FEATURES OF THE EDITIONS OF GREEK AND SLAVIC MUSIC MANUSCRIPTS OF THE MONUMENTA MUSICAE BYZANTINAE SERIES

Abstract

The historical and cultural heritage of medieval European culture still requires attention and research. It is important to turn to the Byzantine heritage, as its traditions were adopted by Ukrainians' ancestors and are still preserved in Ukrainian sources today.The purpose of this publication is to follow the successful example of deciphering and reproducing forgotten texts. These texts are monuments of Byzantine musical art. They are in the MMB (Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae) series of publications. This series was founded by the Danish linguist and philologist Carsten Hug. In the 1930s, the Danish Academy in Copenhagen was an important scientific center of Byzantology, with the participation of the Faculty of Theology and the Institute of Church History. Therefore, the establishment of the MMB series there was quite logical.The series's strength lies in its structure. The areas of research are divided into the following groups: Principalis (facsimile editions of illegible musical manuscripts); Subsidia (research); Transcripta (transcriptions of illegible notation); Lectionaria (readings of prophetology); and Corpus Scriptorum de Re Musica (musical treatises). This sequence and systematization of research is key to thoroughly understanding ancient heritage using a well-developed methodology, and it is a good model to follow. Therefore, reviewing this series reveals a research methodology consisting of well-developed tasks and methods, such as observation, comparison, analysis, synthesis, and historical and cultural analysis.Of particular importance is the use of the research base of musical paleography, manuscript description, dating, textology, codicology, source studies. The comprehensive approach ensured a high level of publication of ancient sources of liturgical sung books: the Greek Irmologion, Sticherarion, Triod’, Kontakion, the Slavic Kontakion (Uspensky), Irmologion and Sticherarion (fragments of the Hilandar manuscripts), Greek theoretical treatises of the 13th-14th centuries (Gabriel Hieromonachos, The Treatise Of Manuel Chrysaphes The Lampadarios, Hieronymos Tragodistes, Anonymous Questions And Answers On The Interval Signs, Die Eratopokriseis Des Pseudo-Johannes Damaskenos Zum Kirchengesang, Der Traktat Des Akakios Chalkeopoulos), transcriptions of hymns of the Sticherarion (September, November), hymns of the Octoechos, the Irmologion, the Akathist hymns. Each study also examines the history of liturgical genres, tells about the creators of hymns, establishes the figures of copyists, authors of sources. Among the authors of the publications in this series are Danish, Italian, German, American and Bulgarian scientists: E. Wellesz, G. Tillyard, C. Høeg, L. Tardo, R. Palikarova-Verdey, M. Velimirović, R. Jakobson, A. Bugge, Ch. Hannick, O. Strunk, J. Raasted, Ch. Thodberg, L. Peria, E. Follieri, M. Szydlowski, G. Wolfram, K. Troelsgård.The reader is offered an overview of the contents of the MMV series, the history of its creation, the search methodology, and the authors' experience of working with Greek and Old Slavonic monuments of Byzantine hymnography.