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LVOV, Alexei Fyodorovich. b. 5 June 1798, Reval (now Tallinn), Estonia; d. Kovno (Now Kaunus), Lithuania, 28 December 1870. Lvov was the son of Prince Fyodor Petrovich Lvov, the director of music at the Court Chapel at St Petersburg. He served as an officer in the Imperial army, rising to the rank of General, and becoming an aide-de-camp to the Tsar. He succeeded his father as musical director at St Petersburg in 1837, remaining in post until 1861, when he was forced to retire owing to...
See 'Byzantine hymnody#Akathistos'*
ANDREW of Crete, St. b. ca. 660; d. ca. 732. Andrew was the oldest representative of kanon* writers who distinguished himself as both poet and orator. A native of Damascus, St Andrew became archbishop of Gortyna in Crete, ca.712, where it is believed he wrote his most famous hymn, the Great Kanon. This vast cycle, sung in sections on the first four days of Lent and in its entirety on the fifth Thursday of Lent, is characterised by the fusion of praise of the Divinity with passages of confession...
BALASIOS. b. ca. first quarter 17th century; d. before 1700. The priest Balasios, who held the posts of protasekretes (1672) and nomophylax (1680) of the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, came from a Peloponnesian family. He studied Byzantine music with Germanos of Neai Patrai*. Balasios was active during the second half of the 17th century: the earliest mention is in the manuscript Panteleimon 1008 (dated before 1660), where he calls himself domestikos. His version of the...
See also 'Byzantine rite'*, 'Greek hymnody'*, 'Rite of Constantinople'*, 'Rite of Jerusalem'*, 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*.
This is a highly sophisticated and powerful literary tradition of religious poetry intended for the liturgical services of the Eastern Orthodox Church and for private, devotional purposes. Profoundly doctrinal, Byzantine hymnody mirrored the major developments in Christology and Trinitarian theology throughout the first millennium of Christianity. At the same time, it was...
The hymnody composed within the Byzantine rite is essentially a continuation of Hagiopolite hymnody (Rite of Jerusalem*), but the liturgical framework is no longer the Palestinian rite but the new rite resulting from the fusion of the Palestinian and the Constantinopolitan rites. This fusion, whose result is usually called the 'Byzantine rite', took place from the 7th century onwards in the patriarchate of Constantinople, thereafter spreading to other regions, for instance Southern Italy...
Throughout the centuries the cherubikon ('Οἱ τὰ χερουβίμ'; 'Hoi ta cherubim'), also called the 'mystical hymn', has been set to music by a great number of composers, because its text as well as its theme is particularly well suited for choral music. The cherubikon was first mentioned by the historian Georgios Kedrenos (11th-12th century), who states that it was sung during mass from 573/74 onwards. Kedrenos goes on to tell that it was emperor Iustinos II (565-578) who decreed that the...
CHRYSANTHOS of Madyta. b. Thrace, ca. 1770; d. 1846. Chrysanthos is said to have been a well-educated man of the church compared to the standards of his time; he knew Latin and French as well as European and Arabian music (he played the flute and the Persian ney). He studied Byzantine music with Petros Byzantios* among others.
Chrysanthos was appointed archimandrite (superior abbot), and as such was also responsible for musical education. He became aware that the complicated notational system...
CHRYSAPHES the Younger b. 1620/25?; d. ca. 1682?. Little is known for certain about the life of Chrysaphes the Younger, who helped Byzantine music to flourish under Ottoman rule. Born in Constantinople, he is mentioned as protopsaltes of the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in April 1655 and he seems to have worked there until at least 1665: in manuscript Patriarchal Library Hierosol. 4 (dated 1655) Chrysaphes is mentioned by name and described as protopsaltes; in the manuscript Patmos 930 (dated...
CHURMUZIOS CHARTOPHYLAX (Churmuzios the Archivist). b. ca. 1770; d. 1840. Born on the island of Chalkis, Churmuzios studied Byzantine music with Georgios of Crete*, Petros Byzantios* and Iakobos Peloponnesios* (Protopsaltes), but was also acquainted with Arabian-Persian music. From 1792 onwards Churmuzios seems to have been working as a musician, although he did not have a musical post within the patriarchal church, instead being employed as a chartophylax (archivist). Churmuzios sang in...
