John Koukouzeles

{{Infobox saint

| honorific-prefix = Saint

| name = John Koukouzeles

| image = Ioannis Koukouzelis.jpg

| alt =

| caption = St. John Koukouzeles depicted on a 15th-century musical codex at the Great Lavra monastery, Mount Athos, Greece

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| venerated_in= Eastern Orthodox Church

| birth_place = Dyrrhachium or Anatolia

|feast_day=1 October

| death_date =

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John Koukouzeles Papadopoulos ({{langx|el|Ιωάννης Κουκουζέλης Παπαδόπουλος|translit=Ioannis Koukouzeles Papadopoulos|link=yes}}) was a Byzantine composer, singer and reformer of Byzantine chant.{{sfn|Williams|2001}} He was recognized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church after his death. Among the most illustrious musicians of the Palaiologos dynasty,{{sfn|Williams|2001}} his music remains held in high esteem by Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks,{{Cite web|url=https://www.goarch.org/-/the-stewardship-of-st-john-koukouzelis|title=The Stewardship of St. John Koukouzelis – Parish & Church Life – Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America}} Macedonians, Romanians and Serbs.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bkZITAQ4XbgC&q=john+koukouzelis&pg=PA534|title = The Orthodox Christian World|isbn = 9780415455169|last1 = Casiday|first1 = Augustine|year = 2012| publisher=Routledge}}

Name and etymology

The name "Koukouzeles" was not the composer's surname. His real surname was Papadopoulos.{{sfn|Williams|2001}}{{Cite book |last=Lingas |first=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ockEAAAQBAJ |title=Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition |date=2021-01-31 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-94206-9 |editor-last=Speake |editor-first=Graham |pages=911–912|chapter=Koukouzeles, St. John}}Γρηγόριος, Στάθης (1986). [https://www.ibyzmusic.gr/images/PDF/koukouzelis.pdf Ο μαΐστωρ Ιωάννης Παπαδόπουλος Κουκουζέλης. Η ζωή και το έργο του] [The magister John Papadopoulos Koukouzelis: His life and works]. Αθήνα: Περιοδικό Εφημεριος. pp. 1–38 "Koukouzeles" is allegedly derived from the Greek word for broad beans (κουκιά, koukia) and a Slavic/Bulgarian word for cabbage (зеле, zele). Allegedly, the name appeared when Koukouzeles was asked in school about the food he was eating and he replied koukia kai zelie ({{Langx|el|κουκιά και ζελίε|link=no}}). This, however, is regarded as a folk etymology. The name is most likely derived from the Greek word koukoutzi ({{Langx|el|κουκούτζι|lit=seed|link=no}}) along with the common Greek suffix -elis ({{Langx|el|-έλης|link=no}}). A relation with the word koukoutseli ({{Langx|el|κουκουτσέλι|lit=little chicken (?)|link=no}}), a Greek word which was used to refer to some kind of bird, has also been proposed.

Life and career

Information about Koukouzeles' life and career is unclear and subject to controversy. Even the era in which he lived is disputed. It is conjectured that he lived between the 12th and 15th centuries. According to musicologist Gregorios Stathis, it is unlikely that Koukouzeles lived in the 12th or early 13th centuries, or after the late 14th century, proposing instead that he lived during the late 13th ({{Circa|1270}}) and early 14th centuries (before 1341).

Information about his life is derived mainly from two sources. First, the large body of his musical manuscripts containing his works and secondly from copies of a late, anonymous and problematic work of dubious authority called Life. From the former, we learn that his last name was Papadopoulos;{{sfn|Williams|2001}} he studied with Xenos Koronis under a cantor named John Glykes (likely a reference to John XIII of Constantinople) and changed his name to Ioannikios when he became a monk.

File:Papadike Trochos.jpg

According to the latter, the anonymous biography Life "of dubious authority", Koukouzeles was born in Dyrrhachium (modern-day Durrës, Albania) in the late 13th century to a father of unknown origins,{{Cite thesis |title=Ο Ιωάννης Β' Κομνηνός και η εποχή του (1118–1143)|publisher=National Documentation Centre (EKT) |first=Αγγελική |last=Παπαγεωργίου |year=2007 |doi=10.12681/eadd/19826}} (probably Greek) and a Slavic/Bulgarian mother.{{citation | editor-first = Alexander | editor-last = Kazhdan | editor-link = Alexander Kazhdan | title = Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-19-504652-6 |page=1155 |chapter=Koukouzeles, John |quote=There is evidence... that his mother was Bulgarian.}}{{cite book |first=Robert A. |last=Maguire |author2=Alan Timberlake |title=American contributions to the Twelfth International Congress of Slavists |year=1998 |publisher=Slavica |page=66 |quote=For instance, the famous reformer of Byzantine music, loan Kukuzel (ca. 1302 – ca. 1360), not only used his musical composition "Polieleos of a Bulgarian Woman" melodic elements from his mother's laments... |isbn=978-0-89357-274-7}} He was orphaned in childhood.[https://oca.org/saints/lives/2009/10/01/102832-venerable-john-koukouzelis-the-hymnographer-of-mt-athos-albania "Venerable John (Koukouzelis)"], Orthodox Church in America Nevertheless, the accuracy of Life is disputed, since it was written many years after the death of Koukouzeles and also makes several fantastical claims. According to a modern German historian, he was instead born in Anatolia under the Empire of Nicaea;{{Cite web |title=Saint John Koukouzelis Institute of Liturgical Arts |url=https://www.koukouzelis.net/about |access-date= |website=koukouzelis.net}} this opinion is based on the existence of chromatic intervals in Byzantine music. As evidenced by his real surname Papadopoulos, he was probably the son of a priest.

