The Structure of the Text Model of the Stichera Come, Let Us Thank Joseph

Abstract

The relevance of the topic is stipulated by the intensive development of the theory of textual-musical forms in modern Russian musicology. The novelty of the research is determined by the method of analysis of archaic text models by applying the principle of symmetry. In the article the unique composition of the verbal text in the masterpieces of the early Russian monophonic chants, the origins of which go back to the Byzantine tradition of the 7th and 8th centuries AD, is examined for the first time. The repetitive identical syntactical constructions — the elements unconnected to the plot — are combined into a complex polytextual structure. The stichera