(b Constantinople, ?1778; d Constantinople, 23 Dec 1821). Romaic (Greek) composer and scribe. By tradition he was born in Constantinople to the priest Georgios (whence the nickname ‘the Levite’) and his wife Eleni on the day Petros Peloponnesios died, thus highlighting the parallels perceived between Gregorios's career and that of his famous predecessor. After reportedly teaching himself to speak and chant in Armenian, Gregorios was sent by his father to study Greek grammar and music at the Constantinopolitan dependency (metochion) of the monastery of St Catherine, Mt Sinai. He later learnt Arabo-Persian music from the Ottoman composer Ismail Dede Efendi and completed his training in Byzantine chant under Georgios of Crete and the patriarchal cantors Jakobos pelopponesios and Petros Byzantios. Little else is known about his career before 1811, when Apostolos Konstas of Chios mentions that he was already serving as lampadarios in the cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, an office he retained until he became prōtopsaltēs in 1819.
From 1814 until his death Gregorios collaborated closely with Chourmouzios the Archivist and Chrysanthos of Madytos on the refinement and dissemination of the latter's ‘New Method’ of Byzantine notation. Known collectively as the ‘three teachers’, they worked together as instructors at the Fourth Patriarchal School of Music (1815–21) to continue the process of musical renewal begun in the mid-18th century by Joannes of Trebizond. Gregorios, who employed the New Method in all but one of his known autographs, shared with Chourmouzios the task of transcribing the received repertory into the reformed notation. In his few remaining years of life, he produced Chrysanthine editions of the standard contemporary chant collections as well as realizations (exēgēseis) of numerous works by earlier masters. To the former he added a considerable number of his own compositions in various styles, thereby completing and augmenting the existing musical cycles of Petros Peloponnesios and Petros Byzantios. His chants for the Byzantine Offices include prokeimena for daily Hesperinos, supplementary hymns for the Heirmologion of Petros Peloponnesios, the Lenten troparia for the singing of Psalm l at Sunday Orthros, festal and penitential polyeleoi (Psalms cxxxiv and cxxxvi), and several Great Doxologies. For the eucharistic liturgies he wrote two modally ordered series of eight Cherubic Hymns, as well as 3 shorter settings (in modes 2 and 3 and mode 2 plagal), filling out the series of five Cherubic Hymns for weekdays by Petros Peloponnesios, modally ordered series of eight communion verses for Sunday, and eight settings of the Marian troparion Axion estin hōs alēthōs (‘It is truly right’). In addition there are numerous exēgēseis of Byzantine and post-Byzantine chants from the papadikē, stichērarion and heirmologion, including the complete works of Petros berektes, and a number of unpublished secular songs in Arabo-Persian style (see Chatzēgiakoumēs, 1980, p.102, n.351).
T. Phōkaeus, ed.: Tameion anthologias [Treasury of an anthology] (Constantinople, 1824) [transcr. Chourmouzios the Archivist]
Chourmouzios the Archivist, ed. and transcr.: 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)
P. Ephesios, transcr. and ed.: Anthologia, ii (Bucharest, 1830; repr., 1997, with a new preface)
T. Phōkaeus, ed.: Heirmologion kalophōnikon [Kalophonic heirmologion] (Constantinople, 1835), 254–62 [transcr. Gregorios]
T. Phōkaeus, ed.: Anastasēmatarion syntomon melopoiēthen para Petrou Lampadariou tēs tou Christou Megalēs Ekklēsias [Short anastasimatarion set to music by Petros the Lampadarios of the Great Church of Christ] (Constantinople, 1839) [transcr. Gregorios]
I. Lampadarios and Stephanos the First Domestikos, eds.: Pandektē (Constantinople, 1850–51) [transcr. Gregorios]
and other resources
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)
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)
G. Stathis: ‘An Analysis of the Sticheron Ton hēlion krypsanta by Germanos, Bishop of New Patras (The Old “Synoptic” and the New “Analytical” Method of Byzantine Notation)’, Studies in Eastern Chant, iv, ed. M. Velimirović (Crestwood, NY, 1979), 177–227
M. Chatzēgiakoumēs: Cheirographa ekklēsiastikēs mousikēs (453–1820) [MSS of ecclesiastical music] (Athens, 1980)
K. Romanou: ‘A New Approach to the Work of Chrysanthos of Madytos: the New Method of Musical Notation in the Greek Church and the Mega theōrētikon tēs mousikēs’, Studies in Eastern Chant, v, ed. D. Conomos (Crestwood, NY, 1990), 89–100
E.V. Gertsman: Grecheskiye muzïkal'nïye rukopi'si Peterburga: katalog [Greek musical MSS of St Petersburg: catalogue], i: Rossiyskaya natsional'naya biblioteka [Russian National Library] (St Petersburg, 1996)
L. Angelopoulos: L'importance de l'étude et de l'enseignement de Simon Karas sur l'indication et l'inventaire des signes de la chironomie (geste manuel): interprétation orale de la tradition écrite (Athens, 1998) [pubd with cassette by the Greek Byzantine Choir of Athens]
C. Tsiamoulēs and P. Ereunidēs: Rōmēoi synthetes tēs Polēs (17os–20os ai.) [Romaic composers of Constantinople (17th–20th centuries)] (Athens, 1998)
G. Stathēs: Grēgorios Prōtopsaltēs ho Byzantios (1778–1821): hē zōē kai to ergon tou [Gregorios Protopsaltes of Byzantium: his life and works], Institute of Byzantine Musicology Sound Recording, IBM 102 (1977) [with extensive notes]
ALEXANDER LINGAS