Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / Slavnik “God Has Ascended” in Chanting by Varlaam Rogov (d. 1603) for the Church Service of the Ascension of the Lord

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Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2026 19 (7)
Authors
Parfentieva, Natalia V.; Parfentiev, Nikolai P.
Contact information
Parfentieva, Natalia V. : South Ural State University (Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation); ORCID: 0000‐0003‐1136‐0493; Parfentiev, Nikolai P. : South Ural State University (Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation); ; ORCID: 0000‐0001‐6982‐6554
Keywords
Old Russian church singing art; handwritten recordings of old znamenniy chants; masters-chanters’ creativity; Varlaam Rogov
Abstract

This article examines one of the most striking works of old Russian professional musical art – the slavnik (stichera) “God Has Ascended”, sang during the solemn service on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord. The chant attracted the attention of many creators of Russian church chants and has been preserved in various musical interpretations in old musical sign neuma notation from the late 12th to the 17th centuries. The hymnographic feature of the work is its combination of lines from the Psalter of King David with Gospel verses about the Ascension of Christ, which imbue the Old Testament text with a new resonance, revealing its prophetic meaning. The authors of this article, relying on a textual structural-formulaic research method, reveal the peculiarities of the creative work of one of the outstanding Russian chant masters Varlaam (in the world Vasily) Rogov from the Novgorod the Great. He rose through the ranks from igumen (abbot) of the Kirillo- Belozersky Monastery, then the Solovetsky Monastery, to Mitropolit of Rostov the Great. His contemporaries also knew him as a man who “was a very reverent and very wise person, a master of singing, a chanter and creator of znamenny style, trestrochny (three-voice), and demestvenniy style chanting”. Researchers demonstrate the master’s creative principles, which were manifested in the musical embodiment of the poetic text of the chant under study. The work’s formulaic structure is revealed, as is its interaction with hymnography at a high artistic level, where word and music complement each other, emphasizing the dominant semantic content of the text

Pages
1538–1549
EDN
EPWGBR
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/159282

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