In memoriam Katy Romanou / Publication internet et version imprimée du NUMÉRO SPÉCIAL DE NEMO-ONLINE / SPECIAL ISSUE of NEMO-ONLINE now online and in print

In Memoriam Katy Romanou

Available in free pdf version here.

Available in print version (paperback) here.

Contents / Articles

  • Andriana SOULELE
    • THE CHORUS REFORMATION IN MODERN PERFORMANCES OF ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDY AFTER 1945: The Suppliants (1964) of Iannis Xenakis and The Persians (1965) of Jani Christou … p.1
  • Apostolos PALIOS
    • ANALYTICAL AND INTERPRETATIVE APPROACH: Yorgo Sisilianos’s Works for Two Pianos … p.19
  • Christina GIANNELOU
    • MY 20 YEARS LIFE TRIP: Between Katy Romanou and Rena Kyriakou … p.43
  • Lampros EFTHYMIOU
    • A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW AND COMPARATIVE STUDY: Musical-Poetical Structural Analysis of Greek Folk-Songs … p.67
  • Lorenda RAMOU
    • KATY ROMANOU S’EXPRIME: L’oeuvre pour Piano de Nikos Skalkottas à Travers une Co-Direction de Thèse de Doctorat … p.87
  • Nektaria DELVINIOTI-VASILEIOU
    • MANOLIS KALOMIRIS: His Relationship with Dr. Erwin Felber and Βéla Bélai in the Forties and the Fifties … p.95
  • Penelope PAPAGIANNOPOULOU
    • GREEKNESS IN NIKOS SKALKOTTAS’ CHAMBER MUSIC: An Analytical View of Issues of Modal and Idiomatic Structural Issues … p.101
  • Kostas KARDAMIS
    • A SCOT BARD IN EUROPEAN SOUTH: Dionisios Rodotheato’s Opera Oitona (1876) … p.139
  • Amine BEYHOM
    • ART MUSICS OF THE ORIENT: Or the Time for Recognition … p.147

English

Katy Romanou (Kaitē Rōmanou) was born in 1939, Athens and died in May 2020.

She studied at Indiana University where she was granted a Masters degree in musicology and pursued her studies at the University of Athens where she was awarded a Ph.D. in musicology. She was a music critic for the daily newspaper He Kathemerine (1974-1986), and was on the editorial boards of Greek periodicals Musicologia and Polyphonia. She was also a founding member of the Hellenic Musicological Society where she remained active until her death. Katy published extensively in Greek and English and contributed to many publications. She gave lectures on Greek music in the United States of America, at the City University of New York, Yale University, University of Florida at Gainesville and at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. She taught music history and music theory at several conservatories in Greece before holding a professorship chair at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA – Εθνικόν και Καποδιστριακόν Πανεπιστήμιον Αθηνών), and later at the European University of Cyprus (Ευρωπαϊκό Πανεπιστήμιο ‎Κύπρου).

She was always trying to link people together through music and research, especially in her main fields of interest which were Greek music and the Byzantine world. Katy believed in the essential role of the Balkan countries in the shaping of the history of musicology and strongly fought to bind the Balkans to Western music history.

When we met her in Cyprus during a colloquium, we were pleased to discuss with her during the coffee breaks about several musicological issues and we understood at CERMAA how sharp her mind was and how much work she still wanted to achieve. It was with great sadness that we read about her death. Her loss was untimely for all but especially to the world of musicology. 

French

Katy Romanou (Kaitē Rōmanou) est née en 1939 à Athènes, et décédée en Mai 2020.

Elle a obtenu son Master en Musicologie à l’Université de l’Indiana puis son doctorat à l’Université d’Athènes. Elle fut critique musicale pour le quotidien He Kathemerine (1974-1986) et membre des comités d’édition des revues grecques Musicologia et Polyphonia. Elle fut aussi membre fondateur de la Hellenic Musicological Society au sein de laquelle elle poursuivit ses activités jusqu’à son décès.

