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Videos by Oliver Gerlach
Jul Variboba (~1725-1788) was a very charismatic Italo-Albanian papàs (parish) who soon establish... more Jul Variboba (~1725-1788) was a very charismatic Italo-Albanian papàs (parish) who soon established circles at the communities of Shën Benedhit and of Mbuzat, where people met regularly to sing together with him processional songs composed in Arbëresh by himself. Although he was very gifted and his early contribution to transcribe Arbëresh as an oral language had a great impact, his attitude to the Greek rite was the reason, why he completely failed in all his career plans.
Today, the women of the village San Giorgio Albanese, Variboba's birthplace, sing the kalimeret not far from the tradition documented at Vaccarizzo Albanese (Arb. Vakarici), but the text not in linguistic variants according to a local oral tradition, but according to the critical edition by Italo Fortino (emeritus professor of Albanologia in Rome and in Naples). It is typical for the Arbëresh tradition that kalimeret are a female genre and closely connected with the real lament (vajtim).
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Books by Oliver Gerlach
Udine, Nota (Geos cd book 687), 2021
We plan a multimedial comparative study of all kalimeret in Arbëresh communities (around the Parc... more We plan a multimedial comparative study of all kalimeret in Arbëresh communities (around the Parco Pollino) with an edition of the linguistic (IPA, standard orthography) and musical transcription (experimental, neumes, staff and staffless notation, rhythmic and modal transcription).
Unlike the Italo-Greek kalimera the kalimeret in Arbëresh are usually sung by women (with a few exceptions)!
The corpus of texts is based on Jul Variboba as the author of a literary prototype dating back to the 18th century. Due to the local oral tradition the texts had been adapted to the local dialect of Arbëresh as it exists in each village until the present day. But each village uses an own melody, sometimes tonal in regular meter, sometimes modal with assymetric rhythm as monodic chant close to liturgical monody and its ornaments (since the para-liturgical custom had become liturgised during the Holy Week), sometimes multipart according to polyphonic traditions of the Balkans.
The books tries to describe each local tradition and its history starting from own fieldwork made during the last years (2012-2020) and integrating historical fieldwork.
This book is a collection of 5 essays. The first is an introduction into the basics of chant tran... more This book is a collection of 5 essays. The first is an introduction into the basics of chant transmission, the modal framework within the eight-mode system, differentiated according to Western and Eastern chant genres. The second is an introduction into the labyrinth of the eight-mode system, which was used for a musical art of memory in Byzantine chant. The third analyses the embellished design of a traditional chant: a hymn for St. Peter taken from the Byzantine sticherarion and from the Roman antiphoner, and its elaboration in monodic kalophonia and polyphonic organum.
A second part is dedicated to two living chant traditions: The fourth essay describes the integration of makamlar among Greek church singers of Istanbul, and the final essay is a portrait of two important singers of the Bulgarian Orthodox tradition.
Book parts and chapters by Oliver Gerlach
The extraordinary discovery of a Breviary-Missal at the Leone Museum in Vercelli has brought to l... more The extraordinary discovery of a Breviary-Missal at the Leone Museum in Vercelli has brought to light the oldest known evidence of Salerno’s liturgy, which dates back to the years of Archbishop Romualdo II Guarna (1153-1181). The manuscript joins a group of codices kept at the “San Matteo” Diocesan Museum in Salerno, and provides many hitherto unpublished codicological, musicological, and art-historical details. From the pages of the manuscript emerges the role of the Beneventan, Ambrosian, and Norman traditions in relation to the customs of the Church of Salerno, as well as new questions on the multifaceted medieval cultural context, in which written, spoken and sung words were associated with the images and liturgical installations of the cathedral.
For a better understanding of the different issues, specialists from various disciplines engage in a constructive dialogue to investigate the peculiarities of the Breviary-Missal, explore its complexities, and retrace the multiple routes that connected Salerno to Rome, the Mediterranean basin, and the heart of medieval Europe.
La straordinaria scoperta presso il Museo Leone di Vercelli di un Breviario-Messale proveniente da Salerno ha portato alla luce il più antico testimone noto della liturgia cittadina, databile agli anni dell’arcivescovo Romualdo II Guarna (1153-1181). Il manoscritto si aggiunge al gruppo dei codici conservati presso il Museo Diocesano “San Matteo” della città costiera e trasmette numerose e inedite informazioni codicologiche, musicologiche e storico-artistiche. Dalle pagine del manoscritto emergono gli innesti della tradizione beneventana, ambrosiana e normanna sulle consuetudini della Chiesa salernitana, così come nuove domande sul poliedrico contesto culturale medievale, in cui la parola scritta, pronunciata e cantata si associava alle immagini e agli arredi sacri della cattedrale. Per una migliore comprensione delle diverse questioni sono stati coinvolti in un dialogo costruttivo specialisti di varie discipline che, in questo volume, indagano le peculiarità del Breviario-Messale, scandagliandone la complessità e ripercorrendo le molteplici vie che connettono Salerno a Roma, alle sponde del Mediterraneo e al cuore dell’Europa.
![Research paper thumbnail of Св. Йоан Кукузел — личност, твочество, епоха [Sv. Joan Kukuzel: Personality, Work, Epoch], Sofia: Sv. Kliment Ohridski UP, 2020.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/68354958/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Cover of the new book "Sv. Ioan Kukuzel: Personality, Work, Epoch" for the celebration of the 740... more Cover of the new book "Sv. Ioan Kukuzel: Personality, Work, Epoch" for the celebration of the 740th birthday of St John Koukouzelis, born at the Albanian seaport Durrës, one of the most famous musicians of Constantinople at the Court and at the Patriarchate, anachoret and hesychast at the Great Lavra of Holy Mount Athos.
Content:
His Holiness Neophit, Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia. The
Orthodox Liturgical Singing Tradition / 13
Svetlana Kujumdzieva. Introduction / 19
PERSONALITY / 25
Svetlana Kujumdzieva. St. John Koukouzeles – Musical-liturgical Innovations / 43
Lyubomir Ignatov. St. John Koukouzeles – a Measure of Singing Mastery in Eastern
Orthodox Church Music / 77
Stefka Venkova. St. John Koukouzeles in the Editions of the Bulgarian Musical Union:
Data and Interpretations / 91
Tatyana Ilieva. St. John Koukouzeles’ Character According to Dobri Nemirov’s
Historical Novel “The Angel-Voiced” / 122
WORK / 123
Maria Alexandru. Towards a Corpus of the Kalophonic Mathemata by St. John
Koukouzeles / 164
Klara Mechkova. Koukouzeles’ Wheel in the Light of Hesychast Theology / 176
Emmanouil Giannopoulos. Koukouzeles’ Heritage according to the Cretan Psaltic
Tradition of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries / 183
Stefan Harkov. Koukouzelian Heritage among the Bulgarians in the Middle of the 19th
Century: Reconsideration of Some Lesser-Known Sources / 206
Nikola Antonov. The New Method Version of “Mega ison” by St. John Kukuzeleles or
about the Continuity of Tradition under the Aspect of the Tone System / 223
Andrey Kasabov. Musical Creativity of Saint John Koukouzeles in the Bulgarian
Printed Church-Singing Collections from the Middle of 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Ἄνωθεν ο ἱ προφῆται in ἦχος βαρύς / 237
EPOCH / 239
Iskra Hristova-Shomova. The Ochrid Menaion Between the Old Recension and the
Norms of the Jerusalem Typikon / 263
Oliver Gerlach. The Generation around John Koukouzeles and the Re-Definition of the
Constantinopolitan Tradition by the “Koukouzelian” Reform / 294
Св. Йоан Кукузел — личност, творчество, епоха [Sv. Joan Kukuzel: Personality, Work, Epoch], 2020
After the return of the Court and the Patriarchate from the exile of Nikaia, the local tradition ... more After the return of the Court and the Patriarchate from the exile of Nikaia, the local tradition of the cathedral rite was not continued. The Byzantine tonal system according to a common understanding taught by the Papadike was defi ned according to the Koukouzelian wheel which was based on fi fth equivalence (the trochos system and the practice of parallage) and deeply rooted in the Middle Byzantine notation and the chant books Sticherarion and the Heirmologion.
Since John Koukouzeles’ Mega Ison as a method to teach all notational signs did not change the notation system, but rather exploited a former synthesis to transcribe the chant books of the cathedral rite (Asmatikon and Kontakarion-Psaltikon) with the notation of the Sticherarion, the synthesis of all chant books within one universal notation system was well prepared and this preparation motivated Christian Troelsgård to abandon the distinction of Middle from Late Byzantine notation. It was also the basis of the integrative role of Papadic teaching which was continued until the 19th century and the integration of the practice of cheironomia in Koukouzeles’ theory of the great signs. According to the new theory of Papadike, the Hagiopolitan oktoechos was the universal tonal system which had to integrate also the Constantinopolitan tradition of the cathedral rite. This synthesis is also the basic understanding of the Byzantine tonal system since its description by Oliver Strunk in 1942. The current understanding of the heritage of Byzantine chant is so deeply rooted on the Papadic synthesis of the 14th century that it lacks a proper understanding of the preceding tradition which was unified by the synthesis.
This essay is focussed on the kalophonic melos concerned with the repertoire of the kontakia and its modal transformation.
Il guardiano dei suoni — Studi e memorie in occasione del 70° compleanno di Renato Morelli, 2021
(Last update: 1 July 2021, 18:40) During recent years linguistic diversity in the whole of Italy... more (Last update: 1 July 2021, 18:40)
During recent years linguistic diversity in the whole of Italy faced a serious decline. It has been neglected and dismissed as a certain minority culture, although the term was once used to protect minorities. The reception of traditional dance in Southern Italy is quite different, especially tarantella, after Ernesto De Martino’s study about the end of the Salentine pizzica taranta (La terra del rimorso, 1961), caused an urban folk fashion which celebrates itself as “Neo-Tarantismo” in mass media events without showing any serious curiosity in the still existing rich diversity of rural dance traditions. The unknown fact is that Balkan minorities have created the local traditions between Abruzzo and Sicily which are perceived today as something which belongs to everyone (a majority or mainstream culture).
One of the first things, I had to learn about my field in Calabria and Lucania was that certain religious processions are accompanied by dance and as a para-liturgical tradition it was untouchable for church authorities and ecclesiastical reforms. It also forms the backbone of other rituals such as Carnival or the Vallje, a kind of processional dance of Italo-Albanian communities which celebrate, in combination with multipart singing, legendary Albanian heroes such as Skanderbeg or Constantine (a fictional protagonist who stands for patriotic loyalty, even if the home-country is far away). Although these rituals are often perceived as non-religious, they are integrated in the annual cycle before the beginning and after the end of Lent.
This contribution has just the modest aim to attract public curiosity and to point at the fragility of rural traditions which urgently need an effective protection against current processes of globalisation. Instead of nationalist concepts which do exist, one must not forget that “national heritage” is always based on local diversity.
Articles by Oliver Gerlach
Issue 25: "Byzantium and Islam" — In Memory of Alessandro Angelucci, 145-184, Apr 9, 2017
This monographic essay is dedicated to one of the most mysterious protagonists of the patriarchal... more This monographic essay is dedicated to one of the most mysterious protagonists of the patriarchal style (hyphos) Petros Peloponnesios. Despite the many colourful anecdotes, we only know very few facts about Petros Peloponnesios’ life before he came to Constantinople in 1764. Analysing Petros’ contribution to the hyphos, this essay does not rely on the well-known transcriptions as they were distributed by the print editions in different languages. Recent research has already proved that many ascriptions to Petros are not trustworthy. On the other hand, readers might discover less known compositions by Petros, like his second week cycle and the long oktoechos cycle of cherouvika, which have rarely been printed. They will also be surprised that his composition of the idiomela for the «Doxastarion syntomon» are quite different from the official transcriptions according to the New Method. Another mystery is Petros’ close relationship to the Mevlevi dervishes of Pera (Beyoğlu), where he was adored as Hoca and Hırsız (“teacher and thief”), and his exceptional contribution to Ottoman music by numerous transcriptions of historical makam compositions and more than 100 original makam compositions, sometimes made over a Greek text. The article proves that Petros did not invent the exegetic use of notation nor the transcription of makam music into Greek neume notation. It also proves that many of the works and innovations were officially wrongly attributed to him. Nevertheless, he must be regarded as one of the most remarkable and most gifted Greek Ottoman musicians who did wonders during his short life span between 1764 and his early death during the disastrous plague of 1778.
From a national point of view Arbëresh culture has been marginalised and abandoned as the one of ... more From a national point of view Arbëresh culture has been marginalised and abandoned as the one of a “language minority,” with the result that it is no longer officially taught at school. On the other hand, music had always played a key role in community life and the combination of this rare language and sound never failed to make a great impression on everyone, no matter if they understand or not. It still accompanies the Arbëresh through the life cycle, during important feasts, carnival, weddings and funerals. In my introductory essay I try to look at these rich expressions from a different angle, by the recognition of common features the Arbëresh share with other communities of Southern Italy like tarantella and kalimera, regardless the linguistic competences concerning Balkan dialects which once dominated “Il Sud,” and regardless the religious background and the rite of these communities. Thus, the very distinct forms of Albanian music, which sometimes have only survived in the Italian diaspora, can be described by certain unique genres like the vallje and the ajrët, and a kind of multipart song which has been identified by ethnomusicologists as world heritage of the Balkans and of Italy.
