The Octoechos (from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
: ; from
ὀκτώ 'eight' and
ἦχος 'sound, mode' called
echos
Echos (Greek: "sound", pl. echoi ; Old Church Slavonic: "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight-mode system (oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and rhy ...
; cu, Осмѡгласникъ, from
о́смь 'eight' and
гласъ 'voice, sound') is a
liturgical book
A liturgical book, or service book, is a book published by the authority of a church body that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.
Christianity Roman Rite
In the Roman Rite of the Catholic ...
containing a repertoire of hymns ordered in eight parts according to eight echoi (
tones or modes). Originally created in the
Monastery of Stoudios
The Monastery of Stoudios, more fully Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner "at Stoudios" ( grc-gre, Μονή του Αγίου Ιωάννη του Προδρόμου εν τοις Στουδίου, Monē tou Hagiou Iōannē tou Prodromou en to ...
during the 9th century as a hymnal complete with musical notation, it is still used in many
rite Rite may refer to:
* Ritual, an established ceremonious act
* Rite of passage, a ceremonious act associated with social transition
Religion
* Rite (Christianity), a sacred ritual or liturgical tradition in various Christian denominations
* Cath ...
s of
Eastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...
. The book with similar function in the
Western Church
Western Christianity is one of two sub-divisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic C ...
is the
tonary
A tonary is a liturgical book in the Western Christian Church which lists by incipit various items of Gregorian chant according to the Gregorian mode (''tonus'') of their melodies within the eight-mode system. Tonaries often include Office ant ...
, and both contain the melodic models of an
octoechos system; however, while the tonary serves simply for a modal classification, the octoechos is organized as a cycle of eight weeks of services. The word itself can also refer to the repertoire of hymns sung during the celebrations of the
Sunday Office.
Role of meter in the Octoechos
![Stavropoleos-anastasimatar-macarie-viena-1823-p11](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Stavropoleos-anastasimatar-macarie-viena-1823-p11.png)
Many hymns in the Octoechos, such as
Kathismata
A kathisma (Greek: κάθισμα; Slavonic: каѳисма, ''kai-isma''), literally, "seat", is a division of the Psalter, used in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Rite Catholic churches. The word may also describe a hymn sung at Matins, a s ...
, Odes, and
Kontakia are set in a strict
meter
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
—a fixed number of syllables with a particular stress patterns, consistent throughout multiple verses. Complex poems are written with syllabic patterns matching the meter of a familiar hymn written prior. One example of such a hymn is "", the prooimion of the Christmas kontakion composed by
Romanos the Melodist
Romanos the Melodist (; late 5th-century — after 555) was a Byzantine hymnographer and composer, who is a central early figure in the history of Byzantine music. Called "the Pindar of rhythmic poetry", he flourished during the sixth century ...
, set to a melody in the third
mode
Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine
* ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...
of the
Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed "Octoechos"; Greek: ;The feminine form exists as well, but means the book octoechos. from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́см ...
. This hymn has served as the metrical basis for many other Kontakia. In the current tradition the kontakion exists as well as a model to recite many other kontakia prosomoia which was as well translated into Old Church Slavonic. In the particular genre kontakion this model is still regarded as an idiomelon due to the complexity of the poetic form.
Usually the arrangement of the syllables with their metric accentuation are composed as a well-known
hymn tune
A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part (or more) harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm (chords change frequently), with or without refrain ...
or sticheron avtomelon within the melos of a certain echos. These melodic stichera are called
automela, because they can easily adapted to other texts, even if the number of syllables of verse varies—the so-called .
[The Three Classes of Melodic Forms for Stichera, II. Automela (Samopodobny, Model Melodies).] The prooimion which precedes the kontakion for Christmas is recited today with a simple melody in a rather sophisticated heirmologoc melos of echos tritos; its most important part is the conclusion called "ephymnion" (in italic characters) which uses one and the same melody for all kontakia of the same echos (at the end of the prooimion as well as at the end of each following oikos):
A hymn may more or less imitate an automelon melodically and metrically—depending, if the text has exactly the same number of syllables with the same accents as those of verses in the corresponding automelon. Such a hymn was usually called ''sticheron
prosomoion'' or in the case of kontakion, ''kontakion prosomoion'', the echos and opening words of the model (a sticheron avtomelon or in this particular case the prooimion of the Nativity kontakion) were usually indicated.
