Hymnography

HYMNOGRAPHY. - By hymn is meant a lyric poem sung in honor of God, the Virgin or the saints. In the early Church the fundamental religious poetry consisted of the Psalms and the scriptural canticles. It is incontestable, however, that canticles of a euchological or eucharistic character flourished there, used in liturgical celebrations or for private devotion, often in the earliest times of charismatic improvisation, with the characteristic cadences of the psalm (idiotic Psalms) or composed according to popular poetic manners; all without artistic pretensions.

I. CHRISTIAN-LATIN

Two factors mainly contributed to bringing Christian Latin hymnody to its artistic perfection and its maturity. The heretics (Gnostics, Arians, Donatists) readily had recourse to religious poems, sung by the voice of the people, as a means of spreading their ideas. Against this propaganda St. Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373), endowed with magnificent poetic qualities, set his own songs, full of candor, of feeling, of lyrical exaltation, of power of symbolism; he had imitators in the Greek-speaking Churches and later also in the West. With the Constantinian peace and the subsequent triumph of the Church, the number of educated persons who adhered to the Gospel increased. Their aesthetic demands were not satisfied by the primitive Christian poems, could find no satisfaction in them. The first representatives of the classicizing poetic school are Commodian, Juvencus, Faltonia Proba: the first makes use of the classical hexameter, but exempting it from the rules of prosody, and expresses himself in popular language; the second, with the language and technique of Virgil, retells the Gospel of St. Matthew; the third employs the cento genre. Their poetic value is scant, the lyrical sense absent. St. Hilary of Poitiers (d. 367) was the first to attempt the path of Latin religious lyric, but with scant success. The three fragments of abecedarian hymns, part of his Liber hymnorum, which are found in the Codex Aretinus, published by Gamurrini (1887), show him to be a theologian of grandiose conceptions, but an involved and ineffective versifier. The glory of being the father of Western hymnody belongs entirely to St. Ambrose. St. Augustine recalls how his mother witnessed the birth of Ambrose's poetry, which arose in the most threatening phase of the anti-Arian struggle, when the bishop and the people of Milan were shut up in the Basilica Porziana, besieged by the henchmen of Justina: «on that occasion was introduced the custom of the countries of the East of singing hymns and psalms, so that the people might not be consumed with sadness and weariness» (Conf., IX, 7). The poetic form chosen by Ambrose for his hymns is that of the acatalectic iambic dimeter, which was called after him the Ambrosian verse; it is simple, fluid, musical. What is its origin? It is excluded that this should be sought in the East. From the Orientals the great bishop drew the use of alternating chant and perhaps also the melodic mode. Of popular inspiration and artistic workmanship, careful in metrics, the poetry of St. Ambrose, full of elegance, of Roman gravity, manly in the tender outpouring of Christian piety, is a great model that more than any other will have imitators. The thesis that the authentic hymns of Ambrose are 15 is acceptable: Aeterne rerum Conditor; Iam surgit hora tertia; Deus creator omnium; Intende qui regis Israël; Splendor paternae gloriae; Inluminans altissimus; Apostolorum supparem; Victor, Nabor, Felix pii; Apostolorum passio; Hic est dies verus Dei; Agnes beatae Virginis; Amore Christi nobilis; Aeterna Christi munera; Grates tibi, Iesu, novus. Aurelius Prudentius (d. at the beginning of the 5th century), who in his poetic activity arises when Ambrose is setting, in some of his hymns adopts the latter's scheme of versification. Of of the lyrical genre are those of the Cathemerinon, 12 in 9 different meters written for the various times of prayer. In them one notes sumptuous fantasy, liveliness of enthusiasm, frequent recourse to symbolism, prolixity. The purpose of these hymns is simple literature and the private edification of the faithful. Nevertheless they have been introduced into the Roman liturgy with the juxtaposition of stanzas of poems of broad scope are the following: Ales diei nuntius; Audit tyrannus anxius; Salsete, flores martyrum; Lux ergo surgit aurea; Lux et tenebrae et lumina; O sola magnarum urbium; Quicumque Christum quaeritis. Coelius Sedulius (an Italic, who lived in the 2nd half of the 5th century in Arcadia) is a genuine and sensitive poet. Of the 2 hymns in honor of Christ, one in distichs, the other in iambic dimeters, the second is better: it is alphabetic and consists of 23 stanzas. The Ambrosian verse used in it becomes more musical: coincidence of the metrical ictus with the rhythmic-tonic sonority, endings with trisyllabic words, here and there assonances and rhymes. Two passages of this hymn have entered the Christmas liturgy: A solis ortus cardine and Hostis Herodes impie. Of the hymns of Ennodius of Pavia (d. 521), artificial and labored, some entered the Mozarabic Breviary, none the Roman one. Venantius Fortunatus (d. 600), chaplain of the monastery of St. Croix at Poitiers and then bishop of that city, was an elegant, austere poet and reveals himself to be of lofty theological thought expressed with energetic antitheses, particularly in those hymns of his Carmina or Miscellanea which have entered liturgical use: O Redemptor, sume carmen; Pange lingua, gloriosi proelium certaminis; Quem terra, pontus, aethera; Vexilla regis prodeunt. To St. Gregory the Great (d. 604), although he is known to be a composer of hymns, no poem can with certainty be attributed; this holds also for St. Bede the Venerable (d. 735), who in the Index suorum operum expressly declares himself the author of a book of hymns. Until 700 that metric dominated in artistic-religious poetry. From this time until the Carolingian era (768-887) the rhythmic one prevails, without however the cult of the other ever being lost. To rhythmic versification, because of its musicality and simplicity, were reserved the most flattering successes and vast developments extended to the Romance languages. The principles of its composition are the isochrony of syllables, homophony (assonances and rhymes), tonic sonority. And it is precisely to the latter that the strongest innovative element belongs. Rhythmic accentuation allows the movement of the passions to be expressed better, reflects candor and spontaneity, follows the spoken language. The various schemes employed in it are the popular ones and the classical ones: but these lose assonance and are enriched with sporadic and more systematic rhymes. The verses used here are the most musical and popular: the iambic tetrapody used by St. Ambrose; the trochaic tetrapody derived from the rhythm of the loci triumphales that marked the step of the Roman legions (e.g., De Germanis, non de Gallis, Duo triumphant omnules); the dactylic tetrameter (O Roma nobilis orbis et domina).

