Stifling Creativity: Problems Born out of the Promulgation of the 1906 Tserkovnoje Prostopinije

Authors

• Fr Silouan Sloan Rolando

Keywords:

Prostopinije, prostopenie, Carpatho-Rusyn, composition

Abstract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Greek Catholic Bishop of the city of Mukachevo in what is now Ukraine promulgated an anthology of Carpatho-Rusyn chant known as the Церковноє Простопѣніє (hereafter, the Prostopinije) or Ecclesiastical Plainchant.  While this book follows in the tradition of printed Irmologia found throughout the Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches of Byelorus’, Ukraine, and Russia starting in the sixteenth century, this book presents us with a number of issues that affect the quality and usability of this chant in both its homeland and abroad as well as in the original language, Old Church Slavonic, and in modern languages such as Ukrainian, Hungarian, and English.  Assuming that creativity is more than just producing new music out of thin air, the problems revealed in the Prostopinije can be a starting point to better understand how creativity can be unintentionally stifled and what can be done to overcome these particular obstacles.