[The Three Classes of Melodic Forms for Stichera, III. Prosomoia (Podobny, Special Melodies).] For example, the Octoechos' kontakion for Sunday Orthros in echos tritos has the indication, that it should be sung to the melody of the above Christmas kontakion.
[See the article about the three melody types of stichera, where the texts of the two kontakia are compared as an illustration ( idiomelon, avtomelon, prosomoion).] Both kontakia have nearly the same number of syllables and accents within its verses, so the exact melody of the former is slightly adapted to the latter, its accents have to be sung with the given accentuation patterns.
[The Three Classes of Melodic Forms for Stichera, I. Idiomela (Samoglasny, Independent Melodies).]
The printed book Octoechos with the Sunday cycles is often without any
musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...
and the determination of a hymn's melody is indicated by the echos or glas according to the section within the book and its avtomelon, a melodic model defined by the melos of its mode. Since this book collects the repertoire of melodies sung every week, educated chanters knew all these melodies by heart, and they learnt how to adapt the accentuation patterns to the printed texts of the hymns while singing out of other text books like the
menaion
The Menaion ( el, Μηναῖον; Slavonic: Минїѧ, ''Miniya'', "of the month") is the liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox Churchand those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite containing the propers for fixed ...
.
Greek octoechos and parakletike
Types of octoechos books
The Great Octoechos (), or Parakletike, contains proper office hymns for each weekday.
[Octoechos is often used to describe a smaller volume that contains only the hymns for the Sunday services. In order to distinguish the longer version from the short one, the term Paraklētikē (Greek: ''Παρακλητική'') can be used as well for the Great Octoechos. The word ''Paraklētikē'' comes from the Greek ''parakalein'' (παρακαλεῖν), meaning, "to pray, implore, comfort, encourage" (the ordinary prayer texts for the weekdays).] The hymns of the books Octoechos and
Heirmologion
Irmologion ( grc-gre, τὸ εἱρμολόγιον ) is a liturgical book of the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite. It contains ''irmoi'' () organised in sequences of odes (, sg. ) and su ...
had been collected earlier in a book called ''Troparologion'' or ''Tropologion''. It already existed during the 6th century in the
Patriarchate of Antiochia, before it became a main genre of the centers of an Octoechos hymn reform in the monasteries of
Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai and
Mar Saba
The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܣܒܐ, ar, دير مار سابا; he, מנזר מר סבא; el, Ἱερὰ Λαύρα τοῦ Ὁσίου Σάββα τοῦ Ἡγιασμέ ...
in
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
, where
St. John Damascene
John of Damascus ( ar, يوحنا الدمشقي, Yūḥanna ad-Dimashqī; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Δαμασκηνός, Ioánnēs ho Damaskēnós, ; la, Ioannes Damascenus) or John Damascene was a Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and a ...
(c. 676–749) and
Cosmas of Maiuma
Saint Cosmas of Maiuma, also called Cosmas Hagiopolites ("of the Holy City"), Cosmas of Jerusalem, Cosmas the Melodist, or Cosmas the Poet (d. 773 or 794), was a bishop and an important hymnographer in the East. He is venerated as a saint by th ...
created a cycle of ''stichera anastasima''. Probably for this reason John of Damascus is regarded as the creator the
Hagiopolitan Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed ""; Greek: pronounced in koine: ; from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́смь "eight" and гласъ "voice, sound") is the n ...
and the Hagiopolites treatise itself claims his authorship right at the beginning. It has only survived completely in a 14th-century copy, but its origin likely dates back to the time between the
Council of Nicaea and the time of
Joseph the Hymnographer
Saint Joseph the Hymnographer ( el, Όσιος Ιωσήφ ο Υμνογράφος) was a Greek monk of the ninth century. He is one of the greatest liturgical poets and hymnography, hymnographers of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is also known for ...
(~816-886), when the treatise could still have introduced the book Tropologion. The earliest papyrus sources of the Tropologion can be dated to the 6th century:
![Syriac Sertâ book script](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Syriac_Sert%C3%A2_book_script.jpg)
The earliest version of a Tropologion dedicated to the repertoire of Octoechos was created by
Severus of Antioch
Severus the Great of Antioch (Greek: Σεβῆρος; syr, ܣܘܝܪܝܘܣ ܕܐܢܛܝܘܟܝܐ), also known as Severus of Gaza or Crown of Syrians (Syriac: ܬܓܐ ܕܣܘܪܝܥܝܐ; Tagha d'Suryoye; Arabic: تاج السوريين; Taj al-Suriyyun ...
