Balasios

Balasios, also known as Balasios the Priest and Nomophylax, was a composer of Byzantine music and an official of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Born in the Ottoman capital around 1615 and died around 1700, though these dates are not known with certainty, he came from a family of Peloponnesian origin. His career is fundamental to understanding the renewal of the Byzantine chant repertoire in the seventeenth century.

He received his general education at the Patriarchal Academy under Theophilos Korydalleus. He learned Byzantine chant alongside Kosmas Makedonos, with Germanos of New Patras as his teacher, and composed an acclamation for him. A manuscript dating from before 1660 presents him with the title domestikos, which suggests that he was among the musicians of the Patriarchal cathedral at the time when Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes served as protopsaltes.

After being ordained a priest, he served the Ecumenical Patriarchate for decades, roughly between 1663 and 1700, holding numerous liturgical and administrative posts. Around 1680 he came to be known as nomophylax, a Patriarchal title that regularly appears in musical manuscripts.

As a composer, he continued the work of Panagiotes and Germanos. He completed his embellished stichērária with a new edition of the Heirmologion, and composed a complete series of eight Great Doxologies arranged by mode, the first of its kind. He also wrote kekragaria for the Hesperinos, verses of the Magnificat for the Orthros, and numerous Eucharistic pieces, among them two series of eight Cherubic Hymns. His exēgēseis, elaborations of pre-existing chants that transcribe melismas previously noted in abbreviated form, mark the beginning of greater notational precision in the florid repertoires.

His legacy is considerable: his Heirmologion remained in use until it was replaced by that of Petros Peloponnesios, and several of his works survive in Chrysanthine editions. In addition, he is credited with a Turkish song that places him at the head of Romeic ecclesiastical musicians linked to the secular Ottoman tradition.