Also concerning the book kontakarion the collection of Sinai is exceptional, since it has a great variety of books which has only recently be studied by musicologists as well. Especially the unnotated kondakaria-tropologia are interesting, because they prove that the genre kontakion was continued with new poetry, obviously in a rather monastic context. The poets used the well-known models to compose new kontakia-prosomoia, also about the feasts of the model (see alternative kontakia-prosomoia also for the first day of September…).
Centres to preserve the old books of the cathedral rite notated into the sticherarion notation (outside Constantinople) were Athos, the island of Patmos, and the scriptoria of the Italian Archimandritates during the Staufer period (especially SS. Salvatore di Messina) and Saint Neilos' Abbey at Grottaferrata, but also Sinai.
3 tropologia-kondakaria
Kontakion ἐν ἱερεῦσιν εὐσεβῶς διαπρέψας for Saint Anthimus (μηνὶ τῷ αὐτῷ ·Γ᾽· “in the same month 3rd”: 3 September) sung with the melody of the kontakion for cross elevation (14 Sep) ὁ ὑψωθεῖς ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ in echos tetartos (f.2v)
X • Kondakarion without notation organised as menaion (September-August ff.1r-96v, part between July and August is missing between f.94v and 95r), triodion beginning with Sunday of the Prodigal son (ff.96v-103r), preceding the one of Meatfare (Apokreo) which is still written within the menaion of February like all the other kondakia of the triodion except that of Lazarus Saturday until Palm Sunday (f.73r-89v) and pentekostarion beginning with Easter and ending with All Saints (ff.103r-114v) and followed by acrostics made over the prooimion of the kondakion, which was later used for Palm Sunday (but not in this kondakarion). The manuscript has an appendix with pages of on older kondakarion-tropologion witten in majuscule script (ff.117r-118v), while the empty verso page of folio 116 has an alternative kondakion for Symeon, probably a prosomoion of common kondakion in the same echos.
Most of the kondakia have 4 oikoi, those of the triodion 6 or 8, there are two kondakia for the Sunday of Orthodoxy, one dedicated to St Theodore Stoudites (3 oikoi), another to Orthodoxy (only one oikos), there are also many kondakia dedicated to saints which do not appear in the later notated kontakarion-psaltikon. The Akathistos was compiled from another manuscript which arranged the 24 oikoi of the kontakia rubrified as stichera alphabetika (ff.80r-87v). Many prosomoia of the triodion are different from the later repertoire.
The tropologion was torn into two parts within the menaion of April (fol. 1)
XI • Compilation of various kondakaria-tropologia without notation:
- Incomplete kondakarion (each kondakion truncated to one oikos, important feasts 4 oikoi, dormition of the Theotokos 24 oikoi, with many saints for August who are quite local) without notation beginning with the later part of April of the menaion (April-August ff.1r-43v), triodion (ff.44r-52v) and pentekostarion (ff.52v-60).
- Incomplete kondakarion (probably part of the first half which is lost) without notation organised as menaion (September-March ff.61r-72v), appendix with two kondakia parakletika and a kondakion for John Chrysostom (ff.72v-75v).
- Tropologion by another hand with "exaposteilaria" (troparia) for the menaion (ff.76r-98r), triodion (ff.98r-101r) and pentekostarion (ff.101r-104r), appendix with theotokia (ff.104v-106v) and exaposteilaria preceding the eleven stichera heothina (ff.107r-110r), scriptural lessons (ff.110v-111r), troparia (ff.111v-113v), a sequence of prosomoia about a certain oikos (f.114).
Beginning of the month of February with a kondakion for the Holy Martyr Trifon (1 February) composed over
the kondakion for All Saints Ὡς ἀπαρχὰς τῆς φύσεως (f.143r)
1285 • Kondakarion-tropologion with an exhausting (obviously over-regional) collection of kondakia organised as menaion (September-August ff.1v-249v), triodion (ff. 250r-282v), pentekostarion (ff.283r-314r) and parakletike (ff.314r-322v); an appendix with later added kondakia (ff.322v-335v).
2 kontakaria-psaltika
The first kontakion of the movable cycle (Sunday of Apokreo "Meatfare") follows the kontakion of purification (2 February) which means the whole cycle was integrated within the menaion of the immovable cycle (f.149v)
about 1275 • Kontakarion-psaltikon with Middle Byzantine round notation with the prokeimenon (oktoechos cycle ff.1r-15v; lamp lighting cycle ff.15v-30r; stichologia for Christmas and Theophaneia ff.30r-35r) and the long allelouiarion (oktoechos order: α᾽, β᾽, δ᾽, δ᾽ νανὰ, πλα᾽, πλβ᾽, πλδ᾽ refrains rubrified in red ink ff.35r-75r) cycle, hypakoai anastasima (oktoechos order ff.75r-82v), kontakarion organised as menaion with integrated movable cycle including a few hypakoai / katavasiai (ff.84r-233r).
On folio 83r another anti-cherouvikon for the Presanctified liturgy and the kekragarion (evening psalm) were added (compare with folio 21 recto), but without modal signatures.
Melismatic elaboration of the whole Akathistos hymn (kontakion for Annunciation, 25 March)
after the copy of the psaltikon-kontakarion Sin. gr. 1280 (f.168v)
about 1330 • Kontakarion-psaltikon with Middle Byzantine round notation by monk Neophyte (during the time when Laurentios was Metropolitan of Damascus) with the prokeimenon (oktoechos and lamp lighting prokeimena ff.1r-20r; first page is missing) and the allelouiarion cycle (ff.20r-53v), an identical copy of the kontakarion with some hypakoai and katavasiai of Sin. gr. 1280 (ff.54r-162r), hypakoai anastasima (ff.162v-167v) and kolophon indicating the end of the kontakarion-psaltikon; a second part was added with the complete melismatic realisation of the Akathistos hymnus (ff.168v-209r), the missing prosomoion cycle of kontakia anastasima (ff.209r-220v), eleven stichera heothina (ff.220v-228r), and allelouiarion cycle (ff.228r-231)—not the missing refrains, but about psalmodic use of alleluia endings in oktoechos order. In an appendix three other prokeimena (Encainia 13 Sep, Sunday after Easter, Sunday of Myrrhbearers) had been added.
The manuscript is obviously a later copy of Sin. gr. 1280 which the scribe followed in the very detail (Floros commented on the great number of errors he found when he studied this copy), but he omitted the stichologia for Christmas and Theophaneia and the rubrics with the refrains notated in red ink before each echos of the allelouiaria. He added the missing prosomoia cycle of eight kontakia anastasima, also the eleven stichera heothina (which is odd for a kontakarion), and an allelouiarion cycle for psalmody!, and a complete highly melismatic, but not kalophonic version of the whole Akathistos hymn (both after a kolophon where 1280 was finished). The notator used a rather contemporary way to write medial signatures which are very rarely used in Sin. gr. 1280, another hand copied the version of the Akathistos like on f.110v and added the other 23 oikoi in the same (highly melismatic, but not kalophonic) style.
2 kalophonic manuscripts
Kalophonic elaboration of the Akathistos hymn by Ioannis Lampadarios (f.5r)
XV • "Psaltikon of Ioannikios of the Holy Mount Sabas". Some chant of the Asma has been added on its first pages (acclamation τὸν δεσπότην, trisagion, prooimion of the Akathistos hymn, a repeated passage taken from a doxastikon idiomelon for 15 August, obviously belonging to a kalophonic realisation of the same) which have been used to bind two older manuscripts:
- Complete Akathistos hymnus in the kalophonic realisation by Ioannis Lampadarios (Ioannis Kladas?) (ff.5r-80v);
- Alternative kalophonic realisations: one of the final Omega-stanza Ὦ πανύμνητε Μῆτερ in phthora nenano as echos kratema (note that the whole kontakion is composed in echos plagios tetartos, if the later added signature is right!), and two of the first oikos, one in echos plagios devteros!, another in the original echos plagios tetartos passing to the mele of protos echoi within the first teretismata (ff.81r-88v).
First kalophonic elaboration of the Akathistos hymn (the prooimion and the first oikos)
by Protopsaltis Ioannes Glykaios (ff.61v-67v)
1437 • Oikematarion kalophonikon based on papadic compositions by Michael Aneotos and kalopismoi by Ioannis Glykys. It was copied by Gregorios Monachos at the Mone Esphigmenou on the Holy Mount Athos. It has the repertoire of the whole kontakarion organised as menaion (ff.1r-47v), triodion (ff.47v-137v), pentekostarion (ff.137v-151v) and parakletike (ff.151v-190r). The scribe's focus was mainly the movable cycle and the Akathistos hymn is realised with kalophonia in full length, composed by Michael Aneotos and embellished by Ioannes Koukouzeles (24 oikoi, ff.67v-131r).
The manuscript was bound at the scriptorium of the Great Lavra and sold by Gerasimos to the Akataleptos Monastery. Unfortunately the microfilm (of some pages) is in a very bad and almost unreadable quality (low resolution), although it was written by a very clear hand. The manuscript shows that Michael Aneotos reduced his composition of the prooimion to the incipit (obviously the rest was supposed to be sung by the choir). Thus, he did a first step which led to the book form oikematarion whose name indicates that the first oikos (not the prooimion) was the main subject of his arrangements (Ioannis did also embellish some prooimia with teretismata).
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