Abstracts of issue 19 (2007)

Manuel Bryennius and the Music of the Church

The question of whether the teaching of music theory in the Byzantium as part of the Quadrivium had any connection to the musical practice of that time, the latter manifesting itself in the treatises concerning church music and in the notated musical sources, has been a matter of discussion from time to time. In Harmonics by Manuel Bryennius, the classical theory of Greek music is in certain cases combined with the terminology of Byzantine church music; an interpretation of these passages, which focuses on the musical facts themselves, leads to important conclusions. The description of the ancient Greek modes in correspondence to the Byzantine ones forms a central issue in this context.

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