Asticheron (Greek:στιχηρόν "set in verses"; plural:stichera;Greek:στιχηρά) is ahymn of a particular genre sung during the daily evening (Hesperinos/Vespers) and morning (Orthros) offices, and some other services, of theEastern Orthodox andByzantineCatholic churches.
Stichera are usually sung in alternation with or immediately afterpsalm or other scriptural verses. These verses are known asstichoi (sing:stichos), butsticheraric poetry usually follows the hexameter and is collected in a book calledsticherarion (Greek:στιχηράριον). A sticherarion is a book containing the stichera for the morning and evening services throughout the year, but chant compositions in thesticheraric melos can also be found in otherliturgical books like theOctoechos or theAnastasimatarion, or in the Anthology for theDivine Liturgy.
In the current traditions of Orthodox Chant, thesticherarion as a hymn book was also used to call a chant genresticheraric melos, which is defined by its tempo and itsmelodic formulas according to the eight modes of theOctoechos. Although the hymns of thesticherarion have to be sung in the same melos, there is no direct relation with the poetic hymn genre, because its musical definition rather follows the practice of psalmody. Today thesticheraric melos as opposed to thetroparic melos are two different cycles of the Octoechos.[citation needed]
In the past, they had been closer related by the practice of psalmody, and atroparion which is nothing else than a refrain sung with psalmody, might become a more elaborated chant from a musical point of view, so that it is sung thrice without the psalm verses, but with thesmall doxology. Thetroparion in its melodic form tends to move towards thesticheraric or evenpapadic melos, and this way, it becomes an own chant genre by itself.[1]
Christian Troelsgård described thesticheron quite similar to thetroparion and regarded thesticheron as a subcategory, only that asticheron as an intercalation of psalmody, has been longer as a poem than atroparion, thus it had been chanted without repetitions of its text, but in sections. There had been a lot ofstichera, but the booksticherarion was a rather dislocated collection ofstichera from different local traditions and their singer-poets. It was obviously not used on a pulpit during celebrations, but rather an exercise book with various examples which could be studied for own compositions with similar accentuation patterns.[2]
Concerning this paradigmatic use of notation the musical setting of asticheron, thesticherarion had been mainly a collection ofidiomela which had to be understood as individual compositions for a certainsticheron poem,[3] although the melodic patterns could be rather classified according to one of the eight or ten modes (echos orglas) of theHagiopolitan Octoechos.[4] The reference to it is given by the modal signatures, especially the medial signatures written within notation, so the booksticherarion constituted the synthetic role of its notation (Byzantine round notation), which integrated signs taken from different chant books during the 13th century.[5]
But there was as well the practice of using certainstichera as models (avtomela) to compose other poems (prosomoia), similar to theheirmos. This classification became even more complex by the translation of the hymn books into Slavonic, which forced thekanonarches, responsible for the preparation of the services, to adapt the music of a certainavtomelon to the translatedprosomoia and the prosody of the Slavonic language, in certain cases the adaptation needed a musical recomposition of the prosomoion. In practice, theavtomela as well as theprosomeiaare often omitted in the books of thesticherarion, they rather belonged to an oral tradition, since theavtomela were known by heart. Often theprosomoia had been written apart before theOctoechos part of Sticherarion, which was usually not organised according to the eight modes unlike the Great Oktoechos.[6]
SinceJohn Koukouzeles and other contemporary scribes who revised thesticheraria, there was development from the traditionalsticheron, sung by a whole congregation or community,[7] to a rather representative and elaborated performance by a soloist.[8]Manuel Chrysaphes regardedJohn Koukouzeles as the inventor of the "embellished sticheron" (sticheron kalophonikon), but he emphasized that he always followed step by step the model, as it has been written down insticherarion. Especially in the kalophonic genre, a systematic collection of compositions by Constantinopolitan maistores, made after themenaion ofsticherarion, could already grow, as one part of thesticherarion kalophonikon (see alsoGB-Lbl Ms.Add. 28821), to a volume about 1900 pages, an expansion in chant which could be hardly performed during celebrations of any cathedral of the Empire.[9]
During the reform of the 17th century the bookSticherarion was replaced by theDoxastarion, called after the main genre of the former book, thedoxastikon: thesticheron which was introduced by both or one of the two stichoi ofΔόξα πατρὶ, but it followed the same compositions written down in the old Sticherarion. During the 18th century, the repertoire was created which had been printed asDoxastarion since 1820. It was based on transcriptions of the hyphos, short versions created by the generation of Ioannes Trapezountios and Daniel the Protopsaltes who had recomposed the traditional melodies. The hyphos was supposed to abridge the traditional melos in the school ofManuel Chrysaphes, as it had been delivered by 17th-century composers likePanagiotes the New Chrysaphes and Germanos of New Patras.[10] They had grown very long, obviously under influence of the kalophonic method to do the thesis of the sticheraric melos, but also by a hybridisation of the great signs during the traditional thesis of the sticheric melos.[11] Between the 1820 and 1841, the abridgedDoxastarion had been published in 3 versions: the "Doxastarion syntomon" of Petros Peloponnesios (1820), the "Doxastarion argon" of Iakovos the Protoposaltes (1836), and the "Doxastarion argosyntomon" of Konstantinos the Protopsaltes (1841).
