The Emperor Theophilos and his Musical Transformations: History and Prehistory of the Troparion Ἄκουε Κόρη

The purpose of this paper is to analyse for the first time from a musicological point of view an episode involving the Byzantine emperor Theophilos (829-842) and his activity as a composer of sacred music. Our starting point is a series of Byzantine chronicles (10th-12th centuries), compared with neumated sources and hymnographic texts. From here, we will come to a reflection on the relationship between iconoclastic policies and hymnographic/notational development in Byzantium, thanks also to an unpublished treatise on Byzantine musical practice (Μέθοδος ἠκρι[βω]μένη τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων κὺρ Κοσμᾶ καὶ Ἰωάννου τοῦ Δαμασκηνοῦ καὶ Ἰωάννου τοῦ Χρυσοστόμου). The data derived from this analysis will make it possible to illuminate a more ancient phase of Greek Christian music, before the Iconoclasm; in fact, new elements will be provided on the fortune of a literary-musical genre – that of the refrained alphabetic hymns of the ‘Schøyen’ type – so far known only from a few, mainly papyrus, testimonies.