A singer, composer, and musical theoretician, Manuel Chrysaphes was called "the New
Koukouzeles" by his admirer, the Cretan composer John Plousiadinos. He is the author of at least 300 compositions, including nearly full modal cycles of liturgical ordinaries (alleluiaria, cheroubika, and koinonika), kalophonic stichera for various movable and fixed feasts throughout the year, kratemata (wordless compositions), and both simple and kalophonic psalmody for Vespers and Matins. Little is known of his life, except that he held the office of
lampadarios at the Constantinopolitan Court, and received commissions from the last two
Byzantine emperors,
John VIII Palaiologos and
Constantine XI Palaiologos. Two of his own autographs survive, one from July 1458 in the
Iviron Monastery in
Mount Athos, and one from July 1463 in the
Topkapi Palace collection. He is also one of the few Byzantine musicians to write on theoretical issues. His surviving treatise,
On the Theory of the Art of Chanting and On Certain Erroneous Views That Some Hold about It, is an invaluable guide to
Byzantine music and the evolution of Byzantine singing in the late
Palaiologan period. == Notes ==