The living traditions of monodic Orthodox chant were going through innovations, as the music theo... more The living traditions of monodic Orthodox chant were going through innovations, as the music theory and its notation were created starting from 1814. They are the results of a reform finished under the third generation or the “4th music school of the patriarchate” (Istanbul). The reformers, who were called “the three great teachers”, had close relationships with musicians at the Ottoman Court, with musicians belonging to Sufi brotherhoods, and with synagogal singers—a context which Rudolf Maria Brandl called 1989 the Levantine community of traditional musicians (“The Music of the Fanariots”).
The paper is about the performance practice of Greek-Orthodox singers and is focused on the various forms of the diatonic (papadic) ēchos barys, as they can be found in the living tradition today. It is also an attempt to trace back the theoretical concept of this mode and to answer the question, to what extent the reformers were inspired by traditional musicians of the Levant.
On the 18 March 2012 Otec Stiliyan died 83 years old. As monk and tipikar he had sung the daily s... more On the 18 March 2012 Otec Stiliyan died 83 years old. As monk and tipikar he had sung the daily services for 51 years at Bačkovo Monastery.
Everybody who visited Bačkovo between 1961 and 2012, was instantly touched by his exceptional voice. He stood modestly at the pulpit, discrete, but affecting, to serve God and men. Under his musical custody the divine services had been celebrated for more than 50 years. Thus, he had an experience comparable to a monk of an Athonite skete specialized in liturgical chant. With his experience and his individual part which he shared within the tradition of Bulgarian Orthodox Chant, Otec Stiliyan had been one of the most excellent psaltes of Bulgaria, despite that he never had a representative office within the hierarchies of the Patriarchate (like the one of a protopsaltes). His country and his church have lost an important chanter and teacher.
Book Reviews by Oliver Gerlach
Issue 25: "Byzantium and Islam" — In Memory of Alessandro Angelucci, 189-193, Apr 9, 2017
Review of K. KALAITZIDIS, Post-Byzantine Music Manuscripts as a Source for Oriental Secular Music... more Review of K. KALAITZIDIS, Post-Byzantine Music Manuscripts as a Source for Oriental Secular Music (15th to early 19th century), trans. by KYRIAKI and DIMITRI KOUBAROULIS, Würzburg 2012 (Istanbuler Texte und Studien, 28), pp. 356, € 75, ISBN 978-3-89913-947-1
Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik (JÖB), vol. 64, 315-318, 2014
The Old-Roman Practice of Alleluia singing McKinnon, James W. 1996. “Preface to the Study of t... more The Old-Roman Practice of Alleluia singing
McKinnon, James W. 1996. “Preface to the Study of the Alleluia.” Early Music History 15: 213–249.
McKinnon, James. 2000. The Advent Project the Later-seventh-century Creation of the Roman .... Berkeley: University of California Press.
Levy, Kenneth. 2000. “A New Look at Old Roman Chant.” Early Music History 19: 81–104.
———. 2001. “A New Look at Old Roman Chant - II.” Early Music History 20: 173–197.
Pfisterer, Andreas. 2008. “Italian and Gallican Alleluia Psalmody.” Plainsong and Medieval Music 17: 55-68.
Keynote lecture by Oliver Gerlach
Musizierpraktiken und ihre Freiheitsgrade – im Spannungsfeld von kompositorischer Fixierung bis zu spontaner Improvisation. Bericht der Jahrestagung des Nationalkomitees Deutschlands im ICTM 2017 in Mannheim, 2019
There are already anecdotes since the fall of Constantinople about Sultan Mehmed II’s admiration,... more There are already anecdotes since the fall of Constantinople about Sultan Mehmed II’s admiration, that the protopsaltes of the Hagia Sophia could write down any kind of music and could adapt it according to their own tradition. In 1458 however, Manuel Chrysaphes, former lampadarios at the Byzantine Palace chapel, mentioned that there were ignorants who did not know to make a difference between a foreground and background, while they did write down music. Thus, they were neither familiar with the melos nor with the traditional method to do the thesis. The interest for notation persisted over centuries beyond the concept of an oral tradition (meşk), so that also Dimitrie Cantemir was invited to present his own notation system at the Sublime Port which he had developed exclusively for makam music. Until 1926, notation became the medium of respected and supported outsiders, whether it did exist from the very beginning (in case of the Phanariotes) or it became adapted to makam music (as was the case of Ali Ufukî, Dimitrie Cantemir, Hamparsum Limociyan and Kyrillos Marmarinos). Then, as a member of the Alaturka music comitee and director of the Istanbul Conservatory, the Mevlevi dervish Rauf Yekta Bey founded the academic occupation with the “history of Ottoman music”.
The discussion of the relationship between written and oral transmission is still up-to date, as far as it is concerned with court music as a secularised form of a dervish ceremony, while the brotherhoods (tekkes) had become important institutions to preserve the musical heritage, or as far as it is concerned with the revival of the heritage of synagogal music associated to the Maftirim brotherhoods, or as far as it is concerned with Armenian or Greek church music. In case of the Armenians the history genocide is the explanation for a lack of research concerned with the oral tradition (parallel to the violent suppression that Georgian church music had to endure under Russian hegemony and during the period of communism), while in other cases, the tradition is represented by the diversity of local schools which do not agree among each other. The encouraging experience is, that the occupation with the own tradition is in no way a reduction, but on the contrary the discovery of an unknown creative liberty which had once been the state of the art.
Papers by Oliver Gerlach
Series Musicologica Balcanica, 2022
The question leads me back to my first fieldwork ever, I have done at Bačkovo Monastery (Rhodope ... more The question leads me back to my first fieldwork ever, I have done at Bačkovo Monastery (Rhodope Montains) in August 2002. There I got my first basics of psaltic chant thanks to the generosity of Otec Stiliyan, the tipikar of the monastery, and of Deniza Popova, a German-Bulgarian scholar whom I know, while we studied at the Humboldt-University and who visited Bačkovo for many years. When I returned in 2015, I found another Bulgaria and met young people at the church who opened a new world for me. With this paper I would like to try to answer this seemingly innocent question, and point at local Balkan traditions of the country which earn more scholarly attention, free from the usual and common preconceptions, also in response to current trends in ethnomusicological research which have changed the common perspectives considerably. The overview includes various traditions since Neofit Rilski's educational reforms and the later foundation of the Bulgarian state and various new approaches to look at the history of Slavonic chant in the territory of the current state Bulgaria.
Il breviario-messale di Salerno del Museo Leone di Vercelli. Una nuova fonte per la storia dell’arte, della cultura e della liturgia, 2022
Since Egon Wellesz (1954) and Bruno Stäblein there is a discussion, whether alleluia verses had b... more Since Egon Wellesz (1954) and Bruno Stäblein there is a discussion, whether alleluia verses had been imported from Constantinople to Rome to augment the use of other alleluia verses next to the Easter prototype which had attracted Romans and pilgrims to the feast of Resurrection. James McKinnon in a preface to a planned alleluia study (1996) tried to correct this view by his interpretation of Gregory the Great's letter to Bishop John of Syracuse, that Gregory did not touch the subject of the chant genre alleluia verse, he meant the practice of simple psalmody (ending each stichos with the word alleluia). In fact, the alleluia study was never published, but his monography about Old-Roman chant known as "The Advent Project" (2000) did not touch the subject of the published former preface again. Then during his work on the entry "Alleluia" of the New Grove Dictionary (2nd edition of 2001) together with Christian Thodberg, he was once more confronted with the fact that there is a strong resemblance with the Byzantine repertory and its oktoechos melopœia and the Roman redaction of the alleluia verses (quite different to the redaction documented by Carolingian notators) where the tritos echoi had been excluded.
The paper is dedicated to two Nativity alleluia verses according to the breviary missal of Salerno on folio 106 recto which is currently preserved as Cod. Lit. 24 at the Museo Leone of Vercelli in Piedmont. It has one in common with the gradual of Santa Cecilia of Trastevere in Rome (CH-CObodmer Cod. 74, f.11), although its melody is set differently to the non-scriptural text.
In comparison to the Constantinopolitan rite, there are two psalm stichoi of the Nativity allelouïarion with another melody of the same mode (echos plagios protos) which serve here as an example of the context between the Latin and the Greek rite at the archimandritate Santissimo Salvatore of Messina in Southern Italy.
Series Musicologica Balcanica, 2022
The unknown Italian contribution to Byzantine chant as registered world heritage The so-called B... more The unknown Italian contribution to Byzantine chant as registered world heritage
The so-called Byzantine chant has been recently registered as intangible world heritage. Although the living tradition of monodic Orthodox chant still exists in great diversity in many countries of the Balkans, Central, and Northeastern Europe (within and without the Patriarchate of Moscow) and the Orient which is worth to be honoured and protected by such a title, there are some ideological problems provided by its ahistorical definition as "Byzantine chant", because such a definition raises many open questions about the exact relationship between each of the local traditions in question and the role of Byzantine music during the past until 1453, and afterwards (whether defined as post-Byzantine or otherwise). In order to illustrate these problems, I chose the example high melismatic chant of the Byzantine cathedral rite which is particularly well documented in Italy, although within the medium of the "wrong" notation. The Easter koinonikon has not only survived in various notation systems like in GR-KA Ms. 8, ff.36v-37v (Slavic and Greek kondakarian notation, Old and Middle Byzantine notation etc.), it was also written several times in the kontakarion-asmatikon of Messina, a particular book form only known from the scriptorium of the Archimandritate SS. Salvatore which organised the whole proper cycle of psaltic and choir chant together. I would like to introduce into this almost unknown variety of Italo-Byzantine and local variants of the well-known koinonikon asmatikon (I-ME Cod. mess. gr. 129, f.114v) of southern Italy, and then return to the difficult question, inasmuch it has become part of the living tradition of Orthodox chant.
Jul Variboba (~1725-1788) was a very charismatic Italo-Albanian papàs (parish) who soon establish... more Jul Variboba (~1725-1788) was a very charismatic Italo-Albanian papàs (parish) who soon established circles at the communities of Shën Benedhit and of Mbuzat, where people met regularly to sing together with him processional songs composed in Arbëresh by himself. Although he was very gifted and his early contribution to transcribe Arbëresh as an oral language had a great impact, his attitude to the Greek rite was the reason, why he completely failed in all his career plans.
Today, the women of the village San Giorgio Albanese, Variboba's birthplace, sing the kalimeret not far from the tradition documented at Vaccarizzo Albanese (Arb. Vakarici), but the text not in linguistic variants according to a local oral tradition, but according to the critical edition by Italo Fortino (emeritus professor of Albanologia in Rome and in Naples). It is typical for the Arbëresh tradition that kalimeret are a female genre and closely connected with the real lament (vajtim).
54 views
Udine, Nota (Geos cd book 687), 2021
We plan a multimedial comparative study of all kalimeret in Arbëresh communities (around the Parc... more We plan a multimedial comparative study of all kalimeret in Arbëresh communities (around the Parco Pollino) with an edition of the linguistic (IPA, standard orthography) and musical transcription (experimental, neumes, staff and staffless notation, rhythmic and modal transcription).
Unlike the Italo-Greek kalimera the kalimeret in Arbëresh are usually sung by women (with a few exceptions)!
The corpus of texts is based on Jul Variboba as the author of a literary prototype dating back to the 18th century. Due to the local oral tradition the texts had been adapted to the local dialect of Arbëresh as it exists in each village until the present day. But each village uses an own melody, sometimes tonal in regular meter, sometimes modal with assymetric rhythm as monodic chant close to liturgical monody and its ornaments (since the para-liturgical custom had become liturgised during the Holy Week), sometimes multipart according to polyphonic traditions of the Balkans.
The books tries to describe each local tradition and its history starting from own fieldwork made during the last years (2012-2020) and integrating historical fieldwork.
This book is a collection of 5 essays. The first is an introduction into the basics of chant tran... more This book is a collection of 5 essays. The first is an introduction into the basics of chant transmission, the modal framework within the eight-mode system, differentiated according to Western and Eastern chant genres. The second is an introduction into the labyrinth of the eight-mode system, which was used for a musical art of memory in Byzantine chant. The third analyses the embellished design of a traditional chant: a hymn for St. Peter taken from the Byzantine sticherarion and from the Roman antiphoner, and its elaboration in monodic kalophonia and polyphonic organum.
A second part is dedicated to two living chant traditions: The fourth essay describes the integration of makamlar among Greek church singers of Istanbul, and the final essay is a portrait of two important singers of the Bulgarian Orthodox tradition.
The extraordinary discovery of a Breviary-Missal at the Leone Museum in Vercelli has brought to l... more The extraordinary discovery of a Breviary-Missal at the Leone Museum in Vercelli has brought to light the oldest known evidence of Salerno’s liturgy, which dates back to the years of Archbishop Romualdo II Guarna (1153-1181). The manuscript joins a group of codices kept at the “San Matteo” Diocesan Museum in Salerno, and provides many hitherto unpublished codicological, musicological, and art-historical details. From the pages of the manuscript emerges the role of the Beneventan, Ambrosian, and Norman traditions in relation to the customs of the Church of Salerno, as well as new questions on the multifaceted medieval cultural context, in which written, spoken and sung words were associated with the images and liturgical installations of the cathedral.
