Exploring Orality and Composition in the Psaltic Art: An Advanced Transcription Tool

Chrysanthos of Madytos defines composition (melopoiea) as “a chant creating ability.” He emphasizes that this ability involves not merely chanting long-established psalmodies but also inventing and composing new chants that are pleasing to listeners. This perspective surprisingly elevates chanters to the status of composers. In various sections of his work, Chrysanthos highlights the presence of orality within individual signs and their combinations, even within the framework of the New Method. This orality allows for the expression of personal or local stylistic characteristics. Chrysanthos addresses the dual challenge of preserving tradition while adapting to change by discussing two seemingly contradictory aspects of chanting artistically (ἐντέχνως). He states that chanters achieve artistic chanting when they adhere to musical rules and deliver the melos as represented by musical characters (unchanged) in the manner they were taught (similarly). Through these concepts, Chrysanthos acknowledges that the New Method of notation still accommodates the oral traditions passed down from teachers, thereby embracing diverse local chanting traditions. Based on these fundamental principles outlined by Chrysanthos, my contribution to the thematic session proposes an expanded transcription tool developed by Dr. Spyridon Ploumpis and myself in 2021. This tool integrates musical scores with various performances, thereby broadening the scope of 'work-centered' music analysis. It also incorporates audiovisual material, enhancing the range of sources available for study. By borrowing elements from contemporary music notation and established ethnomusicological methods, this tool facilitates the transcription of the inherent orality in the neumes of Psaltic Art into stave notation. This process makes the structural units forming the performance and compositional idioms, referred to as yphos, more visible and comprehensible.