Byzantine music

The earliest sources and the tonal system of Byzantine music

According to the chant manual "Hagiopolites", the earliest that has survived until today, chanters of the Hagia Sophia used a system 16 church tones (echoi), while the author of this treatise introduces to a tonal system of 10 echoi. Nevertheless, both schools have in common a set of 4 octaves (protos, devteros, tritos, and tetartos), each of them had a kyrios echos (authentic mode) with the finalis on the degree V of the mode, and a plagios echos (plagal mode) with the final note on the degree I. The resulting eight modes (octoechos) had been identified with the seven tropes (tropoi) of the Ancient Greek harmonikai, the Pythagorean mathematic discipline of music theory as it had been formulated by the harmonikoi during the Hellenic period. Today, chanters of the Christian Orthodox churches identify with the heritage of Byzantine music whose earliest composers are remembered by name since the 5th century, with compositions related to them, although it is nearly impossible to reconstruct the original melodies of their hymnodic poems. The melodic neume notation of Byzantine music developed late since the 10th century, with the exception of an earlier ekphonetic notation, interpunction signs used in lectionaries, but modal signatures for the eight echoi can already be found in fragments (papyri) of monastic hymn books (tropologia) dating back to the 6th century.^[5]

Despite the censorship marking the rise of Christian civilization within Hellenism, certain concepts of knowledge and education did still survive during the imperial age, when Christianity became the official religion.^[6] The Pythagorean sect and music as part of the four "cyclical exercises" (ἐγκύκλια μαθήματα) that preceded the Latin quadrivium and science today based on mathematics, established mainly among Greeks in southern Italy (at Taranto and Crotone). Greek anachoretes of the early Middle Ages did still follow this education. The Calabrian Cassiodorus founded Vivarium where he translated Greek texts (science, theology and the Bible), and John of Damascus who learnt Greek from a Calabrian monk Kosmas, a slave in the household of his privileged father at Damascus, mentioned mathematics as part of the speculative philosophy.^[7]

According to him philosophy was divided into theory (theology, physiology, mathematics) and practice (ethics, economy, politics), and the Pythagorean heritage was part of the former, while only the ethic effects of music were relevant in practice. The mathematic science harmonics was usually not mixed with the concrete topics of a chant manual.

Nevertheless, Byzantine music is modal and entirely dependent on the Ancient Greek concept of harmonics.^[9] Its tonal system is based on a synthesis with ancient Greek models, but we have no sources left that explain to us how this synthesis was done. Carolingian cantors could mix the science of harmonics with a discussion of church tones, named after the ethnic names of the octave species and their transposition tropes, because they invented their own octoechos on the basis of the Byzantine one. But they made no use of earlier Pythagorean concepts that had been fundamental for Byzantine music, including:

It is not evident by the sources, when exactly the position of the minor or half tone moved between the devteros and tritos. It seems that the fixed degrees (hestotes) became part of a new concept of the echos as melodic mode (not simply octave species), after the echoi had been called by the ethnic names of the tropes.

Instruments within the Byzantine Empire

Late 4th century AD "Mosaic of the Musicians" with organ, aulos, and lyre from a Byzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.^[10]

The 9th century Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 911); in his lexicographical discussion of instruments cited the lyra (lūrā) as the typical instrument of the Byzantines along with the urghun (organ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre) and the salandj (probably a bagpipe).^[11]

The first of these, the early bowed stringed instrument known as the Byzantine lyra, would come to be called the lira da braccio,^[12] in Venice, where it is considered by many to have been the predecessor of the contemporary violin, which later flourished there.^[13] The bowed "lyra" is still played in former Byzantine regions, where it is known as the Politiki lyra (lit. "lyra of the City" i.e. Constantinople) in Greece, the Calabrian lira in Southern Italy, and the Lijerica in Dalmatia.

The second instrument, the organ, originated in the Hellenistic world (see Hydraulis) and was used in the Hippodrome in Constantinople during races.^[14][15] A pipe organ with "great leaden pipes" was sent by the emperor Constantine V to Pepin the Short King of the Franks in 757. Pepin's son Charlemagne requested a similar organ for his chapel in Aachen in 812, beginning its establishment in Western church music.^[15]

The final Byzantine instrument, the aulos, was a double-reeded woodwind like the modern oboe or Armenian duduk. Other forms include the plagiaulos (πλαγίαυλος, from πλάγιος, plagios "sideways"), which resembled the flute,^[16] and the askaulos (ἀσκαυλός from ἀσκός askos "wine-skin"), a bagpipe.^[17] These bagpipes, also known as Dankiyo (from ancient Greek: angion (Τὸ ἀγγεῖον) "the container"), had been played even in Roman times. Dio Chrysostom wrote in the 1st century of a contemporary sovereign (possibly Nero) who could play a pipe (tibia, Roman reedpipes similar to Greek aulos) with his mouth as well as by tucking a bladder beneath his armpit.^[18] The bagpipes continued to be played throughout the empire's former realms down to the present. (See Balkan Gaida, Greek Tsampouna, Pontic Tulum, Cretan Askomandoura, Armenian Parkapzuk, and Romanian Cimpoi.)

Acclamations at the court and the ceremonial book

Secular music existed and accompanied every aspect of life in the empire, including dramatic productions, pantomime, ballets, banquets, political and pagan festivals, Olympic games, and all ceremonies of the imperial court. It was, however, regarded with contempt, and was frequently denounced as profane and lascivious by some Church Fathers.^[19]

Another genre that lies between liturgical chant and court ceremonial are the so-called polychronia (πολυχρονία) and acclamations (ἀκτολογία).^[20] The acclamations were sung to announce the entrance of the Emperor during representative receptions at the court, the hippodrome or in the cathedral. They can be distinct from the polychronia, ritual prayers or ektenies for present political rulers and are usually answered by a choir with formulas such as "Lord protect" (κύριε σῶσον) or "Lord have mercy on us/them" (κύριε ἐλέησον).^[21] The documented polychronia in books of the cathedral rite allow a geographical and a chronological classification of the manuscript and they are still used during ektenies of the divine liturgies of national Orthodox ceremonies today. The hippodrome was used for a traditional feast called Lupercalia (15 February), and on this occasion the following polychronion was celebrated:^[22]

Map of the Great Palace situated between the Hippodrome and the Hagia Sophia. The structures of the Great Palace are shown in their approximate position as derived from literary sources. Surviving structures are in black.

