A chant of the Byzantine rite, equivalent to the Western communion. In the liturgy of the early Church, the communion chant probably consisted of the responsorial singing of an entire psalm. One of the earliest known responses is Geusasthe kai idete (Psalm xxxiii.9: ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’), a text that eventually became the koinōnikon of the Byzantine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. The use of nonscriptural troparia as refrains and the occasional addition of a doxology show the influence on the koinōnikon of antiphonal psalmody. In the 7th-century rite of Constantinople the troparion Plērōthētō to stoma hēmōn aineseōs (‘Let our mouths be filled with praise’), concluding with allēlouïa, was also added to the koinōnikon psalm. Eventually, the psalm was reduced to a single verse, namely the original response with allēlouïa added as a kind of refrain, and the troparion Plērōthētō was separated from the psalm to function as an independent postcommunion chant.
A repertory of koinōnika for the major feasts of the fixed and movable Church year developed in about the 9th century, although variations and local traditions still seem to have existed. This repertory consists of 26 different texts, of which the majority are based on the psalms; three use other scriptural texts, and two are hymns – Tou deipnou sou tou mystikou (‘At thy mysterious feast’) for Holy Thursday and Sōma Christou (‘Body of Christ’) for Easter. Many koinōnika serve more than one feast, and three of the texts are also used as ‘Ordinary’ communion chants: Agalliasthe, dikaioi en kyriō (Psalm xxxii.1: ‘Rejoice in the Lord, O righteous’) for Saturdays; Aineite ton kyrion (Psalm cxlviii.1: ‘Praise the Lord’) for Sundays; and Geusasthe kai idete (see above) for the Liturgy of the Presanctified in Lent.
The earliest extant sources of koinōnikon melodies are the asmatika (choirbooks containing the chanted texts of the cathedral rite of Constantinople), dating from the 13th century and mostly of southern Italian origin. The Russian kondakaria transmit a communion repertory which, though imprecisely notated, clearly bears close modal, melodic and textual similarities to the koinōnika of the Byzantine amastikon. Certain aspects of the kondakaria indicate the liturgical influence of 10th-century Constantinople, suggesting that an older Byzantine asmatikon repertory existed. (For an example of a koinōnikon melody see Byzantine chant, ex.8.)
The asmatika often provide more than one melody for each koinōnikon, and the three Ordinary pieces are transmitted according to the oktōēchos system, with a melody for each mode. Koinōnikon melodies are moderately melismatic, although the music for the three Ordinary chants is simpler than for the rest of the repertory. Recurring melodic elements are used, each setting a short phrase of text, with the major cadences occurring at each hemistich. The allēlouïa refrain, however, is set in a more flowing, melismatic style akin to other genres of the asmatikon repertory. The long melismas are subdivided by the insertion of ‘asmatic’ syllables ‘gg’, ‘ch’ and ‘ou’ in the text. Minor differences in the elaboration of the allēlouïa melodies and a considerable amount of modal variance indicate that there were probably several local asmatikon traditions in use simultaneously.
The koinōnikon repertory contained in the Akolouthiai manuscripts, which first appeared in the early 14th century, is somewhat more heterogeneous than that of the asmatikon tradition; it includes a few melodies that display considerable similarity to original asmatikon chants (some of them are accompanied by the rubric ‘asmatikon’), melismatic settings by contemporary composers and other predominantly syllabic settings, which, though new to these manuscripts, probably contain elements from an older, oral tradition. The syllabic type of koinōnikon melody includes patterns deriving from simple psalmody, but such settings are clearly more elaborate than, for example, the simple anonymous prokeimena that are also preserved in the akolouthiai. One anonymous setting of Geusasthe kai idete is given the rubric ‘palaion’ (‘old’), and its melody (in mode 2 plagal with the final on E) possibly derives from an archaic, syllabic koinōnikon tradition.
The 14th- and 15th-century akolouthiai repertory includes koinōnikon melodies by Joannes Glykys, Joannes Koukouzeles, Nikephoros Ethikos, Xenos Korones, Joannes Kladas and Manuel Chrysaphes among others. Although these settings are in some respects reminiscient of the asmatikon tradition (especially in their choice of mode, the opening motifs and the use of asmatic syllables), they also draw upon contemporary kalophonic techniques (see Kalophonic chant), for example, stepwise, sequential motifs and the frequent use of the four-note tromikon motif, partial repetitions of words or whole phrases – usually indicated in the manuscripts by the chanted ‘palin’ (‘again’). A few koinōnika in this ‘mixed’ style can also be found in other types of music manuscript dating from the same period, for example, in the heirmologion GR-P 480 and the kalophonic stichērarion ET-MSsc gr.1251.
As an exception to the otherwise completely monophonic Byzantine chant repertory, three two-part koinōnika, reminiscent of early Western organum, are found in 15th-century akolouthiai manuscripts.
K. Levy: ‘A Hymn for Thursday in Holy Week’, JAMS, xvi (1963), 127–75
K. Levy: ‘The Byzantine Communion-Cycle and its Slavic Counterpart’, Congrès d’études byzantines XII: Ohrid 1961, 571–4
S. Harris: ‘The Communion Chants in Thirteenth-Century Byzantine Musical Manuscripts’, Studies in Eastern Chant, ii, ed. M. Velimirović (London, 1971), 51–67
M. Adamis: ‘An Example of Polyphony in Byzantine Music of the Late Middle Ages’, IMSCR XI: Copenhagen 1972, 737–47
H. Breslich-Erikson: ‘The Communion Hymn of the Byzantine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts’, Studies in Eastern Chant, iii, ed. M. Velimirović (London, 1973), 51–73
D. Conomos: ‘Communion Chants in Magna Graecia and Byzantium’, JAMS, xxxiii (1980), 241–63
T. Schattauer: ‘The Koinonicon of the Byzantine Liturgy’, Orientalia christiana periodica, xlix (1983), 91–129
D. Conomos: The Late Byzantine and Slavonic Communion Cycle: Liturgy and Music (Washington DC, 1985)
A. Doneda: ‘The “Hyperstases” in MS Kastoria 8 and the Kondakarian Notation’, Palaeobyzantine Notations II: Hernen 1999, 23–36
CHRISTIAN TROELSGÅRD