page_title: Petros Peloponnesios
section_title: Petros' contribution to church and makam music
hierarchical_section_title: Petros Peloponnesios / Petros' contribution to church and makam music
caption_attribution_description: English: Petros Peloponnesios' realisation of the Doxastikon oktaechon Θεαρχίῳ νεύματι (SAV 714)
context_page_description: Petros Peloponnesios or Peter the Lampadarios was a great cantor, composer and teacher of Byzantine and Ottoman music. He must have served as second Domestikos between his arrival about 1764 until the death of Ioannes Trapezountios, and it is assumed that he became Lampadarios between 1770 and 1778 at the Great Church of Constantinople, after Daniel the Protopsaltes became Archon Protopsaltes. Large parts of the monodic chant sung in several current traditions of Orthodox Chant are transcriptions of his compositions, which he had written down as a teacher of the "New Music School of the Patriarchate".
context_section_description: His reputation as an important teacher and composer is mainly based on his vast contributions concerning the Heirmologion (Katavaseion or Heirmologion argon, printed the first time in transcription in 1825) and the short or simple Sticherarion (Doxastarion syntomon, printed the first time in transcription in 1820). These innovations of Orthodox chant had been written during his last years and parts of it were likely continued by his second domestikos Petros Byzantios who followed him as lampadarios, but also as teacher at the New Music School of the Patriarchate. According to Chrysanthos Petros Peloponnesios' realisations for the Anthology of the Divine Liturgies (like the Papadic cherubikon, and koinonikon cycles) were already written, while he was still second domestikos and not supposed to contribute with own compositions. Petros composed two cycles of cherubika for the weekdays, unlike other composers who composed in all eight echoi, his cycles follow the order of the weekly koinonika (protos for Monday, varys for Tuesday, tetartos for Wednesday, plagios tetartos for Thursday, and plagios protos for Friday). Later as lampadarios, Petros did not simply transcribe and contribute to the new hyphos created by his masters Ioannes and Daniel, he also studied the Byzantine tradition as well as innovative Protopsaltes of the Ottoman period like Petros Bereketis. Although it is not clear, whether Georgios Papadopoulos was right that Petros stole makam music, since the author rather compiled earlier Ottoman anecdotes in his biography of Petros, the latter had a certain reputation to usurp the contribution to the hyphos by other composers like Ioannes the Protopsaltes and Daniel the Protopsaltes as his own work, especially of those he was charged to transcribe as a second domestikos. Sometimes he simply pointed at the hyphos project he shared with Daniel the Protopsaltes and other students of Ioannes. He did not write down the background of a traditional melos as was the traditional synoptic use of notation, but also details of a personal realisation like in case of the doxastikon of Kassia's troparion, which he specified “in imitation of Daniel the Protopsaltes”.
  Petros Peloponnesios' abridged Doxastarion was one of the first transcriptions of idiomela according to a new simple "hyphos"-style which was created by Ioannes Trapezountios. The necessity for such an abridgement followed a request by Patriarch Cyril V in 1756, after the melos of the old sticherarion in the tradition of 17th-century composers like Georgios Raidestinos, Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes, and Germanos of New Patras had become too elaborated. Petros' Doxastarion and its rhythmic style was very controversially discussed among the other teachers at the New Music School of the Patriarchate, especially by Petros' rival Iakovos. The dispute was followed by alternative editions, and the hyphos was continued as an oral tradition among traditionalist protopsaltes like Konstantinos Byzantios, Georgios Raidestinos II, Iakovos Nafpliotes, and Konstantinos Pringos.
  Petros' reputation was not limited to the field of Orthodox chant, he also "composed" and transcribed other genres of Armenian and Turkish music (even composers of the 14th century), including Ottoman makam genres like Peşrev, Taksim and Saz semai which were usually included in cyclic compositions known as Fasıl, but also makam compositions following usul rhythms over Greek texts (Tragodia rhomaïka). According to Kyriakos Kalaitzidis between three and five manuscripts with Makam transcriptions written by Petros' hand have survived, where Petros did also suggest their cyclic organisation as Fasıl. With the Codex Gritsanis 3 Petros created one of the most important collections of classical Ottoman music between the 14th and the 18th centuries.
caption: Petros Peloponnesios' realisation of the Doxastikon oktaechon Θεαρχίῳ νεύματι (Dormition of the Theotokos, 15 August), eighth section of echos plagios tetartos (C—c transposed on the phthongos κε=a) in a copy of his «Doxastarion syntomon» by Anastasios Proikonesios (GB-Bm, Ms. Gr. 7, fol. 70v)
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