TABLE OF CONTENTS

<table><tr><td>Acknowledgements</td><td>ii</td></tr><tr><td>List of Abbreviations</td><td>iii</td></tr><tr><td>The Byzantine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Notes.</td><td>32</td></tr></table>

Appendices:

<table><tr><td>Appendix I: English translation of the Liturgy</td><td>41</td></tr><tr><td>Appendix II: Transcriptions of the Music</td><td>55</td></tr><tr><td>Appendix III: Catalogue of Musical Settings</td><td>114</td></tr><tr><td>Appendix IV: Structure of the Alleluia Refrains</td><td>122</td></tr><tr><td>Appendix V: Comparison of Parodies and Prototypes</td><td>124</td></tr><tr><td>Bibliography</td><td>131</td></tr></table>

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people and institutions have been of considerable
assistance to me in the preparation of this paper on the Li-
turgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Mr. David Drillock of St.
Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New
York, Rev. Paul Lazor of Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church
in New Britain, Connecticut, and Mr. Basil Meimaris, cantor of
St. Barbara's Greek Orthodox Church in New Haven, Connecticut,
have been of inestimable help in the preparation of the Eng-
lish translation of the Liturgy. I should like to thank Rev.
John Townsend, Librarian of the St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theo-
logical Seminary Library, for his help in locating liturgical
books and for his valuable suggestions concerning the pre-
history of the Presanctified. To Rt. Rev. Alexander Schmemann
I am grateful for the use of his copy of Moraitis' book on
this Liturgy. My guidebooks throughout the project have been
Mr. Edward Williams unpublished doctoral dissertation, <u>John
Koukouzeles' Reform of Byzantine Chanting for Great Vespers
in the Fourteenth Century</u> (Yale, 1968) and Mr. Kenneth Levy's
article, "A Hymn for Thursday in Holy Week," <u>JAMS XVI</u> (1963),
pp. 127 - 175.

Finally, I should like to express my enormous appreciation
to my adviser, Mr. Miloš Velimirović, who originally suggested
that I study the Liturgy of the Presanctified, and without
whose teaching, guidance, counseling and valuable opinions this
paper could not have been written.

ABBREVIATIONS

ANF Ante Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church

DACL Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie

DOP Dunbarton Oaks Papers

DTC Dictionnaire de théologie catholique

EO Échos d'orient

JAMS Journal of the American Musicological Society

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

NCE The New Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1967)

OCP Orientalia Christiana Periodica

PG Migne, Patrologia Graeca

PL Migne, Patrologia Latina

requires an understanding of fasting and penance as it developed
in the Church, particularly in the context of the Great Fast, or
Lent.

Originally the fasts of the Church were relatively short,
being two to three days in length at most, and consisting either
of total abstention from food or of taking only one meal a day
after the setting of the sun. These fasts were either fasts of
preparation, preceding a feast day⁴ or baptism,⁵ or were fasts of
station,⁶ which were practiced by the Church from the earliest
centuries on the station days of Wednesday and Friday. While
these fasts may not have been Eucharistic in origin, by the time
of Tertullian (145-220), at least, the Eucharist was performed on
these days, concluding the fast at sundown.⁷

The forty days of Great Lent probably originated not as a
fast *per se* but rather as the period of preparation and instruc-
tion required of those wishing to be baptized. During this time
the catechumens were hearers of the synaxis⁸ of the Divine Liturgy
and were afterwards instructed by lengthy sermons and homilies by
the teachers of the Church. That this baptismal preparation was
scheduled to end just before Holy Week began is very much in keep-
ing with the spirit of the early Church, for those being baptized
into the Faith at this time would immediately be able to partici-
pate in the greatest feast of the Church -- the Feast of the Re-
surrection. Hippolytus, writing at Rome in the early third century,
tells us that this program of instruction usually lasted three
years;⁹ however, by the fourth century, the preparation period

extended to the entire Church during the period of Lent. St. Athanasius, in his Encyclical Letter of 347,¹⁴ mentions Quadragesima as a time of fasting for all, and several other canons of the Council of Laodicea (ca. 365) help to define further this extended usage:¹⁵

<table>
   <tr>
    <td>Canon XLIX.</td>
    <td>That bread should not be offered during Quadragesima except on the Sabbath and on the Lord's Day.</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>Canon L.</td>
    <td>That the fast must not be broken on the fifth day of the last week in Quadragesima (Holy Thursday), and the whole of Quadragesima be dishonoured; but it is necessary to fast all during the season of Quadragesima by eating only xerophagia.</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>Canon LI.</td>
    <td>That the nativities of the Martyrs are not to be celebrated in Quadragesima, but commemorations of the Holy Martyrs are to be made on the Sabbaths and on the Lord's Days.</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>Canon LII.</td>
    <td>That marriages and birthday feasts are not to be celebrated in Quadragesima.</td>
   </tr>
  </table>

