Psalm 136 Nad rzekami Babilonu we wschodniosłowiańskiej monodii liturgicznej dawnej Rzeczpospolitej na przykładzie wybranych irmologionów XVI–XVII w.

Abstrakt

The article is a continuation of many years of research conducted by the author on the East Slavic monodic liturgical chant and musical writing of the former Republic of Poland. The work focuses on one of the greatest phenomena of East Slavic compositional art, which is the old Ruthenian monodic melodies of Psalm 136 By the Rivers of Babylon. Based on the selected variants of Psalm 136 taken from the best known West Ruthenian songbooks, i.e., irmologions, the author has attempted to outline the direction of the development of liturgical chant in the territories of the former Republic of Poland. Liturgical chant in these territories was characterised by an exceptional variety of forms where, in addition to the basic znamenny chant, Psalm 136 also occurred in melismatic compositions in the form of a demestvenny chant. On the example of the 16^th-century manuscripts written in neumatic notation, the author refutes the theses of Russian scholars stating that the demestvenny chant is a creation which has clearly originated in Moscow. Finally, the author attempts to answer the question regarding the extent to which the 16^th-century practice of performing Psalm 136 continued in the 18^th-century printed irmologions, starting with the Lviv edition of 1700.