For a better understanding of the different issues, specialists from various disciplines engage in a constructive dialogue to investigate the peculiarities of the Breviary-Missal, explore its complexities, and retrace the multiple routes that connected Salerno to Rome, the Mediterranean basin, and the heart of medieval Europe.
La straordinaria scoperta presso il Museo Leone di Vercelli di un Breviario-Messale proveniente da Salerno ha portato alla luce il più antico testimone noto della liturgia cittadina, databile agli anni dell’arcivescovo Romualdo II Guarna (1153-1181). Il manoscritto si aggiunge al gruppo dei codici conservati presso il Museo Diocesano “San Matteo” della città costiera e trasmette numerose e inedite informazioni codicologiche, musicologiche e storico-artistiche. Dalle pagine del manoscritto emergono gli innesti della tradizione beneventana, ambrosiana e normanna sulle consuetudini della Chiesa salernitana, così come nuove domande sul poliedrico contesto culturale medievale, in cui la parola scritta, pronunciata e cantata si associava alle immagini e agli arredi sacri della cattedrale. Per una migliore comprensione delle diverse questioni sono stati coinvolti in un dialogo costruttivo specialisti di varie discipline che, in questo volume, indagano le peculiarità del Breviario-Messale, scandagliandone la complessità e ripercorrendo le molteplici vie che connettono Salerno a Roma, alle sponde del Mediterraneo e al cuore dell’Europa.
Cover of the new book "Sv. Ioan Kukuzel: Personality, Work, Epoch" for the celebration of the 740... more Cover of the new book "Sv. Ioan Kukuzel: Personality, Work, Epoch" for the celebration of the 740th birthday of St John Koukouzelis, born at the Albanian seaport Durrës, one of the most famous musicians of Constantinople at the Court and at the Patriarchate, anachoret and hesychast at the Great Lavra of Holy Mount Athos.
Content:
His Holiness Neophit, Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia. The
Orthodox Liturgical Singing Tradition / 13
Svetlana Kujumdzieva. Introduction / 19
PERSONALITY / 25
Svetlana Kujumdzieva. St. John Koukouzeles – Musical-liturgical Innovations / 43
Lyubomir Ignatov. St. John Koukouzeles – a Measure of Singing Mastery in Eastern
Orthodox Church Music / 77
Stefka Venkova. St. John Koukouzeles in the Editions of the Bulgarian Musical Union:
Data and Interpretations / 91
Tatyana Ilieva. St. John Koukouzeles’ Character According to Dobri Nemirov’s
Historical Novel “The Angel-Voiced” / 122
WORK / 123
Maria Alexandru. Towards a Corpus of the Kalophonic Mathemata by St. John
Koukouzeles / 164
Klara Mechkova. Koukouzeles’ Wheel in the Light of Hesychast Theology / 176
Emmanouil Giannopoulos. Koukouzeles’ Heritage according to the Cretan Psaltic
Tradition of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries / 183
Stefan Harkov. Koukouzelian Heritage among the Bulgarians in the Middle of the 19th
Century: Reconsideration of Some Lesser-Known Sources / 206
Nikola Antonov. The New Method Version of “Mega ison” by St. John Kukuzeleles or
about the Continuity of Tradition under the Aspect of the Tone System / 223
Andrey Kasabov. Musical Creativity of Saint John Koukouzeles in the Bulgarian
Printed Church-Singing Collections from the Middle of 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Ἄνωθεν ο ἱ προφῆται in ἦχος βαρύς / 237
EPOCH / 239
Iskra Hristova-Shomova. The Ochrid Menaion Between the Old Recension and the
Norms of the Jerusalem Typikon / 263
Oliver Gerlach. The Generation around John Koukouzeles and the Re-Definition of the
Constantinopolitan Tradition by the “Koukouzelian” Reform / 294
Св. Йоан Кукузел — личност, творчество, епоха [Sv. Joan Kukuzel: Personality, Work, Epoch], 2020
After the return of the Court and the Patriarchate from the exile of Nikaia, the local tradition ... more After the return of the Court and the Patriarchate from the exile of Nikaia, the local tradition of the cathedral rite was not continued. The Byzantine tonal system according to a common understanding taught by the Papadike was defi ned according to the Koukouzelian wheel which was based on fi fth equivalence (the trochos system and the practice of parallage) and deeply rooted in the Middle Byzantine notation and the chant books Sticherarion and the Heirmologion.
Since John Koukouzeles’ Mega Ison as a method to teach all notational signs did not change the notation system, but rather exploited a former synthesis to transcribe the chant books of the cathedral rite (Asmatikon and Kontakarion-Psaltikon) with the notation of the Sticherarion, the synthesis of all chant books within one universal notation system was well prepared and this preparation motivated Christian Troelsgård to abandon the distinction of Middle from Late Byzantine notation. It was also the basis of the integrative role of Papadic teaching which was continued until the 19th century and the integration of the practice of cheironomia in Koukouzeles’ theory of the great signs. According to the new theory of Papadike, the Hagiopolitan oktoechos was the universal tonal system which had to integrate also the Constantinopolitan tradition of the cathedral rite. This synthesis is also the basic understanding of the Byzantine tonal system since its description by Oliver Strunk in 1942. The current understanding of the heritage of Byzantine chant is so deeply rooted on the Papadic synthesis of the 14th century that it lacks a proper understanding of the preceding tradition which was unified by the synthesis.
This essay is focussed on the kalophonic melos concerned with the repertoire of the kontakia and its modal transformation.
Il guardiano dei suoni — Studi e memorie in occasione del 70° compleanno di Renato Morelli, 2021
(Last update: 1 July 2021, 18:40) During recent years linguistic diversity in the whole of Italy... more (Last update: 1 July 2021, 18:40)
During recent years linguistic diversity in the whole of Italy faced a serious decline. It has been neglected and dismissed as a certain minority culture, although the term was once used to protect minorities. The reception of traditional dance in Southern Italy is quite different, especially tarantella, after Ernesto De Martino’s study about the end of the Salentine pizzica taranta (La terra del rimorso, 1961), caused an urban folk fashion which celebrates itself as “Neo-Tarantismo” in mass media events without showing any serious curiosity in the still existing rich diversity of rural dance traditions. The unknown fact is that Balkan minorities have created the local traditions between Abruzzo and Sicily which are perceived today as something which belongs to everyone (a majority or mainstream culture).
One of the first things, I had to learn about my field in Calabria and Lucania was that certain religious processions are accompanied by dance and as a para-liturgical tradition it was untouchable for church authorities and ecclesiastical reforms. It also forms the backbone of other rituals such as Carnival or the Vallje, a kind of processional dance of Italo-Albanian communities which celebrate, in combination with multipart singing, legendary Albanian heroes such as Skanderbeg or Constantine (a fictional protagonist who stands for patriotic loyalty, even if the home-country is far away). Although these rituals are often perceived as non-religious, they are integrated in the annual cycle before the beginning and after the end of Lent.
This contribution has just the modest aim to attract public curiosity and to point at the fragility of rural traditions which urgently need an effective protection against current processes of globalisation. Instead of nationalist concepts which do exist, one must not forget that “national heritage” is always based on local diversity.
Issue 25: "Byzantium and Islam" — In Memory of Alessandro Angelucci, 145-184, Apr 9, 2017
This monographic essay is dedicated to one of the most mysterious protagonists of the patriarchal... more This monographic essay is dedicated to one of the most mysterious protagonists of the patriarchal style (hyphos) Petros Peloponnesios. Despite the many colourful anecdotes, we only know very few facts about Petros Peloponnesios’ life before he came to Constantinople in 1764. Analysing Petros’ contribution to the hyphos, this essay does not rely on the well-known transcriptions as they were distributed by the print editions in different languages. Recent research has already proved that many ascriptions to Petros are not trustworthy. On the other hand, readers might discover less known compositions by Petros, like his second week cycle and the long oktoechos cycle of cherouvika, which have rarely been printed. They will also be surprised that his composition of the idiomela for the «Doxastarion syntomon» are quite different from the official transcriptions according to the New Method. Another mystery is Petros’ close relationship to the Mevlevi dervishes of Pera (Beyoğlu), where he was adored as Hoca and Hırsız (“teacher and thief”), and his exceptional contribution to Ottoman music by numerous transcriptions of historical makam compositions and more than 100 original makam compositions, sometimes made over a Greek text. The article proves that Petros did not invent the exegetic use of notation nor the transcription of makam music into Greek neume notation. It also proves that many of the works and innovations were officially wrongly attributed to him. Nevertheless, he must be regarded as one of the most remarkable and most gifted Greek Ottoman musicians who did wonders during his short life span between 1764 and his early death during the disastrous plague of 1778.
From a national point of view Arbëresh culture has been marginalised and abandoned as the one of ... more From a national point of view Arbëresh culture has been marginalised and abandoned as the one of a “language minority,” with the result that it is no longer officially taught at school. On the other hand, music had always played a key role in community life and the combination of this rare language and sound never failed to make a great impression on everyone, no matter if they understand or not. It still accompanies the Arbëresh through the life cycle, during important feasts, carnival, weddings and funerals. In my introductory essay I try to look at these rich expressions from a different angle, by the recognition of common features the Arbëresh share with other communities of Southern Italy like tarantella and kalimera, regardless the linguistic competences concerning Balkan dialects which once dominated “Il Sud,” and regardless the religious background and the rite of these communities. Thus, the very distinct forms of Albanian music, which sometimes have only survived in the Italian diaspora, can be described by certain unique genres like the vallje and the ajrët, and a kind of multipart song which has been identified by ethnomusicologists as world heritage of the Balkans and of Italy.
The living traditions of monodic Orthodox chant were going through innovations, as the music theo... more The living traditions of monodic Orthodox chant were going through innovations, as the music theory and its notation were created starting from 1814. They are the results of a reform finished under the third generation or the “4th music school of the patriarchate” (Istanbul). The reformers, who were called “the three great teachers”, had close relationships with musicians at the Ottoman Court, with musicians belonging to Sufi brotherhoods, and with synagogal singers—a context which Rudolf Maria Brandl called 1989 the Levantine community of traditional musicians (“The Music of the Fanariots”).
The paper is about the performance practice of Greek-Orthodox singers and is focused on the various forms of the diatonic (papadic) ēchos barys, as they can be found in the living tradition today. It is also an attempt to trace back the theoretical concept of this mode and to answer the question, to what extent the reformers were inspired by traditional musicians of the Levant.
On the 18 March 2012 Otec Stiliyan died 83 years old. As monk and tipikar he had sung the daily s... more On the 18 March 2012 Otec Stiliyan died 83 years old. As monk and tipikar he had sung the daily services for 51 years at Bačkovo Monastery.
Everybody who visited Bačkovo between 1961 and 2012, was instantly touched by his exceptional voice. He stood modestly at the pulpit, discrete, but affecting, to serve God and men. Under his musical custody the divine services had been celebrated for more than 50 years. Thus, he had an experience comparable to a monk of an Athonite skete specialized in liturgical chant. With his experience and his individual part which he shared within the tradition of Bulgarian Orthodox Chant, Otec Stiliyan had been one of the most excellent psaltes of Bulgaria, despite that he never had a representative office within the hierarchies of the Patriarchate (like the one of a protopsaltes). His country and his church have lost an important chanter and teacher.
Issue 25: "Byzantium and Islam" — In Memory of Alessandro Angelucci, 189-193, Apr 9, 2017
Review of K. KALAITZIDIS, Post-Byzantine Music Manuscripts as a Source for Oriental Secular Music... more Review of K. KALAITZIDIS, Post-Byzantine Music Manuscripts as a Source for Oriental Secular Music (15th to early 19th century), trans. by KYRIAKI and DIMITRI KOUBAROULIS, Würzburg 2012 (Istanbuler Texte und Studien, 28), pp. 356, € 75, ISBN 978-3-89913-947-1
Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik (JÖB), vol. 64, 315-318, 2014
The Old-Roman Practice of Alleluia singing McKinnon, James W. 1996. “Preface to the Study of t... more The Old-Roman Practice of Alleluia singing
McKinnon, James W. 1996. “Preface to the Study of the Alleluia.” Early Music History 15: 213–249.
McKinnon, James. 2000. The Advent Project the Later-seventh-century Creation of the Roman .... Berkeley: University of California Press.
Levy, Kenneth. 2000. “A New Look at Old Roman Chant.” Early Music History 19: 81–104.
———. 2001. “A New Look at Old Roman Chant - II.” Early Music History 20: 173–197.
Pfisterer, Andreas. 2008. “Italian and Gallican Alleluia Psalmody.” Plainsong and Medieval Music 17: 55-68.
