C. Carathéodory, K. Psachos and Byzantine Music: the Letters of Carathéodory to Psachos

Πάπυροι - Επιστημονικό Περιοδικό τόμος 3, 2014 Papyri - Scientific Journal volume 3, 2014 MARIA K. PAPATHANASSIOU, Professor Emerita of the Department of Mathematics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Hellas . , , . EΜmail:ΑΡΩ Κ[email protected]ΠΑΠΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΟΥ Ὁμότιμος Καθηγήτρια τοῦ Τμήματος Μαθηματικῶν τοῦ Ἐθνικοῦ καὶ Καποδιστριακοῦ Πανεπιστημίου Ἀθηνῶν Ελλάς – Thessaloniki 2014 Θεσσαλονίκη 2014 ISSN:2241-5106 Πάπυροι - Επιστημονικό Περιοδικό Papyri - Scientific Journal τόμος 3, 2014 volume 3, 2014 www.academy.edu.gr [email protected] C. Carathéodory, K. Psachos and Byzantine music: The letters of Carathéodory to Psachos C. Carathéodory, K. Psachos and Byzantine music: The letters of Carathéodory to Psachos ( ) MARIA K. PAPATHANASSIOU Summary The renowned mathematician C. Carathéodory (1873-1950) was a highly cultured man with excellent knowledge of the fine arts and of the classical music. In this article we present C. Carathéodory’s interest in the Byzantine music as we can deduce from his three letters written in 1905, 1909 and 1924, that were addressed to Konstantinos Psachos (1869-1949), a famous ethnomusicologist and professor of Byzantine music. In 1904 K. Psachos has been sent by the Oecumenical Patriarchate from Constantinople to Athens in order to restore the teaching of the traditional Byzantine music in the Greek Orthodox Church. In this article we publish Carathéodory’s letters fully annotated and we show his special interest in this subject, as follows from his encouraging letter to Psachos so that the latter plans and constructs an Instrument, which could reproduce the musical intervals of the Byzantine music. Moreover two of these letters are the only evidence of two unknown trips of Carathéodory, one to Constantinople and one to Athens. What could the famous mathematician Constantin Carathéodory (1873-1950) and the prominent ethnomusicologist and teacher of Byzantine music, Konstantinos Psachos (1869- 1949), have in common? It is their Greek origin from Constantinople and their love for Greek tradition, with Byzantine music being its main ambassador. In the rich bibliography and the published records concerning the works and overall activities of C. Carathéodory, there is nothing showing his interest in Byzantine music. The references revolving around his knowledge and interests in art topics mainly concern his deep knowledge of painting and classical music.1 However, the existence of three letters that C. Carathéodory sent to K. Psachos reveals another, not widely known aspect of his personality. The first two letters, written in 1905 and 1909 respectively, were never published. The third letter (during a visitation), written in 1924, was recently published by lead cantor-musicologist Th. Ε. Akridas.2 (*) Published in Greek in NEUSIS 20 (2011-12), 25-61, and republished in this volume. The letters are held by lawyer Mrs. Eleni Dourogianni-Ntalla, niece and goddaughter of Amalia, the spouse of K. Psachos. I thank her from the bottom of my heart not only for entrusting me to publish the letters and comment on them, but also because she handed me notes and files from her personal record in order to write this paper. So, I dedicate this work to her as a gift in return for her appreciation and love towards me during these forty years we have known each other. 1 Μ. Georgiadou, Constantin Carathéodory. A Mathematician under the protection of the State (in Greek), Crete University Press, Crete 2007, p. 410-413. (Originally published as Constantin Carathéodory, Mathematics and Politics in Turbulent Times, Springer-Verlag, 2004.) 2 Th. Ε. Αkridas, Criticism of the musical dysplasias (malformations) of S. Karas (in Greek), Mesologgi 2009, p. 20. 77 ISSN:2241-5106 Πάπυροι - Επιστημονικό Περιοδικό Papyri - Scientific Journal τόμος 3, 2014 volume 3, 2014 www.academy.edu.gr [email protected] C. Carathéodory, K. Psachos and Byzantine music: The letters of Carathéodory to Psachos In the present paper, the publishing of the letters is accompanied by the research on their content and relevant comments, while an effort is being made to revive the political, scientific and artistic environment of the first quarter of the 20th century, from which the letters date. The first letter In his first letter to K. Psachos, C. Carathéodory writes: Peran of the Reigning City, Tuesday, May 10th, 1905 My highly esteemed and learned Sir, It is with great interest that we, the healthy part of music-lovers, have been watching the devout efforts of His Eminence the Metropolitan of Athens and your works and contribution towards the correction of the unsettled situation in our ecclesiastical music. Ignorance, prejudice and foolishness from the part of the dissenters, large unawareness and incompetence from the part of Byzantine cantors, brought musical chaos the treatment of which will require