Byzantium
The Byzantine system decidedly influenced Western practices, which was eventually organized as well in a system of eight modes. On the other hand, an important difference between the Byzantine practice and the Western tradition is the widespread use of hymns, which in fact outgrew psalmody.
The Byzantine tradition originated in the liturgical rite of the Eastern Roman Empire. The liturgical tradition, however, outlived the fall of the Empire in 1453 and the advent of Ottoman rule in the former Byzantium, and in fact spread as far west as Spain and to both the northeastern and southern areas of present-day Italy.
The Byzantines devised a system of eight modes around which the music was organized and which provided the melodic framework for music since at least the 8th century. The roots of the system can be found in both ancient music theory and Near-Eastern practices. The oktoechos reflects the organization of the Byzantine liturgical year into eight-week periods, each of which is assigned one of the modes.
There are approximately 12,000 to 15,000 extant Byzantine manuscripts, a marginal amount of which contain the so-called melodic notation used for psalmody and hymns. The earliest sources date from the mid-10th century. Several hundred, on the other hand, contain so-called 'ekphonetic' or lectionary notation, which indicates the tones in which the readings of the scripture ought to be sung. These sources date from the 9th century. However, it is widely accepted that both notation systems had developed earlier. Despite the graphic similarities of both of these systems, no definite conclusion has been made about a common origin for the different Byzantine notations. Given the widespread availability of the manuscript sources, several scholars have been able to compile volumes expose the collections of libraries in Great Britain - e.g. Stefanović's 'Manuscripts of Byzantine Chant in Oxford' (1963) -, Italy - e.g. Tardo's 'La musica bizantina e i codici di melurgia della biblioteca di Grottaferrata', Accademie e biblioteche d'Italia (1930-31) -, France - e.g. Gastoué's 'Introduction à la paléographie musicale byzantine: catalogue des manuscrits de musique byzantine de la Bibliothèque nationale de Paris et des bibliothèques publiques de France' (1907) - and Denmark - e.g. Schartau's 'Manuscripts of Byzantine Music in Denmark', in the Cahiers de l'Institut du Moyen Age grec et latin, no.48 (1984).
