Zakharina Nina

Notation of sticheron Blagovestvuet Gavriil

Abstract

The sticheron for the Annunciation Blagovestvuet Gavriil (Church Slavonic Благовествует Гавриил ‘Gabriel Announceth’) has been preserved in Old Russian notated manuscripts of the mid-15th century (previously, it existed without notation). The text is a translation of the Byzantine sticheron E´αγγελίζεται Γαβριήλ, but the chant is diff erent. The copies of the mid-15th — early 16th centuries are notatied in an unknown notation of the palaiobyzantine type (probably Chartres). In chant manuscripts of the 16th century Znamennaya notation is used, the hook line consists completely of litsa. Probably, the shape of litsa implied variability of writing. In copies of the 17th century, the litsa are almost always given as a split znamya. Several versions of the chants are being created, each of them is marked with a remark about a local or an author’s chant. Most Old Russian church chants have gone through the same stages, but the sticheron Blagovestvuet Gavriil shows some unique features. All changes of the musical text occur non-synchronically with commonly known versions of books of singing. The unique chant and unknown notation of the early copies were infl uenced by Znamenny chant and Znamennaya notation in the later copies.

Keywords

Znamennaya notation, palaiobyzantine notation, Chartres notation, neumatic notation, Znamenny chant, stichera, hook line, litsa, methods of combinatorial analysis

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Information about the author

Zakharina Nina

Academic Degree: Doctor of Sciences* in Art Criticism;
Place of work: St. Petersburg State Conservatory; 3 Teatral’naya Sq., St. Petersburg 190000, Russian Federation;
ORCID: 0000-0001-9511-7794;
Email: zakharina@rambler.ru.

*According to ISCED 2011, a post-doctoral degree called Doctor of Sciences (D.Sc.) is given to reflect second advanced research qualifications or higher doctorates.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) grant № 17-34-00023 (Monodic hymns to the Mother of God on the Great Feasts of the 11th-17th centuries: Greek-Slavonic parallels). I thank I.Geraimova for provided materials.