Octoechos

by

D. K. Balageorgos

University of Athens

The word Octoechos is made up of the Greek word ἦχος (echos: sound, mode), which

denotes the way of processing the melody, and the Greek for the number eight. The

mode constitutes a pivotal element in the organization and structure of sacred

music. It is based on a system of four main modes and their respective plagal ones.

The first trace of the eight-mode system is in documents dating from the 4th to the

9th century. The classification of musical sounds within the eight-mode system and

the subsequent integration of hymns into it are ascribed to Ioannes Damaskenos.

According to tradition he created the well-known Greek collection of hymns bearing

the title Octoechos.

Origin, evolution and history of the Octoechos

The ancient Greek trope-based system is directly related to the eight-mode

classification of the melodies of Christian hymns. Evidence for this is found in a

number of Byzantine documents including G. Pachymeris, M. Bryennios,

Agiopolites, and pseudo-Damaskenos Alygizakis. The connection is proved by the

use of the technical term troparion in Byzantine hymnography. Various troparia,

which began to appear in the mid-5th century, were included in the oldest

hymnographic collection of the Church called the Tropologion. This book contains

resurrection hymnographical material from the pre-damaskenian period set to music

following the eight-mode system. It became an early form of the Octoechos, which

acquired its definitive structure and became a standalone liturgical book thanks to

Ioannes Damaskenos.

The troparia, chanted in Divine Liturgy on Sundays, follow an eight-week cycle,

with a mode corresponding to each week. The organization of the liturgical year

according to a system of repeated eight-week cycles greatly contributed to the

establishment of the Octoechos as a hymnographic and musical system arranging the

chants of the Orthodox Church on a 24-hour basis. Joseph the Hymnographer,

imitating the content of Damaskenos’ Octoechos, then composed hymns for the

divine services of the week. The joining of the two collections (Ioannes’ and Ioseph’s)

formed a new liturgical book, the Great Octoechos, also known as Parakletike.

There is also the Octoechos compiled by the great typikarios Symeon from

Thessaloniki, anthologized in codex ΕΒΕ 2047 (fol. 36a-74b).

Content and liturgical use of the Octoechos

The chants of the Octoechos are divided into matutine and vespertine ones.

Vespertine chants are included in the divine services of the Little and Great Vespers,

whereas the matutine ones are distributed in three services: Midnight Office, Matins

and Divine Liturgy.

The chants of the Octoechos include stichera, prokeimena, resurrectional apolytikia,

canons, kathismata, hypakoai, antiphons of the anabathmoi, kontakia, troparia of the

Beatitudes and, in a special annex, the eleven exaposteilaria with an equal number of

theotokia and the eleven Matins idiomela, triadic hymns and photagogika.

The eight-mode hymns are distributed among the Sunday divine services, in an

unaltered order: Little Vespers, Great Vespers, Midnight Office, Matins and the

Divine Liturgy.

Structure and nomenclature of the codices containing the Octoechos chants

The manuscript tradition of the Octoechos begins in the 9th-10th centuries after the

end of the Iconoclastic Controversy. The first printed edition of the Octoechos in the

year 1520 in Rome but manuscripts continued to be copied. Manuscripts of the

Octoechos usually display various contents whose composition has been determined

by the numerous liturgical needs and by the judgement of the copyists. An example

is codex ΕΒΕ 2484, written in the second half of the 15th century. This manuscript

comprises liturgical as well as theological entries. There are also a number of

manuscripts of mixed content, yet exclusively liturgical in character, which bear the

title «Pandectes» or «Florilegium». These codices anthologize the Psalterion, the

Octoechos complete with the exaposteilaria and the Matins idiomela, the acolouthiai

of the week, the Triodion, various canons, passages from the Gospels recited at

weekly services, acolouthiai of the main feasts of the year, etc. Sometimes the

Octoechos material is divided into two books, one containing the main modes and

the other including the plagal ones.

Musical codices stemming from the liturgical Octoechos

Byzantine musical notation is directly linked to the eight-mode system. Various

musical books were created in parallel and close relation to the liturgical ones. For

example, the Psalterion, Sticherarion, Eirmologion and Kontakarion are liturgical books

that have corresponding musical books: Papadike, the Sticherarion, the Eirmologion

and the Kontakarion. The chants of the Octoechos are mainly the idiomela, stichera,

troparia and the canons. These chants belong to the sticheraric and the eirmological

kind of setting and their music is preserved in the musical books Sticherarion and

Eirmologion. A number of liturgical-musical manuscripts, i.e. books of mixed content,

mainly from the 12th and the 13th centuries, bear the title Octoechos but include a

series of troparia set to music and some others without notation. The progressive

increase in the material of the Sticherarion resulted in the division of the book into

several independent codices. At the beginning of the 16th century the Octoechos of

Damaskenos was separated from the Sticherarion to constitute a standalone musical

book, the Anastasimatarion

The cataloguing of the Octoechos-type manuscripts

Liturgical and musical texts preserve the eight-mode hymns. Present catalogues

present in detail the content of the aforementioned books and document all

bibliographical, paleographical and philological elements. However, a great part of

the liturgical manuscript treasures remains unaccounted because they are referred to

merely as Octoechoi or Parakletikai, regardless of their content, which is not

presented in any coherent and methodical way. Catalogues need to have more

accurate dating of manuscripts more accurately the manuscripts with thorough

examination of watermarks and/or identifying evidence and testimonies hidden in

previously «unexplored» folios of the codex. The catalogue will be complete and

extremely useful to the researcher if it is accompanied by an analytical alphabetical

index with the incipits of the troparia.