,
Paul of Edessa
Paul of Edessa (died 30 October 526) was the Syriac Orthodox bishop of Edessa from 510 until his death with the exception of two periods of exile in 519 and 522–526.
Paul was consecrated in 510, succeeding Peter. In the first year of his episco ...
and John Psaltes between 512 and 518. The Tropologion was expanded upon by
St. Cosmas of Maiuma († 773),
Theodore the Studite
Theodore the Studite ( grc-x-medieval, Θεόδωρος ό Στουδίτης; 759–826), also known as Theodorus Studita and Saint Theodore of Stoudios/Studium, was a Byzantine Greek monk and abbot of the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople. H ...
(† 826) and his brother Joseph of Thessalonica († 832),
Theophanes the Branded (c. 775–845), the
hegoumenai and hymnographers
Kassia
Kassia, Cassia or Kassiani ( gr, Κασσιανή, Kassianí, ; – before 865) was a Byzantine-Greek composer, hymnographer and poet. She holds a unique place in Byzantine music as the only known woman whose music appears in the Byzantine litu ...
(810-865) and
Theodosia,
Thekla the Nun,
Metrophanes of Smyrna († after 880), Paul, Metropolit of
Amorium
Amorium was a city in Phrygia, Asia Minor which was founded in the Hellenistic period, flourished under the Byzantine Empire, and declined after the Arab sack of 838. It was situated on the Byzantine military road from Constantinople to Cil ...
, and by the emperors
Leo VI Leo VI (or Leon VI, notably in Greek) may refer to :
* Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine emperor 886 to 912
* Pope Leo VI, 928 to 929
* King Leo VI of Armenia (1342 – 1393), of the House of Lusignan, last Latin king of the Armenian crusader Kingdom of C ...
and
Constantine VII
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Kar ...
(10th century) as well as numerous anonymous authors. The earliest state of an octoechos collection of the Sunday
canons is Ms. gr. 1593 of the Library at Saint Catherine's Monastery (about 800). This reduced version was simply called Octoechos and it was often the last part of the
sticherarion
A sticheron (Greek: "set in verses"; plural: stichera; Greek: ) is a hymn of a particular genre sung during the daily evening (Hesperinos/Vespers) and morning (Orthros) offices, and some other services, of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Cath ...
, the new notated chant book of the reformers.
Until the 14th century the book Octoechos, as far as it belonged to the
Sticherarion
A sticheron (Greek: "set in verses"; plural: stichera; Greek: ) is a hymn of a particular genre sung during the daily evening (Hesperinos/Vespers) and morning (Orthros) offices, and some other services, of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Cath ...
, was ordered according to hymn genre of the repertoire. Later the thematic structure of the ''stichera anastasima'' which had to be sung during Hesperinos on Saturday and during Orthros on Sunday, were emphasised and ordered according to the eight echoi, each of the eight parts structured according to the order, as they had to be sung during the evening and morning service. They became a well structured book for the daily use of chanters like the later book Anastasimatarion or in Slavonic Voskresnik. Since the 17th century different collections of the Octoechos'' ''had been separated as their own books about certain Hesperinos psalms like the ''Anoixantarion ''an octoechos collection for Psalm 103, the ''Kekragarion'' for Psalm 140, and the ''Pasapnoarion'' for the Psalm verse 150:6.
Types of stichera
* Stichera anastasima: In the new book ''(voskresnik)'' there are 24 ''stichera anastasima'' ("resurrection hymns") which are usually ascribed to
John of Damascus
John of Damascus ( ar, يوحنا الدمشقي, Yūḥanna ad-Dimashqī; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Δαμασκηνός, Ioánnēs ho Damaskēnós, ; la, Ioannes Damascenus) or John Damascene was a Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and a ...
, three of them in each echos. Most of them do not appear within the book ''Octoechos'' before the 15th century.
* Stichera anatolika: Composed about the longest stichoi concerning the resurrection motive. The name probably derived from
a certain composer or from their
local origin.
* Stichera alphabetika: 24 ''stichera ''composed in a style similar to the ''anatolika.'' They are usually ordered according to the alphabet concerning their incipit.
