Kontakia in Honour of Saint Nicholas of Myra in the Oldest Russian Chant Repertory, Tipografskij Ustav & Kontakarion (11th–12th centuries). Tatyana Vladyshevskaya (Moscow)
Kontakia in honour of Nicholas of Myra, which are contained in the oldest surviving Russian chant repertory – Tipografskij Ustav and Kontakarion (at the time the manuscript is owned by the State Tretiakov Gallery, Nr. K-5349) – are the earliest monument of Russian devotional attitude towards Saint Nicholas and an important evidence of the Old Russian ecclesiastical musical tradition.
The author begins her article with a description of the manuscript in general, discussing the peculiarities of its composition and the musical terms used in the Kontakarion. Then she proceeds with the two kontakia for Saint Nicholas which are present in the manuscript. She thoroughly inspects the musical signs which accompany the texts of these kontakia and the corresponding oikoi. The current state of our knowledge does not allow us to decipher the exact melodies of these hymns, but their musical notation contains a lot of important data, and the author of the article comes to a number of conclusions concerning the manner of performing the kontakia. These hymns could be taken as equal in their importance to the oldest Russian icons of Saint Nicholas of Myra.