Petros Peloponnesios

Petros Peloponnesios ("Peter the Peloponnesian") or Peter the Lampadarios (c. 1730 Tripolis–1778 Constantinople) was a great cantor, composer and teacher of Byzantine music. He must have served as second Domestikos between his arrival about 1764 until the death of Ioannes Trapezountios, and became Lampadarios (leader of the left choir) between 1766 and 1777 at the Great Church of Constantinople, after Daniel the Protopsaltes became Archon Protopsaltes. Large parts of the monodic chant sung in several current traditions of Orthodox Chant are transcriptions of his compositions, which he had written down as a teacher of the "Second New Music School of the Patriarchate".

Life

Petros was born at Tripolis (Morea) about 1730. According to Georgios Papadopoulos he was educated in the monastic communities of Smyrna.[1] In 1764 he came to Constantinople to study with Ioannis Trapezountios, the Archon Protopsaltes, while Daniel was Lampadarios at the Great Church of Constantinople. Petros could serve there as second domestikos who was usually in charge to notate the versions sung by the cantors with the higher ranks. Between 1966 and 1777 he became lampadarios (leader of the left choir).[2]

He followed his master as official teacher of the New Music School of the Patriarchate which he founded as the second generation in 1776 (Second Music School of the Patriarchate). He also taught Petros Byzantios and composed many exercises (mathemata) for his students. The term "mathemata" usually referred to the kalophonic way to embellish the old stichera (sticheron kalophonikon, anagrammatismos).[3] Its method was usually taught by John Koukouzeles' Mega Ison.[4]

Within other musical traditions of the Ottoman empire Petros had a very exceptional knowledge of makamlar, probably even of Armenian chant, and he invented a new analytical way to use of Middle Byzantine notation. He also had the reputation of being a rather intrigant musician. On the one hand, Hafiz invited him and were very eager to learn even makam melodies from him, on the other hand, he was called "Hirsiz" (Thief) and "Hoca Petros" (Master Petros), because he had also students coming from a different traditional background. Since he could easily memorise compositions and he liked to change them and perform them in such a convincing way, that some musicians asked for his "permission", before they published them.[5]

He died at an age of 48 during a plague in Constantinople which killed a third of its population.

Work

His reputation as an important teacher and composer is based on his vast contributions concerning the Heirmologion (Katavaseion or Heirmologion argon, printed the first time in transcription in 1825), the short or simple Sticherarion (Doxastarion syntomon, printed the first time in transcription in 1820), but also to the Anthology for the Divine Liturgies (like the Papadic cherubikon, and koinonikon cycles). Although it is not clear if Georgios Papadopoulos was right that Petros stole makam music, since the author rather compiled earlier Ottoman anecdotes in his biography of Petros, the latter had a certain reputation to usurp the contribution of other teachers at the Music School like Ioannes the Protopsaltes and Daniel the Protopsaltes as their own work, especially those he was charged to transcribe as a second Domestikos.[6] Sometimes he was also so careful to write like in case of the doxastikon of Kassia's troparion, that its musical realisation was composed “in imitation of Daniel the Protopsaltes”.

Petros Peloponnesios abridged Doxastarion was the one of first transcriptions of a new simple "hyphos"-style which was created by Ioannes Trapezountios, after the melos of the old sticherarion in the tradition of 17th-century composers like Georgios Raidestinos, Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes, Germanos of New Patras, and Iereos Balasios had become too elaborated.[7] Petros' Doxastarion and its rhythmic style was very controversially discussed among the next generation of teachers at the New Music School of the Patriarchate, the dispute was followed by alternative editions, and the hyphos was continued as an oral tradition among traditional protopsaltes like Konstantinos Byzantios, Georgios Raidestinos II, Iakovos Nafpliotes, and Konstantinos Pringos.