* : Antiphons structured in eight parts according to the octoechos, each one consisting of three or four sets of three ''
troparia
A troparion (Greek , plural: , ; Georgian: , ; Church Slavonic: , ) in Byzantine music and in the religious music of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a short hymn of one stanza, or organised in more complex forms as series of stanzas.
The wi ...
''. The ''kyrioi echoi'' (authentic modes) are composed to parallel verses of the
Gradual Psalms
Song of Ascents is a title given to fifteen of the Psalms, 120–134 (119–133 in the Septuagint and the Vulgate), each starting with the Psalms#Superscriptions, superscription Shir Hama'aloth ( ''šîr ha-ma‘ălōṯ'', meaning "Song of the A ...
, while the ' ' (plagal modes) usually begin by imitating Psalm 119. The last ''sticheron ''of each antiphon usually begins with the words "ἁγιῷ πνεύματι." The ' were often a separated collection within the book ''Octoechos,'' which was no longer included in later books.
* Heothina anastasima: The eleven '' ''of the ' are ascribed to the
Emperor Leo VI
Leo VI, called the Wise ( gr, Λέων ὁ Σοφός, Léōn ho Sophós, 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well r ...
and are sung in connection with the
Matins Gospel
The Matins Gospel is the solemn chanting of a lection from one of the Four Gospels during Matins in the Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic churches which follow the Byzantine Rite.
The reading of the Gospel is the highpoint of the ser ...
during Orthros. The first eight follow the octoechos order, with the '' ''in the ''enharmonic
phthora nana.'' The ninth ''sticheron ''was composed in ', the tenth in the ''
phthora nenano ()'', and the eleventh in the ''diatonic'' ''.''
* Exaposteilaria anastasima: The eleven ''exaposteilaria anastasima ''are ascribed to Emperor
Constantine VII
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Kar ...
. Created during the Macedonian renaissance, they are a later part of the repertoire which cannot be found in manuscripts before the 11th century. The cycle was sung since the Sunday following Pentecost, followed by a ''theotokion'' and a ''heothinon.''
* Stichera dogmatika: These ''stichera'' are dedicated to the Mother of God (Theotokos) and they are called "dogmatika," because the hymns are about the dogmas concerned with the virgin Mary. The section of ''dogmatika,'' 24 with three for each echos, was usually completed with other Marianic hymns called "theotokia". Books with hymns about the Theotokos are sometimes called ''Theotokarion''.
* Stichera staurosima and staurotheotokia: (devoted to the Holy Cross and to the Mother of God), sung on Wednesdays and Fridays.
The ''Octoechos'' also included other ''stichera ''dedicated to particular saints according to the provenance of a certain monastery, which also allows conclusions concerning place, where the chant book was used.
Temporal cycles and
The Sticherarion did not only include the book Octoechos, but also the books
Menaion
The Menaion ( el, Μηναῖον; Slavonic: Минїѧ, ''Miniya'', "of the month") is the liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox Churchand those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite containing the propers for fixed ...
,
Triodion
The Triodion ( el, Τριῴδιον, ; cu, Постнаѧ Трїωдь, ; ro, Triodul, sq, Triod/Triodi), also called the Lenten Triodion (, ), is a liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The book contains the propers for th ...
and
Pentecostarion
The Pentecostarion ( el, Πεντηκοστάριον, ; cu, Цвѣтнаѧ Трїωдь, , literally "Flowery Triodon"; ro, Penticostar) is the liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches during the Paschal ...
. Certain stichera of the other books, ''
stichera prosomoia'' which rather belonged to an oral tradition, because they were later composed by using the ''avtomela'' written in the book ''Parakletike''. The early composed by Theodore the Studite for the evening service during Lenten period which belong to the Triodion book. Since the 14th century, sticheraria also had notated collections of the sung within Paschal tide (tesserakostes). They were made over idiomela of the menaion and notated with the new verses, while most of the relied entirely on an oral tradition. Although these were part of the Pentecostarion, this cycle was often written within the Octoechos section.
Nevertheless, a temporal eight-week-order was always the essential part of the Octoechos, at least as a liturgical concept. The temporal organisation of the mobile feast cycle and its lessons was result of the Studite reform since Theodore the Studite; their books had already been translated by Slavic monks during the 9th century. The eight tones can be found as the
Paschal cycle
The Paschal cycle, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Pascha (Easter). The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as t ...
