Christian Troelsgård - Byzantine neumes: A New Introduction to the Middle Byzantine Musical Notation (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Influence of Byzantine Music on the West
|Greece as an intercultural pole of musical thought and creativity. International Musicological Conference, June 6-10 2011, Thessaloniki, Greece
It has long recognized that Byzantine art exerted a significant influence on the West. This is particularly been shown to be the case on art history. The eminently important question of the relationship of Latin to Byzantine neumatic notation has long been unclear – understandable because systematic comparative studies on the neumatic notations had not been undertaken. Every investigation of connexions between Gregorian chant and Byzantine church music must give consideration to the fact that in the sixth, seventh and eight centuries the closest relationships must have existed between Rome and Constantinople. During this time period numerous chants of byzantine rite were introduced into the Roman Church. My own investigations caused an enormous sensation. Suddenly amazing connections between Byzantine Church music and the notation of Gregorian chant were exposed. Numerous Latin neumes and corresponding Byzantine signs (semata) proved to be onomatically, paleographivally and semasiologically (semantically) related and in many cases identical. The great number of names of Latin neumes have been shown to be borrowed words or borrowed translations from Middle Greek. The medieval classification of the Latin neumatic repertory comprise five classes and has the advantage that it is compatible with the typology of the Paleobyzantine signs: 1. neumae simplices (tonoi haploi); 2. neumae compositae (tonoi synthetoi); 3. ornamental neumes; 4. notae semivocales (hemiphona), 5. litterae significativae (grammata). The most frequently used litterae and the most important grammata have similar meanings. Comparing Byzantine and Latin notation we came to the conclusion that both had a partial stenographic character. Neumes like the quilisma, pressus and genarally speaking every sign based on different forms of the oriscus are considered as stenograpic signs. It could be shown that the closest connections existed between Paleobyzantine and Latin neumes.
Illuminated musical manuscripts in Byzantium: A note on the late twelfth century
Gesta, 1989
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Epistêmês Metron Logos 5:1-47, Π1-71 , 2021
At the conclusion of his well-known book about the Byzantine Notation (published in 1917, 1 and re-published in 1978 2) K. A. Psachos discusses with the "retrospective parallelism of the New Method of the analytical Byzantine Notation to the Ancient Method of the stenographical Byzantine Notation through the occasional exegeseis" [«ἀναδρομικὸς παραλληλισμὸς τῆς σημερινῆς μουσικῆς γραφῆς πρὸς τὴν ἀρχαίαν στενογραφίαν διὰ μέσου τῶν κατὰ καιροὺς ἐξηγήσεων»], 3 a chapter also documented through numerous relevant papers of his, published until that time. 4 According to his writings, his research on Byzantine Notation, in