(b Neochorios, Bosphorus, mid-18th century; d Iaşi, 1808). Romaic (Greek) composer and scribe. First mentioned in the records of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as second domestikos (1771), he rose over the next three decades through the hierarchy of patriarchal cantors, serving as first domestikos, lampadarios (1789–1800) and, in succession to Jakobos Peloponnesios, prōtopsaltēs (1800–05). Dismissed from this last position by Patriarch Kallinikos IV for entering into a second marriage, he left Constantinople for Kherson in the Crimea (thereby acquiring the sobriquet ho fugas, ‘the fugitive’) and later travelled to Iaşi, Moldavia, where he died.
In 1791, together with Jakobos Peloponnesios, Petros founded the Third Patriarchal School of Music. Wheareas the conservative Jakobos would teach only chants in traditional styles to be sung with considerable rhythmic freedom, Petros, according to his student Chrysanthos of Madytos, supplemented the older repertories with the works of his own teacher Petros Peloponnesios and favoured a steady pulse. Numerous autograph manuscripts of the period 1773–1806 show how he significantly advanced Petros Peloponnesios's work, composing many chants to fill out the latter's hymnodic and psalmodic collections (including supplementary katabasiai for his Heirmologion). He also continued to produce florid realizations (exēgēseis) of older chants, not only by Petros Peloponnesios but also by composers such as Balasios, Daniel the Protopsaltes, Manuel Gazes, Joannes Kladas and Joannes Koukouzeles, by writing out orally transmitted melismas.
Although Petros Byzantios was fluent in the melismatic and neumatic papadikē and stichērarion styles, his syllabic setting of the entire Heirmologion for the Divine Office, which forms the basis of modern performances of Byzantine kanons, is probably his most influential work; it was edited and transcribed by Chourmouzios the Archivist and published in 1825. His other chants for the Divine Office include several Great Doxologies, settings, in the ‘new sticheraric style’, of the opening verses of Lauds (‘Hoi ainoi’) at Orthros and the ‘lamplighting’ psalms at Hesperinos, and an amomos (Psalm cxviii). For the eucharistic liturgies he wrote communion verses for Sundays and feasts of the liturgical year and a modally ordered series of eight Cherubic hymns. A number of his major original and exegetical works were first published in Chrysanthine editions (see bibliography). Petros is also said to have written secular songs (see Romanou) and to have been an accomplished performer of Arabo-Persian music on the ney and tanbur (Papadopolous). (For a fuller list of works, including manuscripts featuring Petros's original notation, see Chatzēgiakoumēs, 1975, pp.364–7.)
P. Ephesios, ed.: Neon anastasimatarion metaphrasthen kata tēn neophanē methodon tēs mousikēs hypo tōn en Kōnstantinoupolei mousikologiōtatōn didaskalōn kai epheuretōn tou neou mousikou systēmatos [New anastasimatarion transcribed according to the newly appeared method of the musical teachers and inventors of the new musical system] (Bucharest, 1820)
T. Phōkaeus, ed.: Tameion anthologias [Treasury of an anthology] (Constantinople, 1824) [transcr. Chourmouzios the Archivist]
Chourmouzios the Archivist, transcr. and ed.: Heirmologion tōn katabasiōn Petrou tou Peloponnēsiou meta tou Syntomou heirmologiou Petrou Prōtopsaltou tou Byzantiou [Heirmologion of the katabasiai of Petros Peloponnesios with the Short Heirmologion of Petros Byzantios the Protopsaltes] (Constantinople, 1825/R)
T. Phōkaeus, ed.: Tameion anthologias [Treasury of an anthology] (Constantinople, 1834) [transcr. Gregorios the Protopsaltes]
I. Lampadarios and Stephanos the First Domestikos, eds.: Pandektē (Constantinople, 1850–51) [transcr. Gregorios the Protopsaltes]
Chrysanthos of Madytos: Theōrētikon mega tēs mousikēs [Great theoretical treatise on music] (Trieste, 1832/R)
G.I. Papadopoulos: Historikē episkopēsis tēs byzantinēs ekklēsiastikēs mousikēs apo tōn apostolikōn chronōn mechri tōn kath' hēmas (1–1900 m. Ch.) [An historical survey of Byzantine ecclesiastical music from apostolic times to our own (1–1900 ce)] (Athens, 1904/R)
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
C.G. Patrinelis: ‘Protopsaltae, Lampadarioi and Domestikoi of the Great Church during the Post-Byzantine Period (1453–1821)’, Studies in Eastern Chant, iii, ed. M. Velimirović (London, 1973), 141–70
G.T. Stathēs: Ta cheirographa byzantinēs mousikēs: Hagion Oros [The MSS of Byzantine Music: Holy Mountain] (Athens, 1975–93)
M. Chatzēgiakoumēs: Cheirographa ekklēsiastikēs mousikēs (1453–1820) [MSS of ecclesiastical music] (Athens, 1980)
A. Şirli: The Anastasimatarion: the Thematic Repertory of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Musical Manuscripts (the 14th-19th centuries), i (Bucharest, 1986)
K. Romanou: Ethnikēs mousikēs periēgēsis 1901–1912: hellēnika mousika periodika hōs pēgē ereunas tēs historias tus neoellēnikēs mousikēs [A journey in national music, 1901–12: Greek music periodicals as a research source for the history of modern Greek music] (Athens, 1996)
ALEXANDER LINGAS