It must be observed that the introduction of hymns into the liturgy of the Western Churches took place little by little. It began at Milan. The Rule of St. Benedict, by prescribing the recitation or singing of a hymn at every canonical hour, greatly contributed to this diffusion, which is noted especially in France, in Germany, in Ireland. In Spain, destined to become the land of hymns, the use flourished there after the Fourth Council of Toledo (633). Rome followed the example only in the second half of the 12th century and borrowed them from the Mozarabic Breviary. From 600 to the Carolingian era, the hymnodic literature of the Irish-Scottish monks in their islands as well as on the European continent, where they emigrated in large numbers, is to be noted.

Alongside rhythmic and metric poems, there are, predominantly, those in which neither regular accent nor prosody is observed, but instead rhyme and assonance.

The Carolingian renaissance brought with it an intense poetic production, owing to the reassertion of classicism, predominantly metrical (hexameters, distichs, Sapphics). The poets are numerous and honored at the Carolingian court, to which later, in the cult of the Latin muse, the episcopal residences and abbeys succeeded (Liège, Trier, Metz, Speyer, Bamberg, Regensburg, St. Gall, Naples, Montecassino, etc.). The principal poets who had the glory of having written hymns that came into liturgical use are: Paul the Deacon (d. 798), Paulinus of Aquileia (d. 802), Theodulf of Orléans (d. 798), Rabanus Maurus (d. 856). To Paul the Deacon belong the two hymns to St. John the Baptist, O nimis felix meritique celis and Ut queant laxis resonare fibris, which offered Guido d'Arezzo the nomenclature of the musical scale. To Paulinus of Aquileia belongs the hymn to Sts. Peter and Paul the Apostles (O Roma Felix, quae tantorum principum). To Theodulf, called the Pindar, belong the distichs for the procession of Palm Sunday, Gloria, laus et honor, in which the glorification of Christ the King is exquisitely veiled by weeping for his passion. To Rabanus Maurus belong two hymns for the feast of All Saints, already much loved and used: Christe, redemptor omnium and Iesu, salvator saeculi. To this time dates the composition of the Veni creator Spiritus, attributed to Charlemagne. In the 9th century the translation of relics is frequent and the cult of the saints intensified. Consequently, for processions and feasts, florid hymns of an epic flavor are born. The rhymes there appear regular and accurate; in the Sapphics at the end of the verse and also after the caesura: O veneranda Trinitas laudanda. In this age the carmen Christe rex regum had its origin, which represents the almost orgiastic triumph of rhyme.

