The Theoretical Codex of the Mid-17th Century as a Phenomenon of Church-Singing Art

Abstract

The first musical-theoretical manuals of ancient Russia appeared in the 15th century. They were rather small in volume and contained information that was predominantly educational. The changes that were taking place in the singing system over several centuries were reflected in new types of manuals, conveying the peculiarities of the singing art (znamenny chant) of the time. By the middle of the 17th century, the codices began to occupy a significant place in manuscripts, which contained monuments of Russian liturgical singing. They were large-scale consolidated documents, including a selection of relatively independent musical-theoretical manuals, each of which revealed a separate aspect in the theory of znamenny chant, carried out according to special musical signs — kriuki (hooks). The tradition of handwritten copying of documents contributed to the fact that each type of theoretical manual was simultaneously in many copies that never matched the text with absolute accuracy and always contained discrepancies. The codex, analysed in this article, in the mid-17th century manuscript of V. F. Odoevsky’s Collection No. 1, which is kept in the Russian State Library, is a set of numerous copies of different theoretical manuals that were formatted by that time. These are the notable azbuka (ABC) that explain individual neums; kokizniki and fitniki, expounding upon the principles of formula singing; manuals that reveal the sound-naming system, as well as a meaningful layer of author’s comments that interpret and generalizing material for educational purposes.