Glossary of Liturgical Terms: A - E

All-Night Vigil (vsenoshchnoye bdeniye) Back to Top
a service of the Russian Orthodox Church that consists of Vespers, Matins, and the First Hour; in parish churches it is celebrated in the evenings before Divine Liturgy on Sundays and feasts; in monasteries the A. N. V. sometimes follows a somewhat different format. In musical terms, the A. N. V. includes a number of hymns of the Ordinary, between which are inserted hymns of the Proper sung according to the Tones from the Octoechos or belonging to a particular feast. At Vespers the hymns of the Ordinary include the introductory psalm "Bless the Lord, O my soul," "Blessed is the man," "Gladsome Light," and "Lord, now lettest Thou"; at Matins -- "Praise the name of the Lord" and the Great Doxology; and at First Hour -- "To You,the Victorious Leader"; there is also an unchanging scheme of litanies and other short responses. For different categories of the A. N. V. one can identify additional hymns of the Ordinary: e. g., at a resurrectional A. N. V. -- "Rejoice, O Virgin," the troparia evlogitaria "Blessed art Thou, O Lord," and "My soul magnifies the Lord," and at A. N. V.'s for the twelve great feasts -- the gradual antiphon in Tone 4, "From my youth." The above hymns were initially performed in various unison chants, then polyphonically, and in more recent times they have been set to music as cycles by such composers as Tchaikovsky, Arkhangelsky, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Panchenko, Nikolsky, Gretchaninoff, P. Chesnokov, Rebikov, Rachmaninoff, and others; individual hymns from the A. N. V. have been set by Lvovsky, Kastalsky, P. Chesnokov, Kompaneisky, Tolstiakov, and many others.

Antiphon Back to Top
from the Greek, meaning "against a voice"; a refrain sung by the choir or the people to psalm verses sung by a soloist; by extension, a psalm or group of psalms accompanied by a refrain and concluding with "Glory to the Father...," e. g., the three daily antiphons at the Divine Liturgy (Pss. 91 [92], 92 [93], and 94 [95]), and the antiphon of the first kathisma at Great Vespers, "Blessed is the man." Each of the twenty kathismata of the Psalter is divided into three a. (refrains having fallen from use long ago). The Psalms of Typika and the Beatitudes, which in Russian usage have come to displace the ancient (daily) a. generally, are called "antiphons" but only improperly. In modern musical practice, hymns termed a. are no longer performed as antiphons: such hymns include the gradual antiphons, hymns in honor of the Holy Trinity that are sung at Matins before the reading of the Gospel, and the fifteen a. linking the Gospels at the Office of Matins of Holy Friday. In Orthodox musical parlance "antiphon" does not refer to alternate singing by two choirs.

Apolytikion Back to Top
see troparion, dismissal

Avtomelon (samopodoben) Back to Top
a term applied to certain hymns composed according to the principles of prosomoia, which bear a particularly close similarity to one another, often beginning and ending with the same words.

Beatitudes Back to Top
the Commandments of Blessedness from the Gospel of Matthew (5:3-12) with the addition of Luke 23:42, which replace the third antiphon at Divine Liturgy. (All that remains from the antiphon is the entrance verse "Come, let us worship..." [Ps. 94 (95):6] with its refrain.) The term Beatitudes (or stichera at the Beatitudes) also refers to the troparia inserted between these verses according to the Typikon, a practice begun in Constantinople in the 12th century.

Bulgarian chant Back to Top
one of the liturgical chants of the Russian Orthodox Church, which came into use in Muscovite Russia in the mid-17th c. Since B. c. does not have a direct connection with the chant used in the Bulgarian Church, its Bulgarian origin has not been definitely established; it is possible that the term "Bulgarian chant" was first introduced in western Ukrainian chant codices in an effort to give new melodies a mark of legitimacy and canonicity. The melodies of B. c. are characterized by symmetrical rhythms and phrase structure, a clear sense of tonality, and exact repetitions of melodic phrases. B. c. does not contain melodies for all categories of liturgical hymns.

Canon Back to Top
see kanon

Canticle Back to Top
one of as many as fourteen Biblical and extra-Biblical odes originally gathered into an appendix to the Psalter to facilitate the singing of divine services; specifically, one of the scheme of nine canticles used at Matins by the Palestinian monks as the basis for the genre of liturgical poetry called the kanon. The nine c. are: 1. the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:1-19); 2. the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1-43); 3. the Prayer of Hannah (1 Kings [1 Samuel] 2:1-10); 4. the Prayer of Habbakuk (Habbakuk 3:1-19); 5. the Prayer of Isaiah (Isaiah 26:9-20); 6. the Prayer of Jonah (Jonah 2:3-10); 7. the Prayer of the Three Holy Youths (Daniel 3:26-56); 8. the Song of the Three Holy Youths (Daniel 3:57-88); 9. the Song of the Theotokos (Luke 1:46-55) and the Prayer of Zacharias (Luke 1:68-79) While they are prescribed to be sung at Matins before each respective ode of the kanon, in today's practice only the ninth c., "My soul magnifies the Lord," is sung.