With the rise of the mendicant Orders, Franciscans and Dominicans, and particularly through their work, hymnodic poetry receives a new warm and innovative inspiration, which develops and favors private prayer. Rhyme is esteemed and diligently sought; from the middle of the 12th century the bisyllabic feminine rhyme gains predominance. Mention should be made of Jacopone da Todi, Adam of St. Victor, Alfanus of Salerno, John Peckham. For the Office of Corpus Christi, introduced by Urban IV (1264), St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the hymns, of vast resonance, grandiose in form and expression, rhythmic and rhymed: Pange lingua, gloriosi; Verbum supernum prodens; Sacris solemnis iuncta sint gaudia. Of inferior workmanship, but heartfelt, are the hymns attributed to St. Bonaventure, of wide use: In passione Domini; Imperatrix clementiae and O gloriosa Domina quae tua cruciamina. From 1300 to 1500 a decline in hymnody is noticeable. The compositions are numerous, but poor for lack of expression, for puerile wordplay and for disregard of the laws of accentuation. Thomas à Kempis (d. 1471), John of Jenstein (d. 1400), and the anonymous author of the iubilus rythmicus, Bernardine in substance, Iesus dulcis memoria, rise above the common level for their evident poetic gifts. In the 15th century the cult of St. Joseph arises and hymns are composed in his honor. In this regard, far better known and more widespread than that of Simon Gerson (d. 1429): O veneranda Trinitas-Iesus, Joseph et Maria, is the other one by an anonymous author, Plaude caelestis curia.

The 70 or 75 hymns of the Breviary represent a very small part of the thirty thousand that have so far been found and published, a true poetic forest of the Middle Ages, due in large part to the Platonic-Augustinian orientation of theological thought. The hymns of the Breviary, in which the two poetic tendencies proper to Christian Latin literature are mirrored, the metrical and the rhythmic, underwent a revision on the initiative of Urban VIII (1623-44), whereby they were reduced to almost total metrical uniformity: a victory, this, of classicizing Humanism. The Pope, himself a Latin poet, was assisted in this reform by the Latinists Strada, Galluzzi, Petrucci, Sarbiewski. Aflame with zeal for the purity of classical prosody and metrics, they found 1000 "errors" in them, but corrected only 952. With the more ancient poets, such as St. Ambrose, Prudentius, Sedulius, Venantius Fortunatus, they were fairly respectful, but with many of the later ones they were merciless; they subjected some to a radical cure: thus two hymns, Tibi, Christe, splendor Patris of the feast of St. Michael and Urbs beata Ierusalem of the dedication of a Church, were recast and remade with a new meter; the hymns of St. Thomas Aquinas were not touched. This work of hymnodic revision was approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1629. By some it was harshly judged, so as to give rise to the saying: "accessit latinitas et recessit pietas".

Giuseppe Del Ton

II. IN THE GREEK CHURCH

Of the earliest beginnings of hymnography in the Greek Church little or nothing is known: the first notices, which moreover come from a pagan, Pliny the Younger (Ep., X, 97), refer not so much to the matter as to the manner of performance of the hymnographic corpus. Antiphonal singing predominated in the first centuries of Christianity: it was an alternation of two choirs in which the verses of a psalm were sung in turn by the two sides (antiphons properly so called) or commented upon by a refrain (responsory) or by a simple formula independent of the text (alleluia, amen, kyrie eleison, etc.) which later received various names according to developments and uses (ὑπακοή, ὑπῆλμα, ἀκροστῆλον, ἐφύμνιον).

Of the ecclesiastical hymns of the very first centuries, which must nonetheless have flourished in an age of religious fervor and glorious martyrs, very few have been handed down: the morning hymn δόξα ἐν ὀξίαναις, sung in the first centuries in Gregorian chant also in the West, the evening hymn αἰνεῖτε, παῖδες, κύριον, the lucernarium φῶς Ἰλαρόν, the hymn of thanksgiving for the meal εὐλογητὸς εἶ, Κύριε, ὁ τρέφων με ἐκ νεότητός μου, the antiphon for the Madonna restored to us in its primitive form by a papyrus of the 3rd century ὑπὸ τὴν σκέπην εὐσπλαγχνίας σου = sub tuum praesidium (C. H. Roberts, Catalogue of the greek and latin papyri, III, Manchester 1938, no. 470).

But these are still far from hymnography understood as an independent and free creation of the poet's enthusiasm: the hymns of the Synagogue, above all the psalms of David, were considered as the highest human expression, and therefore the most fitting that the Christian soul could address to the Divine Majesty; and new creations were considered worthy in proportion as they echoed the forms and words of the ancient texts. Opposing criteria were debated in the first centuries concerning the orientations of sacred hymnography: while the Antiochene Council of 269 condemned Bishop Paul of Samosata for having driven out of his church the recent canticles not modeled on the Psalter of David (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, ch. 30), a contrary opinion was pronounced around 370 by the Synod of Laodicea, which considered the new hymnodies as dangerous to the health of the soul. These preconceptions were bound to prove harmful to the development of hymnography, and their reflections appear operative in the creation and diffusion of the canon and indirectly in most Byzantine sacred poetry.

