Tatyana Genrikhovna Kazantseva,
Candidate of Art History, Novosibirsk State Conservatory named by M.I. Glinka, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Elizaveta Alexandrovna Omarova,
Novosibirsk State Conservatory named by M.I. Glinka, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Liturgical Singing Culture of the Old Believers of the Chasovennye Agreement of the Upper Reaches of the Small Yenisei in the 1960s–1970s (Based on Archeographic Expeditions’ Materials)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-2-20
One of the least studied aspects of the history and culture of the Old Believers of Chasovennye Agreement, living in the territory of the Kaa-Khem region of the Tyva Republic, is the tradition of liturgical singing. Materials, recorded in the published (1967) and unpublished (1977) diaries of archaeographic expeditions carried out under the leadership of N.N. Pokrovsky, allow reconstruction of the picture of its existence in the 60–70s of the last century. In the first diary, contextual information is mainly collected, in the second diary, (in the writing of which took part the musicologist E.L. Burilina) there is information directly related to the issues of liturgical singing. The combination of facts from the two named sources makes it possible to highlight such aspects as the organization of services, the functioning of the written and oral forms of Old Russian monody in the region, and ways of transferring singing knowledge. It was established that for divine services in the sketes a special time was used that differed from the standard time by six and a half hours; the service was conducted in the full volume of the daily circle, both with a separate service of Vespers and Matins, and in the form of an all-night vigil. The leading singers of the region were Fr. Palladium and G.F. Rukavitsyn, who received professional singing training in their youth. G.F. Rukavitsyn mastered not only the znamenny chant, but also the demestvo. They were also the custodians and copyists of hook manuscripts, as well as teachers of the younger generation of Old Believer choristers. The training was carried out both in practice and according to musical-theoretical manuals. In the first case, they studied according to Oktay. At the first stage they sang the obichod scale, then they learned all the chants in the order of the ihos, first they sang solfeggio, then – with the text. The peculiarities of the performance of individual banners and melodic formulas were explained directly in the course of learning the chants. The authors of the 1977 diary, characterizing the current situation, have already recorded the extinction of tradition, caused by the passing away of representatives of the older generation. This was observed in the reduction in the number of musically literate singers, learning difficulties, simplification of the forms of liturgical singing, and an increase in the share of the oral version – “napevka”.
Publishing: 28/04/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 30.10.2021
How to cite: Omarova Е.A., Kazantseva T.G. The Liturgical Singing Culture of the Old Believers of the Chasovennye Agreement of the Upper Reaches of the Small Yenisei in the 1960s–1970s (Based on Archeographic Expeditions’ Materials) // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 2 (22), pp. 286–296. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-2-20.pdf]
Links: Issue 2 2022
Keywords: liturgical singing, Old Believers of Tuva, archaeographic expeditions, znamenny chant; demestvo, “napevka”