Developments in Byzantine Chant

Interest in the musical patrimony of the Christian East continues to grow. Last year I noted an ethnomusicological study which Richard Barrett skillfully reviewed for the print edition of Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. He will also be reviewing a new collection just out from Peeters: G. Wolfram et al, eds., Tradition and Innovation in Late- and Postbyzantine Liturgical Chant II: Proceedings of the Congress held at Hernen Castle, the Netherlands, 30 October - 3 November 2008 (Peeters, 2013), xxiv+328pp.

About this collection we are told by the publishers:

What is the relation between the Greek ecclesiastical chant traditions of today and Byzantine chant? That question can only be answered through a meticulous study of the transmission and transformation of both the melodies, the genres, and the whole musical culture of Late Byzantium and the subsequent centuries. This book presents a handful of studies focussing on both the development of new musical styles, such as the ornamented Kalofonia ('Beautiful sound'), and on the education of the cantors, the psaltai. The role of the master cantors, the maïstores, their teachings, treatises, traditions, innovations, compositions, and the various modes of interpretation (exegesis) are among the topics covered by this collection of papers, written by specialist scholars of Byzantine chant history.