When the Russians, along with Christianity, accepted not only the Greek liturgical texts but also the pure Byzantine ecclesiastical melodies, they could not have imagined, even the most imaginative, that at some point in the future, they would return to the Greeks a part of that old spiritual loan.

This reverse movement began in 1870 when, with the arrival of A. Katakouzinos from Odessa to Athens, Russian polyphonic church music, particularly that of the "Italian period," invaded Greece. This music, which had elements of the Italian aesthetic of that time, as shaped in Russia, directly and primarily influenced the Greek composers of the so-called "Athenian School" and laid the foundation for the development and further course of polyphonic church music in Greece.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]