Release of the New Book by Oliver Gerlach

Studies of the Dark Continent in European Music History
Collected Essays on Traditions of Religious Chant in the Balkans

The book has a prologue, an analytical index, a list of illustrations, a bibliography, and a CD supplement with sound examples — including field recordings from Bulgaria. The content list can be also downloaded as pdf.

Book and CD cost 30,- € (+ porto) and can be ordered here.

Cover picture: The Aladja Imaret in Thessaloniki

Part 1: The Oktōēchos Labyrinth and the Art of Memory in Eastern and Western Chant

• Mikrotöne im Oktōīchos
  oder über die Vermittlung mittelalterlicher Musiktheorie & Musik

[1] Die Einführung der 8 Tonarten in das lateinische Mittelalter
[2] Die Funktionen der Ansingformeln
[2.1] Die Funktion als Tonartbezeichnung
[2.2] Die Funktion der genauen Intonation
[2.3] Die schöpferische Funktion

• How to use the Oktōēchos Labyrinth?
  About the Art of Memory Based on the Koukouzelian Wheel

[1] Orthodox and Orthopractical Aspects
[2] The Thesis of Melos in the Stichērarion
[3] The Koukouzelian Wheel as Daidalos’ Instrument: Inventing the Teretismos

• Psaltes and Cantores in the Labyrinth
  On the Role of Creativity in Passing Down Liturgical Music Since the 12th and the 13th Century

[1] The Oktōēchos System and Its Signatures
[2] The Traditional Model or Cantus
[3] The Thesis of the Melos: Between Kalophōnia and Organum

Part 2: Traditions of Religious Chant in the Balkans

• Religious Chant in the late Ottoman Empire
  Between Petros Bereketēs and Hamamîzade İsmail Dede Efendi

[1] The Fanariots and Their Music Tradition
[2] The “Ottoman Tonal System”
[3] “Exoteric Music”
[4] About the Relation between the Exot(er)ic Phthorai and the Makamlar
[5] Conclusion

• Über die aktuelle Tradition des einstimmigen bulgarisch-orthodoxen Kirchengesangs
  2 Portraits: Otec Stilian (Bačkovo-Kloster, Rhodopen) Neofit (Metropolit von Russe)

[1] Portrait Otec Stilian (Bačkovo, Rhodopen)
[2] Portrait Neofit (Metropolit von Russe)