzantine notation, according to the ms Vlatadon 46 (A.D. 1551), and secondly by comparing the old notation to its slow exegesis in new-Byzantine notation by Chourmouzios Chartophylax (score and recording issued by the Greek Byzantine Choir, dir. L. Angelopoulos).

The analysis comprises several approaches like textual, music-architectural, modal, micro-syntactical, rhetorical, macro-syntactical, generative, comparative (cf. plates 7-12, 17-20. Since this material is also suitable for didactic purposes, the different plates are given again in the appendix, in form of exercises to be filled in by interested students).

The different analytical approaches reveal the highly refined melodic fabric of kalophonia with its plethora of theseis-combinations, the extensive use of music-rhetorical devices, basic norms of the complex art of musical exegesis in this style, as well as the beauty of this kind of melodies, which have been acknowledged to represent the ‘zenith’ of Byzantine music (Wellesz).

Keywords: Kalophonia, Musicological analysis of Byzantine chant, Hesychasm, St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki, Exegesis, Sectio aurea

Interpretation by the Greek-Byzantine Choir

Μέλος Αγίου Ιωάννου Κουκουζέλους. Ψάλλει η ΕΛ.ΒΥ.Χ. υπό την διεύθυνση του Λυκούργου Αγγελόπουλου

"Φρούρησον πανένδοξε την σε μεγαλύνουσαν πόλιν από των εναντίον προσβολών,
παρρησίαν ως έχων,
προς Χριστόν τον σε δοξάσαντα.
Αοίδιμε Δημήτριε,
φρούρησον την σε τιμώσαν πόλιν,
τους άνακτας συμμάχησον,
την πόλιν σου στερέωσον,
τους σε τιμώντας ευσεβώς αοίδιμε Δημήτριε
(κράτημα τε -ρι - ρεμ)
παρρησίαν ως έχων προς Χριστόν τον σε δοξάσαντα."

I would like to announce another important publication which, unfortunately, follows a symposium with 5 years delay!

It is already the second conference dedicated to the topic (see the proceedings of 2005 at the publisher Peeters and at Google Books), and Christian Troelsgård wrote in the foreword about these two symposia:

The question of the relationship between the actual musical traditions of the Greek Church of today and the melodies contained in the medieval manuscripts with Byzantine neumatic notation, has very often been raised, and a qualified answer can only be given through a precise study of the transmission and transformations of the melodies and the whole musical heritage during the intermediate centuries. At the 2005 symposium, more general studies of the development of Byzantine chant repertoires and a number of case studies spanning the 14th through the 19th centuries were presented. In this volume, the study of the development of Byzantine-Greek Church music is supplemented with a handful of papers on the development of yet other genres, and with a focus on the education of cantors (psaltai). It is precisely the role of the master cantors, the so-called maïstores, their teachings, treatises, innovations and their relations with the pupils, that is treated in a number of papers in the present volume. As has been learned from these symposia, the evolution of the didactic tradition appears to be one of the key points for understanding phenomena of transmission and development in Byzantine chant in general.

Summary:

What is the relation between the Greek ecclesiastical chant traditions of today and Byzantine chant? That question can only be answered through a meticulous study of the transmission and transformation of both the melodies, the genres, and the whole musical culture of Late Byzantium and the subsequent centuries.

This book presents a handful of studies focussing on both the development of new musical styles, such as the ornamented Kalofonia ('Beautiful sound'), and on the education of the cantors, the psaltai. The role of the master cantors, the maïstores, their teachings, treatises, traditions, innovations, compositions, and the various modes of interpretation (exegesis) are among the topics covered by this collection of papers, written by specialist scholars of Byzantine chant history.

Table of Contents

See pdf at the publishers page: http://www.peeters-leuven.be/toc/9789042927483.pdf

Achilleas Chaldaiakis' contribution about the Eunuch Protopsaltis Philanthropinos

Here with facsimiles in colour: http://www.academia.edu/3308858/

Emmanouil Giannopoulos' contribution about chant treatises in 17th- and 18th-century manuscripts

Please visit his homepage: http://users.auth.gr/mangian/Emm.%20Giannopoulos,%20Hernen%202008.pdf

Review

I would like to announce another publication of this year in the field of Byzantine and Orthodox Chant.

You can buy or review this book here:

http://www.praesens.at/praesens2013/?p=4120

The sticherarion is one of the most important chant books since its creation as a fully notated chant book during the 10th century (the genre of the chant sticheron is much older and can even be traced back to the earliest papyrus fragments of the 6th century) until today, when it still represents one of the main genres of Orthodox chant, defined according to the New Method by its own formulaic repertory within the Octoechos and its own tempo.

Because the study is focussed on the late period (since the reform of Ioannes Koukouzeles and his creation of an alternative kalophonic method during the 14th century), it is of particular interest for Orthodox chanters who would like to understand the connection between the "old sticherarion", a mysterious voluminous book called "mathematarion" ("exercise book" as the alternative name for the sticherarion kalophonikon), and the printed editions of the doxastaria today, which are differentiated between a "short" (syntomon), a "moderate" (argosyntomon), and a "long version" (argon). The author does treat the arrangements of the "old sticherarion" by the 17th-century composers Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes and Germanos of New Patras who became the most representative agents of the Byzantine sticherarion for Chourmouzios the Archivist's transcription according to the New Method (around 1814). 

Hopefully the book will answer a lot of open questions. The sticherarion represents a very huge collection of chant, so Nina-Maria Wanek's study has its focus on the sticheraria of August (menaion) concerning the repertory and on the collections of three libraries concerning the sources: the National Libraries of Austria (Vienna), Greece (Athens), and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Munich, a reproduction of cgm 626, fol. 305r,  is already presented on the hard cover).

Maintenant le libre est arrivé!!!

Il s'agît d'une collection des articles. Visitez ma nouvelle page, svp. Vous trouvez aussi quelques extraits:

http://ensembleison.de/current.htm

Et si vous avez intéresse, là vous pouvez aussi ordonner le livre.

Il contient aussi un CD supplément avec les enregistrements au champs que j'ai fait en Bulgarie.

Je voudrais remercier pour tous les échanges que je pourrais faire dans ce réseau. Ils m'ont aidé beaucoup dans la révision de mes articles.