Octoechos (liturgy) - Eastern Orthodox

Eastern Orthodox

The Octoechos (Greek: Ὀκτώηχος; Slavonic: Октоихъ, Oktoikhə, or Осмогласникъ, Osmoglasnikə)—literally, "Eight-Tone"—contains texts for each day of the week for each of the eight tones.

The origins of this book go back to the Monastery of Mar Sabba in Palestine, with compositions by St. John Damascene (c. 676–749).

Choral singing saw its most brilliant development in the temple of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople during the reign of Emperor Justinian the Great. National Greek musical harmonies, or modes — the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian modes — were adapted to the needs of Christian hymnography. Ven John of Damascus started a new, third period in the history of Church singing. He introduced what is known as the osmoglasie — a system of singing in eight tones, or melodies —, and compiled a liturgical singing book bearing the title "Ochtoechos," which literally signifies "the book of the eight tones."

This was expanded upon by St. Cosmas of Maiuma († 773) and other prominent hymnographers including Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (810-886); Saint Theophanes the Branded, Bishop of Nicaea (c. 775-845); Paul of Amorium; Metrophanes of Smyrna; as well as numerous anonymous authors.

The Oktoechos was the very first book printed (incunabulum) in Cyrillic typeface, published in 1491 in Kraków by Schweipolt Fiol, a German native of Franconia. Only seven copies of this first publication are known to remain and the only complete one is in the collection of the Russian National Library.