A Byzantine chant Collection from Sicily: a Collaboration between Copenhagen and Piana degli Albanesi (Palermo)

The aim of this paper is to give an account of the collaboration between a collector of the Byzantine chant tradition of Piana degli Albanesi (Palermo) in Sicily, fr. Bartolomeo Di Salvo, and the editorial board of the Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae, i.e. an institution under the aegis of the University of Copenhagen. Bartolomeo Di Salvo (1916-86), a Catholic monk of Byzantine Rite, gathered between 1950-1960 the most complete collection of this late-medieval and still living musical tradition, handed down over the last five centuries only by means of the oral transmission. In the same decade, fr. Di Salvo got in contact with the MMB, and eventually they agreed to publish the critical edition of this collection. After more than fifty years, the updated and revised version of the edition of this meaningful collection is finally being published by the MMB.