Евангельская стихира 9, глас пятый (конец XVII века)

[@blaisecompton3442]

The sheer energy of this inspires me - as with almost all of the material you have so kindly shared, I find it impressive and enjoyable - could you please provide a little information as to the source, and the text? I'd be so grateful ...

[@takhonov]

Sure. It's the 9th of 11 gospel stichera. Each sticheron of this kind reflects on a certain reading from the Gospels (scene at the Christ's tomb, different occasions on which Christ communicated to his disciples after the Resurrection, Ascension). This one is about the scene described in John 20, when Jesus appeared in the room where the disciples had locked themselves out. It reads: "As at the End of the days, You appeared to Your friends, o Christ, and by this miracle - by passing through the locked doors - You stated Your Resurrection from the dead. And thus You filled You disciples with joy, sent the Holy Spirit upon them, gave them power to release sins, and didn't let Thomas to submerge into waters of his disbelief. So give us too the true knowledge and redemption of our sins, o merciful Lord!" These stichera are always sung at specific modes (echos/voices) and there is a set of melodic lines associated with each of them. This particular musical setting is from the last half of XVII century and represents a very recognizable style called "partes harmonization of znamenny chant" by the researchers. Here the chant is placed in tenor and all three other parts provide harmonical support and ornamentation. Harmonizations of this kind were in liturgical use in different rich monasteries (and other cultural centers) across central Russia around mid-XVII - mid XVIII and coexisted to some extent with another type of "partes" music, much more western-like and polyphonic. This set of stichera originates from Nil Stolbensky's monastery. It was transcribed, edited and published by Lada Kondrashkova in 2012 and performed by the Chronos Ensemble. If you like this kind of music you can check their channel: kzbin.info/door/rrWFuo-zMbVXGronlsjuaQ

[@blaisecompton3442]

@@takhonov Thank you so much! The comment I made on this goes for all the other pieces in the set: amazing energy!, especially in the bass part! I can see a few "forbidden" progressions, but so what! Some early North American music - from Billings and Bull to Ananias Davisson - affects me in the same way: something natural and unstudied! And the harmonies seem to fit the tenor melody like a glove: I wish I could fit parts together like this:! Can you recommend any source of facsimiles? I'd love to study the original notation. Are the pieces transposed? God bless, Blaise Compton

[@takhonov]

​@@blaisecompton3442 Alas, I don't think facsimiles of this set are available. It' doesn't look like the museum's ever bothered to scan the manuscript. But if you are curious to see what old Russian notation looked like you can browse through the collection of Russian national library (nlr.ru), they have a number of their item scanned. nlr.ru/manuscripts/RA1527/elektronnyiy-katalog?ab=82F1BA80-1ABF-4FB5-966F-82DA63D1071B For example, here you can see a late-17 century book of liturgical pieces, up to 3 voices, notated with old russian neumes ("hooks", "signs"). As for the stichera set we're discussing here, the editor writes in the preface that it is notated with "square" notation (much more comprehensible style, virtually replicating western mensural notation). You can find examples of this notation in this book, which contains pieces written both with "squares" and with "hooks" and seems to serve didactic purposes. nlr.ru/manuscripts/RA1527/elektronnyiy-katalog?ab=C84A7E5B-C9E3-48A7-AEA7-9131C466B5C9 As for transposition - yes, I had to transpose the pieces to fit the performance, and I think they're supposed to be transposed since they're just too high as they are. In the source three upper voices are said to be written in C-clefs and the bass part regularly hits F4

[@blaisecompton3442]

@@takhonov Once again, thank you very much! I used to direct Solesmes plainsong in a small London traditionalist church: sometimes I met people who INSISTED that a written D meant D as found on a piano and disapproved of transposition, even if it made decent performance possible - and I once met a man who insisted that everything had to be performed as if God Himself had fixed middle C as a cosmic constant - and that after that everything had to be performed in STRICT Pythagorean tuning. This is of course all nonsense! ... I look forward to encountering soime of the Russian scans ...when working at the BBC I came across a printed set of parts of some of the first orchestral symphonies printed in Russia - I was amazed at the elegance of the engraving. I was able to borrow (from a Russian source) the manual by Diletski. I shall be interested to see whether the notation you have introduced me to is related to pre-Solesmes chant notation ...yours with great gratitude, BC