PHOTEINOS (MORAITĒS), Dionysios. b. Achaias, Palaias Patras, Peloponnesios, Greece, 1777; d. Wallachia, 10 October 1821. He studied Byzantine music with his father Athanasios (personal physician of the sultan Abdul Hamit and Domestikos of the Great Church of Constantinople), and then at the Patriarchal School in Constantinople as apprentice of Iakobos Peloponnesios* (Protopsaltes) and Petros Byzantios Fygas (d. 1808). In 1797 he attended the Imperial Academy in Bucharest. He was a tambour,...
EPHREM the Syrian (Syriac: AFREM). b. Nisibis, ca. 306; d. Edessa, 9 June 373. Ephrem was born at Nisibis (today Nusaybin). He received his religious instruction in Nisibis, where he was also appointed to work as a teacher (malfanā) and he was possibly ordained as a deacon as well. In 363, when Roman-ruled Nisibis was handed over to the Persians, he fled together with a part of the Christian community to Amid (today Diyarbakır) and later to Edessa (today Sanlıurfa). Ephrem spent the rest of his...
This account of Ethiopian Hymnody is in two parts: Traditional Hymnody (Ralph Lee); New Songs (Lila Balisky)
Traditional Ethiopian Liturgical Music
Of all the ecclesiastical arts liturgical singing is the most important and jealously guarded in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition. No external influences are permitted and the purity of the original tradition is uncompromisingly protected. Music creates the atmosphere of worship: Orthodox believers often comment on the spiritual quality and...
FILOTHEI the Hieromonk. b. Wallachia, ca. 1640; d. ca. 1720. A Romanian interpreter, translator and author of Byzantine hymns and liturgical texts, Filothei studied Byzantine music with priest Teodosie from the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia. He spent a few years in the monasteries on Mount Athos, improving his knowledge of Byzantine music and the Greek and Medieval Slavonic languages. He returned to Wallachia before 1700 and is known as a hieromonk (a monk who has also been ordained as a...
GEORGIOS of Crete. d. ca. 1815. Unlike many post-Byzantine composers, Georgios of Crete did not work as lampadarios or protopsaltes at the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. Instead, he worked exclusively as a musician and composer. He studied music with Meletios Sinaïtes, Petros Peloponnesios*, Petros Byzantios* and Iakobos Peloponnesios*. Later, he worked as a teacher in Constantinople, on the island of Chios, and in Chania on Crete (where he is buried). His many pupils...
GERMANOS of Constantinople (the Confessor), St (or Germanus). b. Constantinople, ca. 655; d. Platonium, before 754. He was the son of a patrikios. In 669, after his father's execution by the Byzantine emperor, Germanos was made a eunuch and enrolled in the clergy of Hagia Sophia. He quickly established a reputation as an expert in theology. He became bishop of Cyzicus (ca. 706) and patriarch of Constantinople in 715.
Germanos opposed various heresies; in 730, under pressure from Emperor Leo...
GERMANOS of Neai Patrai. b. Tyrnavo/Thessalia, ca.1625; d. ca. 1685. Germanos was born in and studied Byzantine music in Constantinople with Georgios Rhaidestinos and Chrysaphes the Younger*, although in many sources he is mentioned as a contemporary of the latter. In ca. 1665 he was appointed metropolitan of Neai Patrai (today Ypati in the district of Phthiotida) by patriarch Dionysios III. In 1683 he seems to have resigned from this post and gone to live in Wallachia.
There are five known...
The term 'Greek hymnody' within Christianity has both a contemporary and an historical sense. First, it signifies the hymnody of the present Byzantine liturgical rite, contained in the official liturgical hymnbooks. The Byzantine or Eastern Roman empire ended in 1453, but the Byzantine rite contined to be practised in post-Byzantine times, both by Orthodox and eventually by Catholic Uniate churches, as it still is. Second, Greek hymnody incorporates all hymnody used in any of several historical...
This article includes the tradition of Egypt/Alexandria. See also 'Greek hymnody'*.
Introduction
Christian papyrology enables us to study many of the non-biblical liturgical songs of the early Greek Church, which were previously known only through translations, particularly in the Georgian, Armenian or Coptic traditions (which are difficult to date), through fragments in late Greek compilations, or through literary works of dubious authorship or uncertain liturgical use. These papyrological...
As far as we can judge from the few remaining pieces of evidence (such as the famous 'Phos hilaron'*) and from some late testimonies (Saint Augustine*, Egeria's pilgrimage, comments by abbot Pembo, the Life of Auxentios), the earliest forms of Christian hymnody in Greek were written in rhythmic prose, were based on patterns of parallelism and antithesis (like the biblical psalms and canticles) and were sung responsorially. It is generally assumed that the earliest hymns, such as troparia and...
