(Gk.: ‘the art of chanting’).
A theory of chanting that first developed in the 14th-century Byzantine Church with the appearance of the Akolouthiai manuscripts. It taught liturgical singers how to expand traditional melodies through techniques of vocal ornamentation and improvisation. New notational symbols and hypostaseis (non-diastematic neumes) indicated the use of the standard embellishments of the psaltikē technē in music manuscripts; they were notated in red ink between the principal melodic line and the text (see Byzantine chant, §3(i)(c)). The hypostaseis were explained in treatises and exercises for students of chant. Proponents of the theory, such as Manuel Chrysaphes, criticized those who believed that a simple, note-by-note reading of Byzantine neumes was sufficient.
L. Tardo: L’antica melurgia bizantina (Grottaferrata, 1938)
D.E. Conomos: The Treatise of Manuel Chrysaphes the Lampadarios, MMB, Corpus scriptorum, ii (1985)
DIMITRI CONOMOS