Characteristic features of chanting stichera on the automelon in the contemporary liturgical practice of Grebenshchikov old believers’ community in Riga

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the practical implementation of singing at the automelon in the Riga Grebenshchikov community, which is the most important singing center of the Priestless Old Believers. The choice of this branch of the Old Believers was caused by the fact that bespopovtsy adhere to the singing and manuscript traditions of the early period – "razdel'norechije", carefully preserve and reproduce the features of implementation the chants, pronunciation and intonation, and linguistic nuances. The material of the article is audio recordings of services and special recordings outside of services, transcribed by the author. The melodies of the automelons are considered exclusively in their oral version. The repertoire of the automelons, their typology, structural features, stable and mobile elements when singing various liturgical texts are determined. The results have been compared with the similar data of previous researchers on the material of earlier audio recordings of the Riga community, as well as other communities. Considering the previous experience of fixing the oral version of the automelons, our own analytical notated schemes were designed. They maximally reflect both the structure of the sample melody and all its possible changes when singing texts of different lengths. Some original features of the considered community are revealed, which are manifested in the special sounding of the final lines of the automelons, in the special "zapevnaja" line for some of the automelons, as well as in some rhythmic features that appear when singing stichera on the automelon. The continuation of the studying this subject will be a comparison of the automelon melodies existing in the Riga community with the melodies of other Baltic communities of the Pomor branch, as well as a detailed comparative studying of the oral and written versions of the automelons.