Petrova-Hristova, Stanka, Assist. Prof., PhD
Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
This article discusses the presumable composition of the Service for the Heavenly Bodiless Angelic Powers, which was included in the Old Bulgarian Menaion under the date of 8 November and has no Greek parallel. Taking into account the fact that there are two known kanons of probable Old Bulgarian origin, the author searches in various manuscripts for the rest of the chants that, according to the liturgical rules, might have been part of the service.
The author of the paper analyses the volumes and contents of songs in both original kanons dedicated to St. Methodius: of St. Clement of Ohrid and of Konstantin of Preslav. The basic unit of measurement shall be the verse. The difference between troparia of I-VI song and VII to IX is illustrated. The proposed explanation for this difference in the total number of verses takes into account the presence of two stanzas inserted after VI song (kontakion and ikos) which do not belong to the kanon. Perhaps the authors have sought to build two relatively equal parts of a whole liturgical composition “kanon and kontakion and ikos”. This formal feature could be the exception to be typical of the style of both authors, or it could be specific to a certain period of development of the hymnological genre.
Subject: Literary Texts Bulgarian hymnography St. Clement of Ochrid Konstantin of Preslav Structure of the kanonsCopyright © 2024. All rights reserved.