service files sun8m.md

INTRODUCTION

In this preliminary version of the texts for Matins and the Liturgy in Tone 8 I have included all the Irmi of the three canons. Those in square brackets are, of course, not normally sung, but are given here for convenience, since there are, as yet, no standard English incipits of such texts.

The Greek text of the canons presents a number of problems. The four printed editions I have used differ quite seriously in a number of places among themselves. I have also compared them with the Slavonic. The most inaccurate is that published by *Phos*,  which in one place even prints *Despoina*, ’Mistress’, where the reading should be *Despota,* ’Master’.

I hope before long to include elsewhere on these pages a PDF version of these canons with annotation .