The medievalSticherarion had been divided into four books, which also existed as separated books of their own: theMenaion, thePentekostarion, theTriodion, and theOctoechos.[12] These books of theSticherarion were created during the Studites reform between the 9th and the 10th centuries, its repertoire was completed until the 11th century, but until the 14th century the whole repertoire had been reduced among scribes who changed and unified the numerous redactions. The 10th-century reform already defined the gospel lectures and the doxastika connected with them.[13] The oldest copies can be dated back to the 10th and 11th centuries, and like theHeirmologion theSticherarion was one of the first hymn books, which was entirely provided with musical notation (Palaeo Byzantine neumes).[14] But the complete form still appeared in the time of the 14th-century reform, which had been notated inMiddle Byzantine neumes.[15]
The genresticheron already existed since centuries, it can be traced back toTropologia written during the 6th century, but the repertoire as it can be reconstructed by Georgian IadgariTropologion seems to be different from the Byzantine redaction which was based on the Tropologion of Antioch and later expanded by the hymnographers ofMar Saba (Jerusalem).[16] The bookTropologion was still used until the 12th century and it also contains thecanons of theHeirmologion. Originally theHeirmologion andSticherarion were created as notated chant books during the 10th century.[17]
Thestichera idiomela are commonly written in twoliturgical year cycles, the immobile one or sanctoral, and the mobile one betweenGreat Lent and Pentecost. Usually, this collection of idiomela consists of three books, the menaion for the immobile cycle and two books called triodion and pentecostarion for the mobile cycle:
Menaion ("book of the months") contains all hymns of the immobile monthly cycle beginning with September end ending with August. These are hymns dedicated to particularsaints commemorated according to the calendar day of the year.
Triodion contains hymns chanted during Great Lent, beginning with the Sunday ofPharisee and the Publican ten weeks before Easter and ending with the Holy week preceding Easter or with Palm Sunday. It has a huge collection of stichera prosomoia as well.[18]
Pentecostarion contains hymns chanted during thePaschal Season, beginning with the hesperinos of the Resurrection feast or Monday of the Holy Week until All Saints' Sunday which follows the Sunday of Pentecost.
The old sticherarion had even a fourth book which contained the hymns of a third regularly repeated cycle. It was usually the abridged form that only contained the hymns of Saturday hesperinos preceding the orthros and divine liturgy on Sunday. In most of the Orthodox rites the octoechos meant a cycle of eight weeks which opened with the four kyrioi echoi (each echos per week) and continued with the plagioi echoi. Sometimes the sticherarion also had a separated collection of notatedstichera prosomoia preceding the book Octoechos,[19] while the Octoechos contained the best known hymns called stichera avtomela which also served as model for the prosomoia. Originally many of them were even notated quite late, since the singers knew them by heart. The early form was quite short and not yet divided into eight parts according to the eight echoi of the weekly cycle.[20]
Octoechos contains either the hymns for each Saturday or those for each day of the week (Great Octoechos), set to theeight echoi. Using one echos or glas for each week, the entire cycle takes eight weeks to complete. This part of thesticherarion became soon an own book, in certain traditions this separated book also included the odes of the canon—the hymns of the bookHeirmologion.
A sticheron that follows the words, "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit" is called adoxastichon.
A sticheron that is dedicated to theTheotokos is called "sticheron dogmatikon" or "theotokion."
Theotokia normally follow the last words of the small doxology "Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages amen."
Those theotokia that come by the end of Κύριε ἐκέκραξα or Господи, воззвахъ к'тєбѣ ("Lord, I Have Cried", Ps 140.1) duringVespers on Saturday night, Friday night and the eves of most Feast Days are called "dogmatika, because their texts deal with the dogma of theIncarnation.
