About the

Melodic Style

The music for our Divine Music Project was composed in such a way that it would
imitate the melodic style of the 1857 patriarchal edition of Mousikē Kypsélē.1 This style
was chosen for two reasons:
The first and primary reason is that the melodies in Mousike Kypsele are based on the
compositions of Petros Peloponnesios the Lampadarios2 (d. 1777) and on the style of
chanting of Konstantinos Byzantios the Protopsaltis (d. 1862), both of whom used the
old, pre-Chrysanthine notation. 3 It is significant that these composers of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate of Constantinople were masters of the old notation, because later composers
who were ignorant of the old notation deviated4 from the majestic beauty of the older

1 Στεφάνου Πρώτου Δομεστίκου, Μουσικὴ Κυψέλη, Κωνσταντινούπολις, 1857.

2 In the preface of the original edition of Mousike Kypsele, its editor, Stephanos the Lampadarios
(who was only the First Domestikos at the time), explained that the melodies were written fol-
lowing the melodies of Petros Peloponnesios and following the style and rhythm of Konstanti-
nos Byzantios. [See Τερζοπούλου Κωνσταντίνου Πρεσβυτέρου, Ὁ Πρωτοψάλτης τῆς Μεγά-
λης τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἐκκλησίας Κωνσταντῖνος Βυζάντιος· ἡ συμβολή του στὴν Ψαλτικὴ Τέχνη,
Ἵδρυμα Βυζαντινῆς Μουσικολογίας, 2004, pp. 237-8.]
3 The works of Manuel the Protopsaltis (d. 1819) may have also contributed to the forming of

Mousike Kypsele, for as George Hatzitheodorou astutely observed, all the idiomela and apo-
lytikia in Mousike Kypsele are nearly identical to those written by Manuel that had been pub-
lished in 1831 by Hourmouzios Hartophylax. [See Χατζηθεοδώρου, Γεωργίου Ι., Βιβλιογραφία
τῆς Βυζαντινῆς Ἐκκλησιαστικῆς Μουσικῆς, Περίοδος Αʹ (1820-1899), Πατριαρχικὸν Ἵδρυμα
Πατερικῶν Μελετῶν, Θεσσαλονίκη, 1998, p. 35.] In any case, what remains certain is that Mou-
sike Kypsele stemmed from the living tradition of Byzantine chant in one of its purest forms.
4 George Hatzitheodorou writes, "It is widely held that the loss of knowledge of the function of

the great hypostases and of the melodic forms [of the old notation]... harmed primarily the art of
composition." —Γ. Χατζηθεοδώρου, Βιβλιογραφία τῆς Βυζαντινῆς Ἐκκλησιαστικῆς Μουσικῆς,
σελ. 40.

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compositions that preserved the famous "patriarchal style".5 In the opinion of many ex-
perts, this style represents the genuine tradition of Byzantine music. Well aware of this
authority of the patriarchal protopsaltes and their style, Stephanos emphasized in all his
publications, including Mousike Kypsele, that the melodies were written "as they are
chanted in the Great Church of Christ," i.e., in the Ecumenical Patriarchate.6
The second reason why Mousike Kypsele was chosen as the melodic model for this
book is because it is held in high regard throughout Greece7 and is the most beloved
book of its kind on the Holy Mountain today. The love of the Athonite monks for this
book is clearly evident in that the latest of its numerous reprints was done by the fathers
of Gregoriou Monastery, who also went to the trouble of redoing the typesetting.8 Thus,
Mousike Kypsele has the blessings of two great centers of traditional Byzantine chant: the
Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Holy Mountain, for it is a combined work of three of
the most prestigious patriarchal chanters of the 18th and 19th centuries that also bears the
seal of approval of the Holy Mountain.
We managed to imitate Mousike Kypsele by carefully adhering to the following two
guidelines: When melodic phrases in English contained the same syllabic pattern found

5 "As early as the 1850s, intense objections were heard lamenting the loss of the genuine style of
chanting. This loss coincided with the almost complete disappearance of knowledge of the old
notation... Apparently, the New Method with its ease of learning distanced students from their
teachers too soon, and as a result the former failed to assimilate completely the aspects of Byz-
antine chant that cannot be conveyed in writing." —Ibid, p. 47.
6 This claim was disputed in 1934 by Angelos Boudouris (the Archon First Domestikos of the

