Carpatho-Ruthenian
Plain Chant
Dr. Stephen Reynolds
The
following notes by Dr. Stephen Reynolds, an eminant Slavic-chant
musicologist, were included with the American distribution of the set
of recordings, Carpatho-Ruthenian
Plain Chant,
and are reprinted here with the author's permission, followed by the US
distributor's summary.
Cultural richness and diversity have long been characteristic of the Eastern Europe, but it is only in recent years that large numbers of people in the West have become aware of the region. One culture that still remains largely unknown is that of the Carpatho-Ruthenians, a people inhabiting territories that today are located in northeastern Czechoslovakia and in the Transcarpathion Oblast' of the Soviet Union. For centuries, the Carpatho-Ruthenians (also called Rusyns, Carpatho-Russians, Carpatho-Ukrainians, Hungarian Russians) were distinguished from neighboring peoples to the south and west by the religious affiliation, with at various times was Eastern Orthodox and/or Byzantine-rite (Greek-Rite or Uniate) Catholic.
The prostopinie is a system of liturgical plain chant designed to accompany the texts of the Byzantine-Slavonic rite; its intoxicating beauty has made it one of the greatest achievements of Carpath-Ruthenian culture. The development of the prostopiniehas been conditioned by historical forces whose importance for Slavonic chant is only now becoming recognized.
After the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century, two powerful states extended their rule over most of the eastern Slavs: the Grand Duchy of Moscow came to dominate the northern and eastern Rus' principalities (including Novgorod), while the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (after 1569, the Kingdom of Poland) ruled those to the south and west. The Great Russians, living under Muscovite rule, adhered to the Orthodox Church. They had an independent church administration from 1448 and had their own Patriarch beginning in 1589. Until 1652, this Church steadfastly resisted most foreign cultural influences, especially in matters pertaining to the liturgy and chant. The Ruthenians (the ancestors of the modern Ukrainians and Byelorussians) who lived in Poland-Lithuania remained under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. In 1596, however, many Ruthenian bishops transferred their allegiance to the Pope in Rome, and from time to the present Ruthenians have been divided between the Byzantine Catholic (Uniate) Church and the Orthodox Church.
As a result of the different cultural and political conditions between Great Russians and Ruthenians, there arose two traditions of chant. The "Muscovite" tradtion was until 1652 based almost exclusively on the older monodic (one voice) chant tradition of Novgorod. The "Ruthenian" tradition had at its core a very similar body of monodic chant from Kiev, but during the sixteenth century it began to accept new elements from the Byzantine-rite chant of the Balkans, and also to adopt composed polyphonic choral music of western inspiration. After 1652, the Orthodox Church in Muscovite Russia also incorporated these innovations, learning them from the many Ukrainian and Byelorussian singers and teachers who settled in Muscovy. Only the Muscovite Old Believers rejected all changes; down to the present day they have retained the old Russian chant and use no other. On the other hand, the state church gradually lost most of the original chants, although it retained in a watered-down form the melodies learned from the Ruthenians. These later versions, together with choral compositions, dominate Russian choral singing today, while the Ruthenians, who provided the initial stimulus for change, have succeeded in retaining much of the older monodic chant.
The Carpatho-Ruthenians, living in a remote, mountainous area of the Kingdom of Hungary, were very late in developing choral part-singing. Rather, they maintained a system of monodic chant, similar in its broad outlines to the other local varieties of Ruthenian chant, but adapted to the particular tastes and folk-song tradition of Carpatho-Ruthenia.
In general, Byzantine-Slavonic chant includes two classes of melodies: those that are governed by a system of eight hlasy (8 tones or 8 modes), and those that are not. The Carpatho-Ruthenian 8-hlas melodies consist basically of three elements: 1) the greater znamennyi chant; 2) the "Kiev" chant; and 3) the "Bulgarian" chant.