We can see that in addition to fasting and refraining from fes-
tive occasions such as weddings and feasts (both secular and
liturgical), this council asks that the celebration of the Eu-
charist cease during the weekdays of Great Lent. ¹⁶ Tradition-
ally denied to penitents, communion is now denied to the entire
Church. In this development it is possible to see a motivation
for the origin of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts -- to
strengthen the faithful through participation in communion while
maintaining the penitential nature of the Great Fast.

Some liturgists feel that the Liturgy of the Presanctified

actually appears at this time. Thibaut<sup>17</sup> traces its origin to a
second oblation *post crucem* performed in Jerusalem on the night
of Holy Thursday, after Vespers and before the beginning of Friday
Matins, as reported by Etheria (ca. 400),<sup>18</sup> and claims that at
some later point this service was transferred to Holy Friday.
His theory presents many difficulties. First of all, it is un-
likely that the service was in any case connected with Holy Friday
in origin, as communion on this day is a late development even in
Rome, where we find no evidence of its performance until the eighth
century.<sup>19</sup> Secondly, in St. Augustine's first letter to Januarius
(ca. 400), which is introduced by Thibaut<sup>20</sup> in evidence of the
general existence of the second oblation of Holy Thursday, there is
indeed a mention of this practice;<sup>21</sup> but there is also an explana-
tion of it:<sup>22</sup>

I think this custom originated because many
or almost all persons in many places were in the
habit of bathing on that day, and, because many
were keeping the fast, the Sacrifice was offered
in the morning for the benefit of those who would
dine -- since they could not stand bathing and
fasting at the same time -- but it was offered at
evening for the sake of those who remained fasting.

If you ask how the custom of bathing arose, no
more reasonable explanation occurs to me than that
the bodies of those to be baptized had become foul
during the observance of Lent, and they would be
offensive if they came to the font without bathing
on some previous day. This day was especially
chosen for it, on which the Lord's Supper is an-
nually commemorated, and, because it was permitted
for those about to be baptized, many others wished
to join with them in bathing and relaxing the fast.²³

If this does indeed refer to the custom mentioned by Etheria,

then it would appear strange, if the second oblation were actually
a presanctified communion, that her contemporary, St. Augustine,
should so carefully explain its reason and origin, but fail to
discuss its unusual nature.

Yet the conditions prerequisite to the development of a
liturgical communion without consecration did exist at this time.
There was a relatively long period during the year when the con-
secration of the Eucharist was forbidden on the station days,²⁴
which had been days of communion from the earliest times of Chris-
tianity. This practice of performing only the synaxis of the
Divine Liturgy on these days during Great Lent, apparently common
at the end of the fourth century,²⁵ is described by Etheria:²⁶

But on the days of Quadragesima, as I said above,
they proceed to Syon on the fourth weekday at
the ninth hour, according to the custom of the
whole year, and all things that are customary
at the ninth hour are done, except the Oblation,
for, in order that the people may always be in-
structed in the law, both the Bishop and the Priest
preach diligently . . . . On the sixth weekday,
everything is done as on the fourth . . . .

In addition to the discontinuation of the consecration of
the Eucharist during penitential periods, the concept of communion
occurring in a time and place other than that of the consecration
was necessary before a service like the Liturgy of the Presanc-
tified could develop. Such communions occurred early in the his-
tory of Christianity, for the earliest members of the Church
brought the consecrated elements to those who were ill or in prison,
or took them home, that they might communicate themselves when

over of the oblation that had been perfected on
the Sunday, and therefrom communicate. And since
the oblation, without the chalice accompanying it,
is void, and if they were to leave over of that of
the Sunday, it would be kept with difficulty, or
might be corrupted, they arranged thus: that,
when they wished, they should sign the chalice with
the oblation, that had been perfected, as was ar-
ranged above: and that the oblation that remained
should be signed from the chalice that had been
hallowed on the Sunday, but that this chalice
should be signed with the coal therefrom, and
that the Body should not be again signed from this
chalice for a second time.

