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Reviewed by:
  • Introduction to Early Medieval Notation
  • Svetlana Kujumdzieva
Introduction to Early Medieval Notation. By Constantin Floros. (Detroit Monographs in Musicology/Studies in Music, No. 45.) Enlarged Second Edition. Revised, Translated and with an illustrated chapter on Cheironomy by Neil K. Moran. Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 2005. [xxiv, 145 p. ISBN 0-89990-129-8. $35.] Tables, music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index.

This newly published book in English translation by Constantin Floros is an important reference tool on the history, theory, and paleography of neume studies. It opens new horizons in the field of medieval chant and launches new research initiatives. The author studies the three major early chant traditions that developed notational [End Page 489] systems and are transmitted in numerous musical sources: Byzantine, Latin, and Slavonic. The approach to this material is quite innovative; Floros insists on thorough study of the neume repertories based on an interdisciplinary and comparative methodology. The theory of neumes is considered not simply as a paleographical discipline, but as a theory of musical figures and their musical meaning, a statement, which is proved in the course of the entire book. Problems from the field of history, theory and palaeography of music, liturgy, linguistics, theology, archeology, and cultural anthropology are sharply outlined. The systematization and classification of the neumatic notations are based on a series of objective criteria. It is always the musical text and the historical evidence that control the research and conclusions. The author shows that the connections between early Byzantine church music and the music of the Western church are much closer than one had assumed. Thus new perspectives on the study of medieval music between East and West are opened.

Byzantine, Slavonic, and Latin neume notations are presented in three major chapters. The development of the Byzantine notation, according to changes from the tenth to the nineteenth centuries, is divided into four stages that are confirmed in Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian, Walachian, and Moldavian sources. Floros's classification of the stages of Paleobyzantine notation was recognized as the standard classification in 1992 and this is among the greatest achievements of his research.

The discussion of the Slavonic notation starts with the correct statement that the South Slavs (Bulgarians and Serbians) and the Eastern Slavs (Russians) took over the Byzantine liturgy as well as Greek liturgical texts translated into Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) when they were Christianized in the ninth and tenth centuries. With the help of combined methodologies, Floros defends his conception about deciphering Old Slavonic kondakarian notation, which was considered an enigma for a long time.

In a broad comparative way the author discusses the Latin neumes as well. He is interested first of all in their relationships with the Byzantine neumes. Detailed comparisons between corresponding Latin and Byzantine neumes led the author to the conclusion that the classification worked out for Latin neumes corresponds extensively with the typology of Paleobyzantine signs. As a whole, Rome, according to Floros, took over, with certain changes, chant notation from Byzantium.

The author goes far beyond the title of the book; he gives an introduction not only to the theory of neumes, but also to the history of monodic music of Byzantine, Slavonic, and Latin churches and the notations used by them. For the first time, the neumatic notations are investigated comparatively in onomasiological, semeiographical, and semasiological aspects. The problems of the theory of neumes are discussed on the basis of extremely rich material of comprehensive samples of manuscripts, some of which are published for the first time in this volume.

There is a lot we can derive from the insights of Floros's research. And we have; in almost every publication on early medieval notation during the last thirty years scholars from different generations have made use of his methodology, systematizations, and classifications. The research of Floros has provoked new studies, initiated new ideas, and fascinated various specialists in medieval music to continue his work, which confirms that the fundamentals in the study of neumes have been well established by him.

Svetlana Kujumdzieva
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,
Institute of Art Studies, Sofia
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