Given that I'm always on the lookout for new compositional ideas and techniques, would you mind sharing a little about where you drew these theseis from? I'm especially interested in their sources, as well as how you determine which parts are "optional," or which can be abbreviated for the sake of brevity.
Solving this problem is similar to optimizing an objective function with respect to some variables in the presence of constraints on those variables. Let’s start by defining the constraints:
- Preserve the rhetoric of the original. In the original Greek, the word occurs once without its last syllable (in an unresolved state) and then is repeated for emphasis with the final syllable (in a resolved state). For the Greek «Πα-ρά-τει-, πα-ρά-τει-νον», we need the English “Con-ti[n]-, con-tin-ue.”
- Preserve the rhythmic balance of the original. In the original Greek, both the first and second repetitions have an equal duration of rhythm: (4 + 4) + (4 + 4) = 16 beats, where the 1st and the 9th beat have primary emphasis in the complex rhythm of the piece, and the 5th and 13th beath have secondary emphasis.
- Preserve the melodic contour of the original. In the original Greek, the first repetition ends on an imperfect cadence, and the second repetition ends on a perfect cadence.
The combination of the first and second constraints means that we must spread out “Con-tin, con-” over eight beats and “-tin-ue” over eight beats. The third constraint means that the first eight-beat grouping must end on an imperfect cadence (in this mode, Ni' or Pa') and the final eight beat grouping must end on a perfect cadence (in this mode, Zo').
With the constraints defined, we need some inputs to “plug in” to the function to see if they satisfy the constraints. There aren’t many classical compositions in Enharmonic Grave Mode, so we need to broaden our search. There are fragments of Third Mode, Enharmonic Grave Mode, and Plagal Fourth Mode (in both the New and Old Sticheraric genres) that can possibly be applicable for use in the context of a Slow Doxology in Enharmonic Grave Mode. I chose the Old Sticheraric genre of Plagal Fourth Mode as a starting point, because some formulæ from that mode immediately sprang to mind as potential matches (which I will describe in detail below). I stress that not all formulæ that belong to this mode are appropriate for a Slow Doxology in Enharmonic Grave Mode, and there exist formulæ that are appropriate for a Slow Doxology in Enharmonic Grave Mode that do not belong to Old Sticheraric Plagal Fourth Mode. Nevertheless, I started there, since one has to start somewhere, figuring that I would find a different angle if that path turned out to be unreasonable. Another reason I extended my search into the Slow Sticheraric genre is that it often operates in a very similar rhythmic texture (i.e., the doubled time of 4 + 4 = 8 beats per compositional measure) as the genre of the Slow Doxology. My goal was to ultimately a) choose an appropriate formula from
Papa Ephraim's formula book, (b) choose an appropriate formula from an existing composition (guided by my memory), or c) derive a new formula using traditional compositional techniques.
This particular compositional problem is difficult because there are few formulæ in Greek that stretch one syllable out over eight beats in this rhythmic texture, and we need exactly such a formula for the syllable “tin” in the first repetition of “continue” in order to satisfy the first and second constraints. Having identified this as the most difficult portion of the problem, I attacked it head-on. Even before I opened the formula book, two formulæ immediately sprang to mind, which I eventually distilled into the second and third solutions I posted above. These formulæ were the opening word «Χαλινούς» in the Slow Sticheraric «Χαλινούς αποπτύσας» of Iakovos and the first three syllables of the word «αποσμήξω» in the Slow Sticheraric Troparion of Kassiane by Petros Lampadarios. But, as I will describe below, I later came across an even better solution by browsing through Papa Ephraim’s formula book.
In
the Slow Sticheraric «Χαλινούς αποπτύσας», Iakovos dedicates eight whole beats to the accented syllable «νούς» in «Χαλινούς» and ends one step above the tonic, which satisfies our constraints. This formula is identical to the second 01 formula on page 874. Since this formula ends on Ni' and we need to end on Zo', I chose the standard phrase Pa'-Ni'-Zo'-Ke-Zo' to get us there. With that ending in mind, I blended the two formulæ together to create the third solution I posted above.
In
the Slow Sticheraric Troparion of Kassiane, Petros Lampadarios dedicates twelve whole beats to the accented syllable «σμή» in «αποσμήξω» and ends one step above the tonic, which again satisfies our constraints. Sure enough, I found variations of this formula as the third 01 formula on page 873 and the first two 10 formulæ on page 878. I blended the first eight beats of this formula with the same Pa'-Ni'-Zo'-Ke-Zo' ending from the previous solution to create the second solution I posted above (the bottom variant). I wasn’t satisfied with this variant, though. It met my constraints regarding rhetoric, rhythmic balance, and melodic contour, but it didn’t seem appropriate to use in a Slow Doxology in Enharmonic Grave Mode. (To use an analogy, I intuitively felt that this formula was wearing a grey suit in a group portrait where everyone else was wearing a black suit.) So I created a new variant of this formula from scratch that maintained the same rhetoric, rhythmic balance, and melodic contour of the original but employed more of the distinctive elements of Enharmonic Grave Mode (the top variant of the second solution).
While I was looking through the formula book, the first two 010 formulæ at the bottom of page 875 caught my attention. In them we see the rare occurrence of a single accented syllable spread out over eight or more beats and resting two steps above the tonic (in the rhythmic texture in which we’re interested, no less). This formula also goes into the higher part of the scale, which is ideal for our setting (because the original Greek goes to the high part of the scale in the first repetition of «Παράτεινον»). As soon as I saw the first 010 formula on page 875, I immediately thought of the syllables «ρω-μεν» in
the Slow Sticheraric «Δεύτε εκκαθάρωμεν εαυτούς» of Iakovos. The formula there, which is very similar to the two on page 875, spreads out one syllable over eight beats and comes to rest two steps above the tonic. It also provides us with an easy way to get back down to the tonic. In short, it satisfies all of our constraints quite nicely and has the additional advantage of hitting the high notes along the way. It was relatively easy from there to fit the English text to this formula and to spice up the last few beats with more analysis (in comparison to Iakovos’ conservative orthography) to create the first solution I posted above. As for the bracketed notes in this variation, I noticed that the first 010 formula on page 875 had these extra notes and decided to include them as an option for you. They are optional, because these notes are not present in the majority of cases where this formula occurs in the Slow Sticheraric genre. If we include these extra notes, though, we break the smooth rhythmic and rhetorical dualism that is present in the original Greek, which makes the final result somewhat less aesthetically pleasing. So even though I included these extra notes as an alternative variant, I prefer the solution without these extra notes. Given that it perfectly satisfies all of the above constraints and has the additional aesthetic advantage of hitting the high notes, it is the most optimal of the above solutions.