His reputation was not limited to the field of Orthodox chant, he composed also other genres of Armenian and Turkish music, including Ottoman makam genres like Peşrev, Taksim and Saz semai which were usually included in cyclic compositions known as Fasıl, but also makam compositions, usually following usul rhythms, over Greek texts (Tragodia rhomaïka).[8]

Reception

In the current tradition of Orthodox chant, known as "Psaltike" (the heritage of Byzantine psaltic art), the contributions of Petros Peloponnesios (his Katavasies for the Heirmologion, his Doxastarion and many of his compositions for the Anthology of the liturgies) are dominant in the current neumed editions of Orthodox chant in Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Serbia and Greece.

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Georgios Papapdopoulos worked as a legal employee for the Patriarchate and his "Historical survey of Byzantine church music" (1904) was one of the first publications about its singers until the present after Chrysanthos (see Katy Romanou's article).
  2. ↑ According to Chrysanthos (1832, p. XL, note β) Petros usurped the position of Iakovos, the first Domestikos and student of Daniel who had become Protopsaltes as the follower of his deceased Master Ioannes, and he mentioned a rivalry between Daniel and Petros and the latter's student Petros Byzantios.
  3. ↑ Listen to Petros' Mathema for St Euphemia composed according to the sticheron in echos tritos (P. Tzanakos).
  4. ↑ According to Chrysanthos (1832, XLIIIf) Petros Peloponnesios did the exegesis of John Koukouzeles' mathema which was the fundament of the kalophonic method to sing the stichera. Chourmouzios transcribed according to the New Method (Kyriazides 1896).
  5. ↑ Georgios I. Papadopoulos (1904) referred in his biography to Chysanthos and decorated it with a lot of anecdotes (for an English translation see the biography at the Patriarchal web site). Some of them are hardly credible like the one that he invented Hampartsoum notation and taught it to its real inventor, because he must have learnt it during an age between 8 and 10 years, when Petros died. It is rather a "thief story" about Petros, a compilation of different Ottoman anecdotes which had been now related to Petros and his time, but the historical circumstances reveal that Ottoman musicians did not have such an attitude of creating original music and copyright regulations did not even develop in Western Europe before the 19th century. When the dervish Rauf Yekta (1871–1935) found out, that Mevlevi compositions were performed by Maftirim brotherhoods in the synagogue of Galata, he was delighted by the well-skilled performance and the ritual context within the divine service. But it is well-known since the time of Dimitrie Cantemir that Phanariotes did have a profound interest in makam music and that they invented notation systems to record them.
  6. ↑ According to Achilleas Chaldaiakes (2010, 47) the Anastasimarion syntomon in a heirmologic melos, conservated in the Xeropotamou Monastery as Ms. 374, was created by Daniel the Protopsaltes, and 1905 published together with Petros' Anastasimatarion neon in print, but some manuscripts like to ascribe it wrongly to Petros (Naoussa, Pontian Library, Ms. Sigalas 52), while the print edition ascribes it to Ioannes the Protopsaltes who probably initiated the project.
  7. ↑ Flora Kritikou (2013) studied the hybridisation of the great signs within the thesis of the sticheraric melos among composers of this period. Nevertheless, Chourmouzios the Archivist transcribed also the very long versions of the traditional sticherarion.
  8. ↑ Listen to the Peşrev composed in makam nihavend (I. Panayiotopoulos). One CD with Petros' oktoechos and makam compositions was recorded by Kyriakos Kalaitzides and the Ensemble En Chordais (2005).

Sources and Editions

Printed and transcribed editions of Petros Peloponnesios' works

Late Byzantine Manuscripts

Petros Peloponnesios. "London, British Library, Ms. Add. 16971". Katavasiai (Heirmologion argon), Prosomoia, and an incomplete Anthology for the Divine Liturgies (18th century). British Library. Retrieved 3 May 2012. 

Petros Peloponnesios; Petros Byzantios. "London, British Library, Ms. Add. 17718". Anastasimatarion and Doxastarion (about 1800). British Library. Retrieved 3 May 2012. 

Petros' Anastasimatarion

Petros Peloponnesios; Ioannes the Protopsaltes (1905). Αναστασιματάριον νέον άργον και σύντομον μετά προσθηκής των στίχων, κανώνων, καταβασίων και τινών αλλών αναγκαίων. Istanbul: Publisher of the Patriarchate. 

