The dissertation is complex research in which the reformation currents and their influence on the introduction of polyphonic music in the Ukrainian spiritual culture are considered.This process later created the conditions for the formation of the Kyiv notation, which absorbed the basics of choral and mensural notation and partially preserved certain elements of the square neumatic notation.
Historical and socio-cultural factors of the Ukrainian spiritual literature flourishing in the 16th–17th centuries are revealed. During this period, Western European secular and spiritual literature was actively spread.These works were adapted in the Ukrainian-speaking environment and later there were their own adaptations and editions of these publications.In the absence of a single spiritual center in the country, regional spiritual centers were formed, which led to the variability of liturgical genres.An important place among them was occupied by manuscript church-singing books of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The author developed a chronology of the Ukrainian church-singing collections’ evolution from the 11th to the middle of the 17th century by types of notation from ecphonetic and neumatic to line staff notation.Indicated time frames in this periodization reflect the active phases of each notation’s use in the musical culture of the Ukrainian people.
The author carried out a decipherment and comparative analysis of neumes and fitas signs from the singing alphabets of the 16th–17th centuries.Paleographic analysis of the singing alphabets made it possible to identify certain patterns, find common features and differences with other singing alphabets.During the research, characteristic features were identified in the formation of singing alphabets.In the process of the research, neume signs were divided into four groups: the first group is signs that have no varieties; the second – those that have several varieties; the third – those that have their own specific groups; the fourth – consists of groups and subgroups.Each of these groups has compound characters, which are formed from their union with the addition of special marks and pointing signs. Analysis of cinnabar pitch pointing signs in the singing alphabets made it possible to identify two main groups of neumatic signs.The first group includes neumatic signs that have pitch pointers of one pitch group. The second group includes neumatic signs, which include cinnabar pitch pointing signs from different pitch groups and, accordingly, have a wider range of sound.
Foreign and Ukrainian music-theoretical treatises of the 15th–17th centuries, which were distributed on Ukrainian territory, have been analyzed. Theoretical treatises had two types: someof them were a kind of multiauthored collection of music knowledge, others concerned special issues.The attention of music theorists was focused on two main groups of issues: the genesis, definition and classification of music and the educational and ethical role of music. In their treatises, Polish and Western Ukrainian theorists tried to adapt European innovations to their ancient musical foundations.The main theoretical and practical issues included mensural notation and the theory of counterpoint. It has been established that these manuscripts and printed theoretical treatises were closely connected with their practical use in the secular and spiritual life of society. Many of the theoretical treatises became textbooks, which were used during training, primarily in educational theological institutions.The periodization of the polyphonic music distribution in Ukraine has been proposed. Three periods have been identified: the first is acquaintance with Western European polyphonic singing due to the spread of reformation currents; the second is the popularization of polyphonic music by secular chapels and Protestant schools and churches; the third period was the introduction of polyphonic singing in Orthodox worship by church fraternities with the support of the Eastern patriarchs.The biographies of Ukrainian singers, composers and theorists of polyphonic music have been researched and supplemented. The author managed to gather scattered information and testimonies and add new facts to the biographies of singers, composers and theorists of polyphonic singing. A list of Ukrainian singers, composers and theorists who introduced polyphonic music and Kyiv notation on Ukrainian soil and in Muscovy was found and compiled from ancient manuscripts and royal charters.
Keywords: polyphonic music, reformation, musical treatises, notation, musical chapels, church-singing collections, church fraternities, singing alphabets.