(moveable cycle) of the church year, the so-called Pentecostarion starting with
the second Sunday of (the eighth day of) Easter. The first usually changes the echos each day, while the third week started the eight-week cycle with the second echos, each week in just one echos. The same cycle started in the triodion with the Lenten period until Easter,
[All of Great Lent, the periods of Cheesefare Week and Holy Week which are joined, respectively, to the beginning and end of Great Lent] with the Lenten Friday preceding the subsequent
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy ...
.
[Each day of ]Bright Week
Bright Week, Pascha Week or Renewal Week ( el, Διακαινήσιμος Ἑβδομάς) is the name used by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches for the period of seven days beginning on Easter and continuing up to (but n ...
(Easter Week) uses propers in a different tone, Sunday: Tone One, Monday: Tone Two, skipping the least festive of the tones, the grave (heavy) tone. Each day of the week has a distinct theme for which hymns in each tone are found in the texts of the Octoechos. During this period, the Octoechos is not sung on weekdays and it is furthermore not sung on Sundays from Palm Sunday through the Sunday of All Saints.
[Although many of the Sunday resurrection hymns are replicated in the Pentecostarion]
After Pentecost, the singing of the Great Octoechos on weekdays continued until Saturday of Meatfare Week, on Sundays there was another cycle organised by the eleven with their and their .
In the daily practice the of the Octoechos are combined with ''idiomela'' from the other books: On the fixed cycle, ''i.e.'', dates of the calendar year, the
Menaion
The Menaion ( el, Μηναῖον; Slavonic: Минїѧ, ''Miniya'', "of the month") is the liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox Churchand those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite containing the propers for fixed ...
and on the movable cycle, according to season, the
Lenten Triodion
The Triodion ( el, Τριῴδιον, ; cu, Постнаѧ Трїωдь, ; ro, Triodul, sq, Triod/Triodi), also called the Lenten Triodion (, ), is a liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The book contains the propers for th ...
(in combination from the previous year's Paschal cycle). The texts from these volumes displace some of those from the Octoechos. The less hymns are sung from the Octoechos the more have to be sung from the other books. On major feast days, hymns from the Menaion entirely displace those from the Octoechos except on Sundays, when only a few Great Feasts of the Lord eclipse the Octoechos.
Note that the Octoechos contains sufficient texts, so that none of these other books needs to be used—a holdover from before the invention of printing and the completion and wide distribution of the rather large 12-volume Menaion—, but portions of the Octoechos (e.g., the last three
stichera
A sticheron (Greek: "set in verses"; plural: stichera; Greek: ) is a hymn of a particular genre sung during the daily evening (Hesperinos/Vespers) and morning ( Orthros) offices, and some other services, of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Cat ...
following "Lord, I have cried," the Hesperinos psalm 140) are seldom used nowadays and they are often completely omitted in the currently printed volumes.
Old Church Slavonic reception of the Greek octoechos
![First page Octoechos](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/First_page_Octoechos.jpg)
Even before a direct exchange between Slavic monks and monks of the Stoudios Monastery, papyrus fragments offer evidence of earlier translations of Greek hymns. The early fragments show that hymns and their melodies developed independently in an early phase until the 9th century.
Cyril and Methodius
Cyril (born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (815–885) were two brothers and Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs".
They are credited wit ...
and their followers within the
Ohrid
Ohrid ( mk, Охрид ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the List of cities in North Macedonia, eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording ...
-School were famous for the translation of Greek hymnody between 863 and 893, but it is also a period of a reformative synthesis of liturgical forms, the creation of new hymnographical genres and their organisation in annual cycles.
Slavic Oktoich or Osmoglasnik and Sbornik
Though the name of the book "Oktoich" derived from the Greek name Octoechos (Old Slavonic "Osmoglasnik," because "glas"'' ''is the Slavonic term for
echos
Echos (Greek: "sound", pl. echoi ; Old Church Slavonic: "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight-mode system (oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and rhy ...
), the Slavic book did rather correspond to the unnotated Tropologion, and often it included the hymns of the Irmolog as well. The Slavic reception, although it can be regarded as faithful translation of the Byzantine books, is mainly based on early Theta notation, which was used by Slavic reformers in order to develop own forms of notation in Moscow and Novgorod (
znamenny chant
Znamenny Chant (russian: знаменное пение, знаменный распев) is a singing tradition used by some in the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church. Znamenny Chant is a unison, melismatic liturgical singing that has its own specif ...
