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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 Catholic churches. ''Stichera'' are usually sung in alternation with or immediately after psalm or other scriptural verses. These verses are known as ''stichoi'' (sing: ''stichos''), but ''sticheraric'' poetry usually follows the hexameter and is collected in a book called sticherarion (Greek: ). A sticherarion is a book containing the stichera for the morning and evening services throughout the year, but chant compositions in the ''sticheraric melos'' can also be found in other liturgical books like the Octoechos or the ''Anastasimatarion'', or in the Anthology for the Divine Liturgy. The sticheraric melos and the troparion In the current traditions of Orthodox Chant, the ''sticherarion'' as a hymn book was also used to call a chant genre ...
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Neobyzantine Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed "Octoechos"; Greek: ; from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́смь "eight" and гласъ "voice, sound") is the name of the eight mode system used for the composition of religious chant in Byzantine, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Latin and Slavic churches since the Middle Ages. In a modified form the octoechos is still regarded as the foundation of the tradition of monodic Orthodox chant today. From a Phanariot point of view, the re-formulation of the Octoechos and its melodic models according to the New Method was neither a simplification of the Byzantine tradition nor an adaption to Western tonality and its method of an heptaphonic solfeggio, just based on one tone system (σύστημα κατὰ ἑπταφωνίαν). Quite the opposite, as a universal approach to music traditions of the Mediterranean it was rather based on the integrative power of the psalti ...
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Sticheron
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 Catholic churches. ''Stichera'' are usually sung in alternation with or immediately after psalm or other scriptural verses. These verses are known as ''stichoi'' (sing: ''stichos''), but ''sticheraric'' poetry usually follows the hexameter and is collected in a book called sticherarion (Greek: ). A sticherarion is a book containing the stichera for the morning and evening services throughout the year, but chant compositions in the ''sticheraric melos'' can also be found in other liturgical books like the Octoechos or the ''Anastasimatarion'', or in the Anthology for the Divine Liturgy. The sticheraric melos and the troparion In the current traditions of Orthodox Chant, the ''sticherarion'' as a hymn book was also used to call a chant genre ...
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Octoechos (liturgy)
The Octoechos (from the Greek: ; from ὀκτώ 'eight' and ἦχος 'sound, mode' called echos; cu, Осмѡгласникъ, from о́смь 'eight' and гласъ 'voice, sound') is a liturgical book containing a repertoire of hymns ordered in eight parts according to eight echoi ( tones or modes). Originally created in the Monastery of Stoudios during the 9th century as a hymnal complete with musical notation, it is still used in many rites of Eastern Christianity. The book with similar function in the Western Church is the tonary, 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 Many hymns in the Octoechos, such as Kathismata, Odes, and Kontakia are set in a strict meter—a f ...
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Idiomelon
(Medieval Greek: from , 'unique' and , 'melody'; Church Slavonic: , )—pl. ''idiomela''—is a type of sticheron found in the liturgical books used in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, and many other Orthodox communities like Old Believers. are unique compositions, while or —sing. , or (Medieval Greek: , Church Slavonic: , )—were used to create other hymns by a composition over the 's melody and following the poetic meter provided by the musical rhythm. The genre composed over these was characterised as or (Medieval Greek: 'similar to', Church Slavonic: , ). Definition of ''idiomelon'', ''avtomelon'' and ''prosomoion'' The hymn category can only be understood in comparison with and . Already in the older book Tropologion each melody of a certain hymn was classified by a modal signature of the Byzantine octoechos—the eight-mode system as it had developed in Constantinople, Damascus, Jerusalem, and in man ...
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John Koukouzeles
John Koukouzelis ( gr, Ιωάννης Κουκουζέλης, ''Ioannis Koukouzelis''; ) was a Byzantine composer, singer and reformer of Byzantine chant. He was recognized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church after his death. Among the most illustrious musicians of the Palaiologos dynasty, his music remains held in high esteem by Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Macedonians, Romanians and Serbs. Life and career Koukouzelis was born in Dyrrhachium (modern-day Durrës) in the late 13th century to a father of unknown origins and a Bulgarian mother. He was orphaned in childhood. Koukouzelis' last name is allegedly derived from the Greek word for broad beans (κουκιά, ''koukia'') and a Slavic word for cabbage (зеле, ''zele''). At a young age, he was noted and accepted into the school at the imperial court at Constantinople, where he received his education and established himself as one of the leading authorities in his field during the time. A favourite of the Byzanti ...
