Old Russian Neumes - photo 1

Old Russian Neumes

Lot 71
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 6 500
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1053185
Lot 71 | Old Russian Neumes
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Old Russian Neumes
Festal Triodion, in Church Slavonic, musical manuscript on paper [Russia, early 17th century]
An early 17th-century Festal service book designed for the Easter to Whitsun period with demestvennayan neumes, in its contemporary binding.

153 x 106mm. i + v + 536 + ii + i leaves, mostly in gatherings of 8, gathering signatures survive on lower right corners of rectos, 11 lines in a condensed Cyrillic half-uncial by several different scribes, written space: 105 x 60mm., staffless diastematic (heightened) Old Russian neumes with occasional pomety in red, possibly demestvennayan neumes, some titles and initials in red, a headpiece in black in on f.1 (some light staining throughout, a few leaves frayed, some repairs, generally in good condition). Contemporary blind-stamped leather over boards sewn on 3 bands, blue and red head- and tail-bands, bevelled edges (lacking clasps, a little scuffed and worn).

Provenance:
(1) Sam Fogg, London, acquired in 1994 by:

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 1843.

Text and music:
A Triodion is a book containing canons consisting of three odes. A Festal Triodion, like the present manuscript, is a book of music designed for the Easter to Whitsun period beginning on Palm Sunday. The text comprises: the end of the Office for Lazarus Sunday; Great Vespers for the Eve of Palm Sunday; the Offices for Passion Week; Holy Thursday and Saturday; the end of the Office of the 4th Sunday after Easter; Offices of the 5th and 6th Sunday after Easter; Pentecost and the Sunday of All Saints.

The notation in the present manuscript is close to that in MS. 763/690 in the Solovetsky Monastery Collection in the National Library of Russia. These are demestvennayan neumes, usually restricted to Cathedrals in large cities, a much more complex body of melodies than those in standard chants, designed to be performed by highly trained singers (see The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 13, p.150).


Place of origin:Russia
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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