(Gk., from stichos: ‘verse’, ‘psalm verse’).
A hymn of the Byzantine rite sung between the verses of psalms by two choirs in alternation. Collections of stichēra are contained in the Stichērarion. Stichēra are poetic strophes that belong to the genre of troparia (see Troparion), the oldest part of the Byzantine repertory. Such troparia are preserved in the stichēraria for the Offices of Christmas and Epiphany, and for the Great Offices of Good Friday. Many stichēra in liturgical books of the 10th century onwards were probably written in the 8th century or even earlier.
At Hesperinos stichēra are inserted between the closing verses of the psalm complex kyrie ekekraxa (Psalms cxl, cxli, cxxix and cxvi). The evening hymn, Phōs hilaron, is followed by the stichēra aposticha, a selection of stichēra with a single psalm verse and concluding doxology. At Orthros stichēra are inserted into the final verses of hoi ainoi, the ‘Lauds’ psalms (Psalms cxlviii–cl). A stichēron is also sung to the Lesser Doxology following each psalm series.
The stichēra texts are based chiefly on the gospels, the homilies of the Church Fathers and the Lives of the Saints, and are generally written in free rhythmical prose. In the late Byzantine period, however, stichēra composed in the form of poems with 15-syllable lines, known as ‘politic’ verse, were included in liturgical books.
There are three kinds of stichēra: idiomela, automela and prosomoia, the two last being mostly part of the oral tradition. Stichēra idiomela have their own individual melodies, whereas the automela function as melodic and metrical patterns for generating stichēra prosomoia (contrafacta). Prosomoia do not always conform strictly to the models with regard to number of syllables, mode or melismatic formulae. The metrical and melodic periods of individual hymns are indicated by separation marks in the text. In general, stichēra melodies are syllabic, that is, they have one or two notes per syllable, although short melismas may occur on accented syllables or on words or phrases requiring special emphasis; stichēra for major feasts may also have more extensive ornamentation. Cadences are marked by recurring melodic formulae.
In liturgical books stichēra are arranged by individual feast according to the system of the eight modes (oktōēchos). Even in the earliest manuscripts the mode is indicated by a character (martyria) at the beginning of a stichēron. Although each mode has its own particular repertory of melodies, most stichēra are bi- or trimodal, and there are three hymns that modulate through all eight modes in turn – Thearchiō neumati, Sēmeron hē anosiourgotropos mētēr and Ō pantōn eleēmōn.
With the appearance of Kalophonic chant in the 13th century, new stichēra were composed in this style. Its most famous exponents were Joannes Koukouzeles, Joannes Glykys and Xenos Korones in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Joannes Kladas in the second half of the 14th century, and Manuel Chrysaphes in the 15th. The predominantly syllabic melodies of the traditional repertory were extended and richly ornamented in the kalophonic style (for an example see Byzantine chant, ex.11). Typical of the hymns of this period was the insertion of teretismata (meaningless syllables).
J. Raasted: ‘Some Observations on the Structure of the Stichera in the Byzantine Rite’, Byzantion, xxviii (1958), 529–41
E. Wellesz: A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography (Oxford, 2/1961), 243–5
H. Husmann: ‘Modulation und Transposition in den bi- und trimodalen Stichera’, AMw, xxvii (1970), 1–22
H. Husmann: ‘Die oktomodalen Stichera und die Entwicklung des byzantinischen Oktoëchos’, AMw, xxvii (1970), 304–25
H. Husmann: ‘Strophenbau und Kontrafakturtechnik der Stichera’, AMw, xxix (1972), 151–61
For further bibliography see Stichērarion.
GERDA WOLFRAM