A vigorous contribution to free creation had meanwhile derived, indirectly, from the heretical hymnographers (above all the Syrian Bardesanes, whom St. Ephrem calls the author of 150 hymns with their respective meters and musical airs; St. Clement of Alexandria and the Egyptian Nepis, who preferred a rhythmic prose, abundant, to a rigid metrical form, and Arius, author of the Thaleia). The independence from traditional norms and the use that these men made of sacred poetry for the diffusion of their heresies brought the hymnographers who defended orthodoxy onto the same plane of free and personal composition. Thus St. Ephrem set his hymns against those of Bardesanes, reproducing their rhythms and musical airs. In the 4th century Methodius of Olympus, Gregory of Nazianzus and Synesius introduced the classical meters into sacred poetry, with much skill but little success; while rhythmic poetry later had, between the 5th and 6th centuries, cultivators in Cyriacus the anchorite, Cyril of Alexandria, Anthimus, Marcian, Auxentius, Anastasius and the emperor Justinian himself, author of the famous «ὁ μονογενὴς Υἱὸς καὶ Λόγος» (Christ., p. 32).

A new hymnographic genre presents itself to us suddenly and at the acme of its development in the 6th century: the kontakion (κοντάκιον), which had in Romanus of Emesa its greatest and unsurpassed cultivator. In its original form it consists of a complex of 18-24 strophes (οἶκοι = stanzas) of equal metrical structure, preceded by a proem (κοκοκύλιον) of different rhythm and composition whose close is a refrain (ἐφύμνιον) to all the succeeding strophes. While the title derives from κοντός, a wooden rod around which the parchment was rolled, the hymn would have had its precursors in Syrian poetry. The subjects of the kontakion are drawn from the mysteries of the Gospel and from the spiritual and historical world of Christianity; the form is closely connected both to the homily and to the drama. Romanus indeed recalls very closely the acrostic dialogues of the homilies of St. Proclus. Among the many cultivators of the kontakion, besides Romanus, are remembered Anastasius, Domitius and Cyril. Very well known and widespread is the dazzling hymn Akathistos (which is sung standing) of disputed authorship.

The kontakion dominated until the 8th century, that is, until the appearance of the canon. This new hymnographic genre consists of nine odes - subsequently of eight, through the elimination of the second, reserved for the Lenten period - with different meter and melody. Each ode is composed of four or more strophes (tropes), the last of which is always dedicated to the Madonna - θεοτοκίον. In Lent, canons of three or four odes are adopted (triodia - tetraodia).

In the standard canons - with original meter and melody - the first strophe of each ode begins, by way of allusion or association, from a preestablished biblical hymn: the I from the canticle of the Israelites (Ex. 15, 1-8); the II - the canticle of Moses near death (Deut. 32, 1-43); the III - the canticle of Hannah (I Sam. 2, 1-10); the IV - the prayer of Habakkuk (Hab. 3, 2-19); the V - the prayer of Isaiah (Is. 26, 9-21); the VI - the prayer of Jonah (Jon. 2, 3-10); the VII - the hymn of the three youths of Babylon, also called of Azariah (Dan. 3, 2-33); the VIII - the hymn of the youths in the furnace (ibid. 3, 34-65); the IX - the hymn of the Virgin, Magnificat (Lk. 1, 46-55). In this rule, always respected, it is not difficult to discern a compromise between the rigid traditionalism, opposed to the use of hymns that were not from Scripture, and the tendency to adopt new canticles while still respecting tradition. And it is logical that the canon should have come precisely from the monastic environments, where the age-old and inflexible rigidity of customs must have made the desire for novelty more deeply felt. And among the first and greatest cultivators of the canon known to us are Andrew of Crete, Germanus patriarch of Constantinople, John Damascene, Cosmas the monk, Cyprian, Elias of Jerusalem, Stephen the Sabaite, to whom were added George the Anatolian, George the Sicilian, Theodore the Studite, Sergius of Agiopolis. It cannot be known with certainty who was the creator of the canon: the hypotheses that attribute its paternity to Andrew of Crete, author of the great canon, have no serious foundation. The golden period of this hymnographic genre runs from the second half of the 7th century to almost the whole of the 8th, when, that is, the authors composed together with the new rhythms the new melodies appropriate to them; and it is not rash to affirm that in this epoch Byzantine melurgy reached the greatest impulse and splendor of its history.

The creation of original rhythms and melodies weakened, until it died out entirely in the 9th century. There blossomed instead vigorous and rich the simple hymnography of the poets who were not musicians, who adopted the rhythms of others. These hymns, like every other modulated on a prototype, were called prosomia, those original ones borrowed from the hymnographers automela, and those not borrowed at all idiomela. The needs of the hymnographers and of the choirs led to the gathering together of the poetic and melurgic texts of the first strophes of the original Canons that were chosen as models (hirmi), and the collection formed the Hirmologion.