). The translation activities between 1062 and 1074 at the Kievan
Pechersk Lavra had been realised without the help of South Slavic translators. The earliest known Slavonic manuscripts with neumes date from the late 11th or 12th century (mainly Stichirar, Kondakar and Irmolog). Concerning the earlier translations of the hymns and later translations in Russia, we can observe two different approaches to translation, one which favours the musical and metrical structure and another which favours the literal translation of the hymns. The school represented by
Kliment of Ohrid
Saint Clement of Ohrid (Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian: Свети Климент Охридски, ; el, Ἅγιος Κλήμης τῆς Ἀχρίδας; sk, svätý Kliment Ochridský; – 916) was one of the first medieval Bulgarian ...
,
Naum, or
Constantine of Preslav
Constantine of Preslav () was a medieval Bulgarian scholar, writer and translator, one of the most important men of letters working at the Preslav Literary School at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century. Biographical evidence ...
endeavoured to match the Greek text in the number of syllables in the hymns and to preserve the verse structure indicated by the corresponding neumes, but the resulting meaning of the hymns could change so considerably that, in certain cases, the only aspect the original and the translation had in common was the prescribed music, ''i.e.'', the indicated melos and echos. On the other hand, the later translations during the missions in Russia had their emphasis on a literal translation of the texts, but this resulted in altering the metrical structure given by the avtomela and the heirmoi so much that the music had to be recomposed.
Another difference between the two Slavic receptions was the tonal system. Since the Southern Slavic reception did not change the system of , it corresponded to the
Hagiopolitan Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed ""; Greek: pronounced in koine: ; from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́смь "eight" and гласъ "voice, sound") is the n ...
. Glas ("voice") 1–4 are the
authentic mode
A Gregorian mode (or church mode) is one of the eight systems of pitch organization used in Gregorian chant.
History
The name of Pope Gregory I was attached to the variety of chant that was to become the dominant variety in medieval western and ...
s or
kyrioi echoi, and the remaining 5–8 are the
plagal mode
A Gregorian mode (or church mode) is one of the eight systems of pitch organization used in Gregorian chant.
History
The name of Pope Gregory I was attached to the variety of chant that was to become the dominant variety in medieval western and ...
s or
plagioi echoi, the latter term coming from the
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...
''plagios'', "oblique" (from ''plagos'', "side"). Unlike the Western octoechos, ''glas'' 5–8 (the
plagioi echoi) used the same octave species like ''glas'' 1–4, but their final notes were a fifth lower on the bottom of the pentachord with respect to the finales of the kyrioi on the top of each pentachord, the melodic range composed in the plagioi was usually smaller. There was an alternative tonal system based on the ''obihodniy zvukoryad'' which was used in the Northern Slavic reception in Novgorod. It was based on a hexaechos, since it used a tone system based on triphonia with three modes organised in fourth equivalence.
Often the Parakletike was divided in two volumes as Pettoglasniks. Another popular book, also characteristic for the Obihod reception, was the so-called Sbornik ("Anthologion" or better "Synekdemos")—a chant book which contained all the chant of the divine liturgy, including proper chant of the Sticherarion books (Miney, the Triods, and the Oktoich).
Print editions with musical notation
Today
heirmological melodies used primarily for
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
s have their own octoechos mele and their tempo, which employ a slightly modified scale for each tone; in canons, each troparion in an ode uses the meter and melody of the ode's
irmos The irmos (or heirmos from grc-x-koine, εἱρμός) in the Byzantine liturgical tradition is the initial troparion of an ode of a canon. The meter and melody of an irmos is followed by the remaining troparia of the ode; when more than one canon ...
(analogous to for sticheraric modes of a tone) and, therefore, even when a canon's irmos is never sung, its irmos is nonetheless specified so as to indicate the melody. A volume called an "
Irmolog" contains the
irmosi of all the canons of all eight tones as well as a few sundry other pieces of music. Abridged versions of the Octoechos printed with musical notation were frequently published. As simple Octoechos they provided the hymns for the evening (večernaja molitva) and morning service (utrenna) between Saturday and Sunday.
In Russia the Oktoich was the very first book printed (
incunabulum
In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...