both its versions the stenographical and the analytical one, especially his effort as far as the so-called exegesis of the same Notation is concerned, is based on musicological pieces of evidence found specifically in the manuscripts of Gregory Protopsaltes, as well as on the relevant musical work of a series of Byzantine Music Masters, like the following ones: Chourmouzios Chartophylax, Chrysanthos of Madytos, George the Cretan, Jacob Protopsaltes, Antony Lampadarios, Peter the Byzantios, Peter the Peloponnesian, John Protopsaltes, Athanasios V the Patriarch of Constantinople, Balases the Priest; 5 at the same time, he criticizes any * The present paper includes the results from the research program "Digitalization, Documentation, and Promotion of the Archive of K. A. Psachos", co-funded by the European Union and Greek National Funds through Operational Program "Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning" (NSRF 2014-2020), under the call "Supporting Researchers with an Emphasis on Young Researchers-Cycle B" (MIS: 5047970). The authors would like to express their gratitude to Photini Downie Robinson, who kindly undertook the English Proofreading of the text of the present paper. 1 K. A. Psachos, Ἡ παρασημαντικὴ τῆς βυζαντινῆς μουσικῆς, ἤτοι ἱστορικὴ καὶ τεχνικὴ ἐπισκόπησις τῆς σημειογραφίας τῆς βυζαντινῆς μουσικῆς ἀπὸ τῶν πρώτων χριστιανικῶν χρόνων μέχρι τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς [The Parasimantiki of the Byzantine Music; a Historical and Technical Review of the Notation of the Byzantine Music from the first Christianity years through the present day], (Athens: P.D. Sakellariou Editions, 1917). 2 K. A. Psachos, Ἡ παρασημαντικὴ τῆς βυζαντινῆς μουσικῆς, ἤτοι ἱστορικὴ καὶ τεχνικὴ ἐπισκόπησις τῆς σημειογραφίας τῆς βυζαντινῆς μουσικῆς ἀπὸ τῶν πρώτων χριστιανικῶν χρόνων μέχρι τῶν καθ' ἡμῶν, ἔκδοσις δευτέρα ὑπερηυξημένη, μετὰ ἐκτενοῦς βιογραφίας καὶ εἰσαγωγῆς συνταχθείσης ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐπιμεληθέντος τὴν ἔκδοσιν Γεωργίου Χατζηθεοδώρου καθηγητοῦ μουσικῆς [The Parasimantiki of the Byzantine Music; a Historical and Technical Review of the Notation of the Byzantine Music from the first Christianity years until nowadays; 2 nd extended edition, with an extensive biography and introduction written by the supervisor of the edition George Hadzitheodorou, music teacher], (Athens: Dionysos Publishing Co, 1978). 3 Psachos (1978), 236-48; cf. ibid., 236-7 "Τhe ones who want to decode the secrets of this Ancient Method of the stenographical Byzantine Notation owe to ask and find all the formal and informal versions of the occasional various analyses and exegeseis of it, through which our religious music has developed, and through the only safe way i.e. the retrospective study, passing through the last exegesis towards the first format of the Ancient Stenography, to accomplish the approximate desirable. The only tools used for that challenging and complex study and research, are the exegeseis written down according to the contemporary New Method of the analytical Byzantine Notation, made by the