GREGORIOS PROTOPSALTES b. 1777/78?; d. 23 Dec 1821. Gregorios is said to have been born on the day of Petros Peloponnesios*'s death, and to have taught himself to sing and speak Armenian. His father sent him to the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai so as to be instructed in Greek grammar and music. Later on Gregorios was taught Byzantine music by Iakobos Peloponnesios*, Georgios of Crete* and Petros Byzantios* as well as Arabian-Persian music by the Ottoman composer Ismail Dede Efendi....
GREGORY of Nazianzen. b. Nazianzen, ca. 329; d. Nazianzen, 25 January 389. His father was bishop of Nazianzen, and Gregory was born on the family estate. He studied at Caesarea, Alexandria, and Athens, where he studied rhetoric in the 350s. He became a monk, but returned home, where he was ordained by his father in 362. For the next decade, he assisted his father. In 372 a new administrative division of Cappadocia led to the establishment of a new see at Sasima. Against his will, Gregory's...
NAREKATSI, Grigor (St Gregory of Narek), b. ca. 951; d. 1003. Grigor Narekatsi is the author of Matean voghbergut'ean ('Book of Lamentations'), the most recognised work in Armenian literature. This is a book of devotion and spiritual consolation second only to the Bible. Mischa Kudian, in his foreword to his English translation of the first 25 elegies from Matean voghbergut'ean calls Narekatsi 'the most outstanding figure in the whole of Armenian literature', and he deserves to be known as one...
IAKOBOS Peloponnesios (Protopsaltes). b. ca. 1740; d. 23 April 1800. A pupil of Ioannes Trapezuntios*, Iakobos Peloponnesios sang as domestikos at the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople from 1764 until 1776, when he was appointed teacher at the patriarchal school of music together with Daniel Protopsaltes* and Petros Peloponnesios*. Around 1784 he returned to the Great Church as lampadarios, succeeding Petros Peloponnesios. After the death of Daniel Protopsaltes in December 1789 he was...
IOANNES Trapezuntios. b. date and place unknown; d. ca. 1769-73. Ioannes Trapezuntios, also called Ioannes Protopsaltes, was a pupil of Panagiotes Chalatzoglu. His name derives from his birth place Trapezunt/Trebizond (Trabzon in Turkey). A 1727 document by patriarch Païsios asserts that the domestikos Ioannes Kyritzes was appointed teacher at the newly founded patriarchal school of music; this Ioannes Kyritzes can be identified as Ioannes Trapezuntios. In 1728 Ioannes called himself...
DAMASCENE, John, St (John Chrysorrhoas, John of Damascus). b. ca. 655; d. ca. 745. John received a good literary and philosophical education in his native Damascus, and became renowned in Constantinople as the author of liturgical hymns. Eventually he became a monk, probably at Jerusalem Cathedral rather than at the monastery of St Sabas, as has traditionally been believed (see Conticello, 2000, Louth, 2002). He became the theological advisor of Patriarch John V of Jerusalem, who ordained him...
KOUKOUZELES, John, St [Ioannes]. b. ca. 1280; d. ca. 1350. A singer and prolific composer from Mount Athos, Koukouzeles was the foremost exponent of the kalophonic vocal style. In his works we note a marked expansion both of music and text. He increases the length of traditional melodies in three ways: (i) by setting very many notes to the individual syllables of the hymnody (melismas); (ii) by interpolating new words and phrases in pre-existing texts thereby giving him scope to write more...
JOSEPH the Hymnographer, St. b. Sicily, between 812 and 818; d. ca. 886. He was taken as a child to Peloponnesos, but fled to Thessalonike, where he became a monk. Later he went to Constantinople, living for several years in the Church of Antipas. He founded his own monastery, ca. 850. After capture by the Arabs, and exile during the iconoclastic controversy (cf. Theodore of Studios*), he returned to Constantinople no later than 866-7, where he was later appointed staurophylax (guardian of the...
JUSTINIAN I, Emperor. b. ca. 482; d. 565. The troparion (see Byzantine hymnody*), 'ό Μονογενής' ('The Only-begotten'), is attributed to the Emperor Justinian by the Chalcedonians, and to Severus, patriarch of Antioch, by the monophysites. The Chalcedonians held the belief, agreed at the 451 Council of Chalcedon, that Christ was one person in two natures (human and divine), while the monophysites believed that Christ possessed only one nature.
