[MUSIC]. Okhtaik.

A charming early C17 Russian ms with hymns for the liturgy, in a remarkably well-preserved contemporary Russian binding. A fine example of the znamenny (unison) chant which prevailed in the Russian Orthodox rite until abolished c.1666-7. Paper evidence points to a composition period c.1600. The overall absence of ‘podmetki’ (red letter signs) in this ms suggests a ‘terminus ante quem’ of no later than 1610-20; indeed, from c.1600, podmetki were introduced by the musician Ivan Shaidurov in order to simplify znamenny notation. Here, they only appear on a total of 7 non-consecutive ll., likely added ad hoc by a slightly later reader. The presence of St Demetrius of Uglich (fol.42), canonised in 1606, provides a ‘terminus post quem’. The finely drawn illumination, with headpieces in Neo-Byzantine style, likely points to the workshop of a monastery.

Derived from the Greek ‘Ochtoecos’, the ‘Okhtaich’ was a liturgical text of the Eastern Orthodox rite. It features pieces to be sung at services each day of the week. Each musical mode (glas) was identified by a letter corresponding, according to which the hymns were sung in a monody. The texts include stichera for Good Friday and Easter, as well as Penitential stichera, Theotokion (Hymn to Mary), the Menaion, some canons, and hiermoi for Christmas and Palm Sunday. The particularly fine calligraphic notation reflects the archaic singing tradition – i.e., khomoniya or razdel’norechie (homony or separate speech) – i.e., ‘the voicing Ancient Russian semi-vowels ъ and ь that had neuma above them, and also the result of replacing them with о and е in writing (homony)’ (Parfentiev, p.129). Razdel’norechie was no longer in use by the late C17, albeit still retained among some Old Believers.