Yerzaulova A. Singing culture in tradition of East Christian civilization

Peculiarity of singing culture and its role in tradition of East Christian civilization are revealed in the present thesis. Its form, purposes, problems and content are defined, the bases of its formation, its tendencies and correlatives are discovered. It is shown how the singing tradition differed from the musical culture of the New time and - what is most important - why ancient forms of spiritual and moral culture became essential presently. It is possible to preserve the East Christian world by a well-realized returning to tradition, to sacral bases that have always been and still remain the source of national being of the civilization. Our religious national originality consisting in orthodox values is opposed to the liberal project of globalization. The main differences of religious philosophical bases of the catholic West and the orthodox East cultures are revealed. Reference to the Byzantine heritage helps us to understand the bases of our being, without which any productive activity and reasonable realization of goal is impossible. The dispensable and essentially important element of East Christian tradition is singing culture, it expresses wealth and versatility of the national soul and is shown in different spheres and areas. Singing culture is characterized as a special form of arts that includes spiritual ascetic practice. The Byzantine system of octoechoes and its basic principle of strict melodic structure are fixed to the particular text and action, the melodism is strengthened by an intonation-articulation principle with a strict rhythm. Acoustic structures just accompany spiritual and mental processes occurring in a person's soul. The uniqueness of this phenomenon consisted in organic combination of prayer, text and melody. Aspiration to self-improvement is a natural feature of the person in many cultural epochs and communion with the great heritage of divine service singing culture is its vivid evidence.