From all we know, this is a plausible time and reason for the
introduction of this Liturgy. Codrington³⁵ supports with ac-
ceptable linguistic evidence the Syrian origin of the service,
and certainly Bar Hebraeus tells of an introduction thoroughly
consistent with the conditions of the period in question. If
any local group should wish to restore the practice of communion
on the station days of Lent, it would naturally be done, if at
all possible, within the framework of the canons. The ancient
practice of communion outside of the time and place of consecra-
tion appears to have been carefully introduced, not as a pseudo-
Eucharist, but specifically as a communion service; and its place-
ment after Vespers ³⁶ -- at that time the last service of the day --
suggests that it originally may have been merely a silent com-
munion. ³⁷ The continued observance of the synaxis service, or
Typika, ³⁸ without the Eucharistic celebration in its original
position after the ninth hour offers a confirmation that this
presanctified communion was never intended as a Eucharistic
replacement.

Approximately a hundred years later the *Chronicon Paschale* ³⁹
(for the year 617) records the introduction of the hymn of the
Great Entrance, "Now the Powers,"⁴⁰ into the Liturgy of the Pre-
sanctified, suggesting that the initial introduction of this
service in Constantinople had been accomplished earlier:⁴¹

In this year under Sergius, Patriarch of Constanti-
nople, on the first weekday of the Fast of the fourth
indiction, there began to be sung, after the "Let My
Prayer Arise," at the time when the Presanctified Gifts
are brought into the altar from the sacristy (skeuophy-
lax), after the priest says, "According to the gifts of
Thy Christ," immediately the people begin, "Now the
Powers of Heaven with us invisibly serve. For lo! Now
enters the King of Glory. Behold, the mystical Sacrifice,
all accomplished, is ushered in. With faith and love let
us draw near, that we may partake of Life Everlasting.
Alleluia." This is done thus not only when the Presanc-
tified is sung in Lent, but on all other days whenever
the Presanctified is done.

This passage shows clearly the development of the Liturgy of the
Presanctified out of the Vespers service. The hymn, "Let My
Prayer Arise,"⁴² is the second verse of Psalm 140, which is
always sung at Vespers; and undoubtedly this is a reference to
the use of the first four verses of this Psalm sung in the order
ii, i, iii, iv, i as processional hymns leading from Vespers to
the Presanctified itself. With the addition of the hymn of the
Great Entrance, "Now the Powers,"⁴³ the tendency of the Presanc-
tified to assimilate characteristics of the Divine Liturgy or
Eucharist becomes apparent,⁴⁴ for the original purpose of the
hymn of the Great Entrance was similar to that of an offertory
chant in the Western Church.

It is interesting that the *Chronicon* refers to the use of

the Liturgy of the Presanctified outside of Lent. Codrington⁴⁵
states that one of these early uses was on the Eve of Epiphany,
which gives us a clue to another extra-Lenten use of this Liturgy.
The Liturgy of St. Basil,⁴⁶ now performed on that day, is always
preceded by the Typika service whenever it is done in connection
with Vespers, which, as we have seen, is also the case with the
Liturgy of the Presanctified. Since the Liturgy of St. Basil is
essentially a Eucharistic Canon, it seems likely that, with the
growing tendency of the Presanctified to adopt elements of the
Eucharistic Liturgy, this Liturgy was used as a substitute for
the Presanctified on days of a serious character on which the
consecration was not actually forbidden by the canons. Outside
of Lent this would apply to its use on Christmas Eve as well as
the Eve of Epiphany, and, within Lent, on Holy Saturday, which
of necessity always falls on the Sabbath. The other use of the
Liturgy of St. Basil following Vespers occurs on Holy Thursday.
From a strict interpretation of the canons, it would appear that
the consecration could not take place on this day, but the weight
of tradition of the institution of the Eucharist seems to justify
its presence.

By the time the Liturgy of the Presanctified appears in a
textual manuscript, it is in the form as we know it today.⁴⁷
The earliest of these manuscripts known to us, the Codex Barbarinus
LXXVII (eighth or ninth century),⁴⁸ contains most of the prayers
and indicates litanies and service music by incipit. In form,
it is essentially an Euchologion, providing only an outline of

the parts of the service for which the priest is not directly
responsible and omitting any part of the service identical to
that of the Divine Liturgy.⁴⁹ The Codex Rossanensis (Vat. Gr.
1970 olim Basilianus cryptoferratensis IX), a twelfth century
copy of an earlier work, offers a somewhat enlarged text, but
varies only slightly from the text found in the Codex Barbarinus.⁵⁰
From these two examples it is obvious that the textual tradition
of the Liturgy, well-established by the ninth century, was main-
tained virtually unaltered through the eleventh century. In
addition, it has been shown that in manuscripts from the twelfth
through the seventeenth century only slight variants in trans-
mission occur, although certain sections of the Liturgy may be
omitted in some copies.⁵¹