The main source about court ceremonies is an incomplete compilation in a 10th-century manuscript that organised parts of a treatise Περὶ τῆς Βασιλείου Τάξεως ("On imperial ceremonies") ascribed to Emperor Constantine VII, but in fact compiled by different authors who contributed with additional ceremonies of their period.^[23] In its incomplete form chapter 1–37 of book I describe processions and ceremonies on religious festivals (many lesser ones, but especially great feasts such as the Elevation of the Cross, Christmas, Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter and Ascension Day and saint's days including St Demetrius, St Basil etc. often extended over many days), while chapter 38–83 describe secular ceremonies or rites of passage such as coronations, weddings, births, funerals, or the celebration of war triumphs.^[24] For the celebration of Epiphany the protocol begins to mention several stichera and their echoi (ch. 3) and who had to sing them:

These protocols gave rules for imperial progresses to and from certain churches at Constantinople and the imperial palace,^[26] with fixed stations and rules for ritual actions and acclamations from specified participants (the text of acclamations and processional troparia or kontakia, but also heirmoi are mentioned), among them also ministers, senate members, leaders of the "Blues" (Venetoi) and the "Greens" (Prasinoi)—chariot teams during the hippodrome's horse races. They had an important role during court ceremonies.^[27] The following chapters (84–95) are taken from a 6th-century manual by Peter the Patrician. They rather describe administrative ceremonies such as the appointment of certain functionaries (ch. 84,85), investitures of certain offices (86), the reception of ambassadors and the proclamation of the Western Emperor (87,88), the reception of Persian ambassadors (89,90), Anagorevseis of certain Emperors (91–96), the appointment of the senate's proedros (97). The "palace order" did not only prescribe the way of movements (symbolic or real) including on foot, mounted, by boat, but also the costumes of the celebrants and who has to perform certain acclamations. The emperor often plays the role of Christ and the imperial palace is chosen for religious rituals, so that the ceremonial book brings the sacred and the profane together. Book II seems to be less normative and was obviously not compiled from older sources like book I, which often mentioned outdated imperial offices and ceremonies, it rather describes particular ceremonies as they had been celebrated during particular imperial receptions during the Macedonian renaissance.

The Desert Fathers and urban monasticism

Chludov Psalter, 9th century (Moscow, Hist. Museum Ms. D.129, fol. 135) River of Babylon as illustration of Ps. 137:1–3

Two concepts must be understood to appreciate fully the function of music in Byzantine worship and they were related to a new form of urban monasticism, which even formed the representative cathedral rites of the imperial ages, which had to baptise many catechumens.

The first, which retained currency in Greek theological and mystical speculation until the dissolution of the empire, was the belief in the angelic transmission of sacred chant: the assumption that the early Church united men in the prayer of the angelic choirs. It was partly based on the Hebrew fundament of Christian worship, but in the particular reception of St. Basil of Caesarea's divine liturgy. John Chrysostom, since 397 Archbishop of Constantinople, abridged the long formular of Basil's divine liturgy for the local cathedral rite.

The notion of angelic chant is certainly older than the Apocalypse account (Revelation 4:8–11), for the musical function of angels as conceived in the Old Testament is brought out clearly by Isaiah (6:1–4) and Ezekiel (3:12). Most significant in the fact, outlined in Exodus 25, that the pattern for the earthly worship of Israel was derived from heaven. The allusion is perpetuated in the writings of the early Fathers, such as Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Athenagoras of Athens, John Chrysostom and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. It receives acknowledgement later in the liturgical treatises of Nicolas Kavasilas and Symeon of Thessaloniki.^[28]

The second, less permanent, concept was that of koinonia or "communion". This was less permanent because, after the fourth century, when it was analyzed and integrated into a theological system, the bond and "oneness" that united the clergy and the faithful in liturgical worship was less potent. It is, however, one of the key ideas for understanding a number of realities for which we now have different names. With regard to musical performance, this concept of koinonia may be applied to the primitive use of the word choros. It referred, not to a separate group within the congregation entrusted with musical responsibilities, but to the congregation as a whole. St. Ignatius wrote to the Church in Ephesus in the following way:

You must every man of you join in a choir so that being harmonious and in concord and taking the keynote of God in unison, you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father, so that He may hear you and through your good deeds recognize that you are parts of His Son.

A marked feature of liturgical ceremony was the active part taken by the people in its performance, particularly in the recitation or chanting of hymns, responses and psalms. The terms choros, koinonia and ekklesia were used synonymously in the early Byzantine Church. In Psalms 149 and 150, the Septuagint translated the Hebrew word machol (dance) by the Greek word choros Greek: Χορος. As a result, the early Church borrowed this word from classical antiquity as a designation for the congregation, at worship and in song in heaven and on earth both.

Concerning the practice of psalm recitation, the recitation by a congregation of educated chanters is already testified by the soloistic recitation of abridged psalms by the end of the 4th century. Later it was called prokeimenon. Hence, there was an early practice of simple psalmody, which was used for the recitation of canticles and the psalter, and usually Byzantine psalters have the 15 canticles in an appendix, but the simple psalmody itself was not notated before the 13th century, in dialogue or papadikai treatises preceding the book sticheraria.^[29] Later books, like the akolouthiai and some psaltika, also contain the elaborated psalmody, when a protopsaltes recited just one or two psalm verses. Between the recited psalms and canticles troparia were recited according to the same more or less elaborated psalmody. This context relates antiphonal chant genres including antiphona (kind of introits), trisagion and its substitutes, prokeimenon, allelouiarion, the later cherubikon and its substitutes, the koinonikon cycles as they were created during the 9th century. In most of the cases they were simply troparia and their repetitions or segments were given by the antiphonon, whether it was sung or not, its three sections of the psalmodic recitation were separated by the troparion.

The recitation of the biblical odes

Chludov Psalter, beginning of the canticles

The fashion in all cathedral rites of the Mediterranean was a new emphasis on the psalter. In older ceremonies before Christianity became the religion of empires, the recitation of the biblical odes (mainly taken from the Old Testament) was much more important. They did not disappear in certain cathedral rites such as the Milanese and the Constantinopolitan rite.

Before long, however, a clericalizing tendency soon began to manifest itself in linguistic usage, particularly after the Council of Laodicea, whose fifteenth Canon permitted only the canonical psaltai, "chanters:", to sing at the services. The word choros came to refer to the special priestly function in the liturgy – just as, architecturally speaking, the choir became a reserved area near the sanctuary—and choros eventually became the equivalent of the word kleros (the pulpits of two or even five choirs).

