Petraki (c. 1740-1778)

Petros Peloponnesios, also known as Petros Lampadarios, was a leading figure in Byzantine chant. Born in the Peloponnese, he studied in Smyrna under Hieromonk Theodosios Chios before moving to Istanbul in the 1750s, where he became a student of the Patriarchal Protopsaltis Ioannis Trapezountios. He served as Domestikos and later as Lampadarios at the Ecumenical Patriarchate. As a composer of ecclesiastical music, he revitalized Byzantine chant with new compositions that replaced older melodies and developed his own system of analytical notation for both liturgical and secular music. In the realm of “external” music (secular or extra-ecclesiastical), Petros was a pioneer of Phanariot songs, considered one of the first composers of the genre. In Ottoman urban music, he is likely identified as Petraki or Tyriaki. He was skilled in playing the ney and tanbur and was also a vocalist. His connections with the Mevlevi dervishes and possibly the Bektashis are evident in contemporary sources. His remarkable ability to transcribe oral traditions earned him admiration in Ottoman musical circles, leading to the nickname “thief” (hırsız Petraki). As a transcriber, Petros compiled collections of secular songs in Byzantine notation, preserving a significant portion of the Ottoman urban music repertoire of his time.