(Gk.: ‘rule’).
A liturgical poem chanted at Orthros in the Byzantine rite, in the position once occupied by the biblical canticles. It is one of the two most important poetic forms in medieval Byzantine religious poetry, the other being the kontakion.
The codification of a series of nine ōdai (odes, or biblical canticles) consisting of the ‘Psalms outside the Psalter’ gave rise to the poetic form of the kanōn. In its complete form the kanōn consists of a series of nine odes, each paraphrasing one of the biblical canticles. Within a kanōn each ode is assigned a number that refers to the canticle being paraphrased; the theme of an ode is taken from the subject of the corresponding canticle. Each ode consists of a model stanza (heirmos) and three, four or sometimes more further stanzas called troparia (see Troparion. The first stanza of an ode, its heirmos, establishes the basic rhythmic and accentual pattern followed in the troparia. The last troparion in an ode usually praises the Virgin Mary (Theotokos) and is called a theotokion. In some kanōnes, the initial letters of each stanza form an acrostic.
Each ode of a kanōn has a different melody; a kanōn thus contains eight (if Ōdē 2 is omitted) or nine melodies, which are each sung for the first time to the first heirmos of an ode. The additional troparia of an ode are also chanted to the same melody as the heirmos; but in the past full musical performances of the kanōn appear to have been reserved for the most important feasts in the church year and to have been undertaken primarily in monastic communities and cathedrals. In present-day practice (which may serve as a guide for past centuries) only the heirmos is sung, and the accompanying troparia are recited.
The kanōn is not performed continuously but divided into three parts analogous to the division of the kathismata of the Psalter into three staseis (see Psalm, §III, 1). The first part consists of Ōdai 1 and 3 (Ōdē 2 being omitted from most kanōnes except during Lent). It is followed by a different type of hymn, the hypakoē (which may originally have been chanted by the congregation instead of one chanter as at present), and a short collect. The second segment of the kanōn follows with Ōdai 4 to 6; it is followed in turn by another interpolation, consisting of one stanza of the now drastically reduced kontakion, a reading from the synaxarion (brief biographical notes about the saint of the day) and another collect. The third part of the kanōn begins with Ōdē 7. After Ōdai 8 and 9 it is usual for the semichoruses to leave their places at the sides of the nave and assemble in the middle of the church to sing together the katabasia hymn (in practice this usually means the heirmos for Ōdē 1 of the kanōn, or the heirmos for that particular ode, sung more slowly and probably with additional melodic embellishments).
The kanōn is followed by the chanting of the exaposteilarion hymn, which is replaced during Lent by the phōtagōgikon (of which there are eight, one for each mode). According to the church calendar more than one festival may occur on a single day, each with its own separate kanōn. In such instances the 1st ode of each kanōn is performed in succession, followed by the 2nd odes, and so on, rather than having one kanōn stated in full before moving to the next.
The full texts of the kanōnes are in the mēnaion, a liturgical book containing the full text of the Proper for each day (equivalent to the Latin Proper of the Saints). Since for practical purposes, in order to perform a kanōn, the singers need only the melodies of the heirmoi, another type of liturgical book, the Heirmologion, had come into existence by the 9th century.
The pattern of a model stanza (the heirmos) followed by additional stanzas emulating its rhythmic, accentual and probably melodic patterns was fairly well known in Byzantium as early as the 6th century. The origin of this poetical practice seems to be Syrian. The term heirmos, however, seems to have been used for the first time only in the 7th century in Byzantium.
It has been customary to refer to Andrew of Crete (c660–c740), the author of the ‘Great Kanōn’ of 250 stanzas (at present performed on Thursday of the fifth week in Lent), as the first author of kanōn poetry. Some poetry of this type may, however, have been in use in Constantinople shortly before Andrew arrived there in the mid-680s, and Germanus (c634–c733), Patriarch of Constantinople from 715 to 730, may have written some kanōnes before Andrew began writing poetry. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that all nine odes appear in most of the kanōnes generally attributed to Germanus. The omission of Ōdē 2 may already have begun in about 700 ce, and in Andrew’s kanōnes there is a much smaller proportion containing the heirmos for Ōdē 2 than in those of Germanus.
In the first half of the 8th century the greatest poets of kanōnes were in Jerusalem: John Damascene and Kosmas of Jerusalem (also ‘of Mayuma’). John is especially remembered for his iambic kanōnes. Many kanōnes are attributed to ‘John the Monk’, who has often been identified with John Damascene, although this attribution is not always certain. Of other poets writing and composing kanōnes, the most prominent were Theodore of Stoudios (759–826), his brother Joseph of Thessaloniki, and the brothers Theophanes and Theodore surnamed hoi graptoi (‘the branded ones’). Kanōnes have been written ever since the 8th century, but their golden age was from the 8th century to the 10th.
See also Byzantine chant, §10 (iii) and ex.10.
E. Wellesz: A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography (Oxford, 2/1961)
M. Velimirović: ‘The Byzantine Heirmos and Heirmologion’, Gattungen der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen: Gedenkschrift Leo Schrade, ed. W. Arlt and others (Berne, 1973), 192–244
H. Schmidt: Zum formelhaften Aufbau byzantinischer Kanones (Wiesbaden, 1979)
C. Hannick: ‘The Performance of the Kanon in Thessaloniki in the 14th Century’, Studies in Eastern Chant, v, ed. D. Conomos (Crestwood, NY, 1990), 137–52
MILOŠ VELIMIROVIĆ