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psalticnotes 2.0
Volume 1, No. 1. (Fall, Winter 2008)
Introducing psalticnotes 2.0
psalticnotes is a web page originally published over seventeen years ago (Wilmington, North Carolina), yet today, over 50,000 visits and 140,000 page views later it persists as a web presence dedicated to being a resource for students and practitioners of the blessed Psaltic Art, otherwise known as Byzantine Music or Byzantine Chant. The related fields of Byzantine musicology, hymnology, liturgics and typikon are also thoroughly represented here. Readers in the Church will also enjoy the offerings.
In addition to updating the pages by completing much that had been left undone due to the many directions my work takes me, the site has been retooled to comply with developing web technologies, as well as officially entering the Web 2.0 world. I hope it is as much a pleasure to view and read for you as it was for me to create!
The site is organized into three sections: psalticTheoria, psalticBlog, and psalticLinks.
- psaltictheoria is dedicated to information and resources for the theory and practice of the psaltic art. The articles cover a wide spectrum of topics whose common thread is the strengthening, transmission and cultivation of our psaltic heritage. They are offered as a small contribution to worldwide renewed interest in this traditional music form. In this section one can learn the basics of the New Method (1814) chant notation of the Three Teachers (in progress), study the kanons of the church and some patristic guidance regarding psalmody in the Church. Other articles are dedicated to understanding typikon and psalmody within the context of the history and structure of the liturgical services in Orthodox worship.
- psalticBlog has been around for quite some time under the name psalticMusings, but mostly as a beta. It is basically a psaltic blog, which is short for weblog. You are encouraged to share your questions, comments or thoughts regarding the psaltic art. It is hoped that it will be an informal, informative forum for creating a psaltic community.
- The updated and better organized psalticlinks section is now hopefully even more useful and completes the triad of elements tapping in to Web 2.0 technology. The psalticlinks are now mirrored on del.icio.us. This will allow collaboration. In other words, we can share bookmarks, and that’s a win-win situation! del.icio.us’s tagging system allows for a well-organized bookmark list, which is a useful research and learning tool.
With that introduction, I look forward to receiving your feedback and interacting with you on psalticBlog as we cultivate and strengthen the psaltic community, together, with God’s help.
Technical Note: The psalticNotes Web site utilizes XHTML and Unicode (UTF-8) font encoding. In order to properly read the pages with polytonic Greek or other language texts you will need to make sure your browser is correctly configured and knows where to find the unicode fonts with extended Greek in them on your computer system.
