The Evolution of Musical Content of the Slavnic “Vozyde Bog” for the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord in Chant Manuscripts from the Late 12th–15th Centuries

Abstract

One of the most striking works of Old Russian professional musical art, the slavnik (stichera) “Vozyde Bog” (“God Has Ascended”), was sung during the so­lemn service on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord. The slavnik attracted attention of many raspevschiks and creators of Russian church chants and has been preserved in various musical interpretations in old musical neuma notation from the late 12th to the 15th 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 gave the Old Testament text a new resonance, revealing its prophetic meaning. Using the textual structural-formulaic method of research, the authors of the article reveal the features of chants, defining their place and role in the musical evolution of the slavnik, and demonstrate the creative principles of the masters, manifested in the course of 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.