Theaposticha are a type of stichera which differ from the norm with respect, that they precede their stichos (psalm verse) rather than they follow it.
^Sticherarictroparia which are sung during theDivine Liturgy, are for instance all genres of thetrisagion. The trisagion alternates with its substitutes like the baptism hymn or the troparion for Good Friday (τὸν σταυρὸν σοῦ). Also, other genres likecherubikon andkoinonikon were originally troparia used during psalm recitation.
^Thestichera prosomoia created over the model of an existingsticheron avtomelon, were later added to the books of the sticherarion (Husmann 1972). The composition of the book Triodion by the generation ofTheodore the Studite was basically a prosomoia collection, composed over the melodies of avtomela, but also of idiomela.
^Christian Troelsgård regarded this collection as not locally focussed, because the collections in different sticheraria have so much in common, that he identified in the footsteps of Oliver Strunk and Bjarne Schartau theseidiomela with numbers of the standard abridged version (SAV).
^About the modal signatures in Byzantine round notation, see Raasted (1966).
^H.J.W. Tillyard (1940, XII) argued that this custom to omit the prosomoia can be explained that they were later added to the book, since they had been created later than the rest of the hymn repertoire. On the other hand, Irina Shkolnik (1998) argued that the oral tradition of prosomoia and their avtomela was closer to the local tradition of a monastery, so there was for a long period no need to write it down unlike the more complex idiomela.
^Nina-Maria Wanek (2013) discussed in her systematic analysis of the August part of the Menaion, what was really Koukouzeles' role concerning the contemporary redaction of the sticheraria. Maria Alexandru (2000,2007) made a comparative analysis of the musical settings of a few selectedstichera as they had been created during the centuries.
^For instance aSticherarion kalophonikon orMenaion kalophonikon by Gabriel of Yeniköy (Berlin, State Library, Mus. ms. 25059). The kalophonic composition ofsticheron for St. Peter τῷ τριττῷ τῆς ἐρωτήσεως by Nikolaos Kampanes andJohn Koukouzeles has been analysed by Oliver Gerlach (2009).
^For a catalogue which shows, how the great signs themselves added something to the stichera during the 16th century, see Flora Kritikou (2013).
^The sticherarion of the Great Lavra (GR-AOml Ms.γ 12) shows the oldest layer of notation (theta notation) in its second part of the mobile cycle: the pentekostarion (ff. 49v-80r), while the first part the letters θ (“thema“) which indicated a melisma over the marked syllable, became elaborated in the Athonite Chartres notation with the triodion (ff. 1r-49v).
^The manuscriptNkS 4960 of the Royal Library at Copenhagen as well as manuscript A139 supp. of the Ambrosian Library of Milan, written by Athanasios of Constantinople in 1341, aresticheraria according to the revision of "John Koukouzeles" (Raasted 1995) and they both contain all four books.
^According to Gerda Wolfram (New Grove) the oldestSticheraria were notated collections ofIdiomelaand discovered in the library of theGreat Lavra on the Mount Athos and can be dated back to the 10th (Ms. γ.12, γ.67 is the only with an octoechos) and 11th century (γ.72, γ.74). The oldest notation used was theta notation, later replaced by Chartres and Coislin notation. The oldest Slavonicsticherarion dates back to the 12th century and has adiastematic semantic notation. It was discovered in the library of theHilandar Monastery (Ms. 307).
^The early Prosomoia composed byTheodore the Studites for the evening service during Lenten period which belong to the book Triodion (Husmann 1972, 216-231). These prosomoia are not composed over stichera avtomela, but over stichera ideomela, especially compositions dedicated to martyres.
^See for instance the octoechos part of thesticherarion 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).
"Holy Mount Athos, Mone Vatopaidiou, Ms. 1488".Triodion, Pentekostarion and Oktoechos with Coislin (standard repertoire of the moveabe cycle) and Chartres notation (Oktoechos and apokryphs) (11th century). Library of Congress.
"Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fonds grec, Ms. 261".Complete Sticherarion with Byzantine Round notation of Cyprus (Menaion ff. 1r-139r; Triodion ff. 141r-179r; Ἀκολουθία τῶν παθῶν ff. 179r-196v; Pentekostarion ff. 196v-218r) and Oktoechos with stichera prosomoia (14th century with later palimpsests around the stichera heothina).
