| The Nest Of The Hellenic Mind _______________________________________________________________ A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Manuscript Collection of the National Library of Greece The National Library of Greece is one of the richest depositories of musical manuscripts in Greece and is surpassed only by the manuscript holdings in the monasteries of Mt. Athos. But unlike other major archives around the world, the National Library of Greece has never had a catalogue of its musical manuscripts that describes in some detail the contents of each musical manuscript. A large majority of the 242 music manuscripts are Byzantine musical manuscripts from all periods, but there are also some very important Ancient Greek treatises and Western musical manuscripts that have never before been brought forth. Some noteworthy manuscripts feature the following: the work of Michael Haydn; one of the earliest manuscripts with the use of the Western ophicleide instrument in a composition; early examples of ancient rhythmic notations; and some of the earliest examples of Medieval Byzantine music. The composers’ names are plentiful and represent all historical periods including compositions by the earliest woman composer. The catalogue is structured so that it is accessible to all scholars, Byzantinists, musicologists, and/or novices alike in all parts of the world. Consequently, there is an effort to explain rubrics and make translations into English in the body and in the “Notes” of the catalogue. It is my hope that the catalogue will enlighten specialists and lay people in the rich and varied holdings in this archive and stimulate more interest and investigation of these sources. The catalogue will undoubtedly be of great interest to devotees of Medieval and Byzantine music and liturgy. The importance of bringing these holdings to the forefront cannot be stated enough. The influences of the Byzantine repertoire are of paramount importance, for it influenced the development of Western Medieval music to a point and it also had effects on Eastern music: Balkan folk, Arabic-Turkish music, Serbian, Georgian, and Russian. The catalogue is available as of 2010. Diane Touliatos-Miles 2010 Double click below for link: Upcoming Ashgate Publication Also, for an oral description of the book's content and purpose, Check out this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQWYOpb0_8c&feature=youtube_gdata_player RETURN TO MAIN PAGE PLEASE! |