The nine canticles or odes according to the psalter were:

• (1) The Song of the sea (Exodus 15:1–19);
• (2) The Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1–43);
• (3) – (6) The prayers of Hannah, Habakkuk, Isaiah, Jonah (1 Kings [1 Samuel] 2:1–10; Habakkuk 3:1–19; Isaiah 26:9–20; Jonah 2:3–10);
• (7) – (8) The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children (Apoc. Daniel 3:26–56 and 3:57–88);
• (9) The Magnificat and the Benedictus (Luke 1:46–55 and 68–79).

and in Constantinople they were combined in pairs against this canonical order:^[30]

• Ps. 17 with troparia Ἀλληλούϊα and Μνήσθητί μου, κύριε.
• (1) with troparion Tῷ κυρίῳ ἄισωμεν, ἐνδόξως γὰρ δεδόξασται.
• (2) with troparion Δόξα σοι, ὁ θεός. (Deut. 1–14) Φύλαξόν με, κύριε. (Deut. 15–21) Δίκαιος εἶ, κύριε, (Deut. 22–38) Δόξα σοι, δόξα σοι. (Deut. 39–43) Εἰσάκουσόν μου, κύριε. (3)
• (4) & (6) with troparion Οἰκτείρησόν με, κύριε.
• (3) & (9a) with troparion Ἐλέησόν με, κύριε.
• (5) & Mannaseh (apokr. 2 Chr 33) with troparion Ἰλάσθητί μοι, κύριε.
• (7) which has a refrain in itself.

The troparion

The common term for a short hymn of one stanza, or one of a series of stanzas, is troparion. As a refrain interpolated between psalm verses it had the same function as the antiphon in Western plainchant. The simplest troparion was probably "allelouia", and similar to troparia like the trisagion or the cherubikon or the koinonika a lot of troparia became a chant genre of their own.

Recitation of psalm 85 κλῖνον, κύριε, τὸ οὖς σου καὶ ἐπάκουσόν μου during vespers (τῇ βέσπερ) in echos plagios devteros with a preceding troparion καὶ ἐπάκουσόν μου· δόξα σοι, ὁ Θεός in a liturgical manuscript around 1400 (GR-An Ms. 2061, fol. 4r)

A famous example, whose existence is attested as early as the 4th century, is the Easter Vespers hymn, Phos Hilaron ("O Resplendent Light"). Perhaps the earliest set of troparia of known authorship are those of the monk Auxentios (first half of the 5th century), attested in his biography but not preserved in any later Byzantine order of service. Another, O Monogenes Yios ("Only Begotten Son"), ascribed to the emperor Justinian I (527–565), followed the doxology of the second antiphonon at the beginning of the Divine Liturgy.

Romanos the Melodist, the kontakion, and the Hagia Sophia

An icon depicting Romanos the Melodist (c. 490–556) with a kontakion roll

Ancient Ambon outside Hagia Sophia

The development of large scale hymnographic forms begins in the fifth century with the rise of the kontakion, a long and elaborate metrical sermon, reputedly of Syriac origin, which finds its acme in the work of St. Romanos the Melodist (6th century). This dramatic homily, which usually paraphrases a Biblical narrative, comprises some 20 to 30 stanzas (oikoi "houses") and was sung during the Morning Office (Orthros) in a simple and direct syllabic style (one note per syllable).^[31] The earliest musical versions in Italobyzantine kontakaria of the thirteenth century, however, are melismatic (that is, many notes per syllable of text), and were probably sung since the ninth century, when kontakia were reduced to the prooimion (introductory verse) and first oikos (stanza).^[32] Romanos' own recitation of all the numerous oikoi must have been much simpler, but the most interesting question of the genre are the different functions that kontakia once had. Romanos' original melodies were not delivered by notated sources dating back to the 6th century, the earliest sources are the Slavonic Kondakars written down in Novgorod and Kiev during the 12th century. Their great signs are not identical with those of the Italian and Athonite Kontakaria of the 13th century. During the period of psaltic art (14th and 15th centuries), the interest of kalophonic elaboration was focussed on one particular kontakion which was still celebrated: the Akathist hymn. An exception was John Kladas who contributed also with kalophonic settings of other kontakia of the repertoire.

Some of them had a clear liturgical assignation, others not, so that they can only be understood from the background of the later book of ceremonies. Some of Romanos creations can be even regarded as political propaganda in connection with the new and very fast reconstruction of the famous Hagia Sophia by Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. A quarter of Constantinople had been burnt down during a civil war. Justinian had ordered a massacre at the hippodrome, because his imperial antagonists who were affiliated to the former dynasty, had been organised as a chariot team.^[33] Thus, he had place for the creation of a huge park with a new cathedral in it, which was larger than any church built before as Hagia Sophia. He needed a kind of mass propaganda to justify the imperial violence against the public. In the kontakion "On earthquakes and conflagration" (H. 54), Romanos interpreted the Nika riot as a divine punishment, which followed in 532 earlier ones including earthquakes (526–529) and a famine (530):^[34]

According to Johannes Koder the kontakion was celebrated the first time during Lenten period in 537, about ten months before the official inauguration of the new built Hagia Sophia on 27 December.

The Constantinopolitan Hagia Sophia with elements added later to the crossing in order to stabilise the dome construction

Changes in architecture and liturgy, and the introduction of the cherubikon

Icon screen in Constantinopolitan style reconstructed for SS. Forty Martyrs Church at Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria)

During the second half of the sixth century, there was a change in Byzantine sacred architecture, because the altar used for the preparation of the eucharist had been removed from the bema. It was placed in a separated room called "prothesis" (πρόθεσις). The separation of the prothesis where the bread was consecrated during a separated service called proskomide, required a procession of the gifts at the beginning of the second eucharist part of the divine liturgy. The troparion "Οἱ τὰ χερουβὶμ", which was sung during the procession, was often ascribed to Emperor Justin II, but the changes in sacred architecture were definitely traced back to his time by archaeologists.^[35] Concerning the Hagia Sophia, which was constructed earlier, the procession was obviously within the church.^[36] It seems that the cherubikon was a prototype of the Western chant genre offertory.^[37]

With this change came also the dramaturgy of the three doors in a choir screen before the bema (sanctuary). They were closed and opened during the ceremony.^[38] Outside Constantinople these choir or icon screens of marble were later replaced by iconostaseis. Antonin, a Russian monk and pilgrim of Novgorod, described the procession of choirs during Orthros and the divine liturgy, when he visited Constantinople in December 1200:

When they sing Lauds at Hagia Sophia, they sing first in the narthex before the royal doors; then they enter to sing in the middle of the church; then the gates of Paradise are opened and they sing a third time before the altar. On Sundays and feastdays the Patriarch assists at Lauds and at the Liturgy; at this time he blesses the singers from gallery, and ceasing to sing, they proclaim the polychronia; then they begin to sing again as harmoniously and as sweetly as the angels, and they sing in this fashion until the Liturgy. After Lauds they put off their vestments and go out to receive the blessing of the Patriarch; then the preliminary lessons are read in the ambo; when these are over the Liturgy begins, and at the end of the service the chief priest recites the so-called prayer of the ambo within the sanctuary while the second priest recites in the church, beyond the ambo; when they have finished the prayer, both bless the people. Vespers are said in the same fashion, beginning at an early hour.^[39]

Papyrus fragment of a 6th-century tropologion found in Egypt, marked in red are the modal signature and some early ekphonetic signs of the following theotokion ("another one") which is composed in a melos of echos plagios devteros (D-Bk P. 21319)

