Dionysios Photeinos – Composer, Theorist and Teacher of Byzantine Music in Bucharest

A less known fact about Dionysios Photeinos but equally relevant for Romanian and Greek culture is his contribution in the musical field. Far from being an occasional preoccupation, church music accompanied Dionysios from the time of his arrival in Bucharest (1796–1797) until his premature death, which occurred in full creative power. This article aims explore an unclear and little-discussed biographical aspect: his didactic activity in the field of music, seen in parallel with his compositional endeavors. In this regard, the hypothesis according to which Dionysios Photeinos taught church chants in Căldărușani Monastery (1797-1816) and then in Bucharest (1809-1816), must be reconsidered. The article also sheds light on the Bucharest school where the teacher Dionisake exercised his duties as a music teacher very seriously and rigorously. He promoted of a new current of expression on the land of Wallachia, starting from the κατὰ νόημα style, which he adopted from Iakovos the Protopsalt and developed it into a more elaborate musical rhetoric. Also, in the context of the Chrysantine reform which took place in Constantinople in 1814, Photeinos proved to be a convinced defender of the old musical notation, a fact that led to his removal from the public school and will strengthen his concerns for history and literature. For his original church compositions and didactic activity, Dionysios can be considered the theoretician, psalter and teacher with the greatest influence in the Danubian Principalities, from the beginning of the 19th century.