) in
Cyrillic
, bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = G ...
typeface, which was published in Poland (
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
) in 1491—by
Schweipolt Fiol, a German native of
Franconia
Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch'').
The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...
. Only seven copies of this first publication are known to remain and the only complete one is in the collection of the
Russian National Library
The National Library of Russia (NLR, russian: Российская национальная библиотека}), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked amo ...
.
In 1905 the
Zograf Monastery published a set of Slavonic chant books whose first volume is the Voskresnik with the repertoire of the simple Osmoglasnik.
[See also the recent edition by Kalistrat Zografski (]2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
). Within the
Russian Orthodox church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
a chant book Octoechos with notated with kryuki developed during the late 15th century. The first print edition ''Oktoikh notnago peniya, sirech' Osmoglasnik'' was published with Kievan staff notation in 1772. It included hymns in
Znamenny Chant
Znamenny Chant (russian: знаменное пение, знаменный распев) is a singing tradition used by some in the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church. Znamenny Chant is a unison, melismatic liturgical singing that has its own specif ...
as well as the melodic models (avtomela) for different types of hymns for each Glas.
Caveat
Northern Slavs in modern times often do not use the eight-tone music system—although they always do use the book ''Octoechos''—rather singing all hymns in the same scale but with different melodies for each tone for each of several types of classifications of hymns.
Oriental hymnals
![The Orthodox Hymnal (Sharaknotz)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/The_Orthodox_Hymnal_%28Sharaknotz%29.jpg)
Although the Georgian Iadgari is not the oldest manuscript among the complete tropologia which could be preserved until the present day, the Iadgari offers the most complete insight into the development of hymnography and the cathedral rite of Jerusalem. Other hymn books developed between the 7th and the 11th centuries starting from the Hagiopolitan hymn reform of 692. They contain ''stichera, kontakia'' all kinds of ''troparia'' and ''canons'' without being necessarily dependent on the tradition of Byzantine chant and later developments of the Stoudios Monastery since the 9th century. The reason of this independence is, that the church history of Armenia and Georgia preceded the Byzantine imperial age about 50 years and both traditions were more oriented to the Patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem. This section describes Oriental and Caucasian hymnals as they have been used by Armenians until the genocide by the end of the Ottoman Empire, and as they are still used among Orthodox Christians in Syria, Persia, Armenia and Georgia.
Syrian Tropligin
The Tropologion developed also in Syria and was called in Syriac Tropligin. A Syriac translation of the "Octoechos of Antioch", tropologion created by Severus of Antioch, Paul of Edessa and John Psaltes (early sixth century), was copied in 675, but still during the 9th century Tropligins were organised in a similar way like the Georgian Iadgari.
The
Syriac Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = syc
, image = St_George_Syriac_orthodox_church_in_Damascus.jpg
, imagewidth = 250
, alt = Cathedral of Saint George
, caption = Cathedral of Saint George, Damascus ...
today still makes use of a system of eight modes (usually classified as ''
makam
The Turkish makam ( Turkish: ''makam'' pl. ''makamlar''; from the Arabic word ) is a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music and Turkish folk music. It provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance. Each makam speci ...
''). Each hymn (
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
: ''qolo'', plural: ''qole'') is composed in one of these eight modes. Some modes have variants (''shuhlophe'') similar to the "special melodies" mentioned above. Only skilled chanters can master these variants.
The modal cycle consists of eight weeks. Each Sunday or Feast day is assigned one of the eight modes. During the weekday offices, known in Syriac by the name ''Shhimo'', the 1st and 5th modes are paired together, so are the 2nd and 6th, the 3rd and 7th, and the 4th and 8th. If a particular Sunday makes use of the 1st mode, the following Monday is sung with the 5th mode, Tuesday with the 1st mode, etc., with the pair alternating every day of the week (see the table provided in ''Guide to the Eight Modes'' in the External Links below).
The ecclesiastical year starts with ''Qudosh `Idto'' (The Consecration of the Church), a feast observed on the eighth Sunday before
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
(''Yaldo''). The 1st mode is sung on this day. The following Sunday makes use of the 2nd mode, and so on, repeating the cycle until it starts again the next year. The cycle is interrupted only by feasts which have their own tones assigned to them. Similar to the Byzantine usage, each day of Easter Week has its own mode, except the Syriacs do not skip the 7th mode. Thus, the Sunday after Easter, called New Sunday (''Hadto'') is in the 8th mode rather than the 1st.
