Χριστός Εν Πόλει / Christos En Polei
Καταβασίες Προεορτίων Χριστουγέννων / Katabasiai of the forefeast of Christmas
These katavasiai exist in music manuscripts but they were never published in printed books and are not chanted anymore.

Autograph manuscript of the Katavasiai by
Gregorios Protopsaltis [pdf, 1.8 Mb] (new)
(offered by B. Zacharis)

A calligraphic rendition of the katavasiai by Konstantinos Theoxaris
according to the notation style of S. Karas
[pdf,  5 Mb] (new)
(offered by B. Zacharis)


Fr. Constantine Terzopoulos wrote:

... Gr. Th. Stathis, _Trithekte etoi akolouthia tou Byzantinou kosmikou   typikou tes Megales Ekklesias Hagias Sophias kai to kontakion ton   Christougennon tou Romanou tou Melodou_ (Athena: Hidryma Byzantines Mousikologias, 2000 [ISBN 960-86798-0-X]). Other than having a rendition on the koukoulion of the Romanos Kontakion arranged by Gr Th Stathis it also has the fore-festal iambic  Katabasiai (10-11th c) with the melos of Petros Bereketes, according to the exegesis of Gregorios Protopsaltes. It's really a beautiful  publication.

Y. Bilalis wrote:

... for the sake of musicological research, the Bereketis' compositions of Katabasiae of the Sunday before Christmas (Xristos en polei Bithleem)  that Fr. Constantine mentions above, have a small deviation as far as the text of the 4th Ode,  which was never brought  in the presentation of that book.  One of the original sources for this text is in Paris Coislin Ms. 220 (as well as other heirmologia) where the 4th Ode text is different than the one that Bereketis is using to write melody.
There is a book-2CD printed last year in Athens by Melodiko Karavi where we give all details of our research regarding the text as well as the transcription of Ioannis Arvanitis of those Katabasiae from the 11/12th century Paris 220 manuscript.