At a young age he was noted and accepted into the school at the imperial court at Constantinople,{{cite web |title=St. John Kukuzelis |url=http://www.roca.org/OA/104/104g.htm |access-date=6 May 2007 |publisher=Orthodox America}} where he received his education and established himself as one of the leading authorities in his field during the time. A favourite of the Byzantine emperor and a principal choir chanter, he moved to Mount Athos and led a monastic way of life in the Great Lavra. Because of his singing abilities, he was called "Angel-voiced".{{cite book |title=Електронно издание "История на България" |language=bg |last=Бакалов |first=Георги |author2=Милен Куманов |publisher=Труд, Сирма |location=София |year=2003 |isbn=954528613X |chapter=Йоан Кукузел (ок. 1280–1360)}}

Musical style and compositions

Koukouzeles established a new melodious ("kalophonic") style of singing out of the sticherarion.See as an example Maria Alexandru's study ({{harvnb|Alexandru|2011}}) of Koukouzeles' composition of a {{lang|el|sticheron kalophonikon|size=120%}} which he created over a part (ποὺς) of a traditional sticheron for Saint Demetrios. Some years after the fall of Constantinople Manuel Chrysaphes characterised the {{lang|el|sticheron kalophonikon}} and the {{lang|el|anagrammatismos}} as new genres of psaltic art which were once created by Koukouzeles.See the edition and translation by Dimitri Conomos ({{harvnb|Conomos|1985|pp=40–45}}).

File:Saint John Koukouzelis.jpg

Reception

In general it is useful to make a distinction between compositions which can be verified as the compositions by Koukouzeles, and those which are simply based on the method which he taught (as a stylistic category based on the {{lang|el|kalophonic melos}} as exemplified by Mega Ison). Even concerning famous compositions, their authorship is often a subject of scholarly debates whose concern is not always the talent of one individual composer – like the Polyeleoi of the Voulgara allegedly dedicated to his mother that, according to some Bulgarian researchers, contains elements of traditional Bulgarian mourning songs.{{cite web |title=725 години от рождението на Йоан Кукузел |url=http://www.librousse.bg/Kakvo_novo/Minali_sybitia/Joan_Kukuzel_2005/joan_kukuzel_2005.html |access-date=6 May 2007 |publisher=Ruse Library website |language=bg}} Greek editions of the same Polyeleos are different and especially the authorship of the Kratema used in the Bulgarian edition has been a controversial issue.Sarafov's edition ({{harvnb|Sarafov|1912|pp=201–203}}) has a teretismos which ends a fifth too high for the Polyeleos composition, his edition of compositions ascribed to Koukouzeles is regarded as authoritative by Bulgarian chanters until today (listen to the interpretation of the Bulgarian Byzantine choir under direction of Dimiter Dimitrov) {{harv|Belgarkata}}. Additionally, the word Voulgara might not refer to his alleged mother, but instead to the European bee-eater, a bird which was called by the same name. Concerning {{lang|el|stichera kalophonika}}, there are numerous compositions made up in his name, but his authorship must be regarded as a certain school which had a lot of followers and imitators.

Modern print editions of chant books have only a very few compositions (different melismatic echos varys realisations of {{lang|grc|Ἄνωθεν οἱ προφήται}}, several Polyeleos compositions, the {{lang|el|cherubikon palatinon}}, the Mega Ison, the Anoixantaria){{Clarify|reason=no idea what the stuff in the brackets means|date=February 2017}} which are almost never sung, except the short Sunday koinonikon, for the very practical reason that most of Koukouzeles' compositions, at least based on the exegetic transcriptions by Chourmouzios Chartophylakos,{{sfn|Chourmouzios|1819}} are simply too long.Some collections of {{lang|el|stichera kalophonika|size=120%}} made alone of the Menaion cycle – they were usually called "exercise books" ({{lang|el|mathemataria|size=120%}}) – have a volume of 1900 pages. In fact, even the traditional way to sing the sticheraric melody had been already so expanded that the modern editions must all regarded as different efforts to abridge the traditional melody.