Among the hymnographers, mention should be made of Mitrophanes, author of very many canons of the octoechos, Methodius of Syracuse and his fellow citizens Gregory and Theodosius. But by then a far vaster output was left by Joseph of Catania, called by antonomasia the Hymnographer, and his disciple Theophanes, whose production, consecrated in the Menaia and in the Parakletike, was so vast as to fill almost the entire office of the liturgical year; Joseph of Thessalonica, author of very many canons of the Pentekostarion and of the Triodion, and the other studites Anthony, Arsenius, Basil, Gabriel, Nicholas.

The canon became the center of the office and especially of Matins; the kontakion suffered the consequences: it was not expelled, but, reduced to the proemium alone and to a single strophe (the first), it was inserted between the sixth and seventh odes, just as the kathisma, the katavasia and the synaxarion were inserted among the preceding odes. From this liturgical norm it followed that very often the author of the canon is the same as that of the kontakion and of the intervening troparia.

Toward the end of the 7th century a new hymnographic genre still arose, the syntomon: a compendious hymn of seven-syllable verses and five-line strophes. Cyprian was its author, and the prototype (ὕλιος τοῦ Ἐφραδά) was borrowed by the Damascene, Germanus, Joseph the Hymnographer, Stephen the Italo-Greek (11th century) and, down to the late centuries, by many other unfortunately anonymous hymnographers.

After the 8th century the melodists become noticeably sparser: less prolific, but continuators of the glorious tradition, are the poetess Kassia, Phasius, the emperors Leo the Wise and Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The decline of hymnography becomes ever more pronounced after the 10th century: poetry becomes ever more clumsy with high-sounding phrases and insipid with commonplaces. Nevertheless worthy of mention are John Mauropous, John Zonaras and Niketas Blemmydes; while among the Italo-Greeks, the hymnographers of Grottaferrata Nilus Bartholomew, Paul, Stephen.

It is the norm, though with exceptions, that in hymns the author appends his own name, preceded, if the drafting of the compilation permits, by a phrase. Both the one and the other are expressed by the initial letters of the troparia (acrostichis). Sometimes from these initials one gets neither phrase nor name, but the ordered succession of the letters of the alphabet "ἡμνοι ἀλεφάγησι".

The meter is not based on duration, but on the number of syllables and the accent of the word; and in strophes of the same compilation the verses correspond rigorously in isosyllabism and homotony. The sense of long and short had long been lost among the Greek people, and the learned attempt of Gregory of Nazianzus, Synesius and a few others to adopt classical meter was inexorably bound to remain sterile.

Giuseppe Schirò

III. IN THE ARMENIAN RITE

The hymns in use in the Armenian liturgy are very numerous. The Hymnary or Sarakan (v. ARMENIA), which contains almost all of them, gives 1166 hymns. They can be divided into three groups: those called "canons," which are intended for the office of a particular day (the feasts of the Lord and of the great saints); those which form a series of hymns that are not tied to a fixed day but are regulated according to one of the eight tones prescribed for that day (Sundays, the commemoration of the Saints, the Lenten ferias); finally, hymns that are almost isolated, in honor of a saint or intended for some particular purpose.

To be complete, the "canon" or the "series" must comprise eight hymns, distributed as follows: the first, in the Midnight Office, is added to the canticle of Ex. 15:1-21; the second, third, fourth and fifth, in the Matins Office, are added to the hymn of the three youths (Benedictus), to the Magnificat, to the psalm Miserere and to the psalm of the Laudes; the sixth, in the Holy Mass, is sung before the Trisagion, and is the proper hymn of the day; the seventh, in Vespers, to psalm 120 Levavi; and the eighth, in Matins, to psalm 102 Laudate pueri. The central nucleus is constituted by the second, fourth and fifth hymns; the third is often missing, the sixth even more often, and the seventh is rarely found; the missing ones are replaced by hymns taken from similar canons.

These hymns generally have from three to five strophes, but they may also have ten. Some are in prose, others in measured prose, others again with blank rhymes, others finally with full rhymes. The system of versification is similar to that of the Greeks, and the length of a strophe is similar to that of a troparion of the Greek hymnography.

Besides the Sarakan, hymns are also found in the Khordadetr (= Missal): the one beginning "Profound mystery" is well known; then the hymn of the incensation, the Introit, after the readings the hagiology, then the hymn during the kiss of peace, after the Consecration three hymns respectively to the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Spirit, and finally the hymn of Communion. Almost all these chants are not hymns, in the strict sense of the word, because they are composed of a single strophe.

Other hymns are found in the Maštotz (= Ritual) in the rite of Baptism and of Matrimony, but especially in that of the various degrees of Ordination. These hymns are sung at the beginning, when the entrance is made, or on the occasion of a procession or even at the end, e.g., after the tradition of the instruments or the vesting of the newly ordained (cf. H. Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium, Würzburg 1853; F. C. Conybeare, Rituale Armenorum, Oxford 1905).