Gregorios' transcription of Daniel the Protopsaltes' 'Anastasimatarion syntomon' (troparic melos)

Petros Peloponnesios (c. 1818). Gregorios the Protopsaltes (transcription), ed. "Αναστασιματάριον σύντομον κατά το ύφος της μεγάλης εκκλησίας μελοποιηθέν παρά κυρ Πέτρου Λαμπαδαρίου του Πελοποννησίου· εξηγηθέν κατά τον νέον της μουσικής τρόπον παρά Γρηγορίου Πρωτοψάλτου". Naoussa, Pontian’s National Library of Argyroupolis ‘Kyriakides’, Ms. Sigalas 52. Naoussa: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Retrieved 9 August 2012. 

Chourmouzios' transcription of the 'Anastasimatarion neon' (sticheraric and heirmologic melos)

Petros Peloponnesios Lampadarios; Chourmouzios the Archivist (1832). Theodoros Phokaeos, ed. Αναστασιματάριον νέον μεταφρασθέντα εις το νέον της μουσικής σύστημα παρά του διδασκάλου Χουρμουζίου Χαρτοφύλακος, και του κυρίου Θεοδώρου Φωκέως. Περιέχον τα Αναστάσιμα του Εσπερινού, Όρθρου, και Λειτουργίας, μετά των αναστασίμων Κανόνων, Μαρτυρικών, και Νεκρωσίμων της Μεγάλης Τεσσαρακοστής, των τε Εωθινών, και των συντόνων Τιμιωτέρων. Τα πάντα καθώς την σήμερον ψάλλονται εις το Πατριαρχείον μεταφρασθέντα εις το νέον της μουσικής σύστημα παρά του διδασκάλου Χουρμουζίου Χαρτοφύλακος, και του κυρίου Θεοδώρου Φωκέως. Istanbul: Isaac de Castro. 

Heirmologion of the Katavasiai (heirmologion argon)

Petros Peloponnesios Lampadarios; Petros Byzantios (1825). Chourmouzios Chartophylakos, ed. Ειρμολόγιον των καταβασιών Πέτρου του Πελοποννησίου μετά του συντόμου Ειρμολογίου Πέτρου Πρωτοψάλτου του Βυζαντίου: Εξηγημένα κατά την νέαν της μουσικής μέθοδον μετά προσθήκης ικανών μαθημάτων, ων εστερούντο εις το παλαιόν. Επιθεωρηθέντα ήδη, και ακριβώς διορθωθέντα παρά του Διδασκάλου Χουρμουζίου Χαρτοφύλακος (PDF). Istanbul: Isaac De Castro. 

Doxastarion syntomon (fast sticheraric melos)

Petros Peloponnesios Lampadarios (1820). Petros Ephesios, ed. Σύντομον δοξαστάριον του αοιδίμου Πέτρου Λαμπαδαρίου του Πελοποννησίουν: Μεταφρασθέν κατά την νέαν μέθοδον της Μουσικής των Μουσικολογιωτάτων Διδασκάλων του νέου Συστήματος (PDF). Bucharest: Nikolau S. Alexandru. 

John Koukouzeles' 'Mega Ison' (Chourmouzios' transcription of Petros Peloponnesios' exegesis)

Petros Peloponnesios (1896). Kyriazides, Agathangelos, ed. "Τὸ Μέγα Ἴσον τῆς Παπαδικῆς μελισθὲν παρὰ Ἰωάννου Μαΐστορος τοῦ Κουκκουζέλη". Ἐν Ἄνθος τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς Ἐκκλησιαστικῆς Μουσικῆς περιέχον τὴν Ἀκολουθίαν τοῦ Ἐσπερίνου, τοῦ Ὅρθρου καὶ τῆς Λειτουργίας μετὰ καλλοφωνικῶν Εἴρμων μελοποιηθὲν παρὰ διάφορων ἀρχαιῶν καὶ νεωτερῶν Μουσικόδιδασκαλων (Istanbul): 127–144. 

Studies

External links

Recordings of oktoechos compositions

Recordings of makam compositions

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