Monastic reforms in Constantinople and Jerusalem

By the end of the seventh century with the reform of 692, the kontakion, Romanos' genre was overshadowed by a certain monastic type of homiletic hymn, the kanon and its prominent role it played within the cathedral rite of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Essentially, the kanon is an hymnodic complex composed of nine odes that were originally attached to the nine Biblical canticles and to which they were related by means of corresponding poetic allusion or textual quotation (see the section about the biblical odes). Out of the custom of canticle recitation, monastic reformers at Constantinople, Jerusalem and Mount Sinai developed a new homiletic genre whose verses in the complex ode meter were composed over a melodic model: the heirmos.^[40]

The nine odes of the kanon were dissimilar by their metrum. Consequently, an entire heirmos comprises nine independent melodies (eight, because the second ode was usually omitted outside Lenten period), which are united musically by the same echos and its melos, and sometimes even textually by references to the general theme of the liturgical occasion—especially in acrosticha composed over a given heirmos, but dedicated to a particular day of the menaion.

The earliest examples were already composed by Severus of Antioch, Paul of Edessa and Ioannes Psaltes at the Patriarchate of Antioch between 512 and 518. Their tropologion has only survived in Syriac translation and revised by Jacob of Edessa.^[41] The tropologion was continued by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, but especially by Andrew of Crete's contemporary Germanus I, Patriarch of Constantinople who represented as a gifted hymnographer not only an own school, but he became also very eager to realise the purpose of this reform since 705, although its authority was questioned by iconoclast antagonists and only established in 787. After the octoechos reform of the Quinisext Council in 692, monks at Mar Saba continued the hymn project under Andrew's instruction, especially by his most gifted followers John of Damascus and Cosmas of Jerusalem. These various layers of the Hagiopolitan tropologion since the 5th century have mainly survived in a Georgian type of tropologion called "Iadgari" whose oldest copies can be dated back to the 9th century.^[42]

Today the second ode is usually omitted (according to the so-called "golden canon" attributed to John of Damascus), but medieval heirmologia rather testify the custom, that the extremely strict spirit of Moses' last prayer was especially recited during Lenten tide, when the number of odes was limited, especially patriarch Germanus I contributed with many own compositions of the second ode. According to Alexandra Nikiforova only two of 64 canons composed by Germanus I are present in the current print editions, but manuscripts have transmitted his hymnographic heritage.^[43]

The cyclic organization of lectionaries

Another project of the Studites' reform was the organisation of the of New Testament (Epistle, Gospel) reading cycles, especially its hymns during the period of the triodion (between the pre-Lenten Meatfare Sunday called "Apokreo" and the Holy Week).^[51] Older lectionaries had been often completed by the addition of ekphonetic notation and of reading marks which indicate the readers where to start (ἀρχή) and to finish (τέλος) on a certain day.^[52] The Studites also created a typikon—a monastic one which regulated the cœnobitic life of the Stoudios Monastery and granted its autonomy in resistance against iconoclast Emperors, but thy had also an ambitious liturgical programme which imported Hagiopolitan customs (of Jerusalem) like the Great Vesper, especially for the movable cycle between Lent and Allsaints (triodion and pentekostarion), including a Sunday of Orthodoxy which celebrated the triumph over iconoclasm on the first Sunday of Lent.^[53]

First of three prophetic lessons ἐλάλησεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν ἐνώπιος ἐνωπίῳ (ἑσπ “evening” with the “lesson from Exodus”: Ex. 33:11-23) on Good Friday Vespers preceded by a first prokeimenon Δίκασον, κύριε, τοὺς ἀδικοῦντάς με (Ps 34:1) in echos protos written in a 10th-century Prophetologion (ET-MSsc Ms. Gr. 8, f.223r). The preceding second prokeimenon Σοῦ, κύριε, φύλαξον with the double vers (stichos Ps. 11:2) Σῶσον με, κύριε in echos plagios protos concluded the Orthros. This prophetologion became very famous for its list of ekphonetic neumes on folio 303.

Unlike the current Orthodox custom Old Testament readings were particular important during Orthros and Hesperinos in Constantinople since the 5th century, while there was no one during the divine liturgy.^[54] The Great Vespers according to Studite and post-Studite custom (reserved for just a few feasts like the Sunday of Orthodoxy) were quite ambitious. The evening psalm 140 (kekragarion) was based on simple psalmody, but followed by florid coda of a soloist (monophonaris). A melismatic prokeimenon was sung by him from the ambo, it was followed by three antiphons (Ps 114-116) sung by the choirs, the third used the trisagion or the usual anti-trisagion as a refrain, and an Old Testament reading concluded the prokeimenon.^[55]

The Hagiopolites treatise

The earliest chant manual pretends right at the beginning that John of Damascus was its author. Its first edition was based on a more or less complete version in a 14th-century manuscript,^[56] but the treatise was probably created centuries earlier as part of the reform redaction of the tropologia by the end of the 8th century, after Irene's Council of Nikaia had confirmed the octoechos reform of 692 in 787. It fits well to the later focus on Palestine authors in the new chant book heirmologion.

Concerning the octoechos, the Hagiopolitan system is characterised as a system of eight diatonic echoi with two additional phthorai (nenano and nana) which were used by John of Damascus and Cosmas, but not by Joseph the Confessor who obviously preferred the diatonic mele of plagios devteros and plagios tetartos.^[57]

It also mentions an alternative system of the Asma (the cathedral rite was called ἀκολουθία ᾀσματική) that consisted of 4 kyrioi echoi, 4 plagioi, 4 mesoi, and 4 phthorai. It seems that until the time, when the Hagiopolites was written, the octoechos reform did not work out for the cathedral rite, because singers at the court and at the Patriarchate still used a tonal system of 16 echoi, which was obviously part of the particular notation of their books: the asmatikon and the kontakarion or psaltikon.

But neither any 9th-century Constantinopolitan chant book nor an introducing treatise that explains the fore-mentioned system of the Asma, have survived. Only a 14th-century manuscript of Kastoria testifies cheironomic signs used in the Kontakarion, which are transcribed in longer melodic phrases by the notation of the contemporary sticherarion, the middle Byzantine Round notation.

Easter koinonikon σῶμα χριστοῦ μεταλάβετε in echos plagios protos with the old cheironomiai (hand signs) or Asmatikon notation and their transcription into Byzantine round notation in a manuscript of the 14th century (GR-KA Ms. 8, fol. 36v)

The transformation of the kontakion

The former genre and glory of Romanos' kontakion was not abandoned by the reformers, even contemporary poets in a monastic context continued to compose new liturgical kontakia (mainly for the menaion), it likely preserved a modality different from Hagiopolitan oktoechos hymnography of the sticherarion and the heirmologion.

