Hirmos

(from the Greek heirmos, “intertwining,” “connection”), in Byzantine hymnography of the seventh century, a poetic stanzaic form combining the Biblical psalm with Christian hymns of a different syllabic versification. The hirmos summarized the thoughts of the Biblical psalm and established the metrics for Christian hymns. Because of this, hymns could be performed to the melody of the hirmos. In the ninth century the hirmos became the model for the versification of a musicalliterary genre, the canon.