View source for Gregory Protopsaltes the Byzantios

[[Image:GrigoriosProtops.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Gregory Byzantios Protopsaltis]] 
'''Gregory Protopsaltes the Byzantios''', also '''Gregory Byzantios Protopsaltis''' or '''Gregorios Byzantios Protopsaltis''', was a [[Lampadarios|Lambadarios]] and Archcantor of the [[Hagia Sophia (Constantinople)|Great Church]] of Constantinople during the decades of the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He was a musical genius, musician, and teacher of music.

==Life==
Gregory's date of birth is uncertain, but tradition sets his birth in Constantinople, as either in 1777 or 1778, to a [[priest]] named George and a mother Helen, on the same day that the renowned Peter Lambadarios the Peloponnesian died. During his youth he learned the Armenian language and music. Then, his father sent him to the Sinai, at Valata where under the [[abbot]] [[archimandrite]] Jeremias he learned the Greek language and, with his fine voice, became a [[reader]] and [[cantor]].

During the time between 1800 and 1810, Gregory married and began raising a family with a number of children. 

Gregory was a passionate music student under a number of cantors including Iakovos Protosaltes, Peter Protosaltes the Byzantios, and George the Cretan. From 1800, Gregory was in Constantinople chanting as either Lambadarios or First Domestikos with his teacher, Peter Protosaltes. By 1810, Gregory had definitely advanced to a position as Lambadarios. 

On [[June 21]], 1819, Gregory was advanced to Protosaltes, and he chanted as Archcantor until his death on [[December 23]], 1821.

==Byzantine music==
During his life time Gregory participated in a historic reform of [[Byzantine Notation|byzantine music notation]]. Gregory, along with the archimandrite [[Chrysanthos of Madytos|Chrysanthos]] and [[Chourmouzios the Archivist|Chourmouzios Chartophylax]], often referred to as the ''Three Teachers'', systematized into a single method the theory of [[Byzantine Chant|Byzantine Music]]. In 1814, they developed an explanation of the old notation and transcribed the melodies as used from before 1814 into the new notation that they had developed. 

To dispel suspicion that the Teachers were inventing new [[Psalter|Psalmody]], the Three Teachers presented their new method of teaching and learning Byzantine music to the [[Holy Synod]] of the [[Church of Constantinople]]. After thorough discussions, the [[Synod]], under the chair of [[Patriarch]] Cyril VI, approved their work. 

To facilitate the use of the new method, a school was founded at the Sinai [[Metochion]] to teach the new method of music, its rules, and grammar. The teachers at the school were the monk Chrysanthos and Gregory, the Lambadarios of the Great Church, who presented the new method to over 200 students each day in classes that included hierarchs, [[protosyngellos|protosyggeloi]], and [[deacon]]s, as well as many [[laity|laymen]].

==Source==
[http://www.ec-patr.net/en/history/gregory-byzantios.htm  Gregory Protopsaltes the Byzantios]

[[Category: Clergy]]
[[Category:Hymnographers]]