Ioasaph Riliotes et ses «exégéseis» à certaines compositions byzantines
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Abstract
The manuscript codices Nos. 132 and 145 of Byzantine music in the Monastery of Xenophon, on Mt. Athos, contain, among others, compositions of «Ioasaph, Proigoumenos of Rila». These compositions in fact make up Ioasaph’s «exegeses» of older Byzantine chants with more detailed notation. These two codices also contain a few chants in Slavonic. This fact, and the testimonsy «from the work of Isaiah Philippidis, 1817 at Rila», which is written on two other musical codices from the Monastery of Xenophon, Nos. 142 and 152, fixes the provenance of these codices in the famous Bulgarian monastery of Rila. These four codices are similar in their outward appearance, their handwriting and their
content ; they were written we may say, by the same copyist in about
1800. It is clear from the writing that this man was a Greek who knew
Slavonic, rather than a Slav or a Bulgar who knew Greek; and in all probability, since the codices contain the exegeses of Ioasaph Riliotis, which I have yet to meet in other musical codices, the writer must himself be the martyred «Ioasaph Proigoumenos of Rila» (Xenophon 132, 19b, 145, 7b and 62a-b) or «Ioasaph Riliotis» (Xenophon 132, 32b). Of the life and musical work of Ioasaph, it is known only that he remained for some time on Mt. Athos and that he had a wide knowledge of Byzantine notation, which he taught his pupils in Rila. In 1816 he was for six months a pupil of Chourmouzios Chartophylax, one of the three inventors of the New Method of analytic notation (Constantinople,
1814). Ater learning the New Method and obtaining suitable manuscripts, he returned to Rila and taught his pupils the New Method of writing and intoning Byzantine chants. Thus Ioasaph led the way towards Bulgarian acceptance of the New Method of Byzantine notation. Ioasaph’s exegetic work concerns Byzantine chants of which, both before and after him, other music teachers in various places gave exegeses. A comparative study of these exegeses demonstrates the evolutionary course followed by Byzantine notation until its reform in the
New Method of 1814, but also the stereotype of the Byzantine chant,
which was preserved intact in form through all the attempts at exegesis
of the old Byzantine notation. What is both obvious and important is that Byzantine notation before 1814 was summary, and that Byzantine chant consisted in much more than the phonetic signs alone show; it was this that was recorded in detailed form but in similar form by the «exegetes» and finally by the three teachers of the New Method in 1814. Apart from this, the exegesis,
as also the intonation, of the Byzantine chant (as the exegeses make
clear) was the same everywhere that Byzantine worship existed, and
not just a practice of music teachers of Constantinople, especially Peter
Peloponnesios, as is erroneously believed. Ioasaph Riliotis and his «exegeses» are witness to this, at least as far as Bulgaria is concerned.
content ; they were written we may say, by the same copyist in about
1800. It is clear from the writing that this man was a Greek who knew
Slavonic, rather than a Slav or a Bulgar who knew Greek; and in all probability, since the codices contain the exegeses of Ioasaph Riliotis, which I have yet to meet in other musical codices, the writer must himself be the martyred «Ioasaph Proigoumenos of Rila» (Xenophon 132, 19b, 145, 7b and 62a-b) or «Ioasaph Riliotis» (Xenophon 132, 32b). Of the life and musical work of Ioasaph, it is known only that he remained for some time on Mt. Athos and that he had a wide knowledge of Byzantine notation, which he taught his pupils in Rila. In 1816 he was for six months a pupil of Chourmouzios Chartophylax, one of the three inventors of the New Method of analytic notation (Constantinople,
1814). Ater learning the New Method and obtaining suitable manuscripts, he returned to Rila and taught his pupils the New Method of writing and intoning Byzantine chants. Thus Ioasaph led the way towards Bulgarian acceptance of the New Method of Byzantine notation. Ioasaph’s exegetic work concerns Byzantine chants of which, both before and after him, other music teachers in various places gave exegeses. A comparative study of these exegeses demonstrates the evolutionary course followed by Byzantine notation until its reform in the
New Method of 1814, but also the stereotype of the Byzantine chant,
which was preserved intact in form through all the attempts at exegesis
of the old Byzantine notation. What is both obvious and important is that Byzantine notation before 1814 was summary, and that Byzantine chant consisted in much more than the phonetic signs alone show; it was this that was recorded in detailed form but in similar form by the «exegetes» and finally by the three teachers of the New Method in 1814. Apart from this, the exegesis,
as also the intonation, of the Byzantine chant (as the exegeses make
clear) was the same everywhere that Byzantine worship existed, and
not just a practice of music teachers of Constantinople, especially Peter
Peloponnesios, as is erroneously believed. Ioasaph Riliotis and his «exegeses» are witness to this, at least as far as Bulgaria is concerned.
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