“Whilst travelling on foot across the depths of the sea as if upon dry land, Israel”: Sunday heirmoi of the 6th tone in manuscripts of the 17th — 18th centuries and the present-day singing practice

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the history of the written form of the well-known church tune – the heirmoi of the Sunday canon of the 6th tone, from the manuscripts of XVII-XVIII centuries until present-day publications of the tune. While comparing different sources of this tune, differences in its variants were discovered, it was shown how the tune changed over time, as it was in different regions in the same time period – i.e., synchronic and diachronic methods of research were used in the study. For clarity, an analytical score of the heirmos of the first song of the canon was compiled, in which the similarities and differences of the tunes are visible, the tendency to reduce the melody of the tune over time. It is noteworthy that the chant has retained some similarity of variants in sources of different types: these are handwritten singing Obikhods, written in znamenny notation, and notolinear Irmologions that came from the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands; Synodal publications of Obikhod and the Octoechos of two editions: 1772 and 1890s, four-part singing editions of the early twentieth century and the present-day sources. In the reduced version of the melody of the znamenny chant, several melodic formulas have been preserved, which sound in a polyphonic presentation. The revealed similarity of the components of the chant in the sources of different times and localities allows us to speak about the continuity of the Orthodox liturgical singing tradition.