1) The greater znamennyi chant is the basis of the traditional east-Slavic monodic chant, originally used by the Russians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians. It is the oldest element in the prostopinie, and provides the melodies for most of the irmosy (stanzas based on Biblical canticles sung at Matins) and for some other chant texts. The name znamennyi chant, referring to the older neumatic notation, appears to have fallen out of use in the Ruthenian territories around 1600, when staff notation began to be used.
2) Some melodies related to the greater znamennyi chant, but simpler in form, arose in the Muscovite tradition and came to be known as the lesser znamennyi chant. Similar Ruthenian melodies, which had no particular name, came to be known in Moscow as "Kiev" chant when Kievan cantors introduced them in the 1650's. These melodies are used for several sorts of texts: the stikhiry samohlasnyia (stanzas sung together with Psalm verses at Vespers and Matins), prokimni (selected Psalm verses, corresponding to the "little responsories" of the Roman Rite, sung in various services), and stikhiry podobnyia (special melodies appointed instead of the samohlasentones for certain texts). The Carpatho-Ruthenian melodies in the "Kiev chant" category differ noticeably from those in Galician-Volynian sources and even more from those in Muscovite sources.
3) Some time before 1600, the Ruthenian tradition adopted "Bulgarian" melodies for the troparia and kontakia(short stanzas sung uin various services) and for the s'idalny (tropariasung after the Psalms at Matins, corresponding to the Roman "great responsories"). Since the stikhiry were already provided for, the Bulgarian stikhira tones were largely forgotten, although one set was adopted for special uses such as funerals. The prostopinieusually employs simple "lesser Bulgarian" melodies. Nonetheless, some of the more elaborate "greater Bulgarian" melodies are still used, but only the so-called Bolhar stikhira melodies are specifically identified as Bulgarian chant.
In the Carpatho-Ruthenian prostopinie, there are also a few 8-hlas melodies of unknown origin.
Those melodies not governed by the 8-hlas system include some that can be identified as znamennyi, Kiev, or Bulgarian chant. For example, Carpatho-Ruthenian manuscripts (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) sometimes included chants for the unchanging parts of the Liturgy under the name "Liturgiia kievska" while a "bokharskii prip'iv" is sung at matins of feasts. In addition to these, there are many melodies of comparatively recent origin that have a metrically regular, song-line structure and that frequently repeat words or phrases of the text. These melodies often have a more western and/or folksong-like character; some of them originally accompanied paraliturgical metrical hymns. Such melodies are applied to more lengthy texts that are sung without variation through most of the year.
The diverse elements that make up the prostopinie (and related varieties of Ruthenian chant) are organized into a coordinated system. The singing is led by a cantor (d'iak), while the entire congregation joins in singing the better-known texts. Although the chant is essentially monodic, an informal harmonization is achieved by employing parallel thirds, a custom that has encouraged the development of melodic variants with different tonalities.
Since organized choirs were rare in Carpatho-Ruthenia, the hard, rather nasal voice quality of peasant folk singing was naturally applied to the chant. This feature, as well as the old-fashioned method of treating the text (producing so-called "incorrect accents"), seems disconcerting to ears used to "full-throated" Russian choral singing, so that in America the traditional chant and other local practices are often suppressed in those Carpatho-Ruthenian (and Galician) parishes that are under the jurisdiction of Great-Russian prelates. On the other hand, Carpatho-Ruthenian bishops, both Byzantine-Rite Catholic amd Orthodox, have encouraged a balance between composed choir music and the prostopinie.
Because conditions in Eastern Europe do not favor the cultivation or study of the prostopinie, it is currently in America that this spiritually and esthetically uplifting art form must be preserved. Moreover, in this country there is a continual need for training new cantors, and for a conscientious celebration of Byzantine-Slavonic worship services. The appearance of these recordings should be an important step in fulfilling these goals.
Stephen R. ReynoldsProduced by Pavel Maču
Jacket design by Miloš Janovsky
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