All-night vigil

The All-night vigil is a service of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches consisting of an aggregation of the canonical hours of Compline (in Greek usage only), Vespers (or, on a few occasions, Great Compline), Matins, and the First Hour.

[2][3] In parish usage, many portions of the service such as the readings from the Synaxarion during the Canon at Matins are abbreviated or omitted, and it therefore takes approximately two or two and a half hours to perform.

Besides numerous traditional chants of several schools, several major composers have created versions of the all-night vigil.

[4][5][6] Other musical settings include those by Chesnokov, Grechaninov, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Alexander Kastalsky,[7] Clive Strutt and Einojuhani Rautavaara.

It is most often celebrated using a variety of traditional or simplified chant melodies based on the Octoechos or other sources.