But only a limited number of melodies or kontakion mele had survived. Some of them were rarely used to compose new kontakia, other kontakia which became the model for eight prosomoia called “kontakia anastasima” according the oktoechos, had been frequently used. The kontakion ὁ ὑψωθεῖς ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ for the feast of cross exaltation (14 September) was not the one chosen for the prosomoion of the kontakion anastasimon in the same echos, it was actually the kontakion ἐπεφάνης σήμερον for Theophany (6 January). But nevertheless, it represented the second important melos of the echos tetartos which was frequently chosen to compose new kontakia, either for the prooimion (introduction) or for the oikoi (the stanzas of the kontakion called “houses”). Usually these models were not rubrified as “avtomela”, but as idiomela which means that the modal structure of a kontakion was more complex, similar to a sticheron idiomelon changing through different echoi.

This new monastic type of kontakarion can be found in the collection of Saint Catherine's Monastery on the peninsula of Sinai (ET-MSsc Ms. Gr. 925-927) and its kontakia had only a reduced number of oikoi. The earliest kontakarion (ET-MSsc Ms. Gr. 925) dating to the 10th century might serve as an example. The manuscript was rubrified Κονδακάριον σῦν Θεῷ by the scribe, the rest is not easy to decipher since the first page was exposed to all kinds of abrasion, but it is obvious that this book is a collection of short kontakia organised according to the new menaion cycle like a sticherarion, beginning with 1 September and the feast of Symeon the Stylite. It has no notation, instead the date is indicated and the genre κονδάκιον is followed by the dedicated Saint and the incipit of the avtomelon (not even with an indication of its echos by a modal signature in this case).

Folio 2 verso shows a kontakion ἐν ἱερεῦσιν εὐσεβῶς διαπρέψας which was composed over the prooimion used for the kontakion for cross exaltation ὁ ὑψωθεῖς ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ. The prooimion is followed by four stanzas called oikoi, but they all share with the prooimion the same refrain ταὶς σαῖς πρεσβεῖαις which concludes each oikos. But the model for these oikoi was not taken from the same kontakion, but from the other kontakion for Theophany whose first oikos had the incipit τῇ γαλιλαίᾳ τῶν ἐθνῶν.

Kontakion ἐν ἱερεῦσιν εὐσεβῶς διαπρέψας for Saint Anthimus (μηνὶ τῷ αὐτῷ ·Γ᾽· “in the same month 3rd”: 3 September) sung with the melody of the idiomelon ὁ ὑψωθεῖς ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ (prooimion) and with the melody of the oikos τῇ γαλιλαίᾳ τῶν ἐθνῶν (oikoi) in echos tetartos (ET-MSsc Ms. Gr. 925, f.2v)

The Ohrid Literary School

A page of the aprakos lectionary known as Codex Assemanius (I-Rvat Cod. Vat. slav. 3, f.123v)

Unfortunately there is no Slavonic tropologion written in Glagolitic script by Cyril and Methodius which has survived from their time. This lack of evidence does not prove that it had not existed, since certain conflicts with Benedictines and other Slavonic missionaries in Great Moravia and Pannonia were obviously about an Orthodox rite translated into Old Church Slavonic and practised already by Methodius and Clement of Ohrid.^[58] The only early Glagolitic source left is the Kiev Missal which proves a West Roman influence in the Old Slavonic liturgy for certain territories of Croatia, and a later 11th-century New Testament lectionary known as the Codex Assemanius which was obviously created by the Ohrid Literary School, and a euchologion (ET-MSsc Ms. Slav. 37) in part compiled for Great Moravia by Cyril and Clement of Preslav and probably copied at Preslav about the same time. The aprakos lectionary proves that the Stoudites typikon was obeyed concerning the organisation of reading cycles. It explains, why Svetlana Kujumdžieva assumed that the “church order” mentioned in Methodius' vita meant the mixed Constantinopolitan Sabbaite rite established by the Stoudites. But a later finding by the same author pointed to another direction.^[59] In a recent publication she chose "Iliya's book" (RUS-Mda Fond 381, Ms. 131) as the earliest example of an Old Church Slavonic tropologion (around 1100), it has compositions by Cyril of Jerusalem and agrees about 50% with the earliest tropologion of Sinai (ET-MSsc Ms. NE/MΓ 56+5) and it is likewise organised as a mеnaion (beginning with September like the Stoudites), but it still includes the movable cycle. Hence, its organisation is still close to the tropologion and it has compositions not only ascribed to Cosmas and John, but also Stephen the Sabaite, Theophanes the Branded, the Georgian scribe and hymnographer Basil at Mar Saba and Joseph the Hymnographer. Further on, musical notation has been added on some pages which reveal an exchange between Slavic literary schools and scribes of Sinai or Mar Saba:

• theta ("θ" for "thema" which indicates a melodic figure over certain syllables of the text) or fita notation was used to indicate the melodic structure of an idiomelon/samoglasen in glas 2 "Na Iordanstei rece" (Epiphany, f.109r). It was also used on other pages (kanon for hypapante, ff.118v-199r & 123r),
• two forms of znamennaya notation, an earlier one has dots on the right sight of certain signs (the kanon "Obraza drevle Moisi" in glas 8 for Cross elevation on 14 September, ff.8r-9r), and a more developed form which was obviously needed for a new translation of the text ("another" avtomelon/samopodoben, ино, glas 6 "Odesnuyu spasa" for Saint Christina of Tyre, 24 July, f.143r).^[60]

Theta and znamennaya notation within pages of an 11th-century Oktoich of the Kievan Rus (RUS-Mda Fond 381 Ms. 131)

Kujumdžieva pointed later at a Southern Slavic origin (also based on linguistic arguments since 2015), although feasts of local saints, celebrated on the same day like Christina Boris and Gleb, had been added. If its reception of a pre-Stoudite tropologion was of Southern Slavic origin, there is evidence that this manuscript was copied and adapted for a use in Northern Slavic territories.

Recent systematic editions of the early sources (in menaion order) have revealed that the philosophy of the literary schools in Ohrid and Preslav did only require in exceptional cases the use of notation.^[61] The reason is that their translation of Greek hymnography were not very literal, but often quite far from the content of the original texts, the main concern of this school was the recomposition or troping of the given system of melodies (with their models known as avtomela and heirmoi) which was left intact. The so-called "Iliya's book" can hardly serve as an evidence for an early Southern Slavic reception, it rather proves that notation was only used in a few parts, where a new translation of a certain text required a new melodic composition which was no longer included within the existing system of melodies established by the Stoudites and their followers. But there is a coincidence between the early fragment from the Berlin-collection, where the ἀλλὸ rubric is followed by a modal signature and some early neumes, while the elaborated zamennaya is used for a new sticheron (ино) dedicated to Saint Christina.

