The Asmatic version of the chanting of the prooimion at the All-Night Vigils (Agrypnía)
The Asmatic version of the chanting of the prooimion at the All-Night Vigils (Agrypnía)

Summary/Abstract: This present study attempts to draw attention to the emergence and role of the prooimion or koukoulion in the music cathedral rite and the asmatic version of chanting of it, especially at the All-Night Vigils from the Saint Sophia in Constantinople. This hymnographic creation so loved in the Orthodox Church has a history of a millennium and a half. With a history so remote and rich, the prooimion raise today many questions: from etymology to the philological substrate, from theological themes, components to the metric structure. The prooimion it is part of a compositional species that disappeared for many centuries in the Church, called in the first Christian millennium kontakion, which was originally a service, of considerable length, and not a simple hymnographic phrase, as it is understood today.

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