/ Lytrosin Apesteile (Daniel Protopsaltis)

/ The communion hymn of Christmas

Composed by Daniel Protopsaltis of the Great Church (18th cent.) in First Mode Tetraphonos. This is the most popular classical Koinonikon for Christmas. Boudouris (in his Musicological Memoirs) mentions that in the past the commonly used composition for the communion hymn of Christmas ("Lytrwsin") was that of Petros Lambadarios, not the one by Daniel. However, it seems that Daniel's composition was the most popular choice by the time of I.Nafpliotis. Boudouris has transcribed "Lytrwsin" into his own analytic notation without the kratema in his book "Dwdekahmeron".

Greek Byzantine Choir (L. Angelopoulos)
[mp3, 2.5 Mb]
(from a published CD of the Greek Byzantine Choir with Christmas Hymns)

CMKON Choir (D. Paikopoulos)
[rm, 500 Kb] (part only) (from mousikofiloi.org)

Nikolaos Georgafentis
[rm, 1.7 Mb] (from ieropsaltis.com)

Georgios K. Michalakis
Haplos vs Composite chronos [wma, 670 Kb]
Free chronos [wma, 2.6 Mb]
Free Kalophonic chronos [wma, 890 Mb]
Psaltic chronos [wma, 1.1 Mb]

Home choir version [wma] (from psaltopedia)
Note a non-variant Pa throughout, accompanied by Di and Ke.

Comments:

D. Koubaroulis: This communion hymn is the most well known classical composition for the feastday of Christmas although it is rarely heard in our churches these days.