A trail ( Greek τροπάριον ) in the Orthodox Church is a short prayer song, which reveals the essence of the feast , is glorified and called for help by a sacred person. Also troparion in a broad sense is a concept that includes many various (but, as a rule, small) forms of hymnography, separate independent or co-dependent chants. The troparion in the canon is a stanza following the rhymos , with the chanting of poems along its (rhommo) melodic rhythmic model. In the Western liturgy, similar to the troparion (in the first meaning) the functions are performed by the collective .
Structure
At the beginning of the troparion there is a reminder of the merits of the saint (“Prisoners liberator ...” or “Angel in the flesh ...”) or a description of the holiday (“On this day ...” or “The day of bright celebration ...” came), and in the end - a request to the saint prayer (“pray to Christ God for salvation / mercy / enlightenment / blessing / healing / forgiveness of our souls”) or praise (“glory to Whoever heals through you”).
A short troparion can be an unformed stanza:
 | Apostle Saint Matthias beg the merciful God yes sins forgiveness He will give to our souls |  |
The origin and meaning of the term
In relation to the etymology of the term there is no complete clarity. Most tend to believe that it is derived from the Greek τρέπω - to draw .
In the narrow meaning of the liturgical service of the Russian Orthodox Church, the term is mainly used in the meaning of the troparion of the forgiveness , that is, a short prayer chants, glorifying this holiday, the saint or the phenomenon of the icon, sung before the leave at the end of vespers , paternity, matins , hours , liturgy .
In Greek churches, the leave troparion is called ἀπολυτίκιον .
History
Historically, troparion was the primary element of Orthodox hymnography ; originally - a short refrain to certain places of liturgical chants; It was introduced in the 4th century , replacing the theosophical hymns of the 1st and 3rd centuries , which were not retained by the Church, as a kind of musical and poetic commentary on the sacred text, a verbal icon of an event in Sacred history or a celebrated saint. Having emerged on the mixed soil of Greek and Middle Eastern culture, by the 5th century it had evolved into a special textual music genre.
The rhythmic prose of the early tropari evolved into poetry, whose metric, with the collapse of ancient prosody and under the influence of Semitic poetry (especially St. Ephraim the Syrian), began to rely on word stress. Troparion was always built into ready-made musical-rhythmic and semantic "nests" (as part of the canon, kondak, akathist ). In turn, he could serve as a model (model), called in this case the irmos , according to the melodic formula of which icos were built, that is, stanzas, uniform in the number of syllables in mutually corresponding verses.
In parallel with the canons and canons , also organized around the base tropary, both independent (avtomelnye) and “similar” (see Similar ) tropari were created, distinguished by function (purpose):
- sticher - troparion echoing the verse of the psalm;
- ipakoi - “response” to the chant, then sticking out after a small entrance;
- kondak - in the new meaning of the “extra” troparion of the 3rd and 6th canon songs;
- Kafizma (sedalen) - inset between the sections of the main singing;
- the Mother of God - the 9th canon song or any troparion to the Virgin Mary;
- katavasiya is an irmos, repeated at the end of a song by choruses converging together.
- ipakoi - “response” to the chant, then sticking out after a small entrance;
A significant part of the troparion was included in a single complex of chants of the troparic- sticking type, supposedly established by the 7th century and bearing the name of Tropology ( Τροπολγιον ), which later disintegrated into Minea (texts of the stationary annual circle of worship), Triod (texts of the Easter circle) and Oikhohikhs of the holy year circle of worship services, Triod (texts of the Easter circle) and Oikhohikhs of the holy year circle of worship and Okohiko, and Oikhokhikhoi and Okohikho and Okohikhoi weekly circle). Later, another liturgical collection of troparii, the Troparion , appeared, [1] adapted for singing on crowded choirs .
Old Russian writing
Troparians are found in ancient Russian birch bark letters . One of these letters, dating from the first third of the XIII century, was found in 2010 in Novgorod . It contains the text of the Sunday tropari of eight voices (“Egda descended hast”, “May Heavenly Rejoice,” “The Original Word of the Father and the Spirit”, etc.) written in a household graphic system (ъ → о, є → ь, ѣ → b). For example: "YES TO EXIST NB" [2] .
Famous Troparians
The oldest and most famous troparion is “ Silent Light ” (Greek Φῶς ἱλαρν ), which is sung at vespers . His oldest record is in the Apostolic Ordinances , attributed to the end of the 3rd century AD. Already Basil the Great calls the singing of this troparion an ancient and beloved tradition of the Church.
Original Greek text:
Φῶς ἱλαρὸν ἁγίας δόξης, ἀθανάτου Πατρός, οὐρανίου, ἁγίου, μάκαρος, Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, ἐλθόντες ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλίου δύσιν, ἰδόντες φῶς ἑσπερινόν, ὑμνοῦμεν Πατέρα, Υἱόν, καὶ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, Θεόν, Ἄξιόν σε ἐν πᾶσι καιροῖς ὑμνεῖσθαι φωναῖς αἰσίαις, Υἱὲ Θεοῦ, ωὴν ὁ διδοὺς · διὸ ὁ κόσμος σὲ δοξάζει.
New Greek:
<Kύριε Ιησού Χριστέ, πού είσαι> το γλυκό φως τής αγίας δόξας του αθάνατου, του ουράνιου, του άγιου, του μακάριου Πατέρα σου, τώρα πού φτάσαμε στη δύση του ήλιου και είδαμε το εσπερινό φως, υμνούμε τον Πατέρα, εσένα τον Υιό και το Γιο Πνεύμα, τον ένα εό. Πρέπει σε κάθε ώρα και στιγμή να στευυνύύύμεμε καθαρέςέςψψςηκκκιι υυυυεεεεεεεεεεεεεεεεεεεεεεε
Church Slavonic translation:
Bring to mind the sting of glory, bezsmertnagu ѻ҆ts҃à nbⷭ҇nagѡ, st҃aag bleszhennagѡ, ҆҆i҃se hrⷭ҇tѐ. Come to the wake of the sun, before the evening, sweetheart, and at peace, at all times in the past, were df, df, and ds;
There are translations of this troparion (including poetic) into Latin (Jucunda lux tu gloriae), English and other languages.
Another very ancient and famous troparion is in honor of the Resurrection of Christ [3] :
Ιριστὸς ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν θανάτῳ θάνατον πατσας, καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς μνήμασι ζωὴν χαρισ ν.
Russian transcription:
Christ the anesti necron, fanatho fenaton patisas, catis entis mimi zoyan harisomenos.
Church Slavonic translation:
Christ is the resurrection of the dead, death is put to death by a gift to the grave of the dead.
Troparion on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord
| Rejoice, gracious Virgin of the Virgin, for the sun of righteousness has shone out of you, Christ our God, enlightening being in darkness. Have fun and you, the righteous old man, who embraced the Liberator of our souls, giving us the resurrection |
Notes
Links
- Veniamin (Krasnopevkov-Rumovsky) New Tablet part 2. Chapter 4. § 9. p. 72
- Troparion: Evening Hymn Site
- About the most ancient Theotokos chants
- Archbishop Averky (Taushev). Liturgika (chapter on troparis) (inaccessible link from 04-02-2018 [537 days])
- from the book: Cyprian Kern. Liturgic. Hymnography and eortology.
- To the history of troparion "Silent Light"