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Romanos de Melode
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Romanos de Melode · Romanos the Melodist lived in the sixth century and was a Byzantine poet and composer of hymns. He was born at the end of the fifth century in Emesa in Syria, into a Jewish family. As a boy he was baptised. Later he became a deacon in Beirut and moved to Constantinople. He was still alive after 555. Little is known about his life; most of it comes from the Menaion for October.
Music and breakthrough
According to a legend, he initially could not read or sing well. During the vigil before Christmas around the year 518 he is said to have read so badly that someone else had to take his place. Afterwards, so the legend goes, he received the gift of singing and poetry in his sleep. How much of that is true cannot be verified.
Influence
His name is linked to the kontakion, a form of rhymed sermon that is set to music. Such a poem has several stanzas with the same metre and a recurring refrain, preceded by a prelude in a different metre. The rhythm is based on accents. Romanos used vivid language, sharp comparisons and dramatic dialogues. According to tradition he wrote more than a thousand hymns. Eighty-nine are attributed to him, of which some sixty are generally regarded as genuine. His Kontakion of the Nativity is regarded as his masterpiece. In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is the patron saint of music, and his work also influenced Armenian hymns.