Verses of the Eight Modes
Verses of the Eight Modes

Summary/Abstract: The short dodecasyllabic poems devoted to each echos that can be encountered within the Greek octoechoi and which were thought to provide a late reflection of the old ethos-doctrine of the Hellenic harmoniai have been considered by the scholars who managed to scientifically publish and decipher the Byzantine musical monuments as factical poetical improvisations lacking any real ground. They appear in manuscripts starting with the twelfth century, in different versions, among which a later one (fifteenth century), published only in the middle of the last century. The most common version, which can also be found in the printed books, seems to have an author, the Bishop Theodore of Cyzicus, correspondent, among others, of emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Although these rhymes that claim to portray, in naïve and obsolete imagery, the character of each echos have been considered, in the first scientific printed anthology, as „barren and dull (uninspired)” (illos [...] inanes et inficetos), they are still able to transmit the message of the theological conception regarding the role of music in the spiritual development within Christianity, as it is found in the writings of the first Fathers of the Church, as well as in other authors closer to our time, such as Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite.

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