Biography
Greek missionaries brought Christianity to Russia in the tenth century; along with them came monophonic Byzantine chant. Although the texts were soon translated into Slavonic, the music long adhered to Byzantine traditions, at the hands of extremely conservative copyists. Unfortunately, the Byzantine notation in use at the turn of the millennium was quite vague; it suggested the intervals between notes, but not their precise pitch. In practice, the hymns in Russia was transmitted orally from one generation to the next, and within a few hundred years the actual sung music had little if any relation to the notation. (Elsewhere, Byzantine notation had evolved into something more precise and useful, but it was not employed in Russia.) Reform became essential by the fifteenth century, and there developed new codification and mostly Slavonic terms for the neumes. The term "sign notation," or znamennaya notatsiya, came into use. The overall practice became known as "chanting by signs," or znamennïy raspev, which in English is mercifully simplified as "znamenny chant."Despite great efforts, the terminology was not truly standardized, and differences among the 40-some surviving "azbuki" or alphabet books from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries categorizing the neumes have given musicologists fits. Nevertheless, this monophonic chant continued to flourish in Russia; even Ivan the Terrible, who ruled from 1533 to 1584, is credited as the composer of at least two hymns. By the end of the sixteenth century, however, the availability of more highly trained singers began the displacement of znamenny chant by a more complex, melismatic style called demestvenny chant. Even before this, though, the hymns displayed characteristics that would come to be considered especially Russian: extended range and wide melodic leaps. Polyphony did not even begin to be taken seriously in Russia until late in the seventeenth century, and such reform was long opposed by traditionalists. These so-called Old Believers managed, despite change in Russia, to preserve monohonic, unison singing well into the twentieth century, mainly in exile in North America. ~ James Reel, All Music Guide