The earliest manuscripts which contain Byzantine liturgical
music and can be transcribed into modern staff notation date from
the twelfth century;⁵² and it is in the Asmatikon, a type of
manuscript containing the repertory of the Psaltai, or small
choir, of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, that the earliest ex-
amples of music for the Presanctified Liturgy are found.⁵³

Two centuries later, under the influence and direction of
John Koukouzeles, the music for the three Liturgies⁵⁴ and for
the morning and evening offices, as well as some proper chants,
was collected into one manuscript, called the Akolouthiai, or
"orders of service."⁵⁵ In these manuscripts the music for the
Liturgy of the Presanctified is found in close connection with
the hymn for Holy Thursday, "Of Thy Mystical Supper,"⁵⁶ a position

indicative of its use by the fourteenth century only during Great Lent.⁵⁷ The notation of the Akolouthiai is Middle Byzantine and is completely transcribable.

The content of the Akolouthiai manuscripts are largely new, being attributed by rubric⁵⁸— with remarkable accuracy⁵⁸— to composers contemporary with the manuscripts themselves. Yet a few pieces, such as those designated "palaion" ("old") or "asma-tikon,"⁵⁹ may be remnants of an earlier musical period.

For a particular study of a limited repertory of hymns of the Presanctified Liturgy, six manuscripts have been chosen: Athens 2458, Athens 2633, Athens 2456, Athens 899, Athens 2406 and Athens 2837. All are currently in the National Library in Athens.

Athens 2458 is the earliest dated Akolouthiai (1336)⁶⁰ and comes from the area around Thessaloniki, where it may have been written under the supervision of Koukouzeles.⁶¹ Athens 2622 also originated in northern Greece,⁶² and is dated within the period 1341 to ca. 1360 (the period of the regency of Anne of Savoy) by acclamations contained in it.⁶³ Athens 2456 is dated in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century and also comes from northern Greece.⁶⁴ Athens 899, according to its watermark and repertory, was copied in the first half of the fifteenth century, and is also, in all probability, from northern Greece.⁶⁵ Athens 2406 was written in the Monastery of St. John Prodromos near Serres (north-east of Thessaloniki in Northern Greece) and is dated 1453, as the fall of Constantinople is recorded in it.⁶⁶

-13-

Athens 2837 is dated 1457 by colophon.⁶⁷

All the above manuscripts contain settings for the Liturgy of the Presanctified. As Vespers, when served preceding this Liturgy, contains no music⁶⁸ not performed in a regular Vespers service, this part of the music for the Presanctified was meant to be drawn from the music for Great Vespers which is usually placed at the beginning of the Akolouthiai.⁶⁹ The musical settings for the Liturgy of the Presanctified itself, as contained in these manuscripts,⁷⁰ are:

a) The four hymns from Psalm 140, 71

Κατευθυνθήτω ἡ προσευχή μου ὡς Θυμίαμα ἐνώπιον σου
ἔπαρσις τῶν χειρῶν μου θυσία· εἰσπερινή.

Κύριε ἐπέκραξα πρὸς σέ, εἰσάκουσόν μου πρόσχες τῇ
ψωνῇ τῆς δεήσεως μου, εἰν τῷ κεκπαγέναι με πρὸς σέ.

Θοῦ, Κύριε, φυλακήν τῷ στόματί μου καὶ θύραν περισχῆς
περὶ τὰ χείλη μου.

Μὴ ἐκπλίνης τὴν καρδίαν μου εἰς λόγους πονηρίας, τοῦ
προφᾶσιζεσθαι προφᾶσεις εν ἀμαρτίαις.

in one or more settings. The text of the first hymn, "Κατεύθυν-
θήτω," may be set differently for its two appearances -- as a
stanza sung by the choir and as a refrain sung by the priest.

b) The hymn of the Great Entrance, 72

Νῦν αἰ Δυνάμεις τῶν Οὐρανῶν σὺν ἡμῖν ἀοράτως λατρεύουσιν.
'Ιδού γὰρ εἰσπορεύεται ο Βασιλεύς τῆς δόξης.

'Ιδού θυσία μυστική τετελειωμένη δορυφορεῖται.