three late teachers Gregory, Chourmouzios and Chrysanthos, who after hard work transformed that from symbols to letters; after these, one has to take into consideration the exegeseis made before the contemporary New Method of the analytical Byzantine Notation, the ones developed by George the Cretan, Jacob Byzantios, Peter the Peloponnesian, John from Trαbzon and Balases the Priest, which one may study retrospectively; finally, one has to also take into consideration the various forms of the Ancient Stenography" [«Οἱ θέλοντες νὰ εἰσδύσωσιν εἰς τὰ ἀπόρρητα τοῦ στενογραφικοῦ τούτου συστήματος ὀφείλουσι νὰ ζητήσωσι καὶ ν' ἀνεύρωσιν ὅλους τοὺς ἐπισήμους τε καὶ μὴ σταθμοὺς τῶν κατὰ καιροὺς ἀναλύσεων καὶ ἐξηγήσεων αὐτῆς, δι' ὧν διῆλθον τὰ μέλη τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς ἡμῶν μουσικῆς, καὶ διὰ τοῦ ἑνὸς καὶ μόνου ἀσφαλοῦς τρόπου, τῆς ἀναδρομικῆς τουτέστι μελέτης, προχωροῦντες ἀπὸ τῆς τελευταίας ἐξηγήσεως πρὸς τὴν πρώτην μορφὴν τῆς ἀρχαίας στενογραφίας, νὰ ἐπιτύχωσιν ὁπωσοῦν καὶ κατὰ προσέγγισιν τοῦ ποθουμένου. Ἀλλ' ὡς μόνα ἐφόδια διὰ τὴν ἐξόχως δυσχερῆ καὶ πολύπλοκον ταύτην μελέτην καὶ ἔρευναν χρησιμεύουσιν αἱ εἰς τὸ σημερινὸν γραφικὸν σύστημα ἐξηγήσεις τῶν τριῶν ἀειμνήστων διδασκάλων Γρηγορίου, Χουρμουζίου καὶ Χρυσάνθου, οἵτινες κατόπιν πολυμόχθου ἐργασίας μετέτρεψαν τοῦτο ἀπὸ συμβόλων εἰς γράμματα. Μετ' αὐτὰς δέ, αἱ ἐξηγήσεις αἱ πρὸ τοῦ σημερινοῦ συστήματος γενόμεναι ὑπὸ τοῦ Γρηγορίου, τοῦ Κρητός, τοῦ Ἰακώβου, τοῦ Βυζαντίου, τοῦ Πελοποννησίου, τοῦ Τραπεζουντίου καὶ τοῦ Μπαλασίου ἀναδρομικῶς, καὶ τελευταῖαι αἱ διάφοροι μορφαὶ τῆς πρώτης στενογραφίας»]. 4 Idid., 247-8 (note 81). 5 Idid., 240-6 "Through the help of these valuable manuscripts and after long study we managed to write a dissertation on the complex issue of the stenographical Byzantine Notation; through the present book of ours we offer a minimum contribution to the EPISTẼMẼS METRON LOGOS Issue No. 6 | 2021 | 2 | researcher who is not paying particular attention to those pieces of evidence, as "they wronged not only the Art but themselves as well" [«οὐ μόνον τὴν τέχνην ἠδίκησαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑαυτούς»]. 6 Several testimonies about the same issue, unknown and unpublished for the time being, are additionally found in K. A. Psachos's Archive; there, the researcher can focus on a few relevant roughly handwritten texts; for example: the text of an interview of a great Byzantine Music Theory tutor of Constantinople, the Protopsaltes Nileus Kamarados [see the full text, written in Greek, published and commented in Appendix No. 1.2], 7 at the suggestion of K. A. Psachos recorded by Plato N. Kesisoglus in 1907, 8 an interview never published until now; 9 another unpublished text, consisted of twenty-five (25) questions of K. A. Psachos addressed to a well-known Byzantine Music scholar, the hiero-monk of Grottaferrata monastery Lorenzo Tardo [see the full text, written in Greek, published and commented in Appendix No. 2], 10 questions that K. A. Psachos was planning to use at a public discussion with L. Tardo during the fifth Byzantine Studies International Congress (Rome 1936). 