Byzantine Music – Psaltic Art has been recently added to the UNESCO list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (https://ayla.culture.gr/catalogue/vyzantini-moysiki-psaltiki/ 2/6/2025). Its great historical, cultural and spiritual value is witnessed by means of an uninterrupted oral tradition, in combination with the written tradition, which counts around 10.000 musical manuscripts and thousands of editions. The plethora of hymnographers, melodists and composers, the wealth of genres, categories and styles of chant, the complex modal system (oktoechos) and the more than thousand years old neumatic scripts (parasemantike), are some of the pivotal themes for music education in the field of Psaltic Art.

During the first part of the workshop, some didactical frames and games for the joyful learning of modes, neumes, composers and troparia of Byzantine chant will be presented. They are mainly devised  for children of the kindergarden and primary school and aim at the development of their musical audiation and vocal skills (Papapanagiotou, ed., 2013, especially p. 174-225), as well as the learning of basic elements concerning Byzantine Music. The proposed games aim at specific benefits on the cognitive, affective and psychomotor realms (Perakaki, 2008, p. 15-18) and have been created in connection with the course titled “Aspects of Didactics of Byzantine Music”, at the School for Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Alexandru, 2025), and for the children of the Choir “Three Youths” of the Center ‘Katafygi’ of the Holy Cathedral of St Demetrios in Thessaloniki.

The second part of the workshop focuses on aspects of teaching an adults Byzantine Choir, by studying together a sticheron by St Kassia (9th cent.), the famous woman poetess and composer of Byzantium, in honor of St Martyr Evdokia (feastday on March 1st). After presenting data on the life and oeuvre of St Kassia and basic elements of Byzantine musical palaeography, with examples from her works., we will do warming-up exercises from old Byzantine theoretical manuals, mainly with chromatic intonations. The sticheron “After leaving the delights and changeful things of life” in the plagal of the second mode will be studied along with the following sources: 1. the Sticherarium Ambrosianum A 139 sup. from A.D. 1340/1 (eds. Perria & Raasted, 1992) in fully developed Middle Byzantine notation, and 2. the manuscript Metochion Sancti Sepulchri 709 (beginning of the 19th cent.), autograph by Chourmouzios the Archivarian with the slow exegesis of the same piece in the analytical notation of the New Method. Through the comparative study of the two sources and the systematic approach of the exegetical version of the piece by means of solmisation, recitation of the text on the base of the mode and singing of the melody with its lyrics and with a bordun-tone, the participants can get a practical experience of possibilities for studying in depth a masterpiece of the old classical Byzantine musical repertory.

The workshop will be held with the participation of members of the Study Group “Learning Byzantine Music by Playing” from the School for Music Studies of the A.U.Th., and of the Byzantine Women Choir “St Anysia” of the Greek Society for Music Education.

• Natural environments and awareness through music
• Music and sound education experiences, values, and practices
• Social musical settings
• Music in special education
• Interdisciplinary approaches in music education
• Historical and cultural perspectives and contemporary educational practices
• Meaningful musical experiences
• The nature of musical knowledge
• Lifelong learning for music educators
• Music and communities

Maria Alexandru (born in Bucharest) studied Music Education, Musicology, Byzantine Studies and Latin in Bucharest, Bonn, Copenhagen (PhD, 2000), and Greece (Byzantine chant, post-doc and kanonaki courses). She got scholarships from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Since 2002 she is teaching Byzantine Music at the School for Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (today as a professor and head of the Department). She participated in around 100 congresses and gave conferences and masterclasses in different countries. In 2006 she founded the Study Group for Byzantine Musical Palaeography “Chrysorrhemon” from the School of Music Studies of the A.U.Th. Her work comprises 5 books, more than 70 articles and different recordings, and she got various distinctions. Since 2017 she conducts the female Byzantine Choir “St Anysia” of the Greek Society for Music Education. She is a member the International Musicological Society and other musical associations, member of the Editorial Board of Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae and Series Musicologica Balcanica, as well as chair of the IMS-Study Group for Music of the Christian East and Orient. For her work, cf. e.g. https://repository.kallipos.gr/handle/11419/6487 and https://www.auth.gr/video/25501