Comments on the fate of the biblical odes after the liturgical reform of the 17th century

One of the key changes in the structure of liturgical offices enacted during the reform of liturgical books and rites under Patriarch Nikon in the 17th century was the atempt to restore the practice of chanting the canon at Matins together with the verses of the biblical odes. For this purpose, the printed Hirmologion of 1657 included two abbreviated redactions of the text of the odes, known by their incipits as Let us sing unto the Lord and Unto the Lord let us sing. Te source of these redactions of the odes can be found in Greek editions of the Hirmologion printed in Venice in the 16th and 17th centuries. Nonetheless it remains an open question whether or not these abbreviated redactions of the odes were ever extensively used in Russian worship. Te author of the present article points out the presence of an abbreviated redaction of the odes in the famous Solovetsky Hirmologion (National Library of Russia Sol. 277/282). Te compiler of that manuscript, Hieromonk and later Metropolitan Ignatius (Rimsky-Korsakov), did not simply copy the text of the odes from the printed Hirmologion, but reworked it in his manuscript in such a way that shows that he must have been acquainted with executing the canon with the verses of the odes in practice