Moldavian and Ukrainian-Belarusian church chant traditions: common repertoire as a fact of interaction

Abstract

The goal of the research. Our re cent attribution of kalophonic Greek chants from Ukrainian and Belarusian staff-notated manuscripts of the late 16th-18th centuries proved their Eastern origin and the fact of borrowing. The question arises where Ukrainian and Belarusian singers mastered Greek-Byzantine chant. It is logical to assume that the Greek repertoire appeared thanks to Ukrainian-Moldavian contacts, since the Moldavian chant tradition, which flourished in the 16th century, is based on the Byzantine one. The works of Greek-Byzantine composers make up most of the repertoire of the 16th century Moldavian manuscripts. The goal of the research is to compare the Greek repertoire of Moldavian and Ukrainian-Belarusian musical manuscripts and to define the peculiarities of its fixation in Middle Byzantine and Kyiv staff notations. Methodology. A comparative method of studying Greek-Byzantine, Moldavian and Ukrainian-Belarusian musical manuscripts is used. Scientific novelty. It has been found out that kalophonic works of Greek-Byzantine composers, written down in the Ukrainian and Belarusian staff-notated Heirmologia of the late 16th-18th centuries, are presented in the Moldavian Anthologies of the16th century. Also, in Ukrainian and Belarusian manuscripts, we managed to authorize the Greek-language Cherubic song of the plagal 1st mode of the out standing Moldavian composer Evstatie, the Protopsaltes of Putna (ca. †1546). Conclusions. The common Greek repertoire of Moldavian and Ukrainian Belarusian manuscripts, as well as the work of Evstatie, recorded in Ukrainian and Belarusian Heirmologia, testify to the direct connection of Moldavian and Ukrainian-Belarusian church chant traditions and prove that the 16th century Moldavian musical school became an intermediary in the involvement of Ukrainian singers in the Greek-Byzantine chant tradition and had a powerful influence on the development and renewal of Ukrainian and Belarusian church chant in the late 16th-17th centuries.

Keywords

• ukrainian-belarusian church chant tradition, moldavian church chant tradition, staff-notated heirmologia, moldavian musical anthologies, common greek repertoire, kalophonic chant, middle byzantine notation, kyiv notation, musical exegesis, evstatie, protopsaltes of the putna monastery.