Ode

DIMITRI CONOMOS

A liturgical composition, originally attached to the nine biblical canticles sung at Matins and related to these by means of corresponding poetic allusion or textual quotation. Each ode consists of an initial model troparion, the heirmos, followed by three, four, or more troparia that are exact metrical reproductions of the heirmos, thereby allowing the same music to fit all troparia texts equally well. The nine heirmoi, however, are metrically dissimilar but united musically by the same mode and textually by references to the general theme of the occasion as well as sometimes by an acrostic.

SEE ALSO: Heirmologion; Music (Sacred); Orthros (Matins); Troparion