Abstracts of issue 1/1985 (1)

The Reformation of 1814 – A New Approach

Chrysanthos, the learned Greek musician from Mádytos, who together with Gregorios the Protopsaltes and Chourmouzios the Chartophylax of the Great Church, reformed in 1814 the musical notation of the Greek Orthodox Church, permitting thus the belated printing of the Church music books, has left two theoretical works:

The Eisagogi eis to Theoritikon kai praktikon tis Ekklisiastikis Mousikis [Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Church Music] (Paris 1821) was a 56 page manual on the newly proposed notational system. The Theoritikon Mega tis Mousikis [Great Theory of Music] (Trieste 1832), a book of 279 pages based on Aristides Quintilianus Peri Mousikis [On Music], is a secular work much broader in scope, reflecting Chrysanthos progressive ideas and his involvement in the movement of the Enlightenment of the Greeks and the reawakening of their national consciousness (which the Great Church at Constantinople was not unanimously favoring).

The Great Theory of Music was completed between 1816 and 1819, and part of it at least was written in the monastery of Timios Prodromos in Constantinople, which in the 1810s was a cultural center of progressive tendencies. Chrysanthos association with such circles gives perhaps a feasible clue to the causes of his exile to Madytos.

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