Musizierpraktiken und ihre Freiheitsgrade – im Spannungsfeld von kompositorischer Fixierung bis zu spontaner Improvisation. Bericht der Jahrestagung des Nationalkomitees Deutschlands im ICTM 2017 in Mannheim, 2019
There are already anecdotes since the fall of Constantinople about Sultan Mehmed II’s admiration,... more There are already anecdotes since the fall of Constantinople about Sultan Mehmed II’s admiration, that the protopsaltes of the Hagia Sophia could write down any kind of music and could adapt it according to their own tradition. In 1458 however, Manuel Chrysaphes, former lampadarios at the Byzantine Palace chapel, mentioned that there were ignorants who did not know to make a difference between a foreground and background, while they did write down music. Thus, they were neither familiar with the melos nor with the traditional method to do the thesis. The interest for notation persisted over centuries beyond the concept of an oral tradition (meşk), so that also Dimitrie Cantemir was invited to present his own notation system at the Sublime Port which he had developed exclusively for makam music. Until 1926, notation became the medium of respected and supported outsiders, whether it did exist from the very beginning (in case of the Phanariotes) or it became adapted to makam music (as was the case of Ali Ufukî, Dimitrie Cantemir, Hamparsum Limociyan and Kyrillos Marmarinos). Then, as a member of the Alaturka music comitee and director of the Istanbul Conservatory, the Mevlevi dervish Rauf Yekta Bey founded the academic occupation with the “history of Ottoman music”.
The discussion of the relationship between written and oral transmission is still up-to date, as far as it is concerned with court music as a secularised form of a dervish ceremony, while the brotherhoods (tekkes) had become important institutions to preserve the musical heritage, or as far as it is concerned with the revival of the heritage of synagogal music associated to the Maftirim brotherhoods, or as far as it is concerned with Armenian or Greek church music. In case of the Armenians the history genocide is the explanation for a lack of research concerned with the oral tradition (parallel to the violent suppression that Georgian church music had to endure under Russian hegemony and during the period of communism), while in other cases, the tradition is represented by the diversity of local schools which do not agree among each other. The encouraging experience is, that the occupation with the own tradition is in no way a reduction, but on the contrary the discovery of an unknown creative liberty which had once been the state of the art.
Series Musicologica Balcanica, 2022
The question leads me back to my first fieldwork ever, I have done at Bačkovo Monastery (Rhodope ... more The question leads me back to my first fieldwork ever, I have done at Bačkovo Monastery (Rhodope Montains) in August 2002. There I got my first basics of psaltic chant thanks to the generosity of Otec Stiliyan, the tipikar of the monastery, and of Deniza Popova, a German-Bulgarian scholar whom I know, while we studied at the Humboldt-University and who visited Bačkovo for many years. When I returned in 2015, I found another Bulgaria and met young people at the church who opened a new world for me. With this paper I would like to try to answer this seemingly innocent question, and point at local Balkan traditions of the country which earn more scholarly attention, free from the usual and common preconceptions, also in response to current trends in ethnomusicological research which have changed the common perspectives considerably. The overview includes various traditions since Neofit Rilski's educational reforms and the later foundation of the Bulgarian state and various new approaches to look at the history of Slavonic chant in the territory of the current state Bulgaria.
Il breviario-messale di Salerno del Museo Leone di Vercelli. Una nuova fonte per la storia dell’arte, della cultura e della liturgia, 2022
Since Egon Wellesz (1954) and Bruno Stäblein there is a discussion, whether alleluia verses had b... more Since Egon Wellesz (1954) and Bruno Stäblein there is a discussion, whether alleluia verses had been imported from Constantinople to Rome to augment the use of other alleluia verses next to the Easter prototype which had attracted Romans and pilgrims to the feast of Resurrection. James McKinnon in a preface to a planned alleluia study (1996) tried to correct this view by his interpretation of Gregory the Great's letter to Bishop John of Syracuse, that Gregory did not touch the subject of the chant genre alleluia verse, he meant the practice of simple psalmody (ending each stichos with the word alleluia). In fact, the alleluia study was never published, but his monography about Old-Roman chant known as "The Advent Project" (2000) did not touch the subject of the published former preface again. Then during his work on the entry "Alleluia" of the New Grove Dictionary (2nd edition of 2001) together with Christian Thodberg, he was once more confronted with the fact that there is a strong resemblance with the Byzantine repertory and its oktoechos melopœia and the Roman redaction of the alleluia verses (quite different to the redaction documented by Carolingian notators) where the tritos echoi had been excluded.
The paper is dedicated to two Nativity alleluia verses according to the breviary missal of Salerno on folio 106 recto which is currently preserved as Cod. Lit. 24 at the Museo Leone of Vercelli in Piedmont. It has one in common with the gradual of Santa Cecilia of Trastevere in Rome (CH-CObodmer Cod. 74, f.11), although its melody is set differently to the non-scriptural text.
In comparison to the Constantinopolitan rite, there are two psalm stichoi of the Nativity allelouïarion with another melody of the same mode (echos plagios protos) which serve here as an example of the context between the Latin and the Greek rite at the archimandritate Santissimo Salvatore of Messina in Southern Italy.
Series Musicologica Balcanica, 2022
The unknown Italian contribution to Byzantine chant as registered world heritage The so-called B... more The unknown Italian contribution to Byzantine chant as registered world heritage
The so-called Byzantine chant has been recently registered as intangible world heritage. Although the living tradition of monodic Orthodox chant still exists in great diversity in many countries of the Balkans, Central, and Northeastern Europe (within and without the Patriarchate of Moscow) and the Orient which is worth to be honoured and protected by such a title, there are some ideological problems provided by its ahistorical definition as "Byzantine chant", because such a definition raises many open questions about the exact relationship between each of the local traditions in question and the role of Byzantine music during the past until 1453, and afterwards (whether defined as post-Byzantine or otherwise). In order to illustrate these problems, I chose the example high melismatic chant of the Byzantine cathedral rite which is particularly well documented in Italy, although within the medium of the "wrong" notation. The Easter koinonikon has not only survived in various notation systems like in GR-KA Ms. 8, ff.36v-37v (Slavic and Greek kondakarian notation, Old and Middle Byzantine notation etc.), it was also written several times in the kontakarion-asmatikon of Messina, a particular book form only known from the scriptorium of the Archimandritate SS. Salvatore which organised the whole proper cycle of psaltic and choir chant together. I would like to introduce into this almost unknown variety of Italo-Byzantine and local variants of the well-known koinonikon asmatikon (I-ME Cod. mess. gr. 129, f.114v) of southern Italy, and then return to the difficult question, inasmuch it has become part of the living tradition of Orthodox chant.
Atti del convegno internazionale "Laus musicae Arte, scienza e prassi del canto liturgico e devozionale medievale" 23-25 maggio 2019 a Benevento, 2020
Summary: It seems hardly by coincidence that in all graduals preserved at the Biblioteca capit... more Summary:
It seems hardly by coincidence that in all graduals preserved at the Biblioteca capitolare of Benevent the beginning with the feast for Nativity is usually missing (except for the missal I-BV Ms. 33).
The pages in question had been torn out, probably also because they might have included an alternative version with respect to the Neo-Gregorian repertoire concerning the mass for Nativity which preceded the one for Saint Stephen. According to it the last chant of the proper cycle was the offertorium Tui sunt caeli.
The only evidence we have for such an alternative version is folio 202 of Ms. 35 (I-BV 35) which belongs to two bifolios as a fragment of an Old-Beneventan Gradual which had been bound together with a later Gradual.
This essay tries a comparison of the very particular melos of the alternative offertorium as it can be defined according to the tonary of Montecassino, with the Old-Roman redaction of proper mass chant (together with other local traditions of Western plainchant) and with other Byzantine Nativity chant using the word «σήμερον» or «hodie» (“today”) like in Romanos’ kontakion or during the Alleluia verse of the Roman redaction.
Resoconto:
Non sembra una coincidenza che la parte iniziale con la festa di Natale non aveva sopravvissuto in nessun graduale conservato alla Biblioteca Capitolare (con eccezione del messale I-BV 33).
Le pagine in questione sono tolte, probabilmente anche perché erano differenti dal repertorio neo-gregoriano secondo quale la messa di Natale prevedeva l’offertorio Tui sunt caeli che precedeva quella per Santo Stefano.
La sola evidenza è folio 202 di un graduale beneventano antico su uno di due bifogli che erano inseriti alla fine di un graduale più tardo conosciuto sotto la collocazione codice beneventano 35.
Questo saggio fa un confronto del melos particolare alla base del tonario di Montecassino con il proprio del canto romano (e di altre tradizioni locali) e del canto bizantino creato sulla parole «σήμερον» o «hodie» (oggi) come il kontakion di Romanos o il verso alleluiatico in redazione romana.
Theorie und Geschichte der Monodie – Bericht der Internationalen Tagung Wien 2018, 2020
Romanos the Melode with the kontakion roll is one of the earliest and most ambiguous personalitie... more Romanos the Melode with the kontakion roll is one of the earliest and most ambiguous personalities of Byzantine music history. It was probably one of the reasons, why no other genre of Orthodox chant can be compared with the complicated transmission history of the kontakion.
Except Thodberg’s description of the book kontakarion-psaltikon, Floros’ transcription and edition and the well-known text editions of Romanos’ kontakia, there has never been a systematic study of the different shapes of kontakaria which preserved the kontakion repertoire with more or less musical notation and which have transformed and changed this genre, not only its musical architecture.
Theorie und Geschichte der Monodie, 2020
Title: "Ottoman corruptions of post-Byzantine chant!" About the long history of exchange betwee... more Title: "Ottoman corruptions of post-Byzantine chant!"
About the long history of exchange between oktoechos and makam music and about a certain ideological discourse to talk about it
German version: Gerlach, O., 2018. ‘Osmanische Verfälschungen im nachbyzantinischen Gesang!’ Über die lange Geschichte eines Austauschs zwischen Oktoichos- und Makammusik und den ideologischen Diskurs darüber. In M. Pischlöger, hrsg. Bericht der Internationalen Tagung Wien 2016. Theorie und Geschichte der Monodie, 9.2. Brno: Tribun EU, S. 651–679.
English version: Gerlach, O., 2020. ‘Ottoman Corruptions of Post-Byzantine Chant!’ About the Long History of Exchange Between Oktoechos and Makam Music and About a Certain Ideological Discourse to Talk About It. In M. Pischlöger, ed. Bericht der Internationalen Tagung Wien 2018. Theorie und Geschichte der Monodie, 10. Brno: Tribun EU, pp. 117–144.
Summary:
In confrontation with the differences between Byzantine music transmission and the innovations of the New Music School of the Patriarchate since the 18th century, H.J.W. Tillyard reproached the living tradition of Orthodox monodic chant (called hyphos, the "patriarchal style") that it corrupted the Byzantine heritage. Gregorios Stathis reacted by a lecture at Oxford, in which he stressed, that a Western philologist like Tillyard does not understand the difference of music composed according to the makamlar from the one composed according to the oktoechos. He referred to the distinction between external (exoteric) and internal (esoteric) music which was common in Greek music theory of the 19th century, after makam music became transcribed as well into Byzantine neumes since the school of the Archon Protopsaltis Panagiotes Halacoğlu.
Only recently handwritten Greek Anthologies or "Mismagia" had been rediscovered as important sources of Ottoman music. This discovery raises the question how to deal with common prejudices and misunderstandings, which became an obstacle to approach the current tradition of psaltic art and its creative potential.
Proceedings of the International Musicological Conference Modus-Modi-Modality Nicosia, 6-10 September, 2017, 2020
The main difference with respect to the Balkans is that Italo-Greek as well as Arbëresh communiti... more The main difference with respect to the Balkans is that Italo-Greek as well as Arbëresh communities had been rural throughout the centuries. Hence, the community itself did the job of the choir during Orthodox celebrations, which became only possible in certain communities belonging to two Archdioceses of the Byzantine rite: Lungro in Calabria and Piana degli Albanesi on Sicily.
Within the catholic church they were allowed to celebrate the Greek rite, but this became possible due to a new law in church administration which existed since the 18th century. The question if there did really exist a continuous oral transmission since the arrival of Albanian emigrants during the last decades of the 15th century, and in as far they adapted to local customs of the Italo-Byzantine tradition which had survived around the Archimandritates in Italy, has not been an issue of historical research yet. Concerning ethnomusicological fieldwork, ethnomusicologists succeeded only in rare cases to trace a living tradition back to the 18th or even 17th centuries (concerning Orthodox chant usually by traditionalist protopsaltes who do not follow the Chrysanthine reform of 1814).
During my fieldwork about liturgical ceremonies in various Arbëresh communities of Northern Calabria and at the Seminary Shën Sotir of Cosenza, I could document monodic oktoechos chant and various forms of multipart singing sometimes within the oktoechos system, sometimes closer to other forms of canto popolare which do neither use equally tempered intervals.
Since the earliest recordings made by the linguists Giuseppe Gangale and Eric Hamp during the ear... more Since the earliest recordings made by the linguists Giuseppe Gangale and Eric Hamp during the early 1950s, Arbëresh communities have been recognised by ethnomusicologists for a very particular form of improvised multipart singing, usually two-part, sometimes three-part songs which were perceived as a particular Balkan polyphony distinct from other ethnic minorities in Italy.
