MUSICAL NOTATION OF THE LITURGICAL RECITATIVE (on the example of the Latin manuscript Epistolary from the Russian State Library)

Abstract

It is known that the liturgical recitative is performed according to certain melodic models (the so-called tones), conforming to the syntax of the text. Each melodic model consists of the following melodic elements: the main sound with which most of the text is sung, cadence formulas marking the completion of the entire chant and the end of phrases, as well as initial formulas for the beginning of the whole recitative and separate sentences and phrases (intonation and reintonation). Due to its formulaic nature, the melodies of the liturgical recitative are not usually fixed in liturgical books: the singers will easily perform the recitative using a small number of melodic formulas, previously learned in accordance with the syntax of the text. At the same time, the performance of the liturgical recitative varies somewhat from one musical and liturgical tradition to another. In some written sources, the liturgical recitative still receives musical notation, complete or partial (discrete). The varying degree of detail in the music recording allows the melody to be restored more or less accurately. Our focus is on discrete non–linear musical notation, which, in combination with grammatical punctuation marks, allows us to restore the recitative's melody quite accurately. This is possible only with a very well developed punctuation system, which is somewhat different from the modern one and focuses on marking syntactic units of different levels. Such notation can generally be called hybrid — non-alternating-prosodic notation. We propose to demonstrate all this by the example of a handwritten Epistolary (a liturgical book containing the first readings of the mass) from the beginning of the XVIth century from the Russian State Library in Moscow. This unique monument of culture as well as book and church-singing art, which has an accurate attribution of time and place of origin, is in excellent preservation. On the one hand, this manuscript represents a regional tradition of singing liturgical readings, on the other hand, it accumulates the general principles of the written transmission of the Latin liturgical recitative.