История церковной музыки через призму деятельности украино-белорусских митрополитов и епископов XVII века

The history of church music seen through the activities of Ukrainian-Belorussian metropolitans and bishops in the seventeenth century

Authors

• Ivan Kuzminskyi

Keywords:

chanters, musical cappella, musical instruments, partes singing, choral singing, monophonic singing, Irmologion

Abstract

There are topics and questions that continue to intrigue researchers of Ukrainian and Belorussian music. One of these is the personal contribution of metropolitans and bishops to the musical practice of the Uniate and Orthodox Churches of Ukraine and Belorussia in the early modern era. Research on this topic is directly connected to one of the key questions in Ukrainian and Belorussian musical historiography – the ways and means of the reception of Western European music. The contributions of hierarchs differed considerably. Some introduced profound changes into musical practice, while others were more conservative and simply followed the customs and traditions of the time; some built on the achievements of their predecessors, while others showed little interest in chant and music; some had a taste only for church music, while others also paid attention to secular music; some were drawn to Roman Catholic musical practice,while others tried to preserve the originality and distinctiveness of Orthodox practice; some actively allowed the use of musical instruments in the church, while others, more reluctantly, had to accommodate them. In the end, all representatives of the Kievan Church, both Orthodox and Uniate, could do little to fence themselves off from the influence of European culture. For this reason, their activities show signs of Western (Roman Catholic and Protestant) practice, both secular and liturgical.