Hymns of Light
The hymns of light follow the canon at Matins. In most cases, these hymns (which are a sort of troparia) fall outside the eight-tone system, and are not assigned tones in the liturgical books. Instead, each hymn of light had its own melody, composed to fit the text.
Over the centuries, most of these melodies fell out of use and disappeared from the chant books; instead, the hymns of light were simply chanted to a reading tone or a psalm tone. In a few cases, the liturgical books provide the name of a podoben melody to be used for a particular hymn of light. (In these books, the hymn of light may be marked with the title exapostilarion, svitilen, or photogogikon.)
The following melodies for hymns of light remain in the prostopinije tradition:
- for Pascha: You, O King and Lord
The following hymns of light have podoben melodies assigned in the liturgical books. A link is provided to a description of the melody, if it is still extant.