Katy publia extensivement en Grec et en Anglais, et donna des conférences et des cours sur la musique grecque aux États-Unis, notamment à la City University of New York, à la Yale University, à l’Université de Floride (‎Gainesville) et à l’Université du Missouri (St. Louis). Elle enseigna l’histoire et la théorie de la musique dans plusieurs conservatoires en Grèce avant d’obtenir une chaire de professeur à l’Université Nationale et Capodistrienne d’Athènes (Εθνικόν και Καποδιστριακόν Πανεπιστήμιον Αθηνών), et plus tard à l’Université Européenne de Chypre (Ευρωπαϊκό Πανεπιστήμιο ‎Κύπρου).

Katy favorisa toujours les rencontres intellectuelles entre musiciens et entre chercheurs, tout particulièrement dans les deux domaines qui lui tenaient à cœur, la musique grecque et le monde byzantin. Elle croyait au rôle essentiel des pays balkaniques dans le façonnement de l’histoire de la musicologie, et se battit résolument pour relier les Balkans à l’histoire de la musique occidentale.

Nous l’avions rencontrée à Chypre, à l’occasion d’un colloque, et avions eu le plaisir de discuter avec elle de divers sujets musicologiques pendant les pauses-café. C’est là que nous avions compris à quel point sa réflexion sur la musicologie était acérée, ainsi que l’étendue du travail qu’elle s’attendait encore à accomplir. C’est avec une grande tristesse que nous avons appris la nouvelle de sa mort, une vraie perte pour tous ceux qui la connaissaient, et plus particulièrement pour la musicologie.

Release of Eight Video-Analyses of Byzantine Scales performed by Four Lebanese Cantors

These Eight Video-analyses of the scales of Byzantine chant (for the scales of the Eight modes) are proposed on a dedicated main page. The analyses come originally from the book of Amine Beyhom Théories et pratiques de l’échelle dans le chant byzantin arabe : Une approche comparative et analytique proposant une solution inédite pour le système théorique de Chrysanthos le Madyte and were edited for video.

Four Lebanese cantors of Byzantine chant – Fr. Nicolas Malek, Fr. Makarios Haidamous, Joseph Yazbeck and a cantor who preferred to remain anonymous – accepted to record (among other performances) the scales of the eight canonical modes of their liturgical chant for research purposes. Each of them is a renowned soloist and choir director in Lebanon.

Opening Screen of the video for the First Byzantine Mode

The complete results of the analyses of these recordings are proposed in the aforementioned book, while particular results concerning the first mode were presented on various occasions in Greece and in Cyprus, but also in France, Tunisia and in Lebanon.

The analyses in the videos are based on these presentations, which in turn were based on power point animations proposed in the aforementioned book.

Each video comprises a short theoretical introduction contextualizing the scales of the current mode within the general frame of the 19th-Century Second Reform of Byzantine chant.

Example of a slide with explanations on the scale of the First Byzantine Mode according to the teaching of Thrasyvoulos Stanitsas

Moreover, the first video (for the First mode) features a General Introduction which explains shortly:

  • The solmization of the Byzantine – and equivalences between Byzantine and Western – degrees of the scale
Byzantine chant solmization with transliteration and equivalences with the degrees of the Western Common-Practice scale
  • The accidentals used in the theory of the Second Reform (and in the Western/Byzantine notation proposed by the author)
Accidentals used in the theory of Byzantine Chant (19th-Century Second Reform) with equivalents in fractions of the tone (including cents)
  • The scores and literal notations
Western/Byzantine and literal notations of scales
  • (And) Explanations about the graphic representation of the results
Conventions used for the Graphic notations of scales

The videos on the main page are in High resolution, and also available on the YouTube Channell of CERMAA. An alternate, Low resolution version is proposed for each mode (and the Intro) in a dedicated page.

NEMO-Online Vol. 4 Nos. 6&7 available / Mise en ligne de NEMO-Online Vol. 4 n°6&7

NEMO-Online Vol. 4 Nos. 6&7 is now available for downloading (download link below) / NEMO-Online Vol. 4 nos 6&7 est disponible pour téléchargement (lien ci-dessous).

