Patriarchial ifos in the perception of Greek church chanters

Abstract

The paper deals with the so-called patriarchal - Constantinople ifos in the recent church-singing tradition. Different aspects of this phenomenon are presented, about which numerous stereotypical attitudes have been expressed in different kind of narratives. In considering the phenomenon of ifos in this study, we started from the fact that it was at the center of a dispute between the reformers of the late Byzantine Neum notation - the so-called the “old method” and the conservative among Constantinople’s renowned singers, who did not accept the “new method” without resistance. It was also stated that the patriarchal ifos by inertia and not always justifiably attributed to the singers who were active in the Church of St. George on Fanar. Also, arguments were presented in favor of a critical review of contemporary discourses in which the ideologized belief is repeated that the Constantinople throne is the guarantee of any kind of saint church tradition, and thus the patristic Orthodox church music.

Keywords

• church chanting
• patriarchal ihos
• musical reform
• neum notation
• oral tradition
• interpretation
• chanting manner