CHOURMOUZIOS THE ARCHIVIST

(c. 1770, Chalki, Greece – 1840, Chalki)

   Composer of festal tropes, psalms, six Great Doxologies, Cherubic hymns, and communions, he is renowned for his 34 volumes attempting to transcribe the entire repertory of Byzantine chant into the reformed musical notation of Chrystanthos of Madytos, with the help of Gregorios the Protopsaltes (c. 1778–1821). His realizations of the kalaphonic chants, highly melismatic, have stirred arguments about their authenticity among scholars.