A recent acquisition comes as a donation from Svetlana Kuiumdzhieva, renown musicologist and vice-president of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. It is the most recent issue of Българско музикознание /Bulgarian Musicology 36.3-4 (2012), which contains the proceedings of “Byzantium Without Borders: Hymnography and Music in the Byzantine World,” the 22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies that was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, August 22-27, 2011.
The papers are divided into three sections: New Sources, New Approaches, and Distinguished Personalities.
“New Sources” includes articles by Svetlana Kuiumdzhieva on the Tropologion, Yuliya Artamonova on Znamennaia Notation, Gregory Myers on the ritual and music for the Dedication of a Church; Olga Grinchenko discussing Byzantine and Slavic Kontakaria, and musical manuscripts from Sozopolis (by Stefan Harkov) and in Ohrid and Tirana (by Asen Atanasov).
Christian Troelsgärd addresses a “new approach” in “The Construction and Dissemination of the Middle Byzantine Musical Notation,” Nina Zakharina considers “On the Reforms (‘Ispravlenie’) of Russian Liturgical Chant Books from the 11th to the 19th Century,” Galina Alekseeva and Denis Gordeev write on “Mechanisms for the Adaptation of Byzantine Culture in Russia: Chant, Church Service,” and Elena Toncheva‘s abstract alludes to discussion “About the Modal Characteristics during the Post-Byzantine Period: Based on Sources in Slavonic Church Music.”
Prominent figures in Byzantine and Slavic musicology discussed are: Gregory of Nyssa – by Anna Arevshatyan, Photios – by Silvia Tessari, Apostol Nikolaev-Strumski – by Stefka Venkova, and Hieronymus Tragodistes – by Christiana Demetriou.
