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Irmologion ( heirmologion) is a liturgical book of the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches that follow the Byzantine Rite. It contains irmos (οἱ εἱρμοί) organised in sequences of odes (αἱ ᾠδαὶ, sg. ἡ ᾠδή) and such a sequence was called canon (ὁ κανών 'law'). These canons of nine, eight, four or three odes are to be chanted during the morning service (Orthros). The name irmologion derives from irmos (ὁ εἱρμός), which means 'link'. The irmos is a melodic model which preceded the composition of the odes. According to the etymology, the book 'collects' (λογεύω logeuō) the irmoi.
The troparia sung with the canon are performed out of a textbook (Reader,For instance, "These Truths We Hold - The Holy Orthodox Church: Her Life and Teachings". The English translation here follows the one by Monk Tykhon. Menaion) according to avtomela, but the irmoi and 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 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 (1835) 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 school founded by Panagiotes Halacoğlu and his followers at the New Music School of the Patriarchate (Daniel the Protopsaltes, Petros Peloponnesios, Georgios of Crete).See also the 18th-century manuscript of an Irmologion in Athens (MIET, Historical and Palaeographical Archive, Ms. Pezarou 15) and in Birmingham (Mingana Collechtion, Ms. Gr. 6).
As example for the ode order (OdO), one might study the earlier irmologia of the Greek collection at the library of Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot 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.It is possible to identify the texts with the repertory of avtomela and irmoi made by the friends of music in Constantinople, at least as far as these texts are still in use until the present day.
As example for the canon order (KaO), one might study the very early fully notated manuscript of the Great Lavra on Mount Athos (Great Lavra Ms. β.32 written about 1000 with Chartres notation), the standard example for Coislin notation (F-Pn Ms. Coislin 220), or the later manuscripts of the Sinai collection (ET-MSsc Sin. gr.) 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.See Dagmar Christian's edition of the hymns of December (2001). 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 (similar to the composition of the older tropologia which persisted until the 12th century), that they were separated into two volumes—one for Glas I-IV (the authentic modes) and a second for Glas V-VIII (the plagal modes).See Jørgen Raasted's study (1969) of the oldest papyrus fragments of the tropologion. But there are irmologs provided with znamennaya notation since the 12th century—the Irmolog preserved at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RUS-Mda / ргада fond 381 Ms. 150), 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" (Ἀνθολογία τοῦ Ὄρθρου or Псалтикиина Утренна) which replaced the earlier Akolouthiai used since the 14th century.Todorov's Bulgarian edition (1992) includes a Bulgarian version of Petros Peloponnesios' Katavasies in calendaric order, the troparia have to be sung from a textbook Miney, while other Anthologies (Phokaeos 1978, Sarafov 1912) have to be used in combination with an Irmologion (Chourmouzios 1825). Some of these Anthologies do also contain the odes of the canon, but also many other hymns of the (especially the more elaborated compositions the Polyeleos psalms) and of the book Octoechos which are sung during the morning service (Orthros, Utrenna). Already Codex sinaiticus graecus 1257 dating back to 1332, has a second part dedicated to the recitation of psalm verses (psalmody) during Orthros and Hesperinos, including the Polyeleoi.
These additional hymns sung during Orthros are:
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.The Russian translation into Old Church Slavonic (Školnik 1994) can be distinct from the earlier one at Ohrid, that the latter tried not to change the irmoi, but thus, a litterate translation of the hymns was not possible (Dagmar 2001).
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 , using (square notes) on a staff, was published in 1772. Today, most Russian Irmologia are printed using modern musical notation (with the exception of some Old Believer communities, which continue to use the older znamenny neumesSee the Rozniki Irmolog at the National Library of Petrozavodsk.), although elsewhere, notation is nearly universally used.
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