MUSICAL DRAMA OF THE ANTIPHON SERIES "GOD IS THE LORD"

Abstract

One of the Christian rite key features is a perfect drama that combines various aspects of a liturgical artistic expression, and the basis of the liturgical rite is the songs demonstrating the continuity of the tradition. This model is a series of antiphons "God is the Lord" performed in the after fast period and is a special link between a constant (six-psalmiya) and a variable (kathisma) psalmact of the matins. The chant "God is the Lord" consists of the selected verses of Psalm 117 (27a and 26a), which in a short form convey the theological essence of Resurrection: God the Lord came down to us, blessed is he that comes in the name of God. Later the importance of these antiphons in the service of the Ukrainian Church is emphasized with fixing in each manuscripted and printed irmologion. God is the Lord from Lyubachivsky irmologion of 1674, which is kept in the L’viv History Museum, shows a complete musical and poetic structure that consists of four phrases which are grouped into two sentences. The increase in each subsequent phrase is noticeable and it can be represented in the form of spreading from the tree-sound song to the expanded motive. In terms of time the gradual increase in the number of individual fractions in each of the following phrases, which increases their initial amount twice in the final words in the name of the Lord, is noticeable. The syncope that shifted the focus of the literary text in the first and fourth sentences gives the special dynamic to chant "God is the Lord". This rhythmic form follows the logic of the musical structure of the Greek text. Analytical observations on the genre God is the Lord reveal the important features of melodic and rhythmic structures that jointly balance and emphasize the liturgical meaning of the text. On this basis the perfect drama of the general form development, based on the intonation level associated with the Greek basis, which says about preserving the ancient Christian rituals layer in the samples of the Ukrainian sacred monody. In this way, not only the interaction of the individual form elements, but also the wider compositional context immersed in the liturgical dimension of Christian worship are seen.