A melodic intonation formula in Byzantine chant, sung to nonsense words. It is intoned by the domestikos (precentor) in order to introduce the ēchos (mode) of the hymn (see Ēchos, §2). The formulae for the modes of the Oktōēchos are: ananeanes (ēchos protos), neanes (ēchos deuteros), aneanes (ēchos tritos), hagia (ēchos tetartos), aneanes (ēchos plagios protos), neanes (ēchos plagios deuteros), anes (ēchos barys) and nehagie (ēchos plagios tetartos).
The earliest record of the Greek meaningless syllables with their modally arranged melodies comes from the West. Aurelian of Réôme, in his Musica disciplina (?c840–50), identified the eight Byzantine ēchēmata, and they subsequently appeared in almost all tonaries until the 12th century. Although clearly imported from the Byzantine East, the Western formulae are different from the Eastern in two distinct ways – textual and functional: in the Carolingian tradition there are two words only for the authentic modes, noannoeane and noioeane, and one, noeagis (or noeane), for the plagal; moreover, the Latin melodies, with their terminal melismas, appear to function more as memorized typical endings than as intonation formulae.
M. Huglo: ‘L’introduction en Occident des formules byzantines d’intonation’, Studies in Eastern Chant, iii, ed. M. Velimirović (London, 1973), 81–90
T. Bailey: The Intonation Formulas of Western Chant (Toronto, 1974)
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