Papadikē.

The usual term for a short elementary manual of Middle Byzantine musical notation, included as an introduction to the Akolouthiai manuscripts of the 14th century onwards. The adjective papadikos (from papas presumably not in the sense of ‘priest’ but rather as an equivalent to psaltēs, the soloist or precentor) is also used in other contexts: (1) hē papadikē, for the whole collection of the soloist’s repertory, corresponding to the earlier psaltikon; (2) to papadikon genos, the most melismatic of the three musical styles in modern Greek (neo-Byzantine) chant; (3) hē papadikē or hē papadikē technē), as an general expression denoting Byzantine chant; similarly the expressions hē psaltikē technē or hē mousikē technē (‘the psaltic art’ or ‘the art of music’) may also be found.

From a typological point of view the elementary papadikē occupies a position between the post-medieval treatises on music theory and the early lists of neumes, of which the oldest known specimen is a table in GR-ATSgreat lavra γ 67 (10th century). Alongside the didactic poems of Joannes Glykys and Joannes Koukouzeles it has functioned as a basis for the teachers’ oral instruction, surviving even the reform of the ‘Three Teachers’ in the early 19th century (see Chrysanthos of Madytos). It has been commented upon in manuscripts such as I-Rvat gr.872, ff.240v ff (14th-century; ed. Tardo, pp.164ff). Over the centuries the text has undergone many modifications, according to the needs of the scribes and teachers. (In the absence of a critical edition, however, a full study of the various textual types has not yet been possible.)

The earliest version is found in a stichērarion from the year 1289, F-Pn gr.261. Under the rubric ‘Here begin the signs of the “papadic’’ art’, the manuscript provides no less than three different lists of neumes (single and grouped neumes; neumes with interval values; and melē, rhythmical and group signs), tables of neumes combined into ascending and descending intervals, and a diagram relating the Byzantine modes to those of ancient Greece. Although this version antedates the earliest papadikai of the akolouthiai manuscripts, it already includes a major part of the elements listed below.

In the 15th century there already existed at least four different versions of the papadikē, varying in completeness and order of contents. A papadikē normally consists of lists showing: (a) the ascending and descending interval signs, sometimes called sēmadia phōnētika (‘phonetic signs’), divided into sōmata (‘bodies’ or steps) and pneumata (‘spirits’ or leaps), and their interval value; (b) the ‘great hypostaseis’ (subsidiary, cheironomic signs, called aphōna sēmadia or megalai hypostaseis or ta megala sēmadia ta dia cheironomias); (c) the phthorai, modulation signs of the modes; (d) examples to illustrate how all intervals can be expressed by combinations of sōmata and pneumata; (e) further examples to illustrate how ascending sōmata in specific combinations lose their interval value: they are ‘dominated’ (kyrieuontai or hypotassontai) by descending sōmata, by pneumata and by the ison.

The most complete type of papadikē includes in addition to these items, a series of paragraphs on the modes (including the ‘middle modes’, mesoi, of the four authentic modes and sometimes the diphōnoi, or mesoi, of the four plagal modes), giving their ancient and medieval names: Dorian, Lydian etc., ananes, neanes etc.

After these lists of neumes and neume combinations there may be various diagrams. These were probably intended for use when teachers introduced their pupils to the problems of modulation and orientation within the modal system. Many papadikai also include a list of modal intonations (enēchēmata), combined with the incipits of well-known troparia from which one could learn how to adapt intonations to melodic incipits by means of a suitable cauda.

The core of the papadikē thus consists of lists and diagrams. But many sources also include a varying number of short melodies, made ad hoc, to serve as a bridge between the lists and their application to actual singing.

EDITIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

H. Riemann: ‘Die Metrophonie der Papadiken’, SIMG, ix (1907–8), 1–31

H.J.W. Tillyard: ‘Fragment of a Byzantine Musical Handbook in the Monastery of Laura on Mt. Athos’, Annual of the British School at Athens, xix (1912–13), 95–117

E. Wellesz: ‘Die Rhythmik der byzantinischen Neumen’, ZMw, ii (1919–20), 617 only, 628–33

H.J.W. Tillyard: ‘A Byzantine Musical Handbook of Milan’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, xlvi (1926), 219–22

J. Milojković-Djurić: ‘A Papadike from Skoplje’, Studies in Eastern Chant, i, ed. M. Velimirović (London, 1966), 50

C. Hannick: ‘Die Lehrschriften der Byzantinischen Kirchenmusik’, Die hochsprachliche Profane Literatur der Byzantiner, ed. H. Hunger, ii (Munich, 1978), 196–218

C. Troelsgård: ‘The Development of a Didactic Poem: some Remarks on the “Ison, oligon oxeia” by Ioannes Glykys’, Byzantine Chant: Athens 1993, 69–85

JØRGEN RAASTED/CHRISTIAN TROELSGÅRD