11 history and art of it; especially, through the reference of the examples in indexes 28-31, we offer-short but adequate-samples of the way according to which one can compare the New Method of the analytical Byzantine Notation to the Ancient Method of the stenographical Byzantine Notation through the occasional exegeseis; through such a parallelism one can assume that the Notation remains identical, even though several analyses of it are occasionally given. Taking into account, on the one hand, the exegesis made by the Three Teachers that have formed the New Method of the analytical Byzantine Notation, on the other hand, the Ancient Method of the stenographical Byzantine Notation, we can find exactly the same musical content in any formula given in the writing of Gregory (and his contemporaries), and then in the writings of Peter Byzantios, Peter the Peloponnesian and their predecessors, who have occasionally used some analysis of the Notation, until we reach the Ancient Stenography" [«Τῇ βοηθείᾳ τούτων τῶν πολυτίμων χειρογράφων κυρίως κατορθώσαντες, κατόπιν πολυετοῦς μελέτης, νὰ παρασκευάσωμεν ἐργασίαν ἐπὶ τοῦ σκοτεινοῦ καὶ λίαν ἀκανθώδους ζητήματος τῆς παρασημαντικῆς τῆς Βυζαντινῆς μουσικῆς, παρέχομεν διὰ τῆς περιληπτικῆς ταύτης μελέτης ἡμῶν ἐλαχίστην συμβολὴν εἰς τὴν ἱστορίαν καὶ τέχνην αὐτῆς. Ἰδίᾳ δὲ διὰ τῶν ἐν τοῖς Πίναξι ΚΗ΄, ΚΘ΄, Λ΄ καὶ ΛΑ΄ παρατιθεμένων παραδειγμάτων, παρέχομεν δείγματα μικρά, πλὴν ἀσφαλῆ, τοῦ τρόπου, καθ' ὅν, ἀπὸ τῆς σημερινῆς γραφῆς, διὰ μέσου τῶν κατὰ καιροὺς γενομένων ἐξηγήσεων ἀνατρέχοντες πρὸς τὴν πρώτην στενογραφίαν, εὑρίσκομεν τὴν αὐτὴν γραμμὴν διήκουσαν διὰ μέσου τῶν διαφόρων ἀναλύσεων τῆς γραφῆς. Λαμβάνοντες ἄλλαις λέξεσιν ὡς ἀντίποδας, ἔνθεν μὲν τὴν ἐξήγησιν τῶν τριῶν εἰς τὸ σημερινὸν γραφικὸν σύστημα, ἔνθεν δὲ τὴν πρώτην στενογραφίαν, ἀνευρίσκομεν μίαν καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν μουσικὴν γραμμὴν ἐν τῇ πρὸ τῆς σημερινῆς ἐξηγήσεως γραφῇ τοῦ Γρηγορίου καὶ τῶν συγχρόνων αὐτῷ, εἶτα ἐν τῇ γραφῇ τοῦ Βυζαντίου, τοῦ Πελοποννησίου καὶ τῶν πρὸ αὐτῶν ἕν τινι μέτρῳ μεταχειρισθέντων ποιάν τινα ἀνάλυσιν, ἕως οὗ φθάνομεν εἰς τὴν πρώτην στενογραφίαν»]. 6 Idid., 246-7; cf. idid., 239: "It is impossible for foreign researchers (or even for Greek ones) to take even one step further (they are mostly going backward) in order to decode the Ancient Stenography if they can't find and study in detail all the received relevant manuscript tradition, which represent more than a three-century period, a tradition that is impossible to find at the ancient codices of Byzantine Music found in various libraries spread throughout different regions" [«ποσῶς δὲν εἶναι δυνατόν, ἀδύνατον εἶναι, οἱ εἰς τὴν δῆθεν ἑρμηνείαν τῆς ἀρχαίας στενογραφίας ἐνασχολούμενοι ξένοι, εἴτε ἡμέτεροι καὶ κατὰ βῆμα ἓν νὰ προχωρήσωσι πρὸς τὰ πρόσω, ἀλλὰ κυρίως πρὸς τὰ ὄπισθεν, ἂν μὴ ἀνεύρωσι καὶ ἐπισταμένως μελετήσωσιν ὁλόκληρον τὴν σειρὰν τῆς διαληφθείσης ἐργασίας ἥν, ἐκπροσωποῦσαν τρεῖς καὶ πλέον αἰῶνας, ἀδύνατον νὰ εὕρωσιν ἐν τοῖς τῆς πρώτης στενογραφίας χειρογράφοις, ἅτινα καὶ μόνον ἀπαντῶσιν ἐν ταῖς ἑκασταχοῦ Βιβλιοθήκαις»].