Chant Back to Top
a self-standing system of monody, characterized by a specific compendium of motives (popevki) and principles for organizing them into melodies. Russian church singing incorporates several c. The oldest and most complete of these is znamenny chant, which dates from the 12th century or earlier, and which contains melodies for all the hymns of the liturgical year. Other chants appeared later: demestvenny -- at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, and put' -- at the end of the 15th c. The mid-17th c. saw the flourishing of Kievan, Greek, and Bulgarian c., which are simpler in melodic structure than znamenny chant. Modern-day terminology distinguishes between a chant and a melody (napev), a distinction that was not always made by pre-Revolutionary writers. (see melody)

Cherubic Hymn (Cherubicon) Back to Top
the hymn that begins the Eucharistic portion of the Divine Liturgy and accompanies the great entrance, during which bread and wine are taken from the Table of Preparation and placed upon the Holy Table. During the great entrance the priest remembers the hierarchy of the Church, the civil authorities and all those present, after which "Amen" is sung, and the concluding verse of the hymn follows. (In concert performances it is customary to omit the exclamation and the "Amen.") At virtually all Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great the C. H. "Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim" is sung; the only exceptions are the Liturgy of Holy Thursday, when "Of Thy Mystical Supper" is sung, and the Liturgy of Holy Saturday, when "Let all mortal Fhesh keep silence" is sung. At the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts the C. H. is replaced by the hymn "Now the Powers of Heaven."

Choir Back to Top
the term used in liturgical books to designate groups of singers that participate in the service. Commonly a right choir and a left choir are mentioned, i. e., groups that stand on the klirosy to the right and left of the iconostasis.

Common chant Back to Top
a term used to identify simple melodies that are commonly known and widely used in the musical practice of a particular national Church, diocese, or region.

Communion Hymn (koinonikon or kinonikon) Back to Top
the ancient refrain for the communion psalm (antiphon) today sung independently, often to a melismatic melody and with an ornate "Alleluia," immediately after "One is holy" at Divine Liturgy. Except in a few instances the text is a psalm verse.

Compline Back to Top
a service of the Orthodox Church served after supper; there are two types: Little C., served daily, and Great C., which is served during fasts and on the eve of some major feasts, e. g., the Nativity of Christ, Theophany, and Annunciation. C. consists primarily of psalm readings and prayers.

Concerto Back to Top
see sacred concerto

Court chant Back to Top
compendium of liturgical melodies, taken, for the most part, from abbreviated Kievan, Greek, and Bulgarian chants, which became standard in the usage of the Imperial Court Chapel in St. Petersburg during the late 18th-early 19th centuries. Eventually, it was systematized and published, first in two voices by D. Bortniansky in 1815, then in four voices by A. Lvov in 1848, under the title The Common Book of Notated Singing used at the Imperial Court. Because C. c. is by its nature a compilation of several chants and is performed polyphonically, some scholars believe that the term "chant" should not be applied to it. On the other hand, it contains melodies in Tones for all categories of liturgical hymns, except for those that by the 19th c. were no longer sung at the Imperial Court and in many parish churches, but continued to be sung only in monasteries.

Daily Cycle Back to Top
the cycle of liturgical services of the Orthodox Catholic Church, comprised of Vespers, Compline, Nocturns, Matins, First Hour, Third Hour, Sixth Hour, and Ninth Hour; Divine Liturgy, though strictly speaking not part of the d. c., falls between Sixth and Ninth Hour. According to church tradition, the d. c. begins with Vespers, at sunset. The full d. c. is usually served in monasteries; in parish churches on Sundays and feast days the All-Night Vigil is served the previous evening, comprised of Vespers, Matins, and First Hour, and in the morning, the Divine Liturgy is served, preceded by Third and Sixth Hours.

Demestvenny Chant Back to Top
one of the monophonic chants of the Russian Orthodox Church; first mentioned in a source dating from 1441, it flourished in the 17th c. Hymns performed in d. c. primarily belonged to solemn feast-day services and were marked by complexity of rhythm and freedom of melodic stucture. The hymns of d. c. did not follow the system of Eight Tones, which led some composers of the late 19th c., e. g. N. Kompaneisky, to apply the term "demestvenny" to sacred musical works intended for concert, as opposed to liturgical, performance.

Demestvenny Notation Back to Top
a type of neumatic notation used in early Russian church singing for notating monophonic demestvenny chant.

Demestvenny Polyphony Back to Top
a type of early Russian polyphony, dating from the 16th-17th c., that was contrapuntal in nature and characterized by a complex texture resulting from the relative rhythmic independence of the component voices.