Finally the Giamagirk (this book contains the fixed parts of the Divine Office) gives, besides the hymns of the minor hours also contained in the Sarakan, at Nocturns three hymns of Nerses the Gracious, and at Vespers the ancient hymn Φάς Παρβν (a text quite different from the Greek one; cf. Breviarum armenium, Venice 1908).

Against the overly skeptical thesis of Ter Mikaelian, one may believe that some hymns were already composed in the 5th century and that, while others were lost or not admitted into the Hymnary, still others were written up to the 15th century; but one must not believe the attributions of many hymns to this or that author, because it seems that those attributions were established only in the 11th century. Without doubt the richest, most elegant and most represented author is St. Nerses the Gracious (1102-72). Many of these hymns excel in simplicity of form, clarity of content, originality of images, solemnity of tone; but this criterion is not enough to distinguish between ancient and more recent hymns.

IV. IN THE COPTIC RITE

Liturgical hymns are sung in the rites of Baptism, Matrimony, Extreme Unction, funerals (English version in R. M. Woolley, Coptic Offices, London 1930, pp. 34, 52, 74, 77, 80, 92, 110, 147-52) and of the blessing of a church (text and English version in G. Horner, The Service for the Consecration of a church and altar, London 1912, p. 12). Numerous are the hymns sung in the Divine Office; in the Little Hours a troparion is sung followed by a brief hymn to the Mother of God, of which the ancient Greek original has been rediscovered (cf. O. H. E. Burmester, The Canonical Hours of the Coptic Church, in Or. Chr. Periodica, II [1936], pp. 78-100); in the great hours of vespers, nocturns and matins the true Coptic hymns are performed; to the scriptural canticles a psali is linked, followed by the theotokia of the day of the week and by the antiphon of the saint of the day; at other moments of the Office the doxology in honor of the saints is intercalated. The choir book containing the various hymns is called Psalmodia or also Theotokia, from the first edition made by Tuki (Rome 1764); but Theotokia also designates an Office in honor of the Madonna added, ad libitum, to vespers, especially in the month of Khoiak (= December), which comprises a psali, the theotokion properly so called, a lobs (= final part) and a targ (= gloss). All these hymns are composed of many stanzas, generally of four lines with rhyme, but without rhythm or prosodic meter. Their poetic inspiration is rather poor, except in the theotokia, which display more liveliness and spontaneity.

V. IN THE ETHIOPIC RITE

Ethiopian liturgy has not yet been sufficiently studied to determine the extent to which the hymns of the Coptic rite were adopted in the Ethiopian rite and translated into Ge'ez. The three most important Ethiopian hymnaries are unpublished, namely the Degnâ, a collection of hymns for feasts, Lent, and the time after Easter (cf. C. Conti Rossini, Aethiopica II, in Riv. Studi orient., 10 [1923-25], pp. 515-16); the Me'eraf, a collection of hymns for the feasts of the year; and the Maccâse'et, an antiphonary for the whole year; also the Egzi'abhêr nagsa, containing hymns in honor of the saints, arranged according to the Synaxarion, is unpublished. There exists, however, an edition of the Weddâsê Môtjâm, corresponding to the Coptic Theotokia (ed. with German translation by K. Fries, Leipzig 1892; the beginning of the seven parts is translated into French by S. Grébaut, Manuscrits éthiopiens appartenant à M. N. Bergey, in Rev. Or. chrétien, 22 [1920-21], pp. 426-38) and of the Weddâsê wa-genâj, a paraphrase of the Sunday theotokia (cf. Grébaut, ibid, pp. 438-42). The most beautiful and most profound Marian hymns are the Arghâna Weddâsê, divided into seven canticles (ed. and German trans. with notes by S. Euringer, Die Marienharfe, in Or. Christ., 3rd series, 2 [1927], pp. 120-45), and the Mâḇêta segê, of 156 strophes, sung from June 26 to Sept. 26 (ed. and German trans. with notes by A. Grohmann, Äthiopische Marienhymnen, Leipzig 1919, pp. 47-321). These hymns have no prosodic meter, but only rhyme; the strophe generally contains five verses.

VI. SYRIAC HYMNOGRAPHY IN THE WEST SYRIAC RITE

The first Christian hymns in the Syriac language are attributed to Bardaisan, who used such songs to spread his heretical ideas. To use the same means of propaganda, the deacon St. Ephrem directed a choir of young men that performed his compositions. His hymns belong to different species of poetry.

The madrâfâ (plur. madrâfê) consists of a series of strophes sung by the soloist and separated by a refrain or 'ânîtâ performed by the choir; the strophes have a variable number of verses, from four to ten, often arranged two by two to form a bajtâ (= οἶκος); each bajtâ gives a complete sense; homotony, sometimes isosyllabism, is the rule, though with many exceptions; St. Ephrem is said to have composed three hundred madrâfê.