"Cambridge, Trinity College, Ms. B.11.17".Complete Sticherarion with Menaion, Triodion, Pentekostarion and Oktoechos with Prosomoia of the Athonite Pantokrator Monastery (c. 1400).
"Bologna, Biblioteca del Liceo Musicale, Ms. P.147 (olim Cod. 155)".Triodion of the Old Sticherarion, partly damaged - Cod. 155 of Padre Martini's Manuscript Collection (16th century). Bologna: Museo internazionale e Biblioteca della musica di Bologna. Retrieved18 October 2012.
Koukouzeles, Ioannes."London, British Library, Ms. Add. 28821".Incomplete Menaion (Christmas Vigil until 28 August) of a Sticherarion kalophonikon with compositions by Ioannes Glykys, John Koukouzelis, Ioannes Kladas, Xenos Korones, Manuel Chrysaphes, Gregorios Mpounes Alyates and some later composers (17th century).
Iakovos the Protopsaltes (1836). Chourmouzios Chartophylakos (ed.).Δοξαστάριον περιέχον τα δοξαστικά όλων των δεσποτικών, και θεομητορικών εορτών, των τε εορταζομένων αγίων του όλου ενιαυτού, του τε Τριωδίου και Πεντηκοσταρίου, μελοποιηθέν παρά Ιακώβου Πρωτοψάλτου της του Χριστού Μεγάλης Εκκλησίας. Εξηγηθέν απαραλλάκτως εις την Νέαν της Μουσικής Μέθοδον παρά Χουρμουσίου Χαρτοφυλακός. Vol. 1–2. Istanbul: Isaac De Castro.
Alexandru, Maria (2000).Studie über die 'großen Zeichen' der byzantinischen musikalischen Notation unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Periode vom Ende des 12. bis Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts (Ph.D. thesis). University of Copenhagen.
Frøyshov, Stig; Paul Géhin (2000). "Nouvelles découvertes sinaïtiques. À propos de la parution de l'inventaire des manuscrits grecs".Revue des études byzantines.58 (1):167–184.doi:10.3406/rebyz.2000.1990.ISSN0766-5598.
Frøyshov, Stig Simeon R. (2012). "The Georgian Witness to the Jerusalem Liturgy: New Sources and Studies". In Bert Groen; Steven Hawkes-Teeples; Stefanos Alexopoulos (eds.).Inquiries into Eastern Christian Worship: Selected Papers of the Second International Congress of the Society of Oriental Liturgy (Rome, 17–21 September 2008). Eastern Christian Studies. Vol. 12. Leuven, Paris, Walpole: Peeters. pp. 227–267.
Husmann, Heinrich (1975). "Ein syrisches Sticherarion mit paläobyzantinischer Notation (Sinai syr. 261)".Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft.1:9–57.
Kritikou, Flora (2013). "The Embellishment of a Sticherarion by Chrysaphes the Younger as a Phenomenon of Renewal of Byzantine Chant". In Gerda Wolfram; C Troelsgård (eds.).Tradition and Innovation in Late Byzantine and Postbyzantine Liturgical Chant II: Proceedings of the Congress held at Hernen Castle, the Netherlands, 30 October - 3 November 2008. Eastern Christian Studies. Vol. 17. Leuven, Paris, Walpole: Peeters. pp. 215–259.ISBN9789042920156.
Raasted, Jørgen (1966).Intonation Formulas and Modal Signatures in Byzantine Musical Manuscripts. Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae, Subsidia. Vol. 7. Copenhagen: E. Munksgaard.
Raasted, Jørgen (1995). Szendrej, Janka; Hiley, David (eds.). "Koukouzeles' Revision of the Sticherarion and Sinai gr. 1230".Laborare Fratres in Unum: Festschrift in Honor of László Dobszay's 60th Birthday. Spolia Berolinensi.7. Hildesheim, Zurich: Weidmann:261–277.ISBN3615001710.
Tillyard, H.J.W. (1940).The Hymns of the Octoechus. MMB Transcripta. Vol. 3. Copenhagen.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Troelsgård, Christian (2001). Dobszay, László (ed.)."What kind of chant books were the Byzantine Sticherária?".Cantus Planus: Papers Read at the 9th Meeting, Esztergom & Visegrád, 1998. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences Institute for Musicology:563–574. Retrieved4 November 2012.
Wanek, Nina-Maria (2013).Sticheraria in spät- und postbyzantinischer Zeit: Untersuchungen anhand der Stichera für August. Vienna: Praesens Verlag.ISBN978-3-7069-0749-1.
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