A Byzantine Chant Collection From Sicily. A Cοllaboration Between Cοpenhagen and Piana degli Albanesi (Palermo)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give an account of the collaboration between a collector of the Byzantine chant tradition of Piana degli Albanesi (Palermo) in Sicily, namely fr. Bartolomeo Di Salvo, and the editorial board of the Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae, i.e. an institution under the aegis of the University of Copenhagen. Before describing precisely how this collaboration has developed, I will briefly introduce the “Sicilian-Albanian” oral liturgical chant tradition. Among his publications are Oral performances in a (post)-literate society (Lund, 2016), The songs of the roots (forthcoming chapter on Cretan music, University of Vienna), Creative performance in the liturgy: a formulaic melodic language in the Sicilian-Albanian chant tradition (forthcoming, University of Joensuu, Finland), and several articles as chapters of his doctoral thesis.

Keywords

• Byzantine chant, Oral transmission, Sicily, Collections, Ethnomusicology, Critical edition, Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae (MMB)