The second species is the sâgîtâ, composed of several strophes linked by an alphabetical acrostic; after a brief introduction it unfolds in dialogue, one strophe answering the other; this element of lively dramatic quality characterizes it, and here one must seek, at least in part, the origin of the Greek zortazov. Among the poetic works of St. Ephrem see especially Th. I. Lamy, S. Ephraem Syri hymni et sermones (3 vols., Malines 1882-89; text and Latin version); Inni alla Vergine di s. Efrem Siro, complete translation by G. Ricciotti (Rome 1925).

To these two species of liturgical poetry one should add a genre of rhythmic prose, the mēmra, an instructive homily, intended not for singing but for reading; it can be very long (in Jacob of Serugh sometimes more than a thousand verses). After St. Ephrem this genre had other cultivators: Bālaj, Cyrillona (v.), but especially Jacob of Serugh (v.), called "flute of the Holy Spirit" and "harp of the Orthodox Church."

To Rabbula (v.) are attributed hymns, performed with melismatic singing, called tahšefātā; today they are sung in the Office of the night and during Holy Mass at Communion.

In the 6th century hymns of another kind appear in the liturgy. In the first place, the hymns contained in the so-called Octoechos of Severus of Antioch, translated into Syriac first by Paul of Edessa, then more perfectly by Jacob of Edessa. Each of these songs is called ma'nītā; it is a rather long strophe that can be compared with the Latin antiphon and is sung in the same way, alternating it with the verses of a psalm (cf. ed. and trans. by E. W. Brooks, The hymns of Severus...: PO 6, 1-179; 7, 595-802).

Another genre, more popular and which therefore had greater success, is the qālā, created by the genius of a deacon, Simeon of Gesir, a humble potter, whence the name qāqā sometimes given to this genre. It consists of a series of equal strophes (cf. examples in the rite of Baptism in H. Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium, I, Würzburg 1873, p. 270).

In the same 6th century a third species of hymn arose, the ba'ūtā (plur. ba'ācūtā), which was cultivated more intensively from the 9th century onward. The word means "rogation" Aṭā. It is divided into strophes and uses the refrain like the madrāsē, but it generally has longer verses and a strongly accented rhythm like the mēmra. According to the number of syllables of each verse, 7, 5 or 12, it is said to be of the meter of Ephrem (Ephremitic), of Bālaj (Balaitic) or of Jacob of Serugh (Jacobitic). Examples from the baptismal and marriage rites, in Denzinger, op. cit., I, p. 287; II, pp. 390-399, 400, 404, etc.

As the last species of hymn appears the 'enjānā. Here the biblical canticle or the psalm is the primordial element, the poetic strophe is secondary; the soloist sings the psalm, the choir responds with the refrain, according to the ancient responsorial manner. Among the Syrians in the Syriac language it appears first in psalm 50, in the psalms of the Laudes (like the oṭīghpa of the Byzantines) and in the scriptural canticles of Vespers, Nocturn and Matins. They were called "ancient canons" when in the 9th century the canons of the Greeks began to be translated into Syriac; when the Greeks detached entirely the strophes of the nine odes of their "canons" from the biblical canticle, the Syrians continued to sing this recto tono, giving the poetic strophe, however, a varied melody. An example is psalm 50 in the baptismal rite (cf. Denzinger, op. cit., I, pp. 295, 302. Cf. also the special studies of O. Heiming, Die 'Enjānēhymnen der Berliner Handschr. Sachau 349, in Or. Christ., 3rd series, 5 [1930], pp. 19-55; id., Syrische 'Enjānē und griechische Kanones, Münster 1932).

It is understandable that the appearance of ever new species of liturgical poetry caused the more ancient compositions to disappear in large part or caused pieces of these to be used in order to fit them into the new genre. It is the qālē and the ba'ācūtā that today predominate in the liturgical books over the other species of hymns.

VII. IN THE EAST SYRIAC (CHALDEAN) RITE

From the 4th century to the 17th, the Chaldean liturgy was continually enriched and renewed by the composition of new hymns and religious poems. But two periods within that span of time show a surprising flowering of poetic creations: that of the very formation of hymnography, from the 4th to the 6th century, and that of a second flowering, from the end of the 13th to the 16th century. It is the production of this latter period that still today dominates in the chants of the various liturgical offices of the Chaldean rite; the ancient poems have been either supplanted or preserved only in part, or sometimes inserted as vestiges of antiquity into the new creations, at times forming part of another genre of poetry.

St. Ephrem (v. above, West Syriac rite) was the first to work at this formation. From him are preserved in the present-day Office mēmra (in the Office of the Fast of Nineveh), madrāsē (in the rite of Matrimony), qālē (in funerals), tebēhātā (in the morning Office).