The Kievan Rus' and the earliest manuscripts of the cathedral rite

Concerning the Slavic rite celebrated in various parts of the Kievan Rus', there was not only an interest for the organisation of monastic chant and the tropologion and the oktoich or osmoglasnik which included chant of the irmolog, podobni (prosomoia) and their models (samopodobni), but also the samoglasni (idiomela) like in case of Iliya's book.

Znamennaya notation in the stichirar and the irmolog

Since the 12th century, there are also Slavic stichirars which did not only include the samoglasni, but also the podobni provided with znamennaya notation. A comparison of the very first samoglasen наста въходъ лѣтѹ (“Enter the entrance of the annual cycle”) in glas 1 (ἐπέστη ἡ εἴσοδος ἐνιαυτοῦ echos protos, SAV 1^[62]) of the miney shows, that the znamennaya version is much closer to fita (theta) notation, since the letter “θ =” corresponds to other signs in Coislin and a synthetic way to write a kratema group in Middle Byzantine notation. It was obviously an elaboration of the simpler version written in Coislin:

Samoglasen наста въходъ in glas 1 (SAV 1) in three sticheraria: znamennaya notation (RUS-Mda fond 381 Ms. 152, f.1v), Coislin notation (ET-MSsc Ms. Gr. 1217, f.2r) and Middle Byzantine notation (Dk-Kk Ms. NkS 4960, f.1r)

The Middle Byzantine version allows to recognise the exact steps (intervals) between the neumes. They are here described according to the Papadic practice of solfège called "parallage" (παραλλαγή) which is based on echemata: for ascending steps always kyrioi echoi are indicated, for descending steps always echemata of the plagioi echoi. If the phonic steps of the neumes were recognised according to this method, the resulting solfège was called "metrophonia". The step between the first neumes at the beginning passed through the protos pentachord between kyrios (a) and plagios phthongos (D): a—Da—a—G—a—G—FGa—a—EF—G—a—acbabcba. The Coislin version seems to end (ἐνιαυτοῦ) thus: EF—G—a—Gba (the klasma indicates that the following kolon continues immediately in the music). In znamennaya notation the combination dyo apostrophoi (dve zapĕtiye) and oxeia (strela) at the beginning (наста) is called "strela gromnaya" and obviously derived from the combination "apeso exo" in Coislin notation. According to the customs of Old Byzantine notation, "apeso exo" was not yet written with "spirits" called "chamile" and "hypsile" which did later specify as pnevmata the interval of a fifth (four steps). As usual the Old Church Slavonic translation of the text deals with less syllables than the Greek verse. It should be noted that the neumes only show the basic structure which was memorised as metrophonia by the use of parallage, not the melos of the performance. The melos depended on various methods to sing an idiomelon, either together with a choir or to ask a soloist to create a rather individual version (changes between soloist and choir were at least common for the period of the 14th century, when the Middle Byzantine sticherarion in this example was created). But the comparison clearly reveals the potential (δύναμις) of the rather complex genre idiomelon.

Reception of the cathedral rite

In the Primary Chronicle (Повѣсть времѧньныхъ лѣтъ "tale of passed years") it is reported, how a legacy of the Rus' was received in Constantinople and how they did talk about their experience in presence of Vladimir the Great in 987, before the Grand Prince Vladimir decided about the Christianization of the Kievan Rus' (Laurentian Codex written at Nizhny Novgorod in 1377):

1139 map of the Grand Duchy of Kiev, where northeastern territories identified as the Transforrest Colonies (Zalesie) by Joachim Lelewel

“

On the morrow, the Byzantine emperor sent a message to the patriarch to inform him that a Russian delegation had arrived to examine the Greek faith, and directed him to prepare the church Hagia Sophia and the clergy, and to array himself in his sacerdotal robes, so that the Russians might behold the glory of the God of the Greeks. When the patriarch received these commands, he bade the clergy assemble, and they performed the customary rites. They burned incense, and the choirs sang hymns. The emperor accompanied the Russians to the church, and placed them in a wide space, calling their attention to the beauty of the edifice, the chanting, and the offices of the archpriest and the ministry of the deacons, while he explained to them the worship of his God. The Russians were astonished, and in their wonder praised the Greek ceremonial. Then the Emperors Basil and Constantine invited the envoys to their presence, and said, "Go hence to your native country," and thus dismissed them with valuable presents and great honor. Thus they returned to their own country, and the prince called together his vassals and the elders. Vladimir then announced the return of the envoys who had been sent out, and suggested that their report be heard. He thus commanded them to speak out before his vassals. The envoys reported: "When we journeyed among the Bulgars, we beheld how they worship in their temple, called a mosque, while they stand ungirt. The Bulgarian bows, sits down, looks hither and thither like one possessed, and there is no happiness among them, but instead only sorrow and a dreadful stench. Their religion is not good. Then we went among the Germans, and saw them performing many ceremonies in their temples; but we beheld no glory there. Then we went on to Greece, and the Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We know only that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty. Every man, after tasting something sweet, is afterward unwilling to accept that which is bitter, and therefore we cannot dwell longer here.[63]

”

There was obviously also an interest in the representative aspect of those ceremonies at the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. Today, it is still documented by seven Slavic kondakars. Six of them had been written in scriptoria of Kievan Rus' during the 12th and the 13th centuries, while there is one later kondakar without notation which was written in the Balkans during the 14th century. The aesthetic of the kalligraphy and the notation has so developed over a span of 100 years that it must be regarded as a local tradition, but also one which provided us with the earliest evidence of the cheironomic signs which had only survived in one later Greek manuscript.

In 1147, the chronicler Eude de Deuil described during a visit of the Frankish King Louis VII the cheironomia, but also the presence of eunuchs during the cathedral rite. With respect to the custom of the Missa greca (for the patron of the Royal Abbey of Saint Denis), he reported that the Byzantine emperor sent his clerics to celebrate the divine liturgy for the Frankish visitors:

“

Novit hoc imperator; colunt etenim Graeci hoc festum, et clericorum suorum electam multitudinem, dato unicuique cereo magno, variis coloribus et auro depicto regi transmisit, et solemnitatis gloriam ampliavit. Illi quidem a nostris clericis verborum et organi genere dissidebant, sed suavi modulatione placebant. Voces enim mistae, robustior cum gracili, eunucha videlicet cum virili (erant enim eunuchi multi illorum), Francorum animos demulcebant. Gestu etiam corporis decenti et modesto, plausu manuum, et inflexione articulorum, jucunditatem visibus offerebant.[64] Since the emperor realised, that the Greeks celebrate this feast, he sent to the king a selected group of his clergy, each of whom he had equipped with a large taper [votive candle] decorated elaborately with gold and a great variety of colours; and he increased the glory of the ceremony. Those differed from our clerics concerning the words and the order of service, but they pleased us with sweet modulations. You should know that the mixed voices are more stable but with grace, the eunuchs appear with virility (for many of them were eunuchs), and softened the hearts of the Franks. Through a decent and modest gesture of the body, clapping of hands and flexions of the fingers they offered us a vision of gentleness.