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Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople. The canonical hours are very long and complicated, lasting about eight hours (longer during Great Lent) but are abridged outside of large Monastery, monasteries. An iconostasis, a partition covered with icons, separates Sanctuary#Sanctuary as area around the altar, the area around the altar from the nave. The Sign of the cross#Eastern Orthodoxy, sign of the cross, accompanied by bowing, is made very frequently, e.g., more than a hundred times during the Divine Liturgy#Byzantine Rite, divine liturgy, and there is prominent veneration of icons, a general acceptance of the congregants freely moving within the church and interacting with each other, and distinctive traditions of liturgical chanting. Some traditional practices are falling out of ...
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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 name of the eight mode system used for the composition of religious chant in most Christian churches during the Middle Ages. In a modified form the octoechos is still regarded as the foundation of the tradition of monodic Orthodox chant today (Neobyzantine Octoechos). The Octoechos as a liturgical concept which established an organization of the calendar into eight-week cycles, was the invention of monastic hymnographers at Mar Saba in Palestine and in Constantinople. It was formally accepted in the Quinisext Council of 692, which also aimed to replace the exegetic poetry of the kontakion and other homiletic poetry, as it was sung during the morning service (Orthros) of the cathedrals. A similar eight-mode system was established in Western ...
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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 wider meaning of troparion The word probably derived from a diminutive of the Greek ('something repeated', 'manner', 'fashion'), since the earliest function of the troparion was a refrain during the recitation of the cantica (biblical odes) and the psalms, as such the term was used as a synonym of . The early meaning of ''troparion'' was related to the monastic hymn book ''Tropologion'' or Troparologion. Hence its forms were manifold, they could be simple stanzas like apolytikia, theotokia, but also more elaborated homiletic poems like ''stichera'' composed in psalmodic hexameters (probably from ''stichos'', “verse”), or in a more complex meter like the odes composed in cycles called canon. Since these Tropologia in their earliest for ...
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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 Church, the primary liturgical books are the Roman Missal, which contains the texts of the Mass, and the Roman Breviary, which contains the text of the Liturgy of the Hours. With the 1969 reform of the Roman Missal by Pope Paul VI, now called the "Ordinary Use of the Roman Rite", the Scriptural readings were expanded considerably, requiring a separate book, known as the Lectionary. The Roman Ritual contains the texts of the sacraments other than the Mass, such as baptism, the sacrament of penance, the anointing of the sick, and the sacrament of marriage. The texts for the sacraments and ceremonies only performed by bishops, such as confirmation and Holy Orders, are contained within the Roman Pontifical. The ''Caeremoniale Episcoporu ...
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Troparion
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 wider meaning of troparion The word probably derived from a diminutive of the Greek ('something repeated', 'manner', 'fashion'), since the earliest function of the troparion was a refrain during the recitation of the cantica (biblical odes) and the psalms, as such the term was used as a synonym of . The early meaning of ''troparion'' was related to the monastic hymn book ''Tropologion'' or Troparologion. Hence its forms were manifold, they could be simple stanzas like apolytikia, theotokia, but also more elaborated homiletic poems like ''stichera'' composed in psalmodic hexameters (probably from ''stichos'', “verse”), or in a more complex meter like the odes composed in cycles called canon. Since these Tropologia in their earliest for ...
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Orthros
''Orthros'' (Greek: , meaning "early dawn" or "daybreak") or ''Oútrenya'' ( Slavonic Оўтреня), in the Byzantine Rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches, is the last of the four night offices (church services), the other three being vespers, compline, and midnight office. Traditionally, in monasteries it is held daily so as to end immediately following sunrise, in contrast to parishes where it is held only on Sundays and feast days. It is often called matins after the office it most nearly corresponds to in Western Christian churches. Orthros is the longest and most complex of the daily cycle of services. It is normally held in the early morning, often — always in monasteries — preceded by the midnight office, and usually followed by the First Hour. On great feasts it is held as part of an all-night vigil commencing the evening before, combined with an augmented great vespers and the first hour. In the Russian tradition, an all-night vigil ...
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Cherubikon
The Cherubikon (Greek: χερουβικόν) is the usual Cherubic Hymn (Greek: χερουβικὸς ὕμνος, Church Slavonic ) sung at the Great Entrance of the Byzantine liturgy. History Origin The cherubikon was added as a troparion to the Divine Liturgy under Emperor Justin II (565 – 578) when a separation of the room where the gifts are prepared from the room where they are consecrated made it necessary that the Liturgy of the Faithful, from which those not baptised had been excluded, start with a procession. This procession is known as the Great Entrance, because the celebrants have to enter the choir by the altar screen, later replaced by the iconostasis. The hymn symbolically incorporates those present at the liturgy into the presence of the angels gathered around God's throne.Parry (1999), p. 117. The chant genre '' offertorium'' in traditions of Western plainchant was basically a copy of the Byzantine custom, but there it was a proper mass chant which chang ...
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