Petros Bereketis

Petros Bereketis painted in a manuscript of 1790, holding a book with the beginning of his composition Θεοτόκε παρθένε (GR-AOi Ms. 327, f. 1v)

Petros Bereketis (Greek: Πέτρος Μπερεκέτης) or Peter the Sweet (Πέτρος ο Γλυκής) was a prolific Byzantine musician of the 17th century. He, together with Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes, Balasios the Priest and Germanos Bishop of New Patras was one of the most influential figures in the evolution of the Byzantine psaltic art following the fall of Constantinople in 1453, although he never was associated with the Patriarchate in Fener. For many years, he served as the protopsaltis (first cantor) of church St. Constantine of the Hypsomatheia district close to the Marmara coast.

During his lifetime, which is approximately supposed to be between 1665 and 1725, while Chrysanthos mentioned that he served there in the time of the Archon Protopsaltis at the Great Church of Christ of Panagiotis Halatzoglou and his Lampadarios John Trapezountios (1727-1748).

Education

Nothing is known about his real life time, so that Gregorios Stathis assumed that there was a confusion between Petros Bereketis, John Trapezountios' student Petros Peloponnesios and the latter's follower Petros Byzantios.[1] Petros Bereketis began his musical studies in his home city of Constantinople, but later visited Mount Athos for a considerable length of time to study under the noted teacher of Constantinopolitan musicians, the Moldavian Monk Damian of Vatopedi (1650-1720).

Compositions

The surviving compositional corpus left by Bereketis is extensive, spanning works across all ecclesiastical genres including communion chants (koinonika for both Sundays and weekdays), asmatic doxologies, cherubic hymns, kratemata, pasapnoaria, polyelea, doxastica and katavasies for various feast days. Among the more notable of his compositions is the eight-mode setting of "O Theotokos and Virgin" for two alternating choirs, most commonly chanted in all-night vigils on Mount Athos.

Heirmoi kalophonikoi

In particular, his musical settings of the heirmoi (unsurpassed both in quality and in quantity by his contemporaries) gave rise to a style of paraliturgical chant that came to be known as the kalophonic heirmological style, named for a certain method of melodic thesis which referred to the Old Heirmologion, but in a soloistic and rather deliberate way characterised as kalophonic ("beautifully sounding") melos.[2] With respect to Petros' exceptional talent which he mainly developed in the genre of kalophonic heirmos, he is sometimes referred to as the "father of kalophonic heirmoi," although the genre existed since Byzantine times and it had already been revived by Balasios and some other contemporary composers like Germanos.[3] Petros in fact got acquainted to this genre during his studies with Damian at Vatopedi Monastery, and within the well-known collection of the heirmologion kalophonikon, entirely created by composers during the Ottoman period, and other not so well-kown prints and sources not less than about 45 compositions are ascribed to him.

The name "Bereketis" is derived from the Turkish word "bereket" (literally "abundance") with which he was known to reply to his students' eager requests for more kalophonic heirmoi or other mathemata to study. Already Balasios the Priest had made the heirmos kalophonikos to one of the most important genres of Ottoman Greek music.[4] This genre was paraliturgical and therefore more experimental than the kalophonic way to compose stichera, which was already established by Late Byzantine composers like John Koukouzeles and Manuel Chrysaphes.[5] The Ottoman collection of heirmoi kalophonikoi became more popular than the Byzantine stichera kalophonika within the living tradition of Orthodox chant, and it was published in the transcription of Gregorios the Protopsaltis by Theodoros Phokaeos.[6] But there are handwritten heirmologia kalophonika notated in exegetic neume notation whose collection are not in every respect identical.[7]

The surviving works of Bereketis were transcribed from the old system of Byzantine parasemantic notation largely by Gregorios the Protopsaltis and his colleague Chrysanthos of Madytos near the beginning of the 18th century. The transcriptions by Gregorios had been republished in two volumes by Charalambos Karakatsanis.[8]

Contributions to the genres of the divine liturgies

The eight-mode, two choir structure format employed by Bereketis in his notable setting of "O Theotokos and Virgin" was inspired by a similar composition ("More Honourable than the Cherubim") by Constantine of Aghialos, written several centuries earlier. After Bereketis, this style became more common and was used several times by later composers, including Nikolaos of Smyrna (in two works entitled "We Have Seen the True Light" and "Unfading Rose"), Monk Ioasaph of the monastery of Dionysiou on Mount Athos (very slow apolytikia of the despotic feasts of the Church), John the Protopsaltis, Theodore Phokaeus, Stephanos the Lambadarios, and Chourmouzios the Archivist of the Great Church.

