John Koukouzeles
John Koukouzeles shaped the kalophonic style of Byzantine chant: long, ornamented melodies for liturgical texts that still circulate in Orthodox practice. A Terirem excerpt sits among Bulgarian traditional song on Songs With Mara.
He is known for reforming the sticherarion into a more melismatic manner and for genres later called sticheron kalophonikon and anagrammatismos. Works linked to his name include polyeleoi, cherubika, anoixantaria and the didactic Mega Ison, though many pieces reflect his school as much as a single hand. The writing is slow-breathing and elaborate, made for trained cantors rather than congregational song, and often too extended for ordinary modern service use.
Compositions by John Koukouzeles appear on
Songs With Mara
The music originated as the score for Meryl Tankard's Australian Dance Theatre show of the same name. Mara and Llew Kiek perform and arrange this mostly traditional Bulgarian repertoire.