During the last decades within a complex process of oral transmission, often modulated by interactions of written transmission which was usually reduced to the text, a rather spontaneous way of improvisation became frozen, also under influence of field recordings which the singers either did themselves or by listening to officially published recordings, like the republication of Diego Carpitella’s recordings made of multipart songs of the Parco nazionale Pollino between Lucania and Calabria in 1954. The study is concerned about changing multipart competences as they have been documented between the 1950s and today.
South East European Studies in Musicology: Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of South East European Studies & the 6th International Conference of the IMS Regional Association for the Study of Music of the Balkans, Sofia, 31 August–4 September 2015
In several regions of Southern Italy there is still a rural tradition to recite the Passion in th... more In several regions of Southern Italy there is still a rural tradition to recite the Passion in the local dialects. They are Balkan dialects which are mixed with the local Italian dialect, but its ritual recitation is usually called kalimera (“Good morning" in Greek). The present study compares five communities which perform the kalimera in a more or less liturgical context of the Holy Week: Spezzano albanese (Spixana), Acquaformosa (Firmoza), Lungro (Ungra), Firmo (Ferma), San Basile (Shën Vasili), Frascineto (Frasnita), and Civita (Çifti). The five communities use a corpus of texts which often follow a literary prototype created by Jul Variboba during the 18th century. Each village uses different melodies or strophic models usually a monophonic recitation by female singers, San Basile's recitation is even performed as a multipart song alternating between male and female singers.
Unfortunately, the Italoalbanian dialect called Arbëresh, registered as world heritage at the UN, is since 2007 on the red list of seriously endangered languages (like Italo-Greek dialects before), despite the fact that the number of active speakers is still is considerably higher. We do not know, if these traditions will be continued during the next decades, so we hope that our recordings might help for a later revival of a lost tradition. Concerning the texts, it seems that all of them are taken from Variboba, although some of them are Calabrian and Italian texts, but we would like to point out how the literary poems have been transformed and adapted to the local tradition. Concerning the melodic models, we would like to describe, what they have in common and what is unique for the tradition of one community.
В няколко региона на Южна Италия намираме традиция на епична рецитация на Пасиони (Страстите), изпълнявана на местни диалекти. Обикновено това са балкански диалекти, които се смесват с локалния италиански, но нейната ритуална рецитация обикновено се нарича калимера (kalimera), защото тя се пее през нощта или рано сутрин между Лазаровден и Цветница и включва официално приветствие към присъстващите. Има дори калимера на италиански диалекти, там където вече са загубени езиковите знания на така наречените малцинствени езици. Ние бихме искали да представим сравнително изследване на пет общини, които изпълняват калимера в повече или по-малко литургичен контекст по време на Страстната седмица: Акуаформоза (Фирмоза), Лунгро (Унгра), Фирмо (Ферма), Сан Базиле (Шън Васили), и Фрашинето (Фраснита). Петте общности използват повече или по-малко същите текстове, които са създадени от един свещеник на име Джул Варибоба през XVIII век, но всяко село използва различни мелодии или строфични модели. Рецитацията в Сан Базиле дори се осъществява като многогласно пеене между мъжки и женски певци, докато едногласната рецитация на другите села се извършва в различна степен неофициално от певици.
За съжаление, италианско-албанският диалект наречен "Arbëresh", регистриран като световно наследство в рамките на ООН, от 2007 е в червения списък на сериозно застрашените езици (като италианско-гръцките диалекти), въпреки факта, че броят на активните говорещите този диалект все още е значително висок. Ние не знаем, дали тези традиции ще бъдат продължени през следващите десетилетия, така че се надяваме нашите записи да могат да помогнат при по-късно възраждане на изгубена традиция. По отношение на текстовете, изглежда, че всичките са взети от Варибоба, въпреки че някои от тях са калабрийски и италиански текстове, но бихме искали да посочим как литературните стихове са трансформирани и адаптирани към местната традиция. Що се отнася до мелодичните модели, бихме искали да опишем това, което е общото между тях и това, което е уникално за традицията на една общност.
Remark: Unfortunately, the published version available under the link:
https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=542930
has graphics in deficient quality. Therefore we cannot authorise the published version!
Tagungsbericht der 8. Internationalen Tagung "Theorie und Geschichte der Monodie"
Von einem nationalen Standpunkt betrachtet wurde die Kultur der Italoalbaner und Italogriechen al... more Von einem nationalen Standpunkt betrachtet wurde die Kultur der Italoalbaner und Italogriechen als ,,linguistische Minderheit“ marginalisiert und aufgegeben – mit dem Ergebnis, dass ihre Sprachen nicht mehr an den Schulen unterrichtet werden. Musik hatte immer eine Schlüsselrolle in den Gemeinden gespielt und die besondere Verbindung aus Musik und dem Klang dieser Sprache verfehlt niemals seine Wirkung, unabhängig davon, ob sie verstanden wird. Sie begleitet die Italogriechen und Italoalbaner durch den Zyklus des Lebens, zu bedeutenden Festen, während des Karneval, zu Hochzeiten und Beerdigungen. In dieser Einführung möchte ich die reiche Kultur der ländlichen Musiktraditionen Süditaliens von einer anderen Seite betrachten, indem ich sie mit denen der Nachbargemeinden vergleiche, wo es auch Tarantelle und Kalimere gibt, obwohl der Dialekt nicht mit Balkansprachen vermischt ist und ihre Gemeinden keinen orthodoxen Hintergrund haben, die den mysteriösen ,,Süden“ (in der anthropologischen Schule Italiens kurz “Il Sud” genannt) einst dominiert haben. Auf diese Weise lassen sich die Formen entdecken, die die Gemeinden der Arbëresh gegenüber anderen auszeichnen, die vallje und ajrët und eine besondere Form des mehrstimmingen Musizierens, die von Musikethnologen als Weltkulturerbe des Balkan und Italiens anerkannt wird.
Ernesto De Martino's famous study of tarantism "La terra del rimorso" documented the end of the t... more Ernesto De Martino's famous study of tarantism "La terra del rimorso" documented the end of the therapeutic tradition of the Apulian Pizzica taranta and he found a close relationship with a certain hard-working generation of female tabacco pickers (tabacchaie) and the owners of tabacco companies, who paid for the cure of a dance therapy over several days. Especially in Gianfranco Mingozzi's film "La taranta" the Salentine town Galatina exorcises the ritual of the tarantate and tarantati during the feast of Saint Paul of Galatina as their patron. More recent studies in this field are mainly occupied with an urban form of neotarantism.
During my field research in rural Arbëreshë communities in Calabria and Basilicata my focus was on paraliturgical rituals. I experienced rather by chance dance rituals and got a complete different impression of local tarantella traditions. Unlike the Italo-Greek communities in Salento and Aspromonte the Italo-Albanian communities could still preserve an Orthodox background within the catholic church (nevertheless, there are still paraliturgical tarantelle also in former villages, where the Greek dialect has already disappeared), and the magic and supernatural seems far to be domestified within the paraliturgical context, because it was traditionally an area untouched by any church reform. It rather seems that tarantella as a magic ritual could survive, its occurence during seasonal rituals (e.g. by the end of the winter) and during the feasts of certain local saints made it evident, that it was deeply involved in the life cycle and in human pathology. Often it appears close to a big fire as an improvised form of gesting, but the ritual context is too manifold and complex for one simple description. It varies according to its local rite.
“Multipart Music: Individuals and Educated People in Traditional Multipart Music Practises” Proceedings of the Third Symposium of the ICTM Study Group for Multipart Music, Budapest, 2013, Dec 2015
Since Innocenzo De Gaudio's famous morphological study of Arbëresh polyphony (1993, the author ca... more Since Innocenzo De Gaudio's famous morphological study of Arbëresh polyphony (1993, the author called it "vjersh") ethnomusicologists have recognised a particular form of primitive polyphony as an unique part of the cultural heritage in Calabria.
The first audio recordings of this field have been done by anthropologists like Diego Carpitella. Other recordings had been made during the 1950s by Giuseppe Gangale and Eric Hamp. In the following decades, the material has been enriched by more recent fieldwork until today, not only by priests, but also by anthropologists and ethnomusicologists, who have grown up in these communities and who decided to correct and improve the earlier and current fieldwork of interested strangers.
The more or less improvised forms of polyphony have not been analysed according to the methodology, as Ignazio Macchiarella has developed it for this study group. I would like to use these occasion for 2 purposes:
(1) to discuss two local traditions which have not been studied thoroughly so far;
(2) to improve and to refine our understanding of the subject "multipart music," which brought us here together, also in a vocal sense which includes not only a multipart way of singing, but also a multipart way of singing several songs "together," which is not based on the concept of singing together, but apart.
As genre of canto popolare, both processions, Maundy Thursday at San Basile and Good Friday at San Benedetto Ullano, are more or less derived from the "Kalimera," the Passion told in the local Arbëresh or Griko dialect, which had been done during the night from Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday in Italian "Orthodox" communities, usually by singers reciting a popular version on the street.
Latin traditions in southern Italy, especially Beneventan and Norman chant traditions, followed i... more Latin traditions in southern Italy, especially Beneventan and Norman chant traditions, followed in chant as well as in architecture Byzantine prototypes. Although the historical imagination of the Orthodox Archdiocese Italy and Malta associates the Norman conquest of Byzantine Apulia with the expulsion of Greek traditions, Greek monastic centres were established under Norman rule and Franconorman patrons founded and supported also Greek monasteries, while the process of Latinization continued very slowly.
Though the relationship between Greek and Latin Christians was ambiguous and complex, the richness of local traditions in southern Italy is the result of a long period of exchange. In a comparative study I would like to give some examples of chant and sacral architecture, which may illustrate, how the different traditions could flourish by an exchange in craftship, in science, and in the art of chant.
The main subject of this essay is the conversion of Bari from a Greek into a Latin centre of Christianity. This town located in central Apulia, played a central role in the medieval history of southern Italy, because it was the capital of the Byzantine catepanate which ruled over the three Byzantine provinces (themata) including Calabria, Basilicata and Campania. After the Norman conquest of the catepanate Bari could still hold a key position, the reliquaries of S. Nicola were transferred from Myra in Lycia and turned the capital of Byzantine Italy into a centre of Eastern and Western pilgrimage.
The introduction describes the context around Desiderius' reform, reaching from the conflict betw... more The introduction describes the context around Desiderius' reform, reaching from the conflict between Byzantium and Rome during Ottonic times (late 10th century) to the establishment of Greek monastic centres in Southern Italy during the Norman reign of the 12th century. The first part about the perspective of the reform is dedicated to the experiments of Beneventan cantors dealing with certain genres and tonal concepts of Italo-Byzantine chant, as they can be studied in manuscripts written for a reform of Beneventan chant. The second part is an analysis of the akrosticha dedicated to St. Benedict composed about a complex canon of the Heirmologion by Nilus the Younger (S. Nilo da Rossano), when he introduced his community at Montecassino during the 980s.
Byzanz in Europa. Europas östliches Erbe: Akten des Kolloquiums 'Byzanz in Europa' vom 11. bis 15. Dezember 2007 in Greifswald, 2011
Recent studies have shown that a sophisticated framework of the tone system is used in 11th centu... more Recent studies have shown that a sophisticated framework of the tone system is used in 11th century Western tonaries which refer to the Boethian mensura of the monochord. What is less known, however, is the fact that in some tonaries the system used does not work properly - one example is a well-known compilation of older tonaries called “alia musica”. These sources are of particular interest for scholars of Byzantine music for they describe the Greek “oktōēchos system”. The Latin tonary proves that some E-mode melodies in the Roman- Frankish redaction have to be sung in such an intonation as it differentiates between a low (extreme) and a high (intense) finalis E, an intonation which does not exist within the Boethian diagram. This was obviously an imitation of contemporary Greek singers. The anonymous author of the treatise also offers a theological interpretation of this intonation concept which is described by the intonation formula “AIANEOEANE”.
12th Meeting of the IMS Study Group “Cantus Planus” Lillafüred/Hungary, 2004. Aug. 23–28
In autumn 2002 fifteen music manuscripts of the early 19th century from Bosporos and Small Asia r... more In autumn 2002 fifteen music manuscripts of the early 19th century from Bosporos and Small Asia regions were rediscovered in the collections of the state library in Berlin. Four of them in late Byzantine Round notation before the introduction of the modern notation around 1814, which was invented by Chrysanthos. So these manuscripts can be studied in comparison and offer new insights in the change of notation – as well as in the change of the medial function of the notation.
The notation of the New Method, which eliminated the signs of the Great Hypostases, could be read more easily, but its definite form abandons the freedom of the traditional notation and tends to be very normative. Otherwise a lot of ornaments were not indicated by the new Chrysanthine notation and the singer must have in mind the traditional way of singing in recognizing some passages of the new notation – a knowledge which seems to pass over.
A second step of this study is the analysis of field recordings made by Greek Orthodox singers in the last three decades – 150 years after the reform. Its focus is on the individual creativity that a singer spends on singing out of the modern notation, which is quite in use since Chrysanthos – partially improved by the reintroduction of some Great Hypostases.
The paper is based on philological studies of manuscripts, ethno musicological research and systematic analysis of field recordings (historical field recordings of the phonogram archive Berlin, of the Greek publication series μνημεια εκκλησιαστικης μουσικις edited by Manolis K. Chatzēgiakoumēs and own field recordings).