The presence of musical instruments in Byzantine and post-Byzantine iconographic sources
Greek Musical Instruments: Inquiries into art and literature (2000 BC - 2000 AD, edited by Alexandra Voutira, 2012
One could very well argue that the history of representations of musical instruments in Byzantine and post-Byzantine art begins with the images carved in the stone of the pedestal of the Theodosius-Obelisk raised in Constantinople on the Hippodrome in the late fourth century. 1 The bas-relief on the southeast face of the pedestal shows in the top register the Emperor in his Imperial Lodge (kathisma) surrounded by his retinue; the lower register features members of the public in two distinct rows, and below them, at the very bottom, a row of musicians and female dancers. 2 On the left of this third row, one sees a pneumatic organ with two calcants who operate the bellows and an organ player, and three female dancers with cymbal tongs (kymbala); they are followed by a panpipe (syrinx) player, three female dancers holding hands and an additional dancer with cymbal tongs; the line-up continues with two more musicians, one playing a double-aulos and the other a curved trumpet (salpinx); the
Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi, 2020
During the conference-which was divided into twenty-three sessions and two posters, an exhibit dedicated to Byzantin notation in the codices of the Biblioteca Marciana, and three concerts-the results of complex and original studies were presented. The proceedings-edited by James Borders with the support of the Fondazione Levi, and, for the musical examples, with the kindly advice offered to us by David Hiley and Marco Gozzi-demonstrate the depth of the Group's projects, Thus again, the Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi confirms the importance of its role as a point of reference for the musicological studies of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, while rapidly increasing its editorial production, which is now on-line and open access. XII XIII CANTUS PLAN US 2014 which have broadened the central themes during their thirty years of activity to include new methodology and stimulating perspectives, also through a progressive branching off into active subgroups. Along with two of the subgroups (Historiae and Byzantin Music) the Fondazione Levi then organized two other conferences (2017, Historiae: Litugical chant for offices of the Saints in the Middle Age; 2018, Bessarione e la musica: concezioni, fonti teoriche e stili). The relative proceedings are in the process of being published and forthcoming. In confirming its readiness to cooperate further, the Fondazione Levi wishes to express its satisfaction for the superior scientific level of the papers published here. James Borders, Chair, Ims Study Group «Cantus Planus» Foreword to the Meeting Founded in 1984 at the initiative of Professors Helmut Hucke and László Dobszay with the approval of the Directorium of the International Musicological Society (Ims), the Study Group «Cantus Planus» (Ims-sgcp) has met regularly at international congresses of the Ims and independently every two or three years ever since. The objective of the Ims-sgcp is the advancement of research in fields relevant to the history and practice of liturgical plainchant as branches of learning and scholarship. In pursuing this objective, the Ims-sgcp encourages international cooperation and facilitates constructive interactions among researchers. The Study Group held its seventeenth meeting on the small and peaceful island of San Servolo in the Venetian lagoon, once the site of a Benedictine monastery, between 28 July and 1 August 2014. This five-day gathering was co-sponsored by the Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi and the Department for Historical, Artistic, Musical and Demoanthropologic Heritage of the University of Padua. The organizers were Prof. James Borders, Ims-sgcp chair, and Dr. Nausica Morandi, Università degli studi di Padova. The call for papers attracted over a hundred abstracts for sessions on individual topics, panel discussions, free papers, and posters on Western European and Eastern Mediterranean chant, as well as a session on polyphony. The program comprised twenty-three sessions, most of them simultaneous; many papers read at these sessions are published in this volume. Meeting participants also enjoyed a visit to a manuscript exhibition at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana near the Basilica di San Marco. The Ims-sgcp is most grateful to the Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi for generously sponsoring both the Venice meeting and the publication of these proceedings. We extend special thanks to Luisa Zanoncelli, former Presidente del Comitato scientifico della Fondazione Levi, Giorgio Busetto, Direttore e direttore della Biblioteca Fondazione Levi, as well as the members of the Advisory Board, Christelle Cazaux
Tradition and Innovation in Late-and Postbyzantine Liturgical Chant II. Proceedings of the Congress held at Hernen Castle, the Netherlands, 30 October-3 November 2008, Leuven-Paris-Walpole, MA 2013, pp. 261-289
The story of a composition (the story of any composition) constitutes -undoubtedly- a completely interesting “adventure”: as soon as its composer conceives it, it is noted down (by its composer or by his students), it is copied (unedited or partly changed) into various other musical manuscripts, it is broadly spread during its time or even centuries after that, it arouses the interest of other (known or unknown) music instructors (who retouch it, beautify it, reform it, broaden it), and – finally – it is transcribed into various (and differentiated, as time goes by) systems of musical notation… In the present paper, I try to trace some aspects and respective illustrations of this “adventure”, triggered off an enigmatic figure; the Eunouxos Protopsaltes the Phelanthropenos (Constantinople, second half of 13th century), a composer who is accredited with only one composition, which is anthologized occasionally (from the 14th until the 16th century) into various Mathemataria. The emerging conclusions present a high musicological interest, with a generalized and diachronic validity…