Πίστει καὶ πόθω προσέλθωμεν, ἵνα μέτοχοι ζωῆς αἰωνίου
γενώμεθα. Ἀλληλοῦία.

usually in several settings, as it offers considerable possibilities
for musical development.

c) The *communion hymn*, taken from Psalm 33,⁷³

Γεύσασθε καὶ ἴδετε, ὅτι Χρηστός ὁ Κύριος. 'Αλληλούϊα. also in several settings.

d) The settings of verses from Psalm 33,⁷⁴

Εὐλογήσω τόν Κύριον ἐν παντί καιρῶ.
Εὐλογήσω τόν Κύριον ἐν παντί καιρῶ, διά παντός ἡ
αἰνεσις, αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ στόματί μου.
Αρτον οὐράνιον καὶ ποτήριον ζωῆς,
Γεύσασθε καὶ ἰδετε ὅτι χρηστός ὁ Κύριος.
Αλληλούϊα.

the first of which is used to replace what was apparently originally
a reading of the entire Psalm 33, and the second of which is used
at communion.

The emphasis on the settings of the hymn of the Great Entrance,
"Νῦν αἰ Δυνάμεις," and the communion hymn, "Γεύσασθε καὶ ἰδετε,"
as vehicles for musical development is reflected in the number of
settings for each of these texts. For the text "Γεύσασθε καὶ
ἰδετε" sixteen settings exist in copies in from one to six manu-
scripts, the great majority of pieces being composed during the
end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries.

The composers of the settings of "Γεύσασθε καὶ ἰδετε" are
indicated by rubric in almost every case, and in the thirty-nine
appearances of the text there is no instance of a setting being
attributed to more than one composer. In only two instances are
there no identifying rubrics, and in this case two manuscripts
fail to identify the same setting -- a setting labelled "palaion"
in three other manuscripts. The following tentative chronology
of the indicated composers is possible:⁷⁵

| 2458 | 2622 | 2456 | 899 | 2406 | 2837 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redestinos | | | | #7 | #7 |
| Gavalas | | | | #8 | |
| Gerasimos | | | | #9 | |
| Manuel Lampadarios | | | | #10 | |
| | | | | #11 | |
| Markos Hieromonk | | | | #12 | #8 |
| Archon of the Monastery | | | | | #9 |

Concerning the lives of most of these composers not much
is known. The life of Koukouzeles has been extensively studied,
however, and it appears that:⁷⁸

the singer-composer must have been born ca. 1280 in the
city of Dyrrachium on the Adriatic littoral. Although
the Byzantines regarded Koukouzeles as "the second source
of Greek music," all evidence points to an ethnic back-
ground which was not purely Greek at all but was at least
half Slavic. From Dyrrachium Koukouzeles was selected
to go to Constantinople as a protege of the Emperor An-
dronicus II and there probably underwent Hellenization
in an imperial school. At some point he forsook the cap-
ital for a monastic existence at the Great Laura on Mount
Athos where he died sometime in the second half of the
fourteenth century. The exact date of Koukouzeles' death
remains unknown, but sources infer that he attained a very
advanced age and may have lived as late as 1375. As mu-
sician and composer he certainly flourished during the first
half of the fourteenth century.

Of the other composers, far less is known. It is believed<sup>79</sup>
that John Lampadarios, Manuel Lampadarios, John Glykes and
possibly Xenos Koronis were associated with the "imperial" choir
or clergy in Constantinople. It is possible that Moschianos may be
either a family name or the name of a monastery. The place of
origin of Demetrios Redestinos is most likely Raidestos, on the

shores of the Sea of Marmara, not far from Constantinople. 80
Nothing is known of the other composers, aside from their appearances in musical manuscripts.

The structure of the text "Γεύσασθε και ἵδετε " appears to
be the single most important factor in musical organization.
The manner in which the text is divided is:

It is common practice to increase the rhythmic value of a note
either at the end of a text division or at the beginning of the
subsequent division to separate the sections. Full cadences
almost always occur on the words "ετε" and "Κύριος" and con-
clude major sections of the refrain.

The introductory word "Γεύσασθε" functions in a heraldic
manner, defining the mode and, no doubt, also the text. A melisma

mode by a master of Byzantine music -- in the first case, John Koukouzeles, and, in the second, John Lampadarios. The piece by Koukouzeles in the second plagal mode is apparently the prototype for compositions by Koronis and Moschianos,⁸⁴ and it seems probable that Koukouzeles himself was influenced in some degree by the piece marked "palaion." In a similar manner, the setting by John Lampadarios in nenano was incorporated into the work of Redestinos and Manuel Lampadarios.⁸⁵

The way in which these pieces were adapted to the use of successive composers gives some indication of individual style and of general compositional procedures.