All pdf articles in this volume are available individually at http://nemo-online.org/articles and bookmarked for titles, subtitles and figures / tous les articles au format pdf de ce volume sont téléchargeables individuellement à http://nemo-online.org/articles et contiennent des marque-pages correspondant aux titres, sous-titres et figures.

Note that minor changes in the layout may occur between individual articles and the binded volume, due to the harmonising of the layouts between No. 6 and No. 7 / Les changements mineurs de la mise en page entre articles individuels et volume collaté sont dûs à l’harmonisation entre les deux numéros 6 & 7 suite aux améliorations apportées à partir du n°7.

Hard and soft copy printed versions to follow shortly / Les versions imprimées seront disponibles prochainement.

 

NEMO-Online Vol. 4 contents / contenu / ملخّص :

Editor’s letter / Éditorial / كلمة الناشرين : Evolution, problems and alternate propositions for musicology and ethnomusicology / Évolution, problèmes et proposition alternatives pour musicologie et de l’ethnomusicologie التطوّر، المشاكل والحلول البديلة لعلم الموسيقى (موسيقولوجيا) وعلم الموسيقى
الإثنية (الإتنوموسيقولوجيا)

NEMO-Online No. 6 :

  • Amine Beyhom : “A Hypothesis for the Elaboration of Heptatonic Scales,” Near Eastern Musicology Online 4 6 |2017-05| p. 5–88.
  • Richard Dumbrill : “The Truth about Babylonian Music,” Near Eastern Musicology Online 4 6 |2017-08| p. 91–121.
  • Bruno Deschênes : “A preliminary approach to the analysis of honkyoku, the solo repertoire of the Japanese shakuhachi,” Near Eastern Musicology Online 4 6 |2017-08| p. 123–143.

 

 NEMO-Online No. 7 :

  • Amine Beyhom“MAT for the VIAMAP – Maqām Analysis Tools for the Video-Animated Music Analysis Project,” Near Eastern Musicology Online 4 7 |2018-11| p. 145–256.

Vol. 4 Nos. 6&7 (pdf).

Previous volumes / Volumes précédents / الأعداد السابقة /

Note: we use at NEMO-Online the CharisSIL font / nous utilisons à NEMO-Online la police CharisSIL / http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/CharisSIL-4.110.zip / also available at / également téléchargeable à / http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/download_win.html.

(Permalink: http://nemo-online.org/?p=1750)

New article/Dossier: MAT for the VIAMAP – Maqām Analysis Tools for the Video-Animated Music Analysis Project

English

[French translation below]

NEMO-Online is delighted to propose this new article by Amine Beyhom on notational tools and graphical analyses of melody and rythm.

Musical notation has been reputed as disqualified for the analysis of “Foreign” musics since – at least – the experiments of Charles Seeger with the Melograph. It is nevertheless still used as the main analytic – and teaching – tool for these musics in most researches in musicology, and today in the teaching of these musics in autochthonous conservatories. Seeger’s experiments brought at his time cutting-edge solutions – and alternatives – to score notation but, surprisingly enough, these solutions seem to have not worked out very well in the long run.

Beyhom proposes a voluminous dossier including three parts and relying on the pioneering works of Seeger – and other ethnomusicologists – as well as on the improvements of his method that we have witnessed in the last decades. The first part expounds the past, and on-going debates about the (mis-) use of score notation as applied to “Foreign” musics, while the second part offers a retrospective of Maqām music notation. The third part of the dossier describes different tools of pitch and spectrum analysis which help understand – and listen better to the analyzed music while exposing, in fine, the author’s work and propositions for the implementation of video-animated analyses in the teaching of ethnomusicology as one major basis for this teaching. The dossier is accompanied by a short power point show (PPS) and 41 video-animated analyses (total time = 2 h 13 m).

Amine Beyhom: MAT for the VIAMAP – Maqām Analysis Tools for the Video-Animated Music Analysis Project,” Near Eastern Musicology Online 4 7 |2018-11| p. 145–256.

Français

Nous avons le plaisir à NEMO-Online de publier ce nouvel article par Amine Beyhom sur les outils de notation et d’analyse graphique de la mélodie et du rythme.

La notation musicale est réputée être disqualifiée pour les analyses de musique “étrangères” et ce depuis, au moins, les expériences de Charles Seeger avec le mélographe. Il n’en reste pas moins que la notation classique reste l’outil principal d’analyse de ces musiques dans les recherches musicologiques, et de leur enseignement dans les conservatoires locaux. Les méthodes de Seeger étaient à l’avant-garde de la recherche pour une analyse –  et une notation – alternative des musiques traditionnelles mais, de manière assez surprenante, ne semblent pas avoir pris racine dans l’enseignement de l’ethnomusicologie.

Beyhom propose un dossier volumineux en trois parties, basé sur l’oeuvre pionnière de Seeger – et d’autres ethnomusicologues – ainsi que sur les améliorations de cette méthode apportées au fil des recherches par ses successeurs. La première partie retrace les débats soulevés par l’utilisation (ou non) de la notation musicale classique pour les musique non occidentales – notamment non semi-tonales – tandis que la deuxième partie est consacrée à une courte rétrospective historique de la notation de la musique du maqām. La troisième partie décrit divers outils d’analyse des hauteurs et du spectre d’une mélodie qui sont une aide à l’analyse – et à la compréhension, sinon à une meilleure écoute – de ces musiques. En conclusion l’auteur appelle à implémenter l’enseignement des analyses vidéo-animées de hauteurs dans l’enseignement courant de l’ethnomusicologie, comme outil principal d’analyse des musiques “autres”.

Le dossier est accompagné d’un fichier Power Point contenant quelques exemples d’analyse avec curseur se déplaçant horizontalement sur l’écran, et de 41 analyses vidéo dont le temps total s’élève à 2 heures et 13 minutes.

Amine Beyhom: MAT for the VIAMAP – Maqām Analysis Tools for the Video-Animated Music Analysis Project,” Near Eastern Musicology Online 4 7 |2018-11| p. 145–256.

Volos conference on Psaltiki 2018

Rosy & Amine Beyhom participated in the 3rd International Musicological and Psaltic Conference on Psaltic Art of the Department of Psaltic Art and Musicology of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies.

The Conference took place in the Conference Center of the Holy Metropolis of Demetrias, in Melissiatika, Volos, Greece, between May 30th (official opening in the evening) and June 2nd (official closing in the afternoon), 2018.

Amine Beyhom presented a paper entitled “Theory and Practice of Psaltiki: Why do they not coincide?“, and assisted Rosy Beyhom for the recording of four Greek cantors who performed Kyrie Ekekraxa (by Petros Byzantios) and Axion estin (Anonymous).

Volos Cantors_lightAbove: Five Greek cantors – Volos (Makrinitsa) 2018/05/31 © Rosy Beyhom. Front row, left to right: Ioannis Tomas, Nikolaos Siklafidis and Michalis Stroumpakis; 2nd row: Conference host Konstantin Karagounis and Emmanouil Giannopoulos.

The video-animated analyses of these chants will soon be published on our site as a further contribution to the development of alternative methods for the analysis of melodic music of the Mediterranean and around (maqām music).

Release of CERMAA Videos of Kyrie Ekekraxa by Petros Byzantios performed, in Greek and Arabic, by Joseph Yazbeck in 2011

Two additional Greek and Arabic versions (below) of the chant Kyrie Ekekraxa, the well known composition by Petros Byzantios in the 19th-century Constantinople (now Istanbul) performed in 2012 by Joseph Yazbeck. The audio recording was first published in Amine Beyhom’s book on Byzantine chant in 2015 (see http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/archives/584).
As with other CERMAA animated analyses, the upper part offers a general view of the analysis (with two dashed lines for the tonic and octave pitches) while the lower part shows the detailed analysis which includes, in this case, an overprint of the Byzantine scale of the 1881 (Second) Reform of Byzantine chant.
Compare with other analyses of the same chant by different performers at http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/analyses/byzantine-chant/kyrie-ekekraxa-by-petros-byzantios.

  • Greek Version by Joseph Yazbeck (below)

  • Arabic Version by Joseph Yazbeck (below)

Release of CERMAA Videos of Kyrie Ekekraxa by Petros Byzantios performed, in Greek and Arabic, by fr. Nicolas Malek in 2011

Release by CERMAA of two additional Greek and Arabic versions (below) of the chant Kyrie Ekekraxa, the well known composition by Petros Byzantios in the 19th-century Constantinople (now Istanbul) performed in 2011 by fr. Nicolas Malek. The audio recording was first published in Amine Beyhom’s book on Byzantine chant in 2015 (see http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/archives/584).
As with other CERMAA animated analyses, the upper part offers a general view of the analysis (with two dashed lines for the tonic and octave pitches) while the lower part shows the detailed analysis which includes, in this case, an overprint of the Byzantine scale of the 1881 (Second) Reform of Byzantine chant.
Compare with other analyses of the same chant by different performers at http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/analyses/byzantine-chant/kyrie-ekekraxa-by-petros-byzantios.

  • Greek Version by fr. Nicolas Malek (below)

  • Arabic Version by fr. Nicolas Malek (below)

New page by CERMAA dedicated to Video Analyses of the chant Kyrie Ekekraxa by Petros Byzantios

A new page, dedicated to different versions of the chant Kyrie Ekekraxa by Petros Byzantios has been added to the site of the CERMAA.
Kyrie Ekekraxa is a well known composition by Petros Byzantios in the 19th-century Constantinople (now Istanbul). The chant is in the 8th mode (on Νη=c)  of the Byzantine Church (equivalent to maqām Rāst in Arabian music), with an incursion (a modulation) in the 2nd mode (“Mild chromatic”).

Most of the audio recordings analyzed in the videos on this page were originally published in Amine Beyhom’s book on Byzantine chant in 2015 (see http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/archives/584), with Power Point animations for four Lebanese cantors, together with Greek versions of this chant (8 versions in all, with detailed analyses of two excerpts each undertaken in the aforementioned book). Two other recordings were undertaken with a fifth Lebanese cantor: it was too late however to analyze them as the book was already under print. The two additional recordings were also published as audio recordings in the accompanying CD-Rom of the book.

All these should be (re)analysed and published on this dedicated page.

Release of CERMAA Videos of Kyrie Ekekraxa by Petros Byzantios performed, in Greek and Arabic, by an Anonymous Cantor in 2011

Release by CERMAA of two additional Greek and Arabic versions (below) of the chant Kyrie Ekekraxa, the well known composition by Petros Byzantios in the 19th-century Constantinople (now Istanbul) performed in 2011 by an Anonymous Cantor. The audio recording was first published in Amine Beyhom’s book on Byzantine chant in 2015 (see http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/archives/584).
As with other CERMAA animated analyses, the upper part offers a general view of the analysis (with two dashed lines for the tonic and octave pitches) while the lower part shows the detailed analysis which includes, in this case, an overprint of the Byzantine scale of the 1881 (Second) Reform of Byzantine chant.
Compare with other analyses of the same chant by different performers at http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/analyses/byzantine-chant/kyrie-ekekraxa-by-petros-byzantios.

  • Greek Version by Anonymous (below)


 

  • Arabic Version by Anonymous (below)

Release of CERMAA Video of Kyrie Ekekraxa by Petros Byzantios performed in Greek by fr. Makarios Haidamous in 2012

This the Greek version (below) of the chant Kyrie Ekekraxa, the well known composition by Petros Byzantios in the 19th-century Constantinople (now Istanbul) performed in 2012 by fr. Makarios Haidamous. The audio recording was first published in Amine Beyhom’s book on Byzantine chant in 2015 (see http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/archives/584).
As with other CERMAA animated analyses, the upper part offers a general view of the analysis (with two dashed lines for the tonic and octave pitches) while the lower part shows the detailed analysis which includes, in this case, an overprint of the Byzantine scale of the 1881 (Second) Reform of Byzantine chant.

Compare with the version in Arabic by the same cantor at http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/archives/933.