Irmologion 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 and such a sequence was called canon. These canons of nine, eight, four or three odes are supposed to be chanted during the morning service. The book Irmologion derives from heirmos which means "link". The irmos is a melodic model which preceded the composition of the odes. According to the etymology, the book "collects" the irmoi.
The melodic irmos and the odes of the canon and its use during the morning service
An important portion of Matins and other services in the Orthodox Church is the canon, a long liturgical poem divided into nine strophes with a sophisticated meter called ode. Each ode and its prosodic meter is made according to a certain irmos, and concerning its celebration during Orthros it is followed by troparia called akrosticha. Sometimes certain longer irmoi are sung which are called katabasiai because of their descending melos. The troparia sung with the canon are performed out of a textbook according to avtomela, but the irmoi and katabasiae are chanted by the choir according to the model of the irmoi. Since the Irmologion was invented as a chant book provided with musical notation, it only contained the smaller number of heirmoi with those texts which identified them. The other canons and akrosticha were usually collected in a separated text book, and the incipit of a certain heirmos or, in case of troparia the avtomela, indicated the melody which had to be applied for the recitation of the hymns. Since the Byzantine period, there already developed a soloistic kalophonic way to perform just one certain ode during more important religious feast, if the celebration took more time than usual, but the genre became even more popular and innovative during the Ottoman period following the example of Balasios the Priest. The printed edition of the kalophonic irmologion is dominated by Ottoman era composers like Chrysaphes the Younger, Germanos of New Patras, Balasios, and later generations like Petros Bereketis and even later the hyphos school founded by Panagiotes Halacoğlu and his followers at the New Music School of the Patriarchate.
Organisation of the irmologion
The earliest sources with heirmoi were the tropologion which organised hymns of different genres with modal signatures according to the calendar, beginning with the Christmas and Theophany cycle. The book irmologion developed not earlier than during the 10th century. Within the Irmologion, the new chant book of the Stoudites' reform, the irmoi are usually arranged according to the eight tones of Byzantine chant either according to the odes or according to the canon. As example for the ode order, one might study the earlier irmologia of the Greek collection at the library of Saint Catherine's Monastery at the food of Mount Sinai: the manuscripts [|929] and [|1258] are organised, that the first, second, third, etc. odes are together. Since the second ode is only sung during Lent, there were much less second odes than first or third odes. As example for the canon order, one might study the very early fully notated manuscript of the Great Lavra on Mount Athos, the standard example for Coislin notation, or the later manuscripts of the Sinai collection such as Ms. [|1256] and the first half of [|1257]. Here each ode has an ode number, such as ωδ α᾽ for the first ode, usually followed by a modal signature corresponding to the echos section. The next ode is mostly ωδ γ᾽ for the third ode, because according to the more common canon the second one is left out. Thus, one canon follows the preceding one until the order is fulfilled. These canons usually follow within each echos section according to the calendaric order. There is no real chronology between both orders, both existed already in the oldest heirmologia and they persisted until the current print editions. It also seems that the earlier manuscripts which still numbered the canons within the canon order, sorted them according to ascribed authors, Ms. [|Coislin 220] has also more or less concrete descriptions of the festive occasion, and still provides a choice of several canons in different echoi and composed by different authors for the very same feast. The number of canons is higher than in the later heirmologia of the 14th century, and it should be mentioned that certain schools like the one of Germanus I of Constantinople had been completely abandoned in the current print editions of the Orthodox church. Concerning the Slavonic reception, first by Cyril and Methodius' students around Clement of Ohrid and Constantine of Preslav, the translators did not very close translations of the Greek hymns, they rather tried to preserve the sophisticated system of the melodic models such as avtomela and irmoi without changing the melodies. Within Slavonic manuscripts, the separation between Irmolog and the Oktoich and other books of the sticherarion was less common, usually the Oktoich books were so voluminous, since they included the irmoi, that they were separated into two volumes—one for Glas I-IV and a second for Glas V-VIII. But there are irmologs provided with znamennaya notation since the 12th century—the irmolog preserved at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, for instance. All Old Church Slavonic irmologs are organised in ode order. Today the Irmologion is often replaced by another chant book which is called "Anthology of the Orthros" which replaced the earlier Akolouthiai used since the 14th century. Some of these Anthologies do also contain the odes of the canon, but also many other hymns of the Psalterion and of the book Octoechos which are sung during the morning service. Already Codex sinaiticus graecus 1257 dating back to 1332, has a second part dedicated to the recitation of psalm verses during Orthros and Hesperinos, including the Polyeleoi. These additional hymns sung during Orthros are:
Antiphons which should not be confused with the Latin Antiphon, since it is a rather elaborated form, usually organised in three sections
The oldest manuscripts which contained canons, were tropologia which are composed according to a calendaric order. There were also types like the Georgian Iadgari and the Armenian Šaraknoc'. The book Irmologion was created later as a notated chant book by the reformers at the Stoudios Monastery, although not all Irmologia have musical notation. Concerning the traditional repertoire of these books, a Studites edition can be distinguished from the one at Sinai. The earliest notated Irmologion can be dated back to the 10th century in Byzantium. A full version of the Russian Irmologion, in Church Slavonic includes about 1050 irmoi. Earlier examples provided only the written text; later, the "hooks" and "banners" of Znamenny Chant were added above the text. The first printed edition of a notated Irmologion in Russia, the Irmologiy notnago peniya, using neumes on a staff, was published in 1772. Today, most Russian Irmologia are printed using modern musical notation, although elsewhere, Byzantine musical notation is nearly universally used.
Chant books
Tropologia (6th to 12th centuries)
Office Menaia, Fasten and Flower Triod with Akrosticha
Slavic irmologs with znamennaya notation (12th to 16th centuries)
Slavic irmologs with kryuki notation (16th to 20th centuries)
Old Byzantine notation (10th to 13th centuries)
Middle Byzantine notation (13th to 19th centuries)
