Communion (chant)

The Communion (Latin: communio; Greek: κοινωνικόν, koinonikon) is a refrain sung with psalm recitation during the distribution of the Eucharist in the Divine Liturgy or Mass. As chant it was connected with the ritual act of Christian communion.

According to Dimitri Conomos the Koinonikon (κοινωνικόν), as it is sung as an elaborated communion chant during the Divine Liturgy, has derived from an early practice of psalm recitation similar to Western liturgies, when the Koinonikon served as a troparion. The oldest troparion which was used for communion, was "Γεύσασθε καὶ ἴδετε" ("O taste and see that the Lord is good", Ps. 33.9). It was supposed to symbolize the last supper celebrated on Maundy Thursday. During the 5th century, when the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts had established and this communion chant became associated with it, the custom spread over the Lenten period, presumably with the recitation of different psalm sections (staseis).

In the early Asmatika (12th and 13th century), the choirbook of the cathedral rite, this koinonikon is classified as echos protos (transcribed as a—α′) according to the modal signatures of the Octoechos, but its archaic melos does not finish on the finalis and basis of this echos, but with the one (phthongos) of echos plagios devteros (transcribed as E—πλβ′).

In the cathedral rite of Constantinople the koinonikon as a troparion became so elaborated, that it was sung without psalm recitation. Nevertheless, its text was usually a stichos taken from the psalter, like the Sunday Koinonikon of the Week Cycle Αἰνεῖτε τὸν κύριον ("Praise the Lord" Ps 148.1), which had already added as an Octoechos cycle in 13th-century Greek Asmatika, so that they could be performed according to the echos of the week. Despite the weekly cycle which has not been more fixed than feasts dedicated to the Theotokos (Wednesday koinonikon) Ποτήριον σωτηρίου ("Cup of salvation" Ps 115.4) or martyres, the repertory of 26 koinonika developed as a calendaric cycle of fixed and moveable feasts during the 9th century and they can be found in the books of the cathedral rite since the 12th century (psaltikon and asmatikon).

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