Divine Liturgy Back to Top
the central divine service of the Orthodox Catholic Church, the first portion of which centers on the reading of Scripture and common prayers, and the second portion, on the celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. There are three main variants of the D. L.: the L. of St. Basil the Great, once the regular Sunday L., which is now served only ten times during the year; the L. of St. John Chrysostom, which is served on Sundays and feast-days whenever the L. of St. Basil is not served; and the L. of the Presanctified Gifts, which is served during Lent. The D. L. consists of psalms, hymns and prayers, between which are sung litanies and various other short responses. The major unchanging hymns of the Ordinary include: "Only-begotten Son," the Trisagion, the Cherubic Hymn, the Creed, "A mercy of peace," the Lord's Prayer, and "Let our mouths be filled"; in addition, the D. L. includes a number of hymns of the Proper, which pertain to the occasion being celebrated. Initially all these hymns were sung in unison chant, then in polyphony; in the 17th century cyclic compositions arose, known as "Sluzhby Bozhii." In more recent times complete cycles of hymns from the D. L., as well as individual hymns, were set to music by numerous composers, including Berezovsky, Bortniansky, Vedel, Turchaninov, Davydov, Aliab'yev, Tchaikovsky, Arkhangelsky, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Panchenko, Nikolsky, Gretchaninoff, P. Chesnokov, Rebikov, Rachmaninoff, Kastalsky, Kompaneisky, A. Chesnokov, Shvedoff, N. Tcherepnin, and others.

Doxastikon Back to Top
a sticheron that is sung after the verse "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit" at the end of a cycle of stichera at Vespers or Matins. After the d. another sticheron is sometimes sung with the verse "Both now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen." In the scheme of early Russian church singing, the d. of feast-day services were set apart by being set either to particularly complex and solemn chants (demestvenny, put', or great znamenny) or in polyphony. (101R)

Dvoznamennik (dvoyeznamennik, dvuznamennik) (lit. two-signed book) Back to Top
a particular type of liturgical singing book, in which hymns were notated in two types of notation: square, and above it, znamenny. D's. began to appear in the second half of the 17th c., as the transition from znamenny to square notation was being made.

Eight Tones Back to Top
a system of classifying liturgical poetry and melodies into eight categories, known as Tones. Derived originally from the Palestinian practice of singing Paschal hymns to a different melody (Tone) on each of the eight days of the feast, the E. T. came to be applied to eight week-long cycles of hymns. As early as the 6th c., these hymns were compiled into a book known as the Octoechos, which was systematized and edited in the 8th century by St. John of Damascus. While in the Greek and Roman Churches the system of E. T. is based largely upon differences between modes or scales, in the Russian Church the Tones are differentiated by groupings of characteristic melodic formulae (popevki). The system of E. T. governs the hymns of the Proper from the Octoechos, Festal Menaion, and the Triodia -- stichera, troparia, kontakia, kanons, prokeimena, gradual antiphons, and kathisma hymns -- as well as certain hymns of the Ordinary, e.g., "Lord, I Call" and "Gladsome Light" at Vespers, and "It Is Truly Fitting" and the "Alleluia" at the Divine Liturgy, which have been set to the E. T. of znamenny and other chants.

Ekphonesis Back to Top
in a general sense, the chanted reading and exlamations of sacred text, which are used in the Orthodox Catholic Churches. In terms of melodic character, e. stands between psalmody, in which deviations from the main reciting tone occur only at the beginnings and endings of phrases, and singing proper, which has a well defined medodic and rhythmic form. In the liturgy, e. is used primarily for reading the Epistle, the Gospel, and Old Testament readings, as well as for the prayers pronounced by the priest and deacon. In the Russian Church, traditional patterns of e. were notated in early times by a special ekphonetic notation, and were also preserved in the oral tradition; traditional methods of e. have been preserved more completely among the Old Ritualists than elserwhere in the Church.

Entrance Hymn (Entrance Verse) Back to Top
a brief hymn that accompanies the entrance of the clergy into the altar during the little entrance. At the Divine Liturgy on a day that is not a Great Feast, the e. h. consists of the verse "Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ," followed by the refrain "Save us, O Son of God...." The term "entance hymn" (or "processional") is also applied to the singing of "It is truly fitting" and other hymns during the entrance of a bishop into the church prior to the service.

Exapostilarion (Svetilen, lit. Hymn of Light) Back to Top
a brief hymn, similar to a troparion, performed at Matins after the kanon. There are three types of e.: resurrectional, which follow the cycle of 11 resurrectional Gospel readings and Gospel stichera; festal, which pertain to the feast being celebrated; and trinitarian, which are sung at certain Lenten services.

Exclamation Back to Top
a prayer said aloud by a priest or bishop, which in most instances is the conclusion of a longer prayer said in a softer voice; one of the forms of ekphonesis.