Other Early Chant Systems

'Usol'e master singing' (Usol'skoe masteropenie)

--- In podoben@yahoogroups.com, "stephen_r1937" <stephen.r@l...> wrote:
> Recalling that even in old Muscovy before the introduction of staff
> notation there were divergent local or regional interpretations of
> various neumes (Usole in the Urals had its own school of chant that
> differed somewhat in its interpretation from Moscow, for example0,
> it is not surprising that the same should be true of the western
> regions.

I have heard about the Usole tradition only in passing, but I have not heard anything specific about it. Does anyone have any more information, or know where on the web I can learn more?

Kazan also had its own variation of Znamenny singing, with a variant style of neumatic notation. It has long ago disappeared, but there are a few primers that explain the notation. Someday I hope to see more research being done in this field, so that manuscripts of the Kazan variety can be transcribed and made available. Put' Chant, another variety, is already well documented, and some of its melodies are in the Synodal Obikhod.

Nikita

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Gardner, on page 263 of the second volume of Russian Church Singing: "Stefan Golysh was the creator of what came to be known as 'Usol'e master singing' (Usol'skoe masteropenie), a local, eastern Russian variant of znamenny chant, native to the Ural Mountain region. The Usol'e chant in some cases had its own interpretation of certain musical neumes that was similar, but not identical, to the meaning of these neumes in the Muscovite school of chant."

Unfortunately, he gives no reference. I have not found anything on the web either. Somewhere, long ago, I saw an example or two of the divergent interpretations of this school. It sounds like something that might turn up in Razumovsky, but I don't have the reference.

Stephen

ПАРФЕНТЬЕВА Наталья Владимировна - ТВОРЧЕСТВО МАСТЕРОВ ДРЕВНЕРУССКОГО ПЕВЧЕСКОГО ИСКУССТВА XVI—XVII ВВ. [ARCHIVE]