Αντίφωνα και Τυπικά / Antiphona and Typika
Διαδικτυακές συζητήσεις / Topics from byzantinechant and Typikon discussion forums

I. Arvanitis:

The Typika and Beatitudes constitute the monastic tradition and the Antiphons the parish/cathedral tradition of this part of the Divine Liturgy. The Typika etc. appears until now also as a separate small service. But the same was true also for the Antiphons which were very often sung during a procession, before the Div. Litirgy, according to the cathedral Typikon of the Great Church of Constantinople (10th cent) [Alex Lingas can say much more than me on this]. Now, the order of Typika and Beatidutes is full in itself, ie. there are troparia for the Beatidudes for weekdays and Sundays (different for each day) . So, one can say that there must be Antiphon verses for weekdays and Sundays. One can really find such sets of verses in the wellknown 'Egkolpion tou Anagnostou'. But, what can be found in this booklet, can be thought as being of recent origin Maybe, I'm not sure, the editors of this booklet constructed for the first time the there included set of the verses of Sunday Antiphons. The Typikon of the Great Church written by Violakis makes, as you know, a mixing: it prescribes the Typika etc. as _obligatory_ on Sundays and gives a set of Antiphons for weekdays ; these Antiphons are the ones given (I suppose) by Dr Farrow. These same Antiphons are given as Antiphons for weekdays in the 'Egolpion'. But these Antiphons have a history : they are described in the writings of Saint Symeon, Bishop of Thessaloniki and they are implied in the 'Ermhneia' of the Div. Liturgy by Nikolaos Kavasilas. So, it seems that these were the only Antiphons, for both weekdays and Sundays. Prof. Ioannis Fountoulis, also, writes (without mentioning Symeon and Kavasilas ; these are my own observations) that the Sunday Antiphons were the ones found in the 'Egolpion' as Antiphons for wekdays. It seems that the editors of the 'Egolpion' wanted to create a special set of verses for Sundays in the place of the Typika prescribed by Violakis.

I. Arvanitis:

The Typikon of the Great Church written by the former protopsaltis Georgios Violakis (d. 1911) prescribes the Typika psalms for every sunday and the Antiphons for the rest days of the week. And it does not only prescribes, but, we can say, considers them as obligatory! The Antiphons, according to this typikon, are to be sung on the Feasts of the Lord (this is also the monastic order according to the Typikon of Saint Savas which of course prescribes Typika for the rest days of the week). The ferial Antiphons of Violakis are 1st. V.Agathon to exomologeisthai... R.Tais presveiais... 2nd. V.O Kyrios evasileusen.... R.Presveiais ton Agion sou.... 3rd. V.Deute agalliasometha....R. Soson imas.... The common practice in Greece is now that the Antiphons of the feasts are sung (1st R. Tais presveiais.. 2nd.R. Soson imas 3rd R. [only once, for the Little entrance] ) with verses from the Typika. A real mixture! The ferial Antiphons (which seem to have been the normal Antiphons for Sundays some centuries ago, according to Prof. I. Phountoulis but also according to Saint Symeon of Thessaloniki and as one can see in the older interpretations of the Divine Liturgy, as eg. Kabasilas) seem to have been forgotten. What is strange, Typika and ferial Antiphons seem to have been forgotten even in the Constantinople Patriarchate! Lykourgos Angelopoulos was once told by an bishop of the Patriarchate that he (Lykourgos follows the Athonite practice. Lykourgos asked: 'What do you mean?' And the bishop said: I mean the Typika! So, people in Greek speaking Churches believe sometimes that they are only Agioreitika and they have no relation to the tradition of the patriarchate! But I think that now one can hear the Typika in ever more Greek churches than earlier.