Terrirem - Τέρριρέμ - St. John Koukouzelis - 2nd Tone (original) (raw)

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Uploaded on Aug 21, 2011

Chanted by Greek Byzantine Choir ROMEIKO ENSEMBLE (Live in Concert)

Composition 14th Century by The Master of Byzantine Music St. John Koukouzelis.

Reason for the costumes:
In Byzantine times (330-1453), the Palace Court as well as the Great Church of Hagia Sophia sponsored master composers, such as Ioannes Kladas, Ioannes Koukouzelis, Xenos Koronis, Manuel Chrysafis alont Psalter, Byzantine liturgical lyrics (hymns) or texts of syllables which have no meaning (kratema). Chant was performed in the Great Church a capella by male choirs under the direction of the domestikos. By contrast, in the Palace Court secular music was accompanied by instruments. Byzantine music was transmitted orally via a master/apprentice relationship as well as through a neumatic notational system (parasemantiki) that describes the melodic movement through microtonal intervals (Byzantine echos) developed in 12th century. The cantors (psaltes) wore wide-brimmed hats (skiadion) or tall "bullet" hats (skaranikon) and dressed in special cloaks (kamision and phelonion) girded with a belt (sfiktourion).

This cantors' costume tradition was lost after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 leaving the cantor dressed only with a black robe (rason) of the Eastern Church. However, for the first time since the Fall, Yorgos Bilalis has joined forces with costume designer Fatima Lavor-Peters to recreate these Byzantine vestments as they are described in several treatises or depicted on Byzantine frescoes and manuscript miniatures.

ROMEIKO ENSEMBLE PERFORMS AT NATIONAL LIBRARY OF
GREECE IN ATHENS
Dec. 13, 2006
At the invitation of the National Library of Greece, Romeiko Ensemble performed a concert of Christmas hymnology in the Byzantine and post-Byzantine traditions transcribed from respective manuscripts in the Library's collection. The National Library of Greece (NLG) preserves amongits other treasures around 500 musical manuscripts of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine era. These manuscripts contain hymns and nonsensesyllables texts (terirem) from Byzantine (12th-15th c.) and post-Byzantine (16th-18th c.) composers. The Byzantine melodies were written in the old Byzantine script (parasemantiki) that contemporary musicians and cantors are not able to read or perform. Few Byzantine melodies were transcribed into the contemporary musical (psaltic) notation of 1814 (Chrysanthine notation) by Chourmouzios Chartophylax (†1840) using as a transcription code the sound of 17th-18th century psaltic tradition. Musicologists of the 20th century tried to restore the Byzantine melodies into the original sound, but their attempts were not accurate. The musicologist Ioannes Arvanites (1961-) after thorough research in all Byzantine sourcesthe last 25 years resuscitated the lost Byzantine sound of the
Byzantine melodies as preserved into the Byzantine codices after defining the code of transcription of the Byzantine notation. The National Library of Greece celebrated in 2006 its 170th anniversary of the historical building that the Valianos brothers built and donated. Romeiko Ensemble, a professional Byzantine music group, interpreted Christmas hymns in the original sound from the codices NLG 883 and 934, transcribed by Byzantine music scholar Ioannis Arvanitis, at a concert in the main hall of the National Library on December 13, 2006.

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