Sainthood and legacy

Koukouzeles is regarded as the most influential figure in the music of his period. He was later recognized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church, his feast day being on 1 October.Great Synaxaristes: {{in lang|el}} [http://www.synaxarion.gr/gr/sid/783/sxsaintinfo.aspx "Ὁ Ὅσιος Ἰωάννης ὁ ψάλτης ὁ καλούμενος Κουκουζέλης"]. 1 October. synaxarion.gr.

A musical school in his native Durrës bears his name, Shkolla Jon Kukuzeli. Also, Kukuzel Cove in Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica is named after Koukouzeles, using the Slavic form of his name.

References

Sources

{{Cite journal

| volume = 49–50

| pages = 57–105

| last = Alexandru

| first = Maria

| title = Byzantine Kalophonia, illustrated by St. John Koukouzeles' piece Φρούρηζον πανένδοξε in Honour of St. Demetrios from Thessaloniki. Issues of Notation and Analysis

| journal = Studii şi cercetări de istoria artei. Teatru, muzică, cinematografie

| series = Serie novă

|year = 2011

| url = http://www.scia.istoria-artei.ro/2011-2012.php

}}

{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Belgarkata}}|reference={{YouTube|HXXIF9rKUr0|Audio}}, John Koukouzelis: "Polielei na Bĕlgarkata in Glas 5" (extracts), Bulgarian Byzantine Choir, Dimitar Dimitrov {{Webarchive|url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211214/HXXIF9rKUr0|date=2021-12-14}}}}
{{citation

| publisher = Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

| isbn = 978-3-7001-0732-3

| editor1-last = Conomos

| editor1-first = Dimitri

| title = The Treatise of Manuel Chrysaphes, the Lampadarios: [Περὶ τῶν ἐνθεωρουμένων τῇ ψαλτικῇ τέχνῃ καὶ ὧν φρουνοῦσι κακῶς τινες περὶ αὐτῶν] On the Theory of the Art of Chanting and on Certain Erroneous Views that some hold about it (Mount Athos, Iviron Monastery MS 1120, July 1458)

| place = Vienna

| series = Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae – Corpus Scriptorum de Re Musica

| volume = 2

| year = 1985

}}

{{Citation

|last1=Koukouzeles

|first1=Ioannes

|editor=Chourmouzios the Archivist

|title = Athens, National Library of Greece (EBE), Metochion of Panagios Taphos (ΜΠΤ) 703

|work = Manuscript with Chourmouzios' transcriptions of 14th-century composers (Ioannes Glykys, Ioannes Koukouzeles, Xenos Korones, Ioannes Kladas etc.) according to the New Method

|year=1819

|location=Istanbul|ref={{harvid|Chourmouzios|1819}}

}}

{{Cite book

| publisher = Peter Gluškov

| editor-first = Petĕr V.

| editor-last=Sarafov

| chapter = Biografiya na Sv. Ioan Kukuzel, Iz carigradskaya prĕvod (Aniksantari, Golĕmoto Iso, Poleyleyat na Bĕlgarkata, Heruvimska pĕsn, Pričastno, Svyše prorocy)

| title = Rĕkovodstvo za praktičeskoto i teoretičesko izučvane na Vostočnata cĕrkovna muzika, Parachodni uroci, Voskresnik i Antologiya (Polielei, Božestvena služba ot Ioana Zlatoousta, Božestvena služba na Vasilij Velikij, Prazdnični pričastni za prĕz cĕlata godina, Sladkoglasni Irmosi)

| location = Sofia

| date = 1912

| pages = 131–216

}}

{{cite Grove|last=Williams|first=Edward V.|others=Revised by Christian Troelsgård |year=2001|title=Koukouzeles [Papadopoulos], Joannes|id=15428}} {{subscription}}

External links

{{YouTube|KJfSGIbvA8A|Audio}}, {{lang|el|Sticheron kalophonikon}} about Φρούρηζον (Protect, o most glorious) in {{lang|el|echos plagios devteros}}, Greek Byzantine Choir, Lycourgos Angelopoulos
{{YouTube|8OBooOp8KhI|Audio|link=no}}, Sunday Koinonikon Хвалите Господа с'небес in Glas 5, Sofia Priest Choir, Kiril Popov

Category:1280 births

Category:1360 deaths

Category:14th-century Bulgarian people

Category:14th-century Christian saints

Category:Byzantine composers

Category:Byzantine hymnographers

Category:Byzantine saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church

Category:Bulgarian classical composers

Category:Composers of Christian music

Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Albania

Category:Medieval Bulgarian saints

Category:14th-century composers