In its very essence Christian antisemitism has always been a form of self-hatred, since its origi... more In its very essence Christian antisemitism has always been a form of self-hatred, since its origins are not less semitic than the other two monotheist religions. The perception of inferiority or at least of a dependency on its semitic roots was faced by the testimony of those Christians who converted to Judaism. During the medieval period the existence and opinions of converts had been tabu, but these sources reveal much more than an outsider perspective on the violence of Christian crusaders, they are also evidence for a history of exchange and transfer, not only of religious ideas, but also of knowledge, craftship and culture. These are aspects of reciprocal influences between Sephardim, Greek and Langobard Christians which many educated historians tried very hard to keep in the dark. Southern Italy and its history during the change from Byzantine to Norman Italy is particular rich of these exchanges. In its very heart are the Ovadiah scrolls of the Cairo Genizah, dispersed in many fragments, only preserved under a bad condition. Ovadiah-Giovan grew up in a Norman family of Oppido Lucano (Basilicata), he became educated as a cantor at a Norman monastery, and he used his skills to write down the music of the Ḳaraite community of Cairo, where he got married and founded his own family.
by Belma Ogul, Liz Mellish, Daniela Ivanova-Nyberg, Ivo Strahilov, Mahir Mak, Muzaffer SÜMBÜL, Gökçe Asena ALTINBAY-ERDEM, Cicika 89, Lampros Efthymiou, Dilyana Kurdova, and Oliver Gerlach
A comparative study of the Benedictiones in Mozarabic, Ambrosian, Beneventan, Roman-Frankish, and... more A comparative study of the Benedictiones in Mozarabic, Ambrosian, Beneventan, Roman-Frankish, and Old-Roman Chant
Table of Contents:
(1) The Frankish reception
- Form and liturgical function
- Notation systems of the Cluniac reforms
+ Modality and microtonal attractions
+ The composition of the last verse
- Aquitaine and the reforms of Cluny and Italy
(2) The Old-Beneventan and Ambrosian canticum
(3) Mozarabic cantillation models
- The long form
- The short form
- Conclusions about the canticle recitation of the Mozarabic and Milanese cathedral rite
(4) Conclusion
Poco ci è noto riguardo al canto bizantino di epoca giustinianea e nessuno ha ancora letto il tra... more Poco ci è noto riguardo al canto bizantino di epoca giustinianea e nessuno ha ancora letto il trattato del De Musica di Boezio come una fonte circa il canto bizantino. In che modo e quanto l'autore aveva conosciuto della cultura musicale dell'Oriente? Quanto essa fu importante quale fonte d'ispirazione, nel tempo in cui aveva tradotto i trattati greci della scienza matematica “armoniche”? Osservando le tradizioni liturgiche latine, ma anche la teoria musicale in Europa fino a oggi, la questione sarà dunque quanto le scelte di Boezio avevano condizionato il “futuro” sapere della teoria musicale.
The title “Im Labyrinth des Oktōīchos (Inside the Oktōēchos Maze)” refers to the spatialisation o... more The title “Im Labyrinth des Oktōīchos (Inside the Oktōēchos Maze)” refers to the spatialisation of a two-dimensional, hand-drawn image known as the “Koukouzelian Wheel” (trochos tou Koukouzelē). This image is the key to a musical art of memory which developed in the context of the kalophonic art of chant (psaltikē technē) in the school of Iōannēs Glykys at the end of the thirteenth century. Arabic representations of the tonal connections between melodic models (naġme) in the form of wheels and trees also exist from this time. The form of the wheel represents a tonal system in which every tone can be the centre of every mode – a network of tonal relationships beyond the imaginary capabilities of musicians, who therefore can use the wheel to help guide them along even the most complex of paths through the labyrinth without losing their sense of orientation. Previous research regarded the trochos as an unsolved puzzle. This first attempt to solve the puzzle throws up several questions, of which many will only be answered after further research work.
Der Titel „Im Labyrinth des Oktōīchos“ bezieht sich auf eine räumliche Umsetzung einer zweidimensionalen handschriftlichen Darstellung, die „das Rad des Koukouzelīs“ (trochos tou Koukouzelī) genannt wird. Sie ist der Schlüssel zu einer musikalischen Gedächtniskunst, die Teil der kalophonen Gesangskunst war, die sich Ende des 13. Jahrhunderts in der Schule von Iōannīs Glykys entwickelt hat. Aus dieser Zeit sind auch arabische Darstellungen der Tonbeziehungen zwischen den Melodiemodellen (naġme) in Form von Rädern und Bäumen erhalten. In seiner Form repräsentiert das Rad ein Tonsystem, in dem jeder Ton das Zentrum jeder Tonart sein kann, ein Netz von Tonbeziehungen, das außerhalb des Vorstellungsvermögens von Musikern liegt, die dafür mit Hilfe des Rades jeden noch so verwickelten Pfad durch das Labyrinth nehmen konnten, ohne die Orientierung zu verlieren. In der bisherigen Forschung galt der Trochos als ein ungelöstes Rätsel. Dieser erste Schritt, es zu lösen, wirft sicher viele Fragen auf, von denen viele erst in der weiteren Forschung beantwortet werden können.
Bonum est 149: Een Zikr van de Cerrahî Soefi's
Zikir ceremony of the Cerrahi dervishes
La tarantella lucana e calabrese è collegata al ciclo della vita umana. Non si balla solo durante... more La tarantella lucana e calabrese è collegata al ciclo della vita umana. Non si balla solo durante le nozze, ma anche durante le processioni alle feste dei Santi locali, e soprattutto durante il periodo del Carnevale che comincia il 17 gennaio, dopo la festa di Sant' Antonio Abbate, e finisce all’inizio della Caresima.
Tra queste due manifestazioni all’inizio e alla fine c’è una seconda mascherata dei giovani che passa alle case per chiedere le elemosine.
Una mascherata consiste del Carnevale vorace che piace a rubare la salsiccia che secondo l'uso locale pende sopra il camino, e della sua moglie Quaremma. Questi due appartengono tradizionalmente a qualsiasi Carnevale meridionale, ma il particolare di quello teanese è sicuramente che il Carnevale non è semplicemente un pupazzo di paglia, ma rappresentato da un uomo nel costume di questo pupazzo.
Non dare niente alle maschere porta la sfortuna. Si lascia entrarle e si guarda le loro azioni diaboliche che sono accompagnate in continuazione dai musicisti, che suonano una tarantella che non vuole finire mai.
Playlist:
1. Angelo Le Rose: Tarantella a Karamunxa
2. Totarella: Tarantella a Ciaramella e Zampogna
3. Canzone a cupa cupa
4. Canzone a zampogna
5. Canzone di sdegno
6. Tarantella sulla piazza principale di Teana
7. Tarantella a piedi
8. Tarantella a zampogna
9. Domini di Lavello: Tarantella a organetto e cupa cupa
10. Tribunale alla Piazza Chianura
11. Pino Salamone: Tarantella a zampogna
3 & 10 Feldaufnahmen von Giuseppe Cosenza (2000 & 2009)
2 & 4 Feldaufnahmen von Mariko Kanemitsu (2010)
In episode 137 of Bonum est, you will hear Kurdish music as one of the many possible illustration... more In episode 137 of Bonum est, you will hear Kurdish music as one of the many possible illustrations on how the life and suffering of a nation lies at the heart of their religious music.
Playlist:
1. Şivan Perwer - Ka Kurdistana min ka (Where is my Kurdistan)
2. Rençber Aziz - Way way ninna (lament)
3. Kawis Axa - Genç Xelil (Young Xelil)
4. Hesen Cizrawî - Le Le Dine (Absolutely crazy)
5. Şivan Perwer - Kirîvê (Godfather at circumcision)
6. Mihemed Şêxo - Yadê rebenê (My unfortuned mother)
7. Dengbêj Şakiro - Emro (name of a man)
8. Dengbêj Şakiro - Derwêşê Evdî (Poor drifter)
9. Heci Şeyhmus - Zembilfroş (basketry; protagonist of an epic love poem)
10. Zemara Li Ser Gund (Lament recorded in a village)
11. Metin & Kemal Kahraman - Verva Are
12. Qewlê Raviye Adaviya (Prayer of the holy Ezidi)
13. Semaya Kanûnî
14. Kurdish poem by Molla Mahmud Bikhod, 19th century
Labels
Tr. 1, Şivan Perwer – Govenda Azadixwazan (Pel Records, B00BBJJZMS)
Tr. 2, Rençber Aziz – Hasreta Azadî (Medya Müzik, 06/2013)
Tr. 3, Kawis Axa – Lawik (Kom Müzik, B00DJCIJOK)
Tr. 4, Hesen Cizrawî – Ez Nexweşim (Aydın Müzik, B00D40AXQE)
Tr. 5, Şivan Perwer – Dotmam (Ses Plak, B005JOKRC8)
Tr. 6, Mihemed Şêxo – Ay Lê Gulê (Kom Müzik, B004P1JLMI)
Tr. 7 & 8, Dengbêj Şakiro (Recording from casette)
Tr. 9, Heci Şeyhmus (Field recording in Mardin, 26.06.2004)
Tr. 10, Kurdish Alevi Laments (Kalan Müzik, B005EE2AU0)
Tr. 11, Yaşlılar Dersim Türküleri Söylüyor (Lizge Müzik, B00JMRWCYY)
Tr. 12 & 13, Yezidiler (Kalan Müzik, B0071336GE)
Tr. 14, Kurdistan - Zikr et chants soufis (Ocora, B000003IF9)
During the 1950s the anthropologist Ernesto De Martino and the sound engineer Diego Carpitella we... more During the 1950s the anthropologist Ernesto De Martino and the sound engineer Diego Carpitella went on an expedition in Lucania and Calabria. They discovered that some people did not speak Italian dialects, instead they spoke them mixed with Greek and Albanian dialects. The Italo-Albanians proudly called themselves "Arbëreshë." Their ancestors already came to Southern Italy during the 15th century. In some isolated communities they preserved not only their language, but their own habits, rituals, dishes, dances, music, and costumes.
As communities of the "Greek rite" they were administrated by the Catholic Church, like the Byzantine Greeks since the Norman conquest of Byzantine Italy. But even the liturgical reform of 1968 could not change the Arbëresh custom to celebrate the Orthodox services in Greek language.
Playlist:
Liturgical chant in Greek
01. Doxa en ypsistois (San Cosmo Albanese, 2008)
02. Trisagion
03. Cherouvikon (Cosenza, Parocchia Shën Sotir 2009)
04. Sanctus
In Arbërisht by Emanuele Giordano (Eianina, 4 October 2001)
05. Apolytikion anastasimon, Echos Protos
06. Troparion for Epiphany
Paraliturgical Chant of the Holy Week
- Palmsunday
07. Kalimera "Mirë mbrëma dhe mirë menatë" (Adelina Jocca, Maria Marra, Teresa Torchia; Pallagorio, 15 April 1954)
08. Kalimera "Mirë mbrëma ju e mirë menatë" (Castroregio, 22 April 1954) - Maundy Thursday
09. Pasjuna Zotit Krisht "Një t' ënjtëzin e mbrëma (e)" (San Basile, 1977)
10. Pasjuna met Bonifacio Faxhi (San Basile, 28 March 2013) - Good Friday
11. Ton stavron sou (Edera Capparelli, San Benedetto Ullano, 24 May 2012)
12. Otementi "E tu, Madre, che immota vedesti" (Manzoni) e Vajtim (Variboba) "E keqe penë" (San Benedetto Ullano, 6 Aprill 2012)
13. Ojë bir ("Ohi figlio come farò?") (Spezzano Albanese, Cosmina & Adelina Singola, 18 March 1992)
14. "Zoti Krishti im" (Frascineto, 20 April 1954)
Lamento (Vajtim)
15. "Bijë Vitoria jonë" (Carfizzi, 16 April 1954)
16. "Menzu stu pettu c'è n uliv'amare" (Carfizzi, 16 April 1954)
17. "E stanotte te sunnasti che era morta" (Pallagorio, 17 April 1954)
18. "Bir lalë Sëndi im" (Giuseppina Fitipaldi; Castroregio, 22 April 1954)
Procession songs of Lungro
19. Hymn for Skanderbeg (Anna Stratigò, Giampiero Vaccarò; Cosenza, 18 April 2012)
20. Hymn for San Elia di Lungro (Anna Stratigò, Giampiero Vaccarò; Cosenza, 18 April 2012)
Epilogue
21. Pasjuna Zotit Krisht (San Basile, 28 March 2013)
Documented cantori and their communities:
01, 02, 04: Corale Santi Anargiri S. Cosma e Damiano
Vincenzo La Vena (ed.), Amministrazione comunale di San Cosmo Albanese (2008)
03: Comunità Parrochia Shën Sotir, Cosenza
own field recording: 20 September 2009
05-06: Emanuele Giordano
field recording: Vincenzo La Vena; Eianina, 4 October 2001. Il Cerchio AB 002 (2001)
07-08: Squilibri SQLCD 10 (2006)
09: Fondo Gianni Belluscio
field recording: San Basile 1977
10: Bonifacio Faxhi
own field recording: San Basile, 28 March 2013
11: Edera Capparelli
own field recording: San Benedetto Ullano, 24 May 2012
12: San Benedetto Ullano
own field recording: 6 April 2012
13: Cosmina & Adelina Spingola
field recording: Vincenzo La Vena, Spezzano Albanese, 18 March 1992. Il Cerchio AB 002 (2001)
14: Frascineto
Diego Carpitella, 20 April 1954. Squilibri SQLCD 10 (2006)
15-16: Elena Amoroso, Maria Ausilio, Adelina Costantino, Domenica Macrì, Carmina Maio, Concetta Scalise
Carfizzi, 16 April 1954
17: Rosina Gallo, Maria Jocca, Giuseppina & Maria Marra, Teresa Torchia
Pallagorio, 17 April 1954
18: Giuseppina Fitipaldi
Castroregio, 22 April 1954
19-20: Anna Stratigò, Giampiero Vaccarò
own field recording: Cosenza, 18 April 2012
21: own field recording: San Basile, 28 March 2013
Diese Ausgabe von "Bonum est" ist Otec Stilijan gewidmet, einem Mönch im Kloster Bačkovo, das im ... more Diese Ausgabe von "Bonum est" ist Otec Stilijan gewidmet, einem Mönch im Kloster Bačkovo, das im Rhodopengebirge in Bulgarien gelegen ist. Letztes Jahr, am 18. März, verstarb Otec Stilijan im Alter von 83 Jahren. 51 Jahre lange hat er fast täglich den Gottesdienst im Kloster gesungen. Mit seinem Tod hat diese Tradition einen ihrer wichtigsten Vertreter verloren, denn als Tipikar war er für die sängerische Gestaltung der Gottesdienste verantwortlich.