”

Blagoveščenskiy monastery at Nizhny Novgorod

Kondakarian notation of the asmatikon part

The Kievan Rus' obviously cared about this tradition, but especially about the practice of cheironomia and its particular notation: the so-called “Kondakarian notation”. A comparison with Easter koinonikon proves two things: the Slavic kondakar did not correspond to the “pure” form of the Greek kontakarion which was the book of the soloist who had also to recite the larger parts of the kontakia or kondaks. It was rather a mixed form which included also the choir book (asmatikon), since there is no evidence that such an asmatikon had ever been used by clerics of the Rus', while the Kondakarian notation integrated the cheironomic signs with simple signs, a Byzantine convention which had only survived in one manuscript (GR-KA Ms. 8), and combined it with Old Slavic znamennaya notation, as it had been developed in the sticheraria and heirmologia of the 12th century and the so-called Tipografsky Ustav.^[65]

Although the common knowledge of znamennaya notation is as limited as the one of other Old Byzantine variants such as Coislin and Chartres notation, a comparison with the asmatikon Kastoria 8 is a kind of bridge between the former concept of cheironomiai as the only authentic notation of the cathedral rite and the hand signs used by the choir leaders and the later concept of great signs integrated and transcribed into Middle Byzantine notation, but it is a pure form of the choir book, so that such comparison is only possible for an asmatic chant genre such as the koinonikon.

See for instance the comparison of the Easter koinonikon between the Slavic Blagoveščenskiy kondakar which was written about 1200 in the Northern town Novgorod of the Rus', its name derived from its preservation at the collection of the Blagoveščenskiy monastery at Nizhny Novgorod.

Easter koinonikon тҍло христово / σῶμα χριστοῦ (“The body of Christ”) in echos plagios protos notated with Kondakarian notation in 2 rows: great (red names) and small signs (blue names) (RUS-SPsc Ms. Q.п.I.32, f.97v; GR-KA Ms. 8, f.36v)

Enechema of plagios protos

The comparison should not suggest that both versions are identical, but the earlier source documents an earlier reception of the same tradition (since there is a difference about 120 years between both sources it is impossible to judge the differences). The rubric “Glas 4” is most likely an error of the notator and meant “Glas 5”, but it is also possible, that the Slavic tone system was already in such an early period organised in triphonia. Thus, it could also mean that анеане, undoubtly the plagios protos enichima ἀνεανὲ, was supposed to be on a very high pitch (about an octave higher), in that case the tetartos phthongos has not the octave species of tetartos (a tetrachord up and a pentachord down), but the one of plagios protos. The comparison also shows very much likeness between the use of asmatic syllables such as “ѹ” written as one character such as “ɤ”. Tatiana Shvets in her description of the notational style also mentions the kola (frequent interpunction within the text line) and medial intonations can appear within a word which was sometimes due to the different numbers of syllables within the translated Slavonic text. A comparison of the neumes also show many similarities to Old Byzantine (Coislin, Chartres) signs such as ison (stolpička), apostrophos (zapĕtaya), oxeia (strela), vareia (palka), dyo kentimata (točki), dipli (statĕya), klasma (čaška), the krusma (κροῦσμα) was actually an abbreviation for a sequence of signs (palka, čaška and statĕya) and omega "ω" meant a parakalesma, a great sign related to a descending step (see the echema for plagios protos: it is combined with a dyo apostrophoi called "zapĕtaya").^[66]

Another very modern part of the Blagoveščenskiy kondakar was a Polyeleos composition (a post-Stoudites custom, since they imported the Great Vesper from Jerusalem) about the psalm 135 which was divided into eight sections, each one in another glas:

• Glas 1: Ps. 135:1-4 (RUS-SPsc Ms. Q.п.I.32, f.107r).
• Glas 2: Ps. 135:5-8 (RUS-SPsc Ms. Q.п.I.32, f.107v).
• Glas 3: Ps. 135:9-12 (RUS-SPsc Ms. Q.п.I.32, f.108v).
• Glas 4: Ps. 135:13-16 (RUS-SPsc Ms. Q.п.I.32, f.109v).
• Glas 5: Ps. 135:17-20 (RUS-SPsc Ms. Q.п.I.32, f.110r).
• Glas 6: Ps. 135:21-22 (RUS-SPsc Ms. Q.п.I.32, f.110v).
• Glas 7: Ps. 135:23-24 (RUS-SPsc Ms. Q.п.I.32, f.112r).
• Glas 8: Ps. 135:25-26 (RUS-SPsc Ms. Q.п.I.32, f.113r).

The refrain алелɤгιа · алелɤгιа · ананҍанҍс · ꙗко въ вҍкы милость ѥго · алелɤгιа (“Alleluia, alleluia. medial intonation For His love endureth forever. Alleluia.“) was only written after a medial intonation for the conclusion of the first section. “Ananeanes” was the medial intonation of echos protos (glas 1).^[67] This part was obviously composed without modulating to the glas of the following section. The refrain was likely sung by the right choir after the intonation of its leader: the domestikos, the preceding psalm text probably by a soloist (monophonaris) from the ambo. Interesting is that only the choir sections are entirely provided with cheironomiai. Slavic cantors had been obviously trained in Constantinople to learn the hand signs which corresponded to the great signs in the first row of Kondakarian notation, while the monophonaris parts had them only at the end, so that they were probably indicated by the domestikos or lampadarios in order to get the attention of the choir singers, before singing the medial intonations.

We do not know, whether the whole psalm was sung or each section at another day (during the Easter week, for instance, when the glas changed daily), but the following section do not have a written out refrain as a conclusion, so that the first refrain of each section was likely repeated as conclusion, often with more than one medial intonation which indicated, that there was an alternation between the two choirs. For instance within the section of glas 3 (the modal signature was obviously forgotten by the notator), where the text of the refrain is almost treated like a "nenanismaton": “але-нь-н-на-нъ-ъ-на-а-нъ-ı-ъ-лɤ-гı-а”.^[68] The following medial intonations “ипе” (εἴπε “Say!”) and “пал” (παλὶν “Again!”) obviously did imitate medial intonations of the asmatikon without a true understanding of their meaning, because a παλὶν did usually indicate that something will be repeated from the very beginning. Here one choir did obviously continue another one, often interrupting it within a word.

