page_title: Octoechos (liturgy)
section_title: Oriental hymnals
hierarchical_section_title: Octoechos (liturgy) / Oriental hymnals
caption_attribution_description: English: The Orthodox Hymnal (Sharaknotz) 1651-1652 Hayrapet Ink and color on paper H: 8.2 W: 5.3 cm Armenia Purchase F1937.19
context_page_description: The liturgical book called Octoechos contains a repertoire of hymns ordered in eight parts according to the eight echoi. Originally created as a hymn book with musical notation in the Stoudios monastery during the 9th century, it is still used in many rites of Eastern Christianity. The hymn book has something in common with the book tonary of the Western Church. Both contained the melodic models of the octoechos system, but the tonary served simply for a modal classification, while the book octoechos is as well organized as a certain temporal of several eight week periods and the word itself means the repertoire of hymns sung during the celebrations of the Sunday Office.
context_section_description: Although the Georgian Iadgari is not the oldest manuscript among the complete tropologia which could be preserved until the present day, the Iadgari offers the most complete insight into the development of hymnography and the cathedral rite of Jerusalem. Other hymn books developed between the 7th and the 11th centuries starting from the Hagiopolitan hymn reform of 692. They contain stichera, kontakia all kinds of troparia and canons without being necessarily dependent on the tradition of Byzantine chant and later developments of the Stoudios Monastery since the 9th century. The reason of this independence is, that the church history of Armenia and Georgia preceded the Byzantine imperial age about 50 years and both traditions were more oriented to the Patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem. This section describes Oriental and Caucasian hymnals as they have been used by Armenians until the genocide by the end of the Ottoman Empire, and as they are still used among Orthodox Christians in Syria, Persia, Armenia and Georgia.
caption: Illumination in an Armenian Hymnal (Šaraknoc', 1651)
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