Bereketis also composed two large cycles of the papadic genre (cherubic hymn and Sunday koinonikon) that are formulaically valid, since the formulas were not written out in Middle Byzantine notation, they were rather part of the performance based on conventional melopœia. One cherubikon as well as one version of the Sunday koinonikon can be chanted in any of the eight Byzantine modes without alteration of the actual neumes, varying only the starting pitch.[9]

List of works

It should be noted that this list is incomplete.[10] Most of the works are included in the collection of the Archive of the Elders on the island of Syme, Ms. 341, but the last part of the collection was destroyed, the Mathematarion of the Menaion is damaged after January (only the first half has survived), and the main collection of heirmologion kalophonikon is missing, except some kalophonic settings of Theotokia which had been arranged in octoechos order. The heirmoi kalophonikoi are mainly known in the printed exgesis by Gregorios the Protopsaltes, while Oktaecha cycles (cherubikon and Sunday koinonikon) are better known according to the transcription made by Chourmouzios, but both teachers at the Music School did an almost complete transcription of Bereketis' compositions. It proves that they were already appreciated at the Patriarchate by the turn to the 19th century. It should be also mentioned that there was an own Romanian reception since the 17th century especially of the heirmologion kalophonikon, which was taught in Jassy by Dionysios Photeinos and also Gregorios the Protopsaltes had to move there.[11]

Troparic and psalmodic compositions of the octoechos

Polyeleos compositions

Kalophonic settings of Theotokia

Heirmologic compositions

45 kalophonic heirmoi including their kratemata

Echos protos
Echos devteros
Echos tritos
Echos tetartos
Echos plagios protos
Echos plagios devteros
Echos varys
Echos plagios tetartos

Sticherarion kalophonikon

Menaion
Triodion
Pentekostarion

Kontakia

Papadic compositions

Cherubikon cycles

Anticherubika

Koinonika

Week cycle

Year cycle

Menaion

Triodion

Pentekostarion

See also

References

  1. ↑ Gregorios Stathis' titel (1971) refers to Chrysanthos' datation (1832, XL, note α). Alexander Lingas' articles in Grove Music Online (2001) and The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology do roughly agree with Manolis Hatziyakoumis' (KERE) time span of compositional activities between 1680-1715 which is due to the earliest autograph and the earliest collection entirely dedicated to the works of the composer which already dates to 1708. In fact, he was the first protopsaltes who became so appreciated that whole anthologies were just dedicated to his compositions.
  2. ↑ As an example might serve Petros Bereketis' kalophonic composition over the diatonic devteros model Ἐν βυθῷ κατέστρωσε ποτὲ which he classified as echos legetos, see Gerlach (2009, pp. 351-367).
  3. ↑ See the biography "Peter Bereketis" of the Apostolic Diakonia of the Greek Church.
  4. ↑ Karanos (2012).
  5. ↑ Certain compositions like Πᾶσαν τὴν ἐλπίδα μου in echos varys used a new melopœia which had to be indicated by paticular phthorai, see Gerlach (2011, 96-108). For the study of phthorai used in exegetic notation, see GB-Bm Ms. Gr. 6, ff. 87r-89v.
  6. ↑ Phokaeos (1835).
  7. ↑ GB-Bm Ms. Gr. 6.
  8. ↑ Karakatsanis (1996-1998).
  9. ↑ Concerning the cherouvikon, see the Apanta of the Archive of the Elders of the island of Syme, Ms. 341, f. 36. See also the analysis of Chourmouzios' transcription with respect to the original notation by Oliver Gerlach (2009, pp. 324-342).
  10. ↑ The stichera idiomela here are referred according to the standard abridged version of the old sticherarion (Troelsgård 2003).
  11. ↑ See the Romanian version (Ms. 89m) of his heirmologion kalophonikon which was written down by Macarie the Hieromonk, now preserved in the manuscript collection of the Stavropoleos Monastery of Bucharest.
  12. ↑ Syme, Ms. 341, f. 44v.

Manuscripts

Exegetic Middle Byzantine notation

Transcriptions according to the New Method

Recordings of traditional paltes

Studies

About Gregorios the Protopsaltes:

Recordings

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