Playlist:
1. Große Ektenie, Glas 8 (Plagios tetartos)
2. Antiphon 1 "Mit Fürbitten der Gottesmutter", Glas 2 (Devteros)
3. Antiphon 2 "Rette uns, Sohn Gottes", Glas 2 (Devteros)
4. Antiphon 3 "In deinem Reich", Glas 2 (Devteros)
5. Kleiner Einzug "Laßt uns beten und vor Christus", Glas 2 (Devteros)
6. Tagestropare, Glas 1 (Protos)
7. Trisvjatoe (Trisagion) "Heiliger Gott", folk tune Glas 1 (Protos)
8. Epistel (Petrus II 1:10-19)
9. Evangelium (Matth. 17:1-9)
10. Ektenie
11. Chourmouzios Chartophylakos. Cherubim Hymnus, Glas 4 (Tetartos)
12. Ektenie mit Gebet, Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
13. Otca i syna "Dem Vater, Sohn", Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
14. Glaubenssymbol
15. Anaphora "Ich werde dich lieben", Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
16. Heirmos "Nijne ne uslijshanaja", Glas 8 (Plagios Tetartos)
17. Ekphonesis, Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
18. Otče naš "Vater unser", Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
19 Inklination, Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
20. Petros Peloponnesios. Koinonikon "Im glorreichen Licht" (Ps. 88:16b–17a), Glas 8 (Plagios Tetartos)
21. Kommunion & Entlassungshymnen "Wir haben das wahre Licht gesehen", Glas 2 (Devteros)
Samuel Benaroya was perhaps the last representative of a 400-year-old tradition of Turkish Jewish... more Samuel Benaroya was perhaps the last representative of a 400-year-old tradition of Turkish Jewish cantors who were experts in the singing of liturgical music according to Ottoman court music, said Edwin Seroussi, Professor and Director of the Jewish Music Research Centre at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Samuel Benaroya had died in 2003, but recordings made during the late 80s and early 90s document an art, whose tradition has nearly disappeared today.
During the 19th century, Edirne had become the most important center of this Maftirim tradition. The famous anthology “Shirei Israel be-Eretz ha-Qedem”, printed at Istanbul in 1921, was mainly a printed edition of the Divan used by the Maftirim of Edirne. The Ottoman Divan sorts all songs according to the tunes of the makamlar, but there were not only Turkish divans, but also those in Greek, Armenian, and Hebrew language.
Makam sabâ:
1. Moshe
- Semai Aǧir "Meleḵ Mêšarîm"
2. Abraham Bar Shlomo Hayyun
- Semai Aksak "Ezkôr Ḥasdê El Ne'eman"
3. Israel Najara (ca.1555 – ca.1625)
- Semai Yürük "Yôm El Qeren `ammo Nasā"
Makam beyâti:
4. Anonym
- "Yishlach Mishamayim"
İzak Algazı Efendi, chant
5. Bekhor Papa (Poetry), Moshe Cordova (1881-1967) (Music)
- Beste "`Ûri `ûri"
Samuel Benaroya, chant
6. Hammamizade İsmail Dede Efendi (1778-1846)
- Merhabâ "Bir gonca femin yâresi vardır ciğerimde"
7. Samuel Benaroya over zijn weigering ghazzan te worden
Interview met Dr. David Raphael.
Makam hicaz:
8. Israel Najara (ca. 1555 – ca.1625)
- Peşrev Semai "Yaẓa Ẓîẓ Va-Yimmal"
9. Hayyim Bejerano
- Yürük Semai "Ḥaddeš Ke-Qedem Yamênû"
Makam sehnaz:
10. Yaacov Amron
- Peşrev "Ye`erav Leḵa Adônay Elohênû"
11. Israel
- Semai Aǧir "Yafah, Ḥišqeḵ Yiv`ar"
Aharon Alidi
12. Peşrev Aksak Semai "Avî Ram Big-Gevûrah"
13. Şarki "Adônay Hû Elohênû"
Makam segah:
14. Israel Najara, music by Yusuf Paşa (1821-1884)
- Peşrev "Yehemeh Levavî"
15. Israel Najara, music by Moshe Cordova
- Beste "Yah Qadôš Yôšev Tehillôt"
16. Eliyah
- Semai "Et Ḥoškî Ha'er"
17. Yehuda
- Yürük Semai "Yismaḥ Har Ẓiyyôn"
Makam hüzzam en nikriz:
18. Abraham
- Semai Aǧir "Elî Maher Haẓẓilenû"
19. Israel Najara
- "Yavô' Dôdî Le-Gan `ednô"
Samuel Benaroya, chant
Anthology of Music Traditions in Israel
(AMTI 9803, 1998)
nr 04:
İzak Algazı Efendi (1889-1950), chant
(Odeon Records LA 202784, 1929)
The Sufi brotherhood of the whirling dervishes (tariqat mevleviya) was founded in Konya by the so... more The Sufi brotherhood of the whirling dervishes (tariqat mevleviya) was founded in Konya by the son of Jelal od-Din Rumi, called "Mevlana", in 1273.
In this episode of "Bonum est" we listen to the dance ceremony sema of the whirling dervishes, which has been composed by Dede Efendi in makam sabâ.
1. Buhurizade Mustafa Itrî (1640-1712)
- Nâ't-ı Mevlânâ makam rast
Hafız Kâni Karaca, zang
2. Nay taksim sabâ
Ömer Nasuhi Coşkun, ney
3. Tamburi Büyük Osman Bey (1816–1885)
- Sabâ Peşrev
Ömer Nasuhi Coşkun, ney
4. Hammamizade İsmail Dede Efendi (1778-1846)
- Sabâ ayin-i şerif
Hafız Kâni Karaca en Sadettin Heper, küdüm. Ulvi Erguner, Niyazi Sayın, Akagündüz Kutbay, ney. Cüneyt Orhon, kemençe. Mesut Cemil, violoncello
The feast in honour of San Nicola di Bari during 8 and 9 May concludes a serial of processions wh... more The feast in honour of San Nicola di Bari during 8 and 9 May concludes a serial of processions which have to be celebrated in the region since the Holy Week. You are welcome to listen to field recordings of the funeral march of Molfetta, the 'Miserere' of Conversano, and the 'Stava maria dolente' of Canosa.
Playlist:
1. Doxastikon Ἱεραρχῶν τὴν καλλονὴν (Nikolaos, 6 December), Εchos Plagios Devteros (Ioannes Stavrou)
2. G. B. Bononcini: Oratorio "San Nicola di Bari"; Aria [San Nicola]: Io non vuò (Allegro) (Gabriella Martelacci, Les Muffati)
3. Trommelmarsch der Timpanisti Nicolaus Barium (Bari, 8.5.2012)
4. Prozession der Pilger (Basilica San Nicola di Bari, 8./9.5.2011)
5. Marcia funebra (Cattedrale Molfetta, 10.4.2009)
6. Miserere (Conversano, 10.4.2009)
7. Stava maria dolente (Canosa, 11.4.2009)
8. Miserere & Stava maria dolente (Canosa, 11.4.2009)
This edition of Bonum est is dedicated to the paraliturgical kalimera tradition of Salento. It is... more This edition of Bonum est is dedicated to the paraliturgical kalimera tradition of Salento. It is also known under the name “A’Llazzaru”, because it has to be sung on “Lazarus Saturday”—the Saturday preceding Palm Sunday and the Holy Week. The name “Kal’imera” is Greek and means “God morning”, because the Kalimera singers begin with this saluting formula, when they spend the night going from house to house.
Playlist:
1. En Ìsala Na Su Po' (Martano, 15.8.1968)
2. En Ìsala as Cantu de lu trainieri (Martano, 17.8.1968)
3. Rendinèddha mu (Martano, 17.8.1968)
4. Pizzica taranta (Martano, 15.8.1968)
5. I Passiùna tu Cristù (Salento, 1953)
6. I Passiùna tu Cristù (Martano, 15.8.1968)
7. Savina Yannatou, Primavera en Salonico: Passiuna (1999)
8. Imma Gianuzzi, Arakne Mediterranea: I passiuna (2006)
9. Carla Maniglio, Anna Cinzia Villani: Passiuna di Cristu (27.3.2010: Festival Arrah nenè, Alezio)
10. Margherita, Luce & Giuseppina Musio, Anna Cinzia Villani: Aria a tre
The ashiq (tr. lover), who seeks divine love or the oneness through music and poetry and who give... more The ashiq (tr. lover), who seeks divine love or the oneness through music and poetry and who give up all worldly things for the love of God, has a crucial role as the transmitter of not just the Bektashi traditions but also many other regional cultural properties.
Among many diversity, Bektashi order differs itself especially in its egalitarian aspect of the equality of women and men and their co-existence during the religious ritual which is called "Djem" (tr. gathering, reunion):
'Yo-lu-muz on i-ki i-ma-ma çı-kar
Reh-ber-im Mu-ham-med Ah-med-i muh-tar
Mür-şüd-üm A-li-dir sa-hib Zül-fü-kar
Vi-rân-i kul-un-dur di-va-na gel-dim'
(Our path is leading to the twelve Imams,
My guide is Muhammed, Ahmed Muhtar,
My master is Ali, the owner of Zülfükar,
Virâni is servant, joined the assembly.)
(Virâni, nummer 5, transl. by John Kingsley Birge)
Playlist:
1. The twelve Imâms and Invocation to Allâh
2. Semah - içeri semahı
3. Ali Ekber Çiçek – Meydan Saz
4. Invocation to the masters of the Order and blessing of the chapel
5. Hymns (Nefes by Kul Himmet and Virâni), evocation of the initiation
6. Celestial Ascension and the Banquet of the Forty
7. Ali Ekber Çiçek – Ilahi Dostum Bağına
8. Musa Eroğlu – Alamut Semahı
9. Kâni Karaca – Derdim Çoktur (Pençgâh Bektaşi Nefes)
10. Ali Ekber Çiçek – Derdim Çoktur
1, 4, 5 & 6: Ali Dede / Hasan Dede / Djafer Doghan
CD: Turquie – Cérémonie du Djem Alevi
(Ocora, C 560125, 1998)
2: Field recording from Kahramanmaraş, Elif Ana Cem House. (bron: www.piryolu.com)
3, 7 & 10: Ali Ekber Çiçek.
CD: Turkey – Bektashi Music. Ashik Songs
(Auvidis/Unesco, D 8069, 1996)
8. Musa Eroğlu.
CD: Bin Yıllık Yürüyüş – Semahlar 2
(Milhan Müzik, B003LNTO28, 1994)
9. Kâni Karaca.
CD: The Dergah of Musics
(Anadolu Müzik, B002DPT8OO, 2009)
If the history of Patriarchal Chant at Istanbul was based on the medium of sound recordings, it w... more If the history of Patriarchal Chant at Istanbul was based on the medium of sound recordings, it would have to start with the Arhon Protopsaltes Iakovos Nafpliotis. He was the first Orthodox chanter, whose art was documented systematically, when the idea of creating a sound record by a needle writing on wax was quite new.
