Performance
As with all other Orthodox church music, a canon is sung by a choir or cantor in a cappella chant. An ode of the canon is begun by singing the Biblical canticle from its beginning. At some point this is interrupted by an introductory stanza called an irmos ("link") which poetically connects the theme of the biblical canticle to the subject of the canon. Following the irmos and sung alternately with the subsequent verses of the Biblical canticle are a series of hymns (troparia), set in the same melody and meter as the irmos, that expand on the theme of the canon. The ode is completed with a final stanza called the katavasia. This might be a repetition of the irmos, the irmos of the last canon when more than one canon is being sung together, the irmos of the canon for an upcoming major feast day, or some other verse prescribed by the service books. (Katavasia means "coming down" and the verse is so called because as originally performed the two choirs would descend from their places on the left and right sides of the church to sing it together in the middle.)
Most often Ode II is omitted (the Biblical canticle this ode is based on is quite penitential, and so is normally used only on weekdays during Great Lent). There are therefore only eight odes in most canons. Canons containing Ode II usually occur only during Great Lent and the Great Canon of St. Andrew.
Because a canon is composed of nine odes, it can be conveniently divided into three sections. Between Ode III and Ode IV a sedalen or "sitting hymn" is sung. Between Ode VI and Ode VII a vestigal kontakion is sung with only its prooimion, or initial stanza, and the first oikos or strophe. If an akathist is to be chanted in conjunction with a canon, it is inserted after Ode VI.
The normal order for a full canon, as chanted at Matins is as follows:
- Ode I
- Ode III
- Little Litany
- Sedalen
- Ode IV
- Ode V
- Ode VI
- Little Litany
- Kontakion and Oikos
- (synaxarion)
- Ode VII
- Ode VIII
- Magnificat
- Ode IX
- Little Litany
- Exapostilarion
Read more about this topic: Canon (hymnography)
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