Byzantine Chant

Byzantine chant is the monophonic liturgical chant of the Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox Church, sung in Byzantine and post-Byzantine notation from the services of Constantinople to today's monasteries of Mount Athos. A solo psaltis or choir sings highly ornamented melodies within the eight-mode oktoechos system over a sustained ison drone, without instruments. Reformed in notation by the Three Teachers in 1814 and guarded by cantors such as *Simon Karas* and *Lycourgos Angelopoulos*, it is performed today by choirs including the *Greek Byzantine Choir* and *Cappella Romana*, whose recordings reconstruct lost medieval repertories.