Playlist:
Divine Liturgy
1. Ton despotin, Echos Varys (IN)
2. Kyrie eleison, Echos Devteros (IN)
3. Georgios of Crete: DynamisTrisagion, "Holy God, Holy Strong, Holy Immortal" Echos Devteros (IN)
4. Gospel, Echos Tetartos (phthora nisabur) (IN)
5. Cherouvikon Οἱ τὰ χερουβὶμ μυστικῶς εἰκονίζοντες ("We who represent mystically the cherubim"), Echos Protos (KP)
6. Σε ὑμνούμεν ("With hymns"), Echos Plagios Tetartos (KP)
7. Ἄξιον ἐστίν ("Truly, it is right"), Echos Devteros (IN)Stichera
8. Iakovos the Protopsaltes (transcr. by Georgios of Crete, Late Byzantine Notation & Chourmouzios the Archivist, Neobyzantine Notation): Long Doxastikon (Sticheron with Doxa) Ἀτενίσαι τὸ ὄμμα ("Looking in the eyes of heaven") (3rd Lenten Sunday, Triodion), Echos Plagios Tetartos (IN)
9. Doxastikon Ἀναστάσεως ἡμέρα ("On the day of resurrection") (Easter), Echos Plagios Protos (IN)
10. Doxastikon Σήμερον προέρχεται ("Today comes") (14 September, Exaltation of the Cross), Echos Plagios Devteros (KP)Heirmoi
11. Χριστός γεννάται ("Christ is born") Slow Heirmos for the 1st Ode (Christmas Canon), Echos Protos (IN)
12. Konstantinos Pringos: Ἄξιον ἐστίν, Echos Plagios Protos (phthora atzem kiourdi) (Kostas Charalampopoulos)
15. Πάσαν τὴν ἐλπίδα μοῦ ("All my hope"), Slow Heirmos, 1st Ode (Akrostichon Theotokos), Echos Devteros (IN)
16. Petros Bereketes: Heirmos kalophonikos about the same ode, Echos Varys (KP)
[15. Troparion of Kassia (Doxastikon, Maundy Thursday), Echos Plagios Tetartos (KP)]
This lecture aims simply an introduction into “Byzantine music” following a kind of archaeologica... more This lecture aims simply an introduction into “Byzantine music” following a kind of archaeological approach. The first unit starts with the living tradition defined by the Neo-Byzantine reform of 1814 and the establishment of Chrysanthos’ New Method, when monodic church music and its oktoechos system was redefined by the distinction of four chant genres (troparic, heirmologic, sticheraric, and papadic), their tempo, and their mele. This lecture introduces to the common print editions of chant books (anthologies for Orthros and of the Divine Liturgies, the doxastaria, the two parts of the heirmologion, and the anastasimatarion or voskresnik). The notation reform will be less regarded as a simplification of the Middle Byzantine notation than as a creation of universal notation which was based on an oral tradition of the different performance styles (oktoechos, makamlar, traditional music of 2 different regions of the Mediterranean). It will also treat the printed anthologies of makam music (mismagia, a Greek corruption of the Ottoman divan called “mecmua”) and the New Method to transcribe makamlar as aspects of the oktoechos. The oral tradition of oktoechos performance will be presented by historical field recordings, including own fieldwork.
A second unit will ask who did originally create this modern distinction of oktoechos mele known ... more A second unit will ask who did originally create this modern distinction of oktoechos mele known as Constantinopolitan hyphos and trace it to the Archon Protopsaltes Panagiotes Halacoglu, Ioannes Trapezountios, Daniel the Protopsaltes and Petros Peloponnesios, who were also very active as transcriptors of makam music and contributors to own makam genres like Phanariot songs. This Ottoman culture was based on two different ideals: (1) the innovative composer who enriched the oktoechos mele by the exchange with Armenian musicians, Maftirim brotherhoods at the synagogues, and dervish composers, and who was honoured by anthologies explicitely dedicated to his compositions (Petros Bereketes), and (2) the traditionalist composers who kept the Byzantine heritage intact with a reference to Manuel Chrysaphes (the last lampadarios at the Palatine chapel of the Empire), also by changing and prolonging the thesis of the melos (Georgios Raidestinos, Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes, and Germanos of New Patras). The emphasis of this unit is to understand the synoptic and exegetic manuscript notation of the 17th and the 18th centuries, in order to perceive the exegeseis of the printed editions as possible realisations, but not as authoritative. Until today, Archon Protopsaltes of the Patriarchate are expected to contribute with their own realisations to revive the tradition known as Constantinopolitan hyphos.
The third unit is about the Renaissance of the cathedral rite during the 13th and 15th centuries,... more The third unit is about the Renaissance of the cathedral rite during the 13th and 15th centuries, after this tradition had disappeared during the exile of the Court and the Patriarchate at Nikaia. The acceptance of the oktoechos system was based on the monastic Round notation as the medium to integrate different traditions of the Byzantine empire: the monastic tradition of the chant books sticherarion and the heirmologion, and the cathedral rite with its chant books asmatikon and kontakarion. The synthesis was done by the establishment of psaltic art and an additional kalophonic way which was based on the traditional methods and their books, but at the same time also a field for experiments between the genres. The books of the papadic reform were akolouthiai, and additional editions of the old books such as sticherarion kalophonikon and heirmologion kalophonikon, but also the creation of revised editions of the old books sticherarion and heirmologion. According to Manuel Chrysaphes it was Ioannes Koukouzeles who invented the kalophonic method to sing the hymns of the sticherarion. His method was based on a didactic chant called “Mega Ison” which memorised all signs of Middle Byzantine notation. While Constantinople became a very advanced centre of Byzantine music with famous composers like Xenos Korones, Ioannes Glykys and Ioannes Kladas, other Poleis, Patriarchates, and peripheral territories within and beyond the Empire opposed to its innovations. A three-dimensional realisation of the trochos system offers an insight in the creative aspects of kalophonic art, and demonstrates the integrative role of eight diatonic echoi and two phthorai called by their intonation (echema) “nenano” and “nana”. Since the history of Constantinople was particular destructive, this lecture will also treat Mount Athos as a hidden place where lost traditions of Byzantine Music could be continued and from where they could be revived.
A fourth unit will be about the origins of the traditional methods of the thesis of the melos, an... more A fourth unit will be about the origins of the traditional methods of the thesis of the melos, and their books. One concern of this lecture is the cathedral rite, the surviving Greek and Slavonic manuscripts of kontakarion and asmatikon will be regarded as a reception outside Constantinople, although the Slavonic one seems somehow between the original books, their notation and their tonal system (of sixteen echoi) and their transcription into the monastic oktoechos notation, they also have traces of a very original local style. There are two focuses on this secular tradition, the genre kontakion and the cherouvikon. The history of the kontakion will treat Romanos’ propaganda role during the Justinian era, when the Hagia Sophia was constructed and inaugurated, but also how the genre has changed until the 14th century. The cherouvikon is the very heart of the divine liturgy, it was introduced by the end of the 6th century, since a change in sacred architecture caused, that there must be a procession at the beginning of the second part of the liturgy, reserved for the baptised. For each formular of a divine liturgy there is only one offertory, known as the cherouvikon for the one ascribed to John Chrysostom. According to the Byzantine rite, it existed only in the devteros echos. Only by the end of the Byzantine empire, Manuel Chrysaphes replaced the cherouvikon asmatikon with a papadic oktoechos cycle, so that the cherouvikon could be sung according to the echos of the week.
The other concern is the development of a monastic hymn repertoire composed as oktoechos melodies. Today it is simply regarded as the creation by Ioannes of Damascus and his step brother Kosmas during the 8th century. Recent papyrus studies gave evidence, that the oldest Greek tropologia which preceded the notated chant books of the 10th century (sticheraria, heirmologia, great oktoechos, oktoich) are related with other redactions which were older than the Christian Byzantine empire, such as the Syriac tropligin, the Georgian iadgari, and the Armenian šaraknoc’. The first Greek tropologion was created by Syrian hymnographers in Jerusalem, but it has only survived in Syriac translation since the 6th century. When Ioannes and Kosmas entered Mar Saba, a monastery of this Patriarchate whose territory was outside the Byzantine empire, a synodal reform had already established an oktoechos reform which was opposed against the Constantinopolitan rite.
Today their particular role is regarded as their contribution to the heirmoi and to more complex unique melodies of the sticheraric repertoire known as idiomela which we do only know by the “unnotated” tropologia. The whole repertoire as it is known today was completed by many hymnographers (also female hymnographers in Constantinople) until the 11th century. They were either mainly based in Mar Saba at Jerusalem and St Catherine’s at Sinai (Coislin types of Old Byzantine notation), or in many metochia associated with the Mone Stoudiou in Constantinople (Chartres types of Old Byzantine notation). The Slavonic translation at Ohrid conservated the complex system of hymn melodies organised between idiomela, avtomela, and prosomoia, or kanones composed according to the heirmoi, they did not care so much about the literal meaning of the Greek hymns. Later new literal re-translations in Kiev and Novgorod provoked an entire recomposition of its melodies, in peripheral regions it was mastered by an oral tradition based on simple oktoechos recitations (sometimes in multipart forms of recitation).
We started with a lecture about "contemporary music" in Turkey, a second about Sufi music and a t... more We started with a lecture about "contemporary music" in Turkey, a second about Sufi music and a third about the close exchange between dervishes, Armenian and Greek protopsaltes and Sephardic Maftirim Brotherhoods.
Material and internet resources for the students
The lecture (September at Yildiz Technical University of Istanbul) introduces into the Orthodox c... more The lecture (September at Yildiz Technical University of Istanbul) introduces into the Orthodox chant traditions of the Balkans (and their rural diaspora communities in Italy). In Constantinople / Istanbul there was an elitist education of protopsaltes. Prominent protagonists among the Phanariotes had a constant exchange with Maftirim Bortherhoods and Mevlevi dervishes in Galata and Fener.
Manuscrits de la « Missa greca » Manuscrits de l'Abbaye de Saint Denis (Paris) Manuscri... more Manuscrits de la « Missa greca »
Manuscrits de l'Abbaye de Saint Denis (Paris)
Manuscrits carolingiens
Manuscrits sangalliens
Manuscrits lotharingiens
Manuscrits ottons
Manuscrits clunisiens (sans ceux de l'Abbaye de Saint Denis)
Manuscrits aquitains
Manuscrits anglais
Bibliographie
Im byzantinischen liturgischen Raum erfüllt der Gesang alles. Kein einziges Wort wird mit Sprechs... more Im byzantinischen liturgischen Raum erfüllt der Gesang alles. Kein einziges Wort wird mit Sprechstimme hervorgebracht. Eine Tradition, die es seit ihrem Ursprung im 4. Jahrhundert bis in die heutige Zeit überlebt hat. Das Bewusstsein, diese Traditionen beschützen zu wollen, brachte jedoch erst die patriarchalen Reformen hervor, auf denen ihre heutige Präsentation aufbaut. Die Grundlage des musikalischen Denkens beruht auf einem System, das wöchentlich die Tonart wechselt. Die uralten rituellen Abläufe strukturieren bis heute das religiöse Leben der orthodoxen Gemeinden, auch hier, in Berlin. In Neukölln öffnet jeden Sonntag die bulgarisch-orthodoxe Kirche ihre Türen für Besucher – gläubig oder nicht. Dort verschmilzt eine moderne Ausübung mit der strengen Tradition und ermöglicht eine musikalische Perspektive auf die Rollenverteilung der Kirche. Der Priester leitet mit den Chorsängern durch die Dramaturgie der Zeremonien, – die Gläubigen selber bleiben für ihre Gebete teilweise nur wenige Minuten. Virtuose Sologesänge, Prozessionen und Beweihräucherung sind Teile einer religiösen Kultur, die sich von den Klöstern des alten Byzanz bis ins heutige Berlin erstreckt. Musiksoziologin Deniza Popova, der Priester der bulgarischen Gemeinde Ljubomir Leontinov in Berlin, sowie Musikethnologe Dr. Oliver Gerlach erzählen als Sänger, Wissenschaftler oder Repräsentanten der Kirche und teilen ihren, individuellen Blick auf orthodoxe Musik.
Oliver Gerlach sa venuje výskumu a interpretácii chrámového spevu východných ortodoxných kresťans... more Oliver Gerlach sa venuje výskumu a interpretácii chrámového spevu východných ortodoxných kresťanských cirkví, no pomerne neortodoxným spôsobom. Keď s ním diskutujete, rozhovor sa začína niekde pri zážitkoch z terénneho výskumu v zapadnutej juhotalianskej dedinke, pokračuje Osmanskou ríšou a výkladom prepletených politických vzťahov búrlivého 11. storočia, a odrazu je pri reflexii akademickej debaty o gregoriánskom choráli, ktorá je na jeho vkus príliš bigotná. A potom sa vráti na začiatok, aby vám pustil clivú melódiu babičky, ktorá v arbereštine spieva o svojej osamelosti v dome, odkiaľ už odišli deti, a táto jednoduchá melódia vám spôsobí zimomriavky. Historickú pravdu sa Gerlach snaží odkrývať v jej komplexnosti, rozporuplnosti a mnohovrstvovosti. Túto povahu dejín podľa neho zrkadlia práve živé tradície, na ktorých výskume dokladá, že aj striktné delenie kresťanského chrámového spevu podľa východného a západného rítu je do značnej miery zjednodušujúcou ilúziou. To najzaujímavejšie je vždy niekde medzi. Aj Gerlach sa nachádza tak trochu na pomedzí akademického výskumu a praxe, ako aj medzi hudobnou históriou a etnomuzikológiou. Všetky tieto oblasti spája vo svojom originálnom myslení, ktoré budeme mať možnosť bližšie spoznať vo februári 2019, keď bude hosťovať na Katedre muzikológie Univerzity Komenského.
