The Old Believer Singing Books of Znamenny Notation in the Funds of Tomsk Regional Museum of Local History named after M.B. Schatilov and its affiliates

The article presents the results of cameral researches of the book funds of Tomsk Regional Museum of Local History named after M.B.Shatilov and its affiliates carried out by specialists from Tomsk and Novosibirsk under the grant of Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation №16-11-70601. Five monuments of musical culture of the XVIIIth - the XXth centuries previously unknown for the scholars - three manuscripts, one hectograph and one lithographed edition - were identified in the course of work. They represent liturgical singing books of Znamenny notation relating to the Old Believer tradition. The use of "hook" singing books in Tomsk oblast is conditioned by wide distribution of different Old Believer groups in the area. The earliest of these book monuments are a manuscript Octoechos from the head museum and a convolute from Kolpashevo branch. They are both created in the last third of the XVIIIth century but demonstrate different Old Believer traditions - Bespopovtsy (Pomorians) and Popovtsy. These traditions differ in the versions of hymnographic text, the type of book decor, important elements of Znamenny notation. The Pomorian manuscript, according to the owner's note, was kept in Pomorian "ligovskaya" community in Saint-Petersburg. It came into the museum within the Nifantovs' library. The convolute from Kolpashevo branch judging by a number of palaeographical features was rewritten in Ural or Siberia what makes the manuscript especially valuable for the study of history of Old Believer singing culture in this region. The singing manuscript of the end of the XIXth - the beginning of the XXth century (Tomsk Regional Museum of Local History, Tiunov's collection) is of great scientific value. It is a compilation of two musical theoretical manuals containing unique educational materials which did not previously attract the attention of researchers. Another singing book from the funds of the head museum is Irmos, the hectographed edition published, as it was established, in Belokrinitsky printing-house of "The Fraternity of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross". Thus, this copy has widened the short list of known singing editions of this printing-house. The study of the content of owners' notes in the hectograph and the abovementioned manuscript handbook allowed establishing that both books came from Belokrinichniki Old Believer nunnery existed in Tomsk-Chulymsk taiga up to the 1930s. The lithographed edition of Octoechos from Kolpashevo Museum also belongs to Old Believers of Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy; it is the third edition of this book printed in Kiev in 1912. A few singing books kept in Tomsk Regional Museum of Local History and its affiliates are of significant scientific interest. Some of them can become the object of a particular independent study.

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