ELEMENTS OF NEW BALKAN HYMNS OF THE ESTER CANON IN THE HYMNODY TRADITION OF THE TRANSCARPATHIAN REGION

Abstract

The article is dedicated to a comparison of Easter hymns of the Transcarpathian church-song collections Prostopiniye of 1906 by Bokshay-Malynych, Basilian Prostopiniye by p. Yoakym Thoma of 1930 and handwritten irmolohion of the end of XVI–XIX centuries. Through examination of various genres of Ukrainian Irmolohions he noticed significant changes in canon melodies, verses, feast Easter troparia, which took place from the XVII century to our times. In handwritten Irmolohions the musical Easter verses were recorded occasionally. There were records of certain canon hymns, verses of troparias or even just texts. Most examples notations of Easter hymns were observed in the late manuscripts of the XVI–XVII centuries, while in the following centuries, traced their oral statements in church singing practice. Nowadays because of the absence of some specific researches of musical texts of the Paschal Matins it is absolutely necessary to make a deeper researches of their characteristics, in particular, recorded in 1906 Prostopiniye by Bokshay-Malynych and Basilian Prostopiniyi of 1930 by p. Yoakym Thoma. According to our observations elements of musical texts of new balkan heritage are preserved in Easter hymns, which specific adaptation we are trying to show including problematics of researches of the song lyrics, basing on the principles of modal syncretic functional metrics and rhythm, scientifically proved by O. Tsalay-Yakimenko that’s what enables a deeper understanding of features and peculiarities of musical stylistics of the ancient forms in the regional church hymnody practice. For the sake of resolving the task of the comparative analysis we use examples taken from Lviv handwriting irmoloya of the end of the XVI century, Bulharian hymns handwritten irmolohion of the end of the XVI–XVII centuries, Kallistrat’s Osmohlasnyk of 1769, which is a unique sample of Ukrainian-Moldovan ecclesiastic musical bonds, Maniava irmolohion of 1675–76, Peremyszl irmolohion 1650–60, handwritten irmolohion of the XVII–XVII century from Trans-carpathian regional museum (inv. Number I-465), an old Lviv irmolohion of 1709, Hlaso-pisnets by I. Dolnytsky’s, Prostopiniya by Bokshay-Malynych (1906) and the Basilian Prosto-piniya by p. Yoakym Thoma (1930), which generally provides significant space of time sources and examples of hymns of irmoloy’s tradition. Let us briefly compare the examples of Heirmos of the first song of the Easter canon of Prosto-piniya Bokshay-Malynych and Lviv irmoloy of the end of the XVI century (LNB, MB 50). In the Easter canon of Prostopiniye of 1906 we can observe the usage of several typical melodic-rhythmic phrases in all Heirmos and tropars of each song, which is not observed in irmoloyi of the end of the XVI century. This way of writing music lyrics Paschal canon Prostopiniye shows a selection of church-song practice with simplified musical material, orientation to a narrow range at chanting texts. Nevertheless, comparing musical and poetical lines of Heirmos of the first songs from the both collections assures us in a saving of time proportions and the same way of performance in chanting of Prostopiniya and handwritten irmoloy of the end of the 16th century. Only a few chantings of Heirmos were preserved in Prostopiniyе – handwritten irmoloya of the end of the 16th century, the development of which is in range interval of fourth, while they have undergone certain part intonation and rhythmic changes which are well illustrated in the variant of chorus “Christ is risen from the dead“. The using of multiple models of hymns in Heirmos canons are pecularities of the church singing traditions reflected in Prostopiniyi, which is also confirmed by the musical material of the Easter Heirmos. These melodic phrases and their uses in Heirmos Easter canon can be seen in Hlasopisnets by Dolnytskyi. This collec-tion also demonstrates a number of explanations for the specific chantings of the separate texts on the basis of two or three “members” (pospivok) it is also mentioned here some completed features (cadences) chants, what generally reflects the general features of the practice monody song, recorded in the collections of the late XIX – early XX centuries. Comparing musical poetical lines of Heirmos of the 1st song of the Easter canon of Prosto-piniya with Kallistrat’s Osmohlasnyk of Moldavian monastery in Drahomirna (here recorded Heirmos and two troparians of the chorus and with the 1st song “Christ is risen from the dead” Easter canon and samples of the Paschal Troparion) also demonstrates almost identical metrorythmics at hemistich (basic metric fate – half and some differences in rithmic intonations. The same results were obtained by comparing the Easter troparion “Christ is risen from the dead” with Kallistrat’s Osmohlasnyk of the fifth voice and with the samples of Prostopiniye by Bokshay-Malynych and by Basilian Prostopiniye of 1930, Nevertheless there are differences in intonation and different rhythmic length fractions (half-, whole) meanwhile metric parameters of the hemistich are staying common. One of the characteristic features of the Bulgarian Easter troparion chanting is a combination of different types of presentation. Thus, with the dominance chanting character at the beginning of the melodies so the syllabic text “Christ, Christ is risen from the dead” is stretched, there is a certain weakening of the link between syllables of words, while these musical-poetical lines are available and syllabic elements of the melizmatyc presentation indicate a certain autonomy motives and their unity with the word. That initial motives, some syllabic rhythm-tone presentation (“from the dead”, “existent in tombs” Troparion Bulharian chantings Transcarpathian traditions preserved in songs and appear in Prostopiniyi by Bokshay-Malynych and in Basilian Prostopiniyi of 1930. There are a range of samples of chorus of the 9th song of the Easter canon “Anhel vopiyashe” (“The angel exclaimed to her…”) in the church-singing practice of Transcarpathia, which more or less is looking like the elements rhythm intonation samples of Bulharian chanting, irmolohion and collections of XIX – early XX centuries, choral works, such as “Angel vopiyashe” arranged by S. Lyudkevych. Relevant observations further reveal the importance of the research of problems of varieties of church hymns, in which melodies of ancient samples are interwoven in irmoloynoyi and oral traditions of choral compositions. They also indicate to the special practice of church singing in the early XX century, which was also pointed by a prominent Ukrainian composer Ljudke-vych. Thus, this comparison researches confirm the close relationship of the local chanting tradition with modern balkan heritage. It is also considered that religious and community leaders took part in the process of renovation and this way monastery cells of Mukachiv diocese also played an important roles. Well educated monks took their service in Mukachiv monastery and such a way handwritten and printed books and recordings appeared in the monastery library, including irmolohion. Fact conservation in regional church song metric practice, time parameters hemistich, scale forms, some metrical patterns, typical Easter semi new balkan heritage addition proves sustainability standards of temporal measuring metrics as an important basis of word and music in shaping monody, and taking into account the significant melodically- update rhythmic musical text of ancient, archaic forms half.