Theodore Papakonstantinou

Theodore Papakonstantinou (1949–1970)[1] was a composer and psaltis from Greece, who performed an attempt of innovative, and in some respects ground-breaking harmonization (polyphonic adaptation for a 4-parts choir) of the traditional Byzantine chant. His life was cut short, as he was killed during the Cyprus conflict, and the only adaptation he managed to publish was that of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. He did however publish the theoretical work, outlining the basic principles of his adaptation.

The key idea of his approach was in following the innate attractions of the Byzantine modes, and not the formal classical rules of Western European music harmony, thus to "preserve the imposing character of traditionally monophonic Byzantine chant, while striving to avoid superficial parallels with Western music." In his efforts, Theodore Papakonstantinou started from the most simple modes of the Byzantine system (First Mode and the Plagal First Mode), and his system can not be automatically generalized to more complex modes, such as the Fourth Mode, or the Soft Chromatic mode.

Five of his compositions (Psalm 136, Doxastikon of Pascha, We praise thee, It is truly meet, and the Cherubic Hymn) were adapted into English and recorded in the 1986 cassette tape "Byzantine Music in the New World." by Vassilis Hadjinicolaou, a Greek chanter from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[2] His music are performed by other experimental choirs as well.[3]