Great Church of Christ from 1924-1925) who wrote that Ioannis Neochorites (the Archon Pro-
topsaltis when Mousike Kypsele was published) did not use Mousike Kypsele but the Doxastarion of
Petros Peloponnesios. Although Boudouris had not been born yet when Mousike Kypsele was
published, he based his statement on the witness of other chanters of the Ecumenical Patriar-
chate whom he met in the 1890's who had been there at the time of its publication. Furthermore,
Boudouris accused Stephanos the Lampadarios of inventing the melodies in Mousike Kypsele on
his own rather than recording melodies chanted by Konstantinos Byzantios. It is unlikely that
this accusation is correct. Stephanos would not have dared to write in 1857 in his prologue that
Konstantinos dictated the melodies to him if this were not true, since Konstantinos was still liv-
ing at that time. Whatever the case may be, these issues do not have serious ramifications for us,
since both Mousike Kypsele and the Doxastarion of Petros have nearly identical melodic formulae
and contours.
7 According to George Hatzitheodorou, when Mousike Kypsele was first published it "acquired a

great reputation, and to this day... it continues to be one of the most basic publications of our
music that is in constant use." —Ibid, pp. 45-46. Another factor that contributed to its popularity
is its comprehensive inclusion of almost every doxasticon and idiomelon for the entire year.
8 Στεφάνου Λαμπαδαρίου, Μουσικὴ Κυψέλη, Τόμος Αʹ, Διωρθωμένη Ἔκδοσις, Ἱερὰ Μονὴ Ὁσί-

ου Γρηγορίου, Ἅγιον Ὄρος, 2007.

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in the original Greek melody in Mousike Kypsele, the original melody was preserved un-
altered. When, however, the English syllabic pattern was different from the Greek syl-
labic pattern (which was usually the case), we used a melody found elsewhere in Mou-
sike Kypsele (or in another traditional music book of similar style and caliber) that would
be appropriate for the English syllabic pattern and would bear some semblance to the
original Greek melody.
For example, the eight-mode doxasticon of the Dormition of the Theotokos begins
with the words: "Θεαρχίῳ νεύματι" and has the following melody:

The English translation we used for this was: "By divine command." The original
Greek text of this phrase has seven syllables, whereas the English translation has only
five syllables. Since the English translation has fewer syllables and a slightly different
pattern of accentuation, we could not preserve the original melody without doing vio-
lence to the rules of Byzantine music composition or changing the text itself. Therefore,
we referred to our compilation of Byzantine music formulae9 to find a melody that be-
gins and ends on the same notes as the original melody and has the same melodic range.
Thus, we found several potential melodies (on page 37 of our compilation) that would
be appropriate for the number of syllables and pattern of accentuation that our phrase in
English has. One of them (the first entry in the 000100 subsection shown below) contains
melodic movements reminiscent of the original Greek melody and is used elsewhere10 in
Mousike Kypsele.

000100  ¤¤¤¢¤¤

9 Our compilation of formulae is available online at: http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/music/

Formula.html
10 Vid. Mousike Kypsele, Volume I, page 21, line 14:

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 Thus, we decided to use this melodic formula as follows for the phrase in ques-
tion:11

B 
y 
ƒƒdiv -     
ƒƒine______________ ƒƒcom -  
- -  - mand
 

We repeated this painstaking process for every single phrase of every single
troparion in order to ensure that there would always be a match between the English
text and its melody, and so that the melodies would always resemble their prototypes as
much as possible.
By following the aforementioned guidelines, on the one hand we avoided the com-
mon pitfall of slavishly clinging to the original melody, which would result in a poor
match between the English text and the melody. On the other hand, by using only the
traditional musical phrases found in our compilation of formulae, we avoided the other
extreme of inventing peculiar melodic twists that have no place in traditional Byzantine
chant. Limiting ourselves to our compilation of musical phrases did not result in mo-
notonous melodies, because our compilation has more than 10,000 entries. We intention-
ally limited ourselves to using only these musical phrases, because, as the musicologists
Egon Wellesz and Gregorios Stathis have observed, "the task of a composer of Greek Or-
thodox church music has always been not to invent as many original melodies as possi-
ble, but to 'compose' a new melody from old and well-known formulae and cadences, or
to write a variation on a given melody."12 We believe that this method of composing
melodies provides the optimal medium between creativity and conservatism by apply-
ing each in a way appropriate to Byzantine chant.13

11 A rough draft of this composition of ours is available in Byzantine notation at: http://www.
stanthonysmonastery.org/music/Menaion/b5915.pdf
12 cf. 'An Introduction to Byzantine Music,' Blackfriars, 23 (1942), p. 377, as quoted by Gregory

Stathis in Studies in Eastern Chant, Vol. IV, Miloš Velimirović, ed., St. Vladimir's Seminary Press,
1979, p. 192f.
13 We have written more details about the art of adapting Byzantine music in foreign languages at

http://stanthonysmonastery.org/music/Workshop.pdf , http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/
music/Adaptation.htm , and http://www.analogion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1489

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 * * *

In 1880, the Patriarchate of Constantinople issued an encyclical addressed to chant-

ers that stated that the goal of ecclesiastical music is to assist prayer by raising the minds
of the faithful from the mundane to the heavenly. It also explained that the appropriate
songs to do this must have "grandeur in simplicity, sweetness in good rhythm, and no-
ble decency in clear, distinct, unaffected, melodic chanting with humility, serenity, and
compunction."14 It is our hope and prayer that these compositions of ours will help peo-
ple throughout the world to chant in such a manner.

14Παπαδοπούλου Γεωργίου, Συμβολαὶ εἰς τὴν Ἱστορίαν τῆς παρ᾽ ἡμῖν Ἐκκλησιαστικῆς Μουσι-
κῆς, Ἀθήνα, 1890, σελ. 421.