On the Anhemitonics in the Tatar-Kryashen Church Chants

The Orthodox spiritual-singing tradition is quite a widespread phenomenon that is reflected in the culture of various peoples. In Russia it is customary to associate this tradition first of all with the Russian church chants. However, throughout several centuries, this practice occupies a prominent place in the culture of other peoples, particularly those that were Christianized in the expansion of the Russian Orthodox Church in XVI-XIX centuries in the Middle Volga region. These are the Chuvash, the Udmurt, the Mordva, the Mari, and the Tatar Kryashens. The process of exposure to the Orthodox singing tradition is common for all of the mentioned ethnic groups, yet each of them adopted this tradition in a different way, and new and unique singing traditions formed as a result. The present study explores the Church-singing tradition of the Tatar Kryashens, the only ethnic group of the Tatar peoples to practice orthodox faith. The research material is based on the samples of chants recorded by the author of this study from different ethno-territorial Kryashen communities at the beginning of the XXI century. Today, the Kryashen church-singing tradition is characterized by specific ethnic features and traits. The main factor to contribute to its unique character was the oral form in which songs were preserved. In turn it provided the framework within which the intoning of tropes was consistently corrected. This is how the rhythmic and intonational folk elements penetrated into the canonical chants. The main characteristic that vividly demonstrates the process of musical and stylistic renewal of the chants is their scale structure. The analysis of the large corpus of tunes recorded from the various ethno-territorial Kryashen communities demonstrates the performers' tendency towards converting diatonic elements to the an-hemitonic. Several types of scale modification can be outlined: 1) reducing the number of scale degrees as a result of eliminating a semi-tone sound; 2) replacing hemitonic sound combination by an-hemitonic sound row; 3) intonational renewal based on the avoidance of semi-tone movement by excluding the two neighboring scale degrees. Each of the modal renewal forms are supported by notated examples given in the article. Based on the performed analysis the author makes a conclusion of the natural penetration of the anhemitonic scale mentality that characterizes the poetic and musical style of the Kryashens, into the church singing tradition. The various forms this surfaces, prove of the scale and modal industriousness of the performers, who go for different ways of adapting the church chants to the musical model they have been used to, the one that has encompasses the ethnic group's folk singing tradition. As a result, the Kryashens come up with a unique singing tradition, which is part of the national culture, and that can be classified as the ethnic church singing.

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