The Easter koinonikon in the style of Rossano (original) (raw)

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.