The hymn takes the form of a prayer, ending with a...
See 'Byzantine hymnody#Kanon'*
KASSIA the Nun. ca. 800-805; d. by 867. Well educated in Byzantine imperial court circles, Kassia became an hegoumena (abbess). More than twenty securely attributed works survive, principally stichera. Kassia is one of four known female Byzantine hymnodists. She appears to have written both texts and music herself, thus being the only known Byzantine female melode (composer of both text and music). Her most famous composition in her lifetime was the sticheron 'Augoustou monarchēsantos'...
KHATCHATUR Tarōnetsi. fl. 13th century. Khatchatur of Tarōn was a poet and musician, and he occupies a special place among the authors of Armenian hymns. His best known hymn is 'Khorhurd khorin' ('Mystery profound') which is also called 'The Hymn of Vesting', sung at the beginning of Holy Mass. Successive 4-line quatrains spell out the author's name (KHATCHATUR). According to certain sources, Khatchatur composed it on the occasion of an open-air liturgy organised at the request of Prince...
KOMITAS. Komitas I Aghtsetsi, Catholicos of All Armenians. b. ca. 560; d. 628. A well-known churchman, poet, and musician. When he was Catholicos (primate) of the Armenian church (615-628) the relics of a group of nuns, headed by Gayanē and including Hrip'simē, who was of famed beauty, were discovered in Edjmiadsin. Komitas constructed the Church of St. Hrip'simē in 618, where the remains were interned, and composed the hymn 'Andzink' nvirealk'' ('Devoted souls') to celebrate the occasion. He...
See 'Byzantine hymnody#Kontakion'*
KOSMAS of Maiouma, St (The Hagiopolite, the Jerusalemite, the Melode, the Monk, the Poet). b. ca. 675; d. 752/754. He was born in the patriarchate of Jerusalem, probably in Jerusalem itself. According to later hagiography Kosmas lived as a monk at Saint Sabas, but according to recent research it is more likely that he served at the Resurrection Cathedral at Jerusalem. He was elected bishop of Maiouma in Phoenicia, ca. 743, at the age of nearly 70.
Together with St John Damascene*, Kosmas was...
MAKARIOS the Hieromonk. b. ca. 1770; d. 1836. A professor of Byzantine chant, typographer, translator and composer, Makarios was born in Perieţi, Walachia (southern Romania); his date of birth, accepted by most of his biographers, remains uncertain: estimates oscillate between 1750 (Bishop Iosif Naniescu) and 1780 (Ion Popescu-Pasărea). Makarios was a pupil of Constandin (Căldăruşani Monastery), affiliated with the teacher Şărban, the protopsaltis of Walachia. In 1817 he learned the New Method...
CHRYSAPHES, Manuel. fl. 1440–1463. He was the most impressive, prolific and distinguished Byzantine composer, singer, scribe and theoretician at the time of Constantinople's political decline. His output was exceptionally prolific and his chants were known and sung for centuries, not only in the Greek- but also in the Slavonic- and Romanian-speaking east. His contributions to the repertory of Byzantine liturgical music reveal him as an important figure in the development of the Eastern chant...
KANTOUNIARĒS (NAUTOUNIARĒS), Nikēphoros. b. Chios, 1750-75; d. 1830s. Born on the island of Chios, Greece, Kantouniarēs undertook a musical apprenticeship in Constantinople under the patriarchal cantor (psaltēs) Iakobos Peloponnesios* (Protopsaltes) (d. 1800). He spoke Greek, Turkish, Arabic, and maybe Romanian, French and Italian.
Kantouniarēs was an important psaltēs, a composer of both ecclesiastical and secular music, a pedagogue, scribe, and exegete. As archdeacon of Antioch, Kanoutniarēs...
PETROS Bereketes. b. 1665?; d. 1725?. The name Bereketes derives from the Turkish word 'bereket', meaning 'abundance'. The story goes that when Bereketes was asked by his pupils if he had more heirmoi for them, he always answered that he had an abundance of them. Petros studied music in his home town of Constantinople and afterwards with Damianos of Vatopedi on Mount Athos. He was influenced by works by his contemporaries Chrysaphes the Younger*, Germanos of Neai Patrai* and Balasios*. He was...
