page_title: Octoechos (liturgy)
section_title: The Old Church Slavonic reception of the Greek octoechos
hierarchical_section_title: Octoechos (liturgy) / The Old Church Slavonic reception of the Greek octoechos
caption_attribution_description: English: First page Octoechos
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: Even before a direct exchange between Slavic monks and monks of the Stoudios Monastery, papyrus fragments offer evidence of earlier translations of Greek hymns. The early fragments show that hymns and their melodies developed independently in an early phase until the 9th century. Cyril and Methodius and their followers within the Ohrid-School were famous for the translation of Greek hymnody between 863 and 893, but it is also a period of a reformative synthesis of liturgical forms, the creation of new hymnographical genres and their organisation in annual cycles.
caption: The first printed Octoechos (Schweipolt Fiol, Kraków 1491)
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