DOI: 10.36871/hon.202204041
Authors
Yu. V. Moskva
Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, 121069, Russian Federation
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.
Keywords
Liturgical recitative, Epistolary book, first reading of the mass, melodic model, melodic formula, non-linear neumes, syntax
