(b Constantinople, ?1665; d ?1725). Romaic (Greek) composer and cantor. Though undoubtedly influenced by the works of Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes, Germanos of New Patras and Balasios, he appears never to have been directly associated with the patriarchal court that nurtured his older colleagues. His own substantial contributions to their continuing renewal of Byzantine chanting were made instead from the Constantinopolitan parish church of St Constantine (in the district of Hypsomatheia), where Bereketes held successively the offices of reader, domestikos and prōtopsaltēs.
Among the traditional repertories, Bereketes virtually ignored the stichērarion and heirmologion recently ‘beautified’ by Panagiotes, Germanos and Balasios in order to focus his compositional skills on the more structurally malleable chants of the Papadikē. He also brought the newer paraliturgical genre of the kalophonic heirmos to its highest point with the composition of 45 heirmoi for use in monastic refectories or during the distribution of antidoron (blessed bread) at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy. Cultivating what Chatzēgiakoumēs and Stathēs have described as a comparatively popular style of liturgical music, he occasionally composed works incorporating elements of the Arabo-Persian tradition of Ottoman secular music. Among his chants for Orthros are settings of the first and second polyeleoi (Psalms cxxxiv, cxxxv), the Marian polyeleos (Psalm xliv, ed. Phōkaeus, 1834), nine responsories with kratēmata for the Matins Gospel lection, Lenten troparia for Psalm l, eight Magnificat verses for the 9th ode of the kanon, and modally ordered series of eight Great Doxologies and of eight melismatic Trisagia for the Great Doxology. His eucharistic chants include 20 Cherubic Hymns (Liturgy of St John Chrysostom) and sets of communion verses for Sundays, weekdays and feasts. (For a fuller list of works see Stathēs, 1995.)
Bereketes was the first composer of Byzantine chant to have had his complete works transmitted posthumously as a unit. Despite their transcription into Chrysanthine notation by both Gregorios the Protopsaltes and Chourmouzios the Archivist, his complete works began to be published only in the late 1990s (see Karakatsanēs). Consequently, with the notable exception of his kalophonic heirmoi, which were transcribed into the New Method by Gregorios (ed. Phōkaeus, 1835), only a few of his chants have circulated widely in printed editions. The most popular of these is a massive setting in all eight modes for antiphonal choirs of the vigil hymn Theotoke parthene (‘Virgin Mother of God’) that lasts at least 40 minutes in Chrysanthine transcription (ed. Phōkaeus, 1824).
T. Phōkaeus, ed.: Tameion anthologias [Treasury of an anthology] (Constantinople, 1824), i, 128–45 [transcr. Chourmouzios the Archivist]
T. Phōkaeus, ed.: Tameion anthologias [Treasury of an anthology] (Constantinople, 1834), i, 181–203 [transcr. Gregorios the Protopsaltes]
T. Phōkaeus, ed.: Heirmologion kalophōnikon (Constantinople, 1835), 21–48, 52–5, 70–75, 85–7, 94–112, 115–24, 126–35, 145–50, 169–83 [transcr. Gregorios the Protopsaltes]
C. Karakatsanēs, ed.: Byzantinē potamēis [Byzantine river], ii–iii: Apanta Petrou Bereketou [Complete works of Petros Bereketes] (Athens, 1996–8)
G.T. Stathēs: ‘Hē synchysē tōn triōn Petrōn (dēl. Bereketē, Peloponnēsiou kai Byzantiou’ [The confusion of the three Peters (i.e. Bereketes, Peloponnesios and Byzantios)], Byzantina, iii (1971), 213–51
G.T. Stathēs: Ta cheirographa byzantinēs mousikēs: Hagion Oros [The MSS of Byzantine Music: Holy Mountain] (Athens, 1975–93)
S.I. Karas: Hē byzantinē mousikē palaiographikē ereuna en Helladi [The palaeographic investigation of Byzantine music in Greece] (Athens, 1976)
M. Chatzēgiakoumēs: Cheirographa ekklēsiastikēs mousikēs (1453–1820) [MSS of ecclesiastical music] (Athens, 1980)
G.T. Stathis: ‘The “Abridgements” of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Compositions’, Cahiers de l'Institut du Moyen-Age grec et latin, no.44 (1983), 16–38
D. Conomos: ‘Sacred Music in the Post-Byzantine Era’, The Byzantine Legacy in Eastern Europe, ed. L. Clucas (Boulder, CO, 1988), 83–105 [based on Chatzēgiakoumēs, 1980]
G.T. Stathēs: ‘Petros Bereketēs ho Melōdos’ [Petros Berektes the Melodist], Melourgoi tou iz aiōna [Composers of the 17th century], ed. E. Spanopoulou (Athens, 1995), 17–21, 28
Petros Bereketēs ho Melōdos (a' tetarton IĒ' aionos): hē zōē kai to ergon tou [Petros Bereketes the Melodist (1st quarter of the 15th century): his life and work], dir. G.T. Stathēs, Institute for Byzantine Musicology, Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Composers, IBM 101 (1975)
ALEXANDER LINGAS