PETROS Byzantios. b. Constantinople, mid-18th century; d. Iaşi, 1808. According to Chrysanthos of Madyta* Petros Byzantios came from Constantinople and studied music with Petros Lakedaimonos. The first reference to Petros Byzantios dates from 1771, when he was appointed second domestikos at the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. He was promoted to first domestikos (1778-89), then lampadarios (1789-1800) and finally protopsaltes (1800-05), from which post he was dismissed by patriarch...
PETROS Peloponnesios. b. ca. 1730; d. Constantinople, 1778. Petros Peloponnesios received his first instruction in music from monks in Smyrna. He went to Constantinople in 1764, where he became a pupil of Ioannes Trapezuntios*, then protopsaltes at the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia. After singing as a domestikos, Petros was promoted to lampadarios between 1769 and 1773. Petros Peloponnesios also taught at the patriarchal school of music alongside Daniel Protopsaltes* and Iakobos Peloponnesios*,...
See 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*
The liturgical tradition of the patriarchate of Constantinople was centred in the cathedral of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), also called 'The Great Church'. The hymnody of this rite is quite restricted, especially compared to that of Jerusalem*. It consists of two types of hymns: psalmodic hymnody (Psalm refrains, troparia) and independent hymnody (kontakia).
Psalmodic hymnody
Ordinary refrains (the Psalter and the Odes)
The Psalter of the Constantinopolitan rite, including a series of 14...
The liturgical rite of Jerusalem, as the name indicates, developed and was practised primarily in the Holy City itself. The physical and organising centre of this rite was the Cathedral of Jerusalem, a complex of churches built around the cross and the tomb of Christ. Festal offices were celebrated in the Martyrium basilica (or other churches of the city) and daily offices in the Anastasis rotonda (the Church of the Resurrection, also called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). In addition,...
ROMANOS the Melodist. fl. 6th century. Little is known about his life, and even the century in which he lived has long been hotly disputed. It is likely that he was born in Syria, in the city of Emesa, and that he was of Jewish origin. As a young man he served as deacon at the Church of the Resurrection in Beirut, before coming to Constantinople during the reign of Anastasius I (491-518), where he was attached to the Church of the Virgin in the Kyros quarter of the city.
After his death he was...
SOPHRONIOS of Jerusalem. b. Damascus, ca. 560; d. 11 March 638. Born in Damascus, he became a monk at the cenobitic monastery of St. Theodosios in the Judean desert. From 578 onwards he undertook several travels in the Mediterranean region. He was patriarch of Jerusalem from 634 till his death, a year after the Arabic occupation of Jerusalem. St. Sophronios grew up within the Antiochian liturgical rite, but became familiar with that of Palestine at St Theodosios; at this time, these rites may...
SYNESIUS of Cyrene. b. Cyrene, ca. 370; d. Ptolemais, ca. 414. Born at Cyrene, of a distinguished family (Gibbon, in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury, II. 324, has some amusement at their claim to have been descended from Hercules). He was educated at Alexandria as a pupil of the famous neo-Platonist Hypatia, whom he described as 'a mother, a sister, and a teacher'. After a period as a soldier, and studying at home, he was sent on a mission to plead for remission of taxes...
History of the Syrian Church
Syriac Christianity has grown out of the Aramaic speaking population of Mesopotamia and its environs which, around the beginning of the Christian Era, was divided into two empires: the Roman-Byzantine Empire in the West and the Parthian-Persian Empire in the East. It had its early centre in Edessa in the West, a relatively independent kingdom, where the majority of the population spoke Aramaic. Edessa was christianised from Antioch as early as the 2nd century. The...
THEODORE of Studios, St (or 'St Theodore of the Studium'). b. 759; d. 11 November 826. Born on the family estate on the Sea of Marmora, Theodore entered the monastery of Sakkoudion in Bithynia in 781, became a priest in 784 or 787, and abbot of Sakkoudion in 794. After an Arab raid in 799, he and his monks fled to Constantinople, and he became abbot of Studios. His pro-icon stance led to his being exiled on several occasions, and he died in exile on the island of Chalcis. He wrote many letters,...
KARYKES, Theophanes. ca. second half 16th century. Karykes is said to be one of the most important Byzantine composers of the late 16th century, whose work already shows the stylistic influence of the new florid style. Theophanes Karykes is mentioned in the diary of the German pastor Stephan Gerlach: on a visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in October 1577, he made the acquaintance of a 'protopsaltes […] called Kariteus of Athens'. Karykes was a protopsaltes until 1578 and became ecumenical...
See 'Byzantine hymnody#Troparion'*