To mark the bicentenary of the first published guide to the ‘New Method’ of Byzantine music – the Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Ecclesiastical Music by Chrysanthos of Madytos (Paris, 1821) – the epistemological journal Epistēmēs Metron Logos invites submissions for a special issue examining the musical substance and legacy of the reform, including new perspectives for future endeavours in its methodology and in the wider spirit of its theoretical directions. 

In particular, it welcomes scholarly studies of the issues of musical theory and practice addressed in the first instance by the inventors of the New Method including:

• the systematisation of the received tonal and modal systems of Byzantine ecclesiastical chant as proposed by the reformers and their historical successors;
• relationships between music theory, musical notation and vocal performance, including issues ranging from historical and comparative musicology all the way to modern disciplines such as psychoacoustics;
• documented structural approaches to the theoretical advantages and accomplishments as well as to possible disadvantages and failings of the New Method and its revisions;
• modern and suggested approaches of these issues and their implications for indicating directions towards refined theoretical investigations and updates and for exploring guidelines towards special or general re-examinations, even to the point of new refined theoretical, structural and analytical formulations of Byzantine music theory overall.