plenty of time, struggle, incomparable patience and willpower. The best of luck! May the venerable and God-protected Church of Greece prove that they own all the necessary skills with a view to correct the irregularities! We all heartily applaud each and every success of your! Besides, great results [the correction of our ecclesiastical music or rather the restoration of its archaic-forme chant, is a major achievement!] require maximum efforts and lots of studies. You did very well in publishing a special newspaper to support the devout cause and in that respect, I am sending you without any delay my humble annual subscription to Forminx. Take care in sending the copies to the wise lead cantor Eustratios, asking him to pay for his subscription. He is ready to send payment to you. Of course, you must have in mind the construction of an instrument suitable to reproduce the songs. It is absolutely necessary for us to return to the Byzantine instrument, like the one that was used at the Palace and the hippodrome. We will be illumined in such a way as to achieve the best results in executing the aforementioned task. The rhythmic reading of the Gospels and the Apostles and simple chanting might be easy to achieve. However, this is not the case for slow and long melodies, like Cherubic hymns and Koinonika! Those require an instrument for special study, catharsis, a proper harmonic unison and retraction. You, a scholar of music, know these things better than anyone else, and your wise action is expected to bear fruit worthy of your keen desire and the hopes of Orthodox Greeks who are dispersed around the world. I wish you all the best Const. St. Carathéodory 78 ISSN:2241-5106 Πάπυροι - Επιστημονικό Περιοδικό Papyri - Scientific Journal τόμος 3, 2014 volume 3, 2014 www.academy.edu.gr [email protected] C. Carathéodory, K. Psachos and Byzantine music: The letters of Carathéodory to Psachos I will start with an observation that is valid for all three letters of Carathéodory to Psachos. It is the fact that they were written in fluent Greek, and what is more, in archaic “katharevousa” (a puristic form of Modern Greek). Given the fact that Carathéodory was born in Berlin, was raised in Brussels where he attended French-speaking schools and had a German nanny, one can easily wonder how he had such an excellent command of the Greek language, besides conversations at home. I guess the answer would be the one given by his daughter, Despina Rodopoulou, to a relevant question: Herself and her brother Stefanos were taught Greek at home by the archimandrite of the Greek Orthodox Church of Munich. Her father probably learned Greek the same way, and he must have had a foreign accent of course, as is implied by the incident during his teaching at the Chemistry Department of the University of Athens (1923-1924), when his students complained that “their professor’s Greek was too poor and they couldn’t understand him,”3 but his written Greek was truly impeccable. Let’s go back to the first letter now, highlighting that C. Carathéodory mentions “Peran of the Reigning City (Basilevousa)” as the place it was written at, instead of “Peran of Constantinople,” something that brings to mind the “Queen of all Cities” of the Byzantine Empire. This letter dated Tuesday, the 10th (23rd) of May 1905, means that it was written 23 days after the celebration of the Orthodox Easter, which, in 1905, was celebrated on Sunday, the 17th (30th) of April. 1904 and 1905 were very important years for C. Carathéodory. On October 1st 1904, he received his Ph.D.4 and in January 1905, he had already completed his habilitation thesis, which he submitted at the University of Göttingen on the 5th of March (20th of February according to the Julian calendar), entitled “Über die starken Maxima und Minima bei einfachen Integralen” (On the Strong Maxima and Minima in the Case of Simple Integrals). That gave him the right to teach, even though he was still in the tenth semester of his studies. He spent the Easter holidays of 1905 with his father and his sister in Isthmia, being guests to his uncle Tilemachos.5 A question is what kind of Easter did he spend in Isthmia, the Orthodox or the Catholic one? In 1905, the Orthodox Easter was celebrated on the 17th (30th) of April, while the Catholic Easter on the 23rd of April. So, if we carry both dates forward to the new calendar, then the Orthodox Easter was celebrated on the (17th+13 days) 30th of April, meaning a week after the Catholic Easter. Consequently, Carathéodory really had the chance to spend his Easter holidays in Isthmia, based on its celebration date according to both doctrines. His letter to K. Psachos, written in “Peran of the Reigning City” on Tuesday, the 10th (23rd) of May 1905, shows that Carathéodory, right after his Easter holidays in Greece, went to Constantinople and not straight to Germany, as is suggested, and this is the only testimonial for this trip of his.

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