Description
Book SynopsisThe anagrams, or more generally, the
mathēmata and morphologically related kalophonic forms of Byzantine melopoeïa, constitute the artistic creations by which Psaltic Art is known in all its splendour and becomes an object of admiration. Kalophony as
ars nova was born following the recovery of the city of Constantinople after the Latin occupation of Byzantium (AD 1204–1261) during the long reign of Andronicus II (1282–1328) and reached its final form in the first half of the fourteenth century. During the years 1300–1350, four key composers and teachers of the Psaltic Art imposed a new attitude of melic composition on the preexisting forms and designated new compositional techniques dominated by the beautifying kallopistic element. They created new compositions in the new spirit of
kallōpismos and musical verbosity. This new musical creation was christened with the term kalophony and this period is the golden age of Byzantine Chant.
Originally published under the title
Hoi anagrammatismoi kai ta mathemata tes byzantines melopoiïas (1979 plus seven reprints), this publication thoroughly investigates and reveals for the first time the entire magnitude of Byzantine kalophony with its individual forms, serving as a systematic introduction to the Greek Byzantine music culture and that of the Byzantine Psaltic Art at the height of its expression.
Table of ContentsContents: A synoptic review of Byzantine ecclesiastical melopœϊa – The form of the Mathēmatarion – The tradition of the kalophonic melos – The analysis of the Mathēmatarion –
Incipits of the anagrams and mathēmata in the Mathēmatarion transcribed by Chourmouzios – Reproduction of the kalophonic stichēron ΠΡΟΤΥΠΩΝ ΤΗΝ ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΝ from the feast of the transfiguration.