In one type of hymn used by the Syriac Church, the ''Qole Shahroye'' (Vigils), each of the modes is dedicated to a theme: The 1st and 2nd modes are dedicated to the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
, the 3rd and 4th to the
saints
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual res ...
, the 5th and 6th to
penitence
Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of repentance for sins committed, as well as an alternate name for the Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. It also plays a par ...
, and the 7th and 8th to the
departed.
The primary collection of hymns in the eight modes is the ''
Beth Gazo d-ne`motho'', or "Treasury of Chants."
Armenian Šaraknoc'
![Hymnal, 1679, Hymn with the khaz (neume) Wellcome L0031103](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Hymnal%2C_1679%2C_Hymn_with_the_khaz_%28neume%29_Wellcome_L0031103.jpg)
In the
Armenian Apostolic Church
, native_name_lang = hy
, icon = Armenian Apostolic Church logo.svg
, icon_width = 100px
, icon_alt =
, image = Էջմիածնի_Մայր_Տաճար.jpg
, imagewidth = 250px
, a ...
, the system of eight modes is referred to as ''oot tzayn'' (eight voices). Although there is no structural relation between the Greek and Armenian modes, the division into "authentic" and "plagal" modes is parallel. In Armenian terminology, the "Authentic" modes are referred to as "Voice" (''Tzayn'') and the "Plagal" modes are called "Side" (''Koghm''), and are utilized in the following order:
This order is important, because it is the order in which the modes are used liturgically and different from the order of the Greek traditions. Instead of using one tone per week, the Armenians use one tone per day. Easter Sunday is always the First Voice, the next day is First Side, and so on throughout the year. However, the cycle does not actually begin on Easter day, but counts backwards from Easter Sunday to the First Sunday in Lent, which is always Forth Side, regardless of what mode the previous day was. Each mode of the ''oot tzayn'' has one or more ''tartzwadzk‘'' (auxiliary) modes.
The ''Šaraknoc is the book which contains the ''Šarakan'', or ''Šaragan'' (
Canons), hymns which constitute the substance of the musical system of Armenian liturgical chant in the eight modes.
[It corresponds the Georgian Iadgari which is one of the earliest testimonies of the tropologion ( Renoux 1993, Frøyshov 2012).] Originally, these were
Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
and Biblical
Canticle
A canticle (from the Latin ''canticulum'', a diminutive of ''canticum'', "song") is a hymn, psalm or other Christianity, Christian song of praise with lyrics usually taken from biblical or holy texts. Canticles are used in Christian liturgy.
Ca ...
s that were chanted during the services. A ''Sharagan'' was composed of verses which were interspersed between the scriptural verses. Eventually, the ''Šarakan'' replaced the biblical text entirely. In addition, the eight modes are applied to the psalms of the Night office, called ''Kanonaklookh'' (Canon head). the Armenian Church also makes use of other modes outside of the ''oot tzayn''.
See also
*
Armenian chant
*
Iadgari of Mikael Modrekili
*
Sticherarion
A sticheron (Greek: "set in verses"; plural: stichera; Greek: ) is a hymn of a particular genre sung during the daily evening (Hesperinos/Vespers) and morning (Orthros) offices, and some other services, of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Cath ...
*
Syriac sacral music
Syriac sacral music is music in the Syriac language as used in the liturgy of Syriac Christianity.
Historically it is best known from and important for its part in the development of Christian sacred music since Antiquity.
The Syriac churches hav ...
Notes
References
Sources
Tropologia, Šaraknoc' & Iadgari (6th-18th century)
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Old Byzantine notation (10th–13th century)
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Middle Byzantine notation (13th–19th century)
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Oktoechoi, Parakletikai and Sborniki without musical notation (11th-19th century)
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Anastasimataria and Voskresnik with Chrysanthine notation (since 1814)
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Editions
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Studies
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External links
General introductions
Use of the Eight Tonesby St. Kosmas of Maiouma
Byzantine Octoechos Chart for those trained in Western Music" Retrieved 2012-01-16
*
*
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Hymnographers
*Archimandrite Ephrem (2008):
Vita o
and o
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Old Slavonic texts of the octoechos and their sources
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{{Byzantine music
Byzantine music
Armenian music
Eastern Orthodox liturgical music
Eastern Orthodox liturgical books