After him, Narsai, the founder of the school of Nisibis, who deserved the title of "lyre of the Holy Spirit," composed 360 poems divided according to the twelve months of the year; they are mēmra, which, because of the refrain placed at the head of each of them, belong to the madrāsē (edited, without translation, by A. Mingana, Narsai homiliae et carmina, 2 vols., Mosul 1905); some passages of his are also preserved in the present-day books; note especially the pāsāqē in the rite of funerals (partly edited and translated by M. Wolff, in Oriens Christ., new series, 12-14 [1925], pp. 1-29). The attribution of a series of sōgātā is called into doubt (they are edited with a German version by F. Feldmann, Syrische Wechslieder von Narses, Leipzig 1896; in any case they are very clear examples of that genre of dialogue poetry). Among the poets of that period should be mentioned the katholikos Mār Ābā and Bābai of Nisibis, of whom several tebēhātā remain, a poetic genre cultivated by preference by the monks before the Arab invasion. To John dēbēt Rabban (d. probably in 566-67) are attributed the 28 qālē dē'ūdrānā which are found in the appendix of P. Bedjan's Breviarium chaldaicum (anastatic ed., Rome 1938) and form an important part of the weekday night Office: it is a series of stanzas, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer, of metrical structure, theoretically identical and preceded by a few words taken from some psalm; the last stanzas are dedicated successively to the Virgin Mary, to the saints, to the Cross, to the patron saint of the church or monastery, to the departed; several of the qālē have one or more bahāfē, that is, substitute texts, whose metrical structure is independent of that of the main qālā (cf. A. Baumstark, Paradigmengebete ostsyrischer Kirchendichtung, in Oriens Christianus, new series, 9-10 [1920-21], p. 1 ff.).

From the following period are to be noted Išō'jahb III, who ordered the book of the choir (Hūdrā), of the priest (Eschologion) and that of the ordinations; to him are attributed some madrāsē; then Bābai of Gēbūtā, reformer of music and founder of schools of music, author of many poems with acrostic, of 'ōnjātā dēhāsājē.

In the 13th and 14th centuries 'Abdišo' bar Bērlīš had great renown; then Giwargis Wardā of Arbela, who collected many poems together with his own in a book called Wardā ("rose"); cf. I. Folkmann, Ausgewählte nestorianische Kirchenlieder über das Martyrium des hl. Georg von Giwargis Warda, Kirchhain 1896, and better H. Hilgenfeld, Ausgewählte Gesänge des Giwargis Warda von Arbel, Leipzig 1904). These chants belong for the most part to the genre of the 'ōnjātā; but it must be noted that this 'ōnātā no longer has its primitive form, but having undergone the influence of the sōgātā, it is composed of a series of stanzas more or less long (often 4 verses of 7 syllables), interrupted by a few words taken from one psalm or another (not from the same one), which have no relation to the poetic text that precedes them; the poetic text that follows the Gloria Patri, the Nanc et semper, and the Dicat populus: Amen et Amen, grows sometimes into a long poem standing on its own and occupying in exceptional cases two or more pages (cf.

A. Rücker, Zwei nestorianische Hymnen über die Magier,
in Oriens Christianus, new series, 10-11 [1923], p. 33).

After Giwargis Wardā many others still composed
the different kinds of liturgical poetry, such as Īšōʿjahb bar
Mēqaddam and ʿAṭṭājē bar Atelī in the 15th and 16th centuries.

In the 14th century a new poetic genre appears which
was not, it seems, widespread everywhere and is almost
abandoned even today, namely the türgāmā; it is a poem with
an alphabetical acrostic of stanzas generally having two
verses of 12 syllables and which introduce or explain the Gospel
of the Mass; rarely also the Epistle; cf. an example
of both, in English version, in F. E. Brightman, Eastern and Western liturgies, Oxford 1896, pp. 275
and 259.

Hymns of every kind occupy a great part of the Hours
of the divine Office, especially the ʿōnjātā, teṣbēhātā and
qālē (cf. A. J. Maclean, East Syrian daily offices, London
1894), but they are not lacking in the celebration
of the eucharistic sacrifice (cf. A. Rücker, Die
wechselnden Gesangsstücke der ostsyrischen
Messe, in Jahrb. f. Liturgiewissenschaft., I [1921],
pp. 61-86), in the administration of the Sacraments, in particular of Baptism and of
Matrimony (cf. H. Denzinger, Ritus O-
rientalium, Würzburg 1873, very deficient),
as in the rites of ordinations, of the
consecration of a church or of monastic investiture,
and even more in funerals with the connected
Offices (cf. for all these rites,
J. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their
rituals, II, London 1852).

Alfonso Raes