The Octoechos book (from the Greek: ;The female form means the book () "octoechos" or "octaechos". from ὀκτώ 'eight' and ἦχος 'sound, mode' called echos; , 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 fixed number of syllables with 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,Concerning the history of its translation in Old Church Slavonic Kondakars, see Roman Krivko (2011, 726). set to a melody in the third mode of the Octoechos. 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 also 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 or sticheron avtomelon within the melos of a certain echos. These melodic stichera are called automela, because they can easily be 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):The Greek way definitely represents a monodic tradition of kontakion as it had developed since the 7th century since many centuries (going through periods of melismatic during the 12th and 13th centuries and even kalophonic elaboration of the music during the 14th century), while the polyphonic Russian way (18th century) to perform the kontakion uses simpler forms of "echos-melodies" (the expression "na glas" is still used among Old Believers) (Školnik 1995). Due to the particular form of kontakion, also the ephymnion itself might be regarded as an echos-melody, because the same melody has to be adapted to the length of its verse which can be very different between various kontakia of the same mode. Similar differences can also result from translations of the same ephymnion into different languages.
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.Modern avtomelon over the Prooimion of the Christmas Kontakion by Romanos Slavonic Kondak sung in Valaamskiy Rozpev (Valaam Monastery) 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 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.
Greek octoechos and parakletike
Types of octoechos books The Great Octoechos (), or Parakletike, contains proper office hymns for each weekday.A Parakletike written during the 14th century can be studied online (D-Mbs Ms. cgm 205).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 earliest state of a Great Octoechos collection are Mss. gr. 1593 and 776 of the Library at Saint Catherine's Monastery which had been identified as belonging to one manuscript (ET-MSsc Ms. Gr. 776 & 1593 about 800). The hymns of the books Octoechos and Heirmologion 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 in Palestine, where St. John Damascene (c. 676–749) and Cosmas of Maiuma created a cycle of stichera anastasima.From this early period there were only few Greek sources, but a recent study (Nikiforova 2013) of a tropologion at the St Catherine at Sinai could reconstruct the earlier form of the Tropologion which preceded the book Octoechos. Probably for this reason John of Damascus is regarded as the creator the Hagiopolitan Octoechos 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 (~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:See the Georgian and Greek papyrus studies by Stig Frøyshov (2012) and Christian Troelsgård (2009).
The earliest version of a Tropologion dedicated to the repertoire of Octoechos was created by Severus of Antioch, Paul of Edessa and John Psaltes between 512 and 518.It has only survived in a Syriac translation revised by Jacob of Edessa which dates back to 675 (GB-Lbl Ms. Add. 17134). According to Svetlana Kujumdzieva (2012, 14) the composition of the book has many similarities with the contemporary Georgian Iadgari. The Tropologion was expanded upon by St. Cosmas of Maiuma († 773), Theodore the Studite († 826) and his brother Joseph of Thessalonica († 832),Theodore created the Triodion, the Pentecostarion, and the three antiphons of the anavathmoi of the Octoechos (Wolfram 2003). Theophanes the Branded (c. 775–845),Theophanes created the Trinity Canon for the Sunday night service (mesonyktikon). the hegoumenai and hymnographers Kassia (810-865) and Theodosia, Thekla the Nun, Metrophanes of Smyrna († after 880), Paul, Metropolit of Amorium, and by the emperors Leo VI and Constantine VII (10th century) as well as numerous anonymous authors.Natalia Smelova (2011, 119 & 123) also mentions two contemporary compilations which were later translated into Syriac language: ET-MSsc Ms. gr. 776, GB-Lbl Ms. Add. 26113. Syro-Melkite translation activity reached its climax not earlier than during the 13th century like Sinait. gr. 261, a few manuscripts were also copied directly at Sinai. This reduced version was simply called Octoechos and it was often the last part of the sticherarion, the new notated chant book of the reformers.
Until the 14th century the book Octoechos, as far as it belonged to the Sticherarion, was ordered according to hymn genre of the repertoire.See for instance the Octoechos part of the Sticherarion of Copenhagen: stichera anastasima (f. 254r), alphabetika (f. 254v), anavathmoi and stichera anatolika (f. 255v), stichera heothina (f. 277v), dogmatika (f. 281v) and staurotheotikia (f. 289r). 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.See the various printed editions in current use in Greece (Ephesios 1820, Phokaeos 1832, Ioannes the Protopsaltes 1905), Bulgaria (Triandafilov 1847, Todorov 1914), Romania (Suceanu 1823, Stefanescu 1897), and Macedonia (Zografski 2005, Bojadziev 2011). An exception is the series "Music Library" which published as a first volume Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes' Kekragarion under the title "Anastasimatarion of John of Damascus" (1868). It was taught by Iakovos the Protopsaltes as "Kekragarion palaion". A second volume published the "Anastasimatarion neon" by Petros Peloponnesios, each book with a set of two kekragaria, a sticheraric and an abridged sticheraric version. 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.The separation of this books can usually be found in anthologies ascribed to Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes (GB-Lbl Harley 1613, Harley 5544), but there is also a manuscript with composition of Petros Peloponnesios and his student Petros Byzantios organised as an Anastasimatarion and Doxastarion which preceded the printed editions (GB-Lbl Add. 17718). On the other hand, there is an alternative organisation in a manuscript according to the transcription of Gregorios the Protopsaltes (GB-Bm Ms. Mingana Gr. 8) which includes the whole Hesperinos cycles and postponed the Kekragaria in a rare fast sticheraric melos.
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, 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.