Poetic and Musical Structure
The Biblical odes are not identical in meter, and so although all the music is performed in the same mode each ode must comprise an individual composition. However, in the original Greek compositions, the irmos and troparia would by design be of the same meter and so could use the same melody. Acrostics would often be present as well, read down a canon's troparia, and sometimes involving the irmos as well if it was composed at the same time. The meter and acrostic would be given along with the canon's title.
This structure is now generally lacking in more recently composed canons, especially when the canons are composed in languages other than Greek to some setting other than Byzantine chant, and since it is now expected that large portions of the canon will be read rather than sung. Although some newer canons also contain acrostics, they are less frequent than they once were.
Read more about this topic: Canon (hymnography)
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