Petros Bereketes and the school of the Phanariotes

To a certain degree there may be found remnants of Byzantine or early (Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian) near eastern music in the music of the Ottoman Court. Examples such as that of the composer and theorist Prince Cantemir of Romania learning music from the Greek musician Angelos, indicate the continuing participation of Greek speaking people in court culture. The influences of ancient Greek basin and the Greek Christian chants in the Byzantine music as origin, are confirmed. Music of Turkey was influenced by Byzantine music, too (mainly in the years 1640–1712).^[69] Ottoman music is a synthesis, carrying the culture of Greek and Armenian Christian chant. It emerged as the result of a sharing process between the many civilizations that met together in the Orient, considering the breadth and length of duration of these empires and the great number of ethnicities and major or minor cultures that they encompassed or came in touch with at each stage of their development.

Tropologia & octoechoi

• "Berlin, Staatliche Museen P. 21319". Papyrus fragment of a Greek tropologion written in semi-cursive book script (6th century). Egypt.
• "Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Papyrus Vindobonensis G 19.934" (PDF). Fragment of a 6th-century tropologion.
• "Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Ms. Gr. 607", Τροπολόγιον σῦν Θεῷ τῶν μηνῶν δυῶν μαρτίου καὶ ἀπριλλίου ["With God the tropologion of the two months March and April"] (9th century)
• "Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fonds grec, Ms. 360, ff.216r-237v", Βιβλίον ἁγιοπολίτης συγκροτημένον ἔκ τινων μουσικῶν μεθόδων ["The book of the Holy Polis (Jerusalem) unifying different musical methods", originally an introduction to a 12th-century tropologion] rebound in a compiled collection of basic grammar treatises and fragments with mathemataria and of a menologion (12th-15th century)
• "Moscow, Rossiysky Gosudarstvenny Archiv Drevnich Aktov (РГАДА), Fond 381 Ms. 80". Old Church Slavonic Paraklitik (Glas 1-3) with znamenny notation (about 1200).

Lectionaries and psalters

• "Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Ms. gr. 7". Prophetologion starting with Christmas and Epiphany and the cycle for the movable feasts and concluding with the menaion (10th century).
• "Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Ms. gr. 8". Prophetologion in maiuscule script with ekphonetic notation and a list of ekphonetic neumes on the last page (10th century).
• "Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Ms. gr. 213". Gospel Lectionary with pericopes assigned to the Divine Liturgies and other Offices of the Byzantine Church with ekphonetic notation added by presbyteros Eustathios on 30 January 967.
• "Rome, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Cod. Vat. gr. 351". New Testament Lectionary (Liturgy and Orthros cycle) in uncial maiuscule script written in Constantinople with ekphonetic notation (10th century).
• "Rome, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Cod. Vat. gr. 756". Commented Tetraevangelion of the Archimandritate SS. Salvatore of Messina (11th century).
• "London, British Library, Add MS 19352". Psalter with Odes (ff.192v-207v) written by Protopresbyteros Theodore for Michael, Abbot of the Stoudios Monastery (1066).
• "Rome, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Cod. Vat. slav. 3". Aprakos lectionary beginning with Easter (Gospel of John) and a menologion (ff.112v-153v) in uncial Glagolitic script from Macedonia written by the end of the first Bulgarian Empire (11th century).

Menologia

• "Rome, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Cod. Vat. gr. 1613". Illuminated Menologion with synaxaries made for Emperor Basil II (979-1004). Constantinople.

Sticheraria

• "Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Ms. Gr. 1219". Greek Sticherarion (only Menaion but without beginning and end) with Old Byzantine Chartres notation (11th century).
• "Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Ms. Gr. 1217". Greek Sticherarion (only Menaion) with Old Byzantine Coislin notation (11th-12th century).
• "Moscow, Rossiysky Gosudarstvenny Archiv Drevnich Aktov (РГАДА), Fond 381 Ms. 152". Old Church Slavonic Sticherarion (Menaion from 1 September until 2 February) with znamenny notation (12th century).
• "Moscow, Rossiysky Gosudarstvenny Archiv Drevnich Aktov (РГАДА), Fond 381 Ms. 147". Old Church Slavonic Sticherarion (Fasten and Flower triod) with znamenny notation (12th century).
• "Copenhagen, Det kongelige Bibliotek, Ms. NkS 4960, 4°". Complete Sticherarion with Menaion, Triodion, Pentekostarion, and Oktoechos (14th century).

Heirmologia

• "Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Ms. Gr. 929". Greek Heirmologion composed in ode order (OdO) with Old Byzantine Coislin notation (12th-century palimpest over pages of a former tropologion).

Kontakaria & asmatika

• "Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Ms. Gr. 925". Kontakarion organised as a menaion, triodion (at least in part), and pentekostarion (10th century).
• "Saint-Petersburg, Rossiyskaya nacional'naya biblioteka, Ms. Q.п.I.32". Nižegorodskiy Kondakar' of the Blagoveščenskiy [Annunciation] Monastery, introduced, described and transcribed by Tatiana Shvets (about 1200).

Akolouthiai & anthologies of the Papadike

• Koukouzeles, Ioannes; Korones, Xenos; Kladas, Ioannes. "Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. theol. gr. 185". Βιβλίον σὺν Θεῷ ἁγίῳ περιέχον τὴν ἄπασαν ἀκολουθίαν τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς τάξεως συνταχθὲν παρὰ τοῦ μαΐστορος κυροῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ Κουκουζέλη of Thessalonica (about 1400).
• "Athens, Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη της Ελλάδος, Ms. 2061". Akolouthiai of the Hagia Sophia of Thessalonica (early 15th century).

Recordings

• Raktivan, Panos M.; Vafeiadis, Viktor. "Byzantine music: Archon cantors of the Great Church of Christ". Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Association of Constantinopolitan Friends of Music in Athens.
• Chourmouzios the Archivist (ed.). "CD dedicated to compositions of John Koukouzeles". Greek Byzantine Choir.
• Spyrakis, Ioannis. "Electroacoustic & Acousmatic Music, Byzantine Music".

Editions

• Troelsgård, Christian (ed.). "Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae". University of Copenhagen, Saxo Institute, Dept. of Greek and Latin.

Introductions and tutorials

• Engberg, Sysse G. (2005). "Les lectionnaires grecs". In Olivier Legendre, Jean-Baptiste Lebigue. Les manuscrits liturgiques, Cycle thématique de l'IRHT 2003-2004. Ædilis, Actes. Séminaires et tables rondes. 9. Paris, Orléans.CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)
• "Byzantine Music System". Athens: Institute for Research on Music and Acoustics (ΙΕΜΑ).
• "The Divine Music Project". Saint Anthony's Monastery.
• Vasileios Nikolaidis Vyzantios, ed. (1825). "Copy of Chrysanthos' first book of the 'Mega Theoretikon' (Ms. Gr. 90)". Sofia: St. Cyril and St. Methodius National Library.
• Jones, Nicholas. "Introduction into Chrysanthine Notation". Pittsburgh: Choir of Saint George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral.

Blogs

• "Analogion and Psaltologion (Blog about Orthodox Chant and its Byzantine Heritage)".