Two canticles of the Poltava Cycle in the Vygoleksinsky manuscript miscellany from the collection of Academician M.N. Tikhomirov housed at the SPSTL SB RAS

A considerable body of philological and musicological literature exists concerning the thematic elements of panegyric canticles composed during the Petrine era. The reason for this paper to address the subject concerned is the discovery of two samples of this genre in an Old Believer miscellany of spiritual poems from the collection of Academician Tikhomirov (GPNTB SB RAS) written in znamennaya notation. The study aims to establish the methods for adapting the musical form of the genre of Russian New Age music to terms of a more archaic monodic musical system. The study revealed that the manuscript of spiritual poems belongs to the Vygoleksinskaya School of book writing. The composition of the miscellany is similar to the typical one, featuring three canticles dedicated to the Russian-Swedish Wars, with two being part of a series celebrating the Poltava victory. Textual analysis indicates a significant degree of consistency within the poetic text, which adheres to syllabic versification and integrates elements of modern lexicon, Church Slavonic, and Latin. Analysis of the musical text necessitated a reconstruction of the rhythmic implications of the znamennaya notation. Comparative analysis of the reconstructed and original musical texts revealed substantial alterations to the melodic, rhythmic, and compositional structures of the canticles. It is hypothesized that this transformation stemmed from the inscription of melodies that had undergone prolonged oral transmission.

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