Significance of the Russian Medieval Sacred Music for the Russian Musical Classics

Abstract

The article reveals the interdependence of the most important typological qualities of the Russian professional school — the epic beginning and broad melody and chant — with the development of sacred music of the Middle Ages and folklore. The epic style of the znamenny chant that prevailed in the early period (11th–14th centuries) in many aspects coincides with the bylin epic. At a later period of Muscovite Russia (15th–17th centuries) the melody of Junior edition of the znamenny chant and the development of new lengthy chants — putevoj, demestvennyj and bolshoj — led to recognition of the leading role of melodic beginning. Not earlier than the end of the 16th century this was manifested in folklore, in the genre of lyrical (drawl) songs. Russian Church singing shows that the medieval musical tradition, like the architectural, fresco, iconographic, and hymnographic traditions, preserved its aesthetic and value foundations in the styles of later epochs, forming a typology of musical thinking, the leading trends of the Russian school, and the national mentality. The role of the sacred music in Russian history should be assessed objectively.