Reference materials on Byzantine and Old Slavic music and hymnography

Abstract

One of the reasons for the neglect of Byzantine music, liturgy and hymnography within medieval studies undoubtedly lies in the difficulty of comprehending the special terminology. The indices in general accounts such as A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography by Egon Wellesz (Oxford 1/1949, 2/1961), a work still not surpassed, help only those who are already acquainted with the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church to find a way into the subject. The booklet by Dimitri Conomos, Byzantine Hymnography and Byzantine Chant (Brookline 1984), which is much more modest in scope, constitutes a suitable introduction. We may therefore applaud the initiative of the Greek scholar Georgios Bergotes, professor at the Ecclesiastical Academy in Thessalonika and author of several works in the area of liturgy and church music, who has compiled a Λεξικò λειτουργικν κα τελετουργικν ὅρων (Lexicon of liturgical and teleturgical terms, Thessalonika 1988). In this introduction to teleturgy Bergotes offers a definition of the two terms liturgy and teleturgy as conceived by the Orthodox Church, which help understand the aims and methods of compilation of the lexicon: ‘In the discipline of liturgy the services and festivals of the orthodox rite are investigated from a historical, archeological and theological standpoint, while the discipline of teleturgy engages the same services or festivals from the practical point of view and in their technical aspects.’