Firstly, only fragments are drawn from the original model, rarely even a complete word. The fragments chosen by both subsequent composers show a high degree of identity of choice of musical materials, and the rhythmic structure and phrasings are carefully preserved, although a section may be abridged or extended. Pitch 86 is often altered in a borrowing, a practice not entirely out of character with the intervalic notation of the music. The most common transposition is transposition at the third.

Secondly, the parody pieces are most faithful to the original in the texted section, an indication both of the close relationship of text and music and of the fact that the greatest area of musical development lay in the refrain -- a situation already indicated by the growing size and range of that section.

Thirdly, a variation apparently originally occurring in one of the parody pieces may, in a later manuscript, be attributed to the original, thus causing interaction between the pieces to move

It seems that more was at stake in the general substi-
tution of the Akolouthiai and the kalophonic repertory
for the Psaltic and Asmatic repertories than a simple
exchange of newer for older styles. At the root of
the change there was a decline in the liturgical tra-
dition represented by the outmoded styles. During the
13th century the rivalry between "cathedral" and "mo-
nastic" practice -- between the ceremonial Imperial
rite centered at Hagia Sophia and the more modest prac-
tice of the Palestinian Typikon ascribed to St. Saba --
reached a decisive stage. What finally transferred the
musical initiative from the clergy of the Great Church
to the monasteries of the Capitol is not clear, although
a ready explanation is that it was the interruption of
Imperial tradition by the Latin conquest in 1204. In
any case, the monastic usage during this century consoli-
dated a victory that was already won in substance two
centuries earlier. The Akolouthiai, while loyal at the
outset to relics of the cathedral tradition, are essen-
tially monastic in outlook, and at the root of some of
their musical traditions there probably are elements of
the practice of monasteries of the Holy Land.

In the first half of the fifteenth century, Archbishop Symeon
of Thessaloniki (+1429) writes of the retention of the cathedral
rite in his church, Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki.⁹⁰ Although
Thessaloniki was taken by the Turks shortly thereafter (in 1430)
and Hagia Sophia transformed into a mosque,⁹¹ it is apparent that
both cathedral and monastic rites existed in this area during the
period in which the majority of the manuscripts with which we are
dealing were written. Therefore it is not unlikely that the
early pieces "asmatikon" and "palaion," which antedate the Akolou-
thiai tradition of identified composers, were retained from one or
both of these earlier traditions.

Levy has suggested that in the monastic tradition culminating
in the Akolouthiai manuscripts "a single modal usage and a stan-
dard melodic formula for the alleluias ran through the core of
the Lenten Liturgy, from the entrance of the Presanctified Gifts

to the Communion."⁹² The "single modal usage" to which he refers
is the second plagal mode -- the mode of the piece marked "palaion" --
and the alleluia formula⁹³ is identical to the incipit of the re-
frain of the same piece. An additional indication of the monas-
tic origin of this piece is revealed in Koukouzeles' adaptation of
many of its features to his setting of the same text -- establishing
it as the basic form for these settings for the rest of the period
under discussion.

The setting labelled "asmatikon" is in the first mode and
does not share the melodic tradition of the pieces in the second
plagal mode. Its most striking feature is the presence of many
non-textual syllables — χ, γγ, and ou— which appear throughout
the composition.⁹⁴

The curious letters or syllables, ch (χ, Greek chi) and
ou (ου, Greek omicron with superimposed upsilon), which
are inserted as prolongations in the texts underlying
Greek and Slavic melismas, have occasioned some comment,
yet it has not been observed that in the earliest Greek
sources these letters are restricted to the chants of
the Asmatikon and do not normally appear in the Psalti-
kon, whose procedure for extending the text beneath a
melisma is simply to repeat the vowel. In exceptional
sources, like those manuscripts of the Messina tradition
which transmit solo verses together with their choral
refrains, this rule is confirmed. It seems reasonable
to suppose, therefore, that when these letters appear,
whatever specific meaning they had for performance prac-
tice, that they are indications of choral execution and
Asmatic origin — that is, they represent the practice
of the small choir of psaltists of Hagia Sophia — and
to suggest for them some name like "choral" or "Asmatic"
letters.⁹⁵

This very clearly indicates that this setting, "koinonikon asma-
tikon," is a remnant of the music employed in the cathedral rite
of Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki, which was in turn related to the