Kontakion

A hymn book containing kontakia is called a kontakarion (κοντακάριον; loaned into Slavonic as kondakar, Church Slavonic: кондакарь), but a kontakarion is not just a collection of kontakia: in the tradition of the Cathedral Rite (like that practiced at the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople) this became the name of the book of the prechanter or lampadarios, also known as psaltikon, which contained all the soloistic parts of hymns sung during the morning service and the Divine Liturgy.

Romanos' works had been widely acknowledged as a crucial contribution to Byzantine hymnography, in some kontakia he also supported Emperor Justinian by writing state propaganda.

Until the twelfth century, it was sung every year at the imperial banquet on that feast by the joint choirs of Hagia Sophia and of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.

In character it is similar to the early Byzantine festival sermons in prose — a genre developed by Ephrem the Syrian — but meter and music have greatly heightened the drama and rhetorical beauty of the speaker's often profound and very rich meditation.

The main body of a kontakion was chanted from the ambo by a cleric (often a deacon; otherwise a reader) after the reading of the Gospel, while a choir, or even the whole congregation, joined in the refrain.

[6] Within the cathedral rite, the ritual context of the long kontakion was the pannychis during solemn occasions (a festive night vigil) and was usually celebrated at the Blachernae Chapel.

The Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople established an own local school earlier (even if it is no longer present in the modern books), while the Stoudites embraced the genre kontakion with own new compositions.

In later kontakaria and oikemataria which treated all 24 oikoi in a kalophonic way, the Akathist was written as part of the triodion, within the oikematarion the complete kontakion filled half the volume of the whole book.

In the modern practice it is reduced to heirmologic melos which allowed the celebration of the whole Akathist on the morning service of the fourth Sunday of Great Lent.

In Slavic hymnography the so-called Akafist became a genre of its own which was dedicated to various saints; while not part of any prescribed service, these may be prayed as a devotional hymn at any time.

The kontakion for Easter for instance was used to compose an Old Church Slavonic kondak in honour of the local saints Boris and Gleb, two martyre princes of the Kievan Rus.

The concluding verse called "ephymnion" (ἐφύμνιον) was repeated like a refrain after each oikos and its melody was used in all kontakia composed in the ēchos plagios tetartos.

Kontakion of Pascha (Easter) The Slavic kondakar has the old gestic notation which referred (in the first row) to the hand signs used by the choirleaders to coordinate the singers.

Kontakion of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos (25 March) Τῇ ὑπερμάχῳ στρατηγῷ τὰ νικητήρια, ὡς λυτρωθεῖσα τῶν δεινῶν εὐχαριστήρια, ἀναγράφω σοι ἡ πόλις σου, Θεοτόκε· ἀλλʹ ὡς ἔχουσα τὸ κράτος απροσμάχητον, ἐκ παντοίων με κινδύνων ἐλευθέρωσον, ἵνα κράζω σοί∙ Χαῖρε Νύμφη ἀνύμφευτε.

Ἐπὶ τοῦ ὄρους μετεμορφώθης, καὶ ὡς ἐχώρουν οἱ Μαθηταί σου, τὴν δόξαν σου Χριστὲ ὁ Θεὸς ἐθεάσαντο· ἵνα ὅταν σὲ ἴδωσι σταυρούμενον, τὸ μὲν πάθος νοήσωσιν ἑκούσιον, τῷ δὲ κόσμω κηρύξωσιν, ὅτι σὺ ὑπάρχεις ἀληθῶς, τοῦ Πατρὸς τὸ ἀπαύγασμα.

[20] The traditional tune, known in English as the Kiev Melody, was edited by Birkbeck's close friend, Sir Walter Parratt, the organist of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

During the planning of Victoria's state funeral, her daughters asked that the kontakion be included in the service as it was a favourite of their mother's, a suggestion which was blocked by Bishop Randall Davidson with the support of King Edward VII, on the grounds that the text was not in keeping with Anglican teaching on prayers for the dead.

[26] The text of the kontakion is incorporated into the Funeral Service in the Book of Common Prayer (1979), the liturgy currently used by the Episcopal Church in the United States.

[30] The American hymnologist, Carl P. Daw Jr., wrote a paraphrase of this kontakion in 1982, Christ the victorious, give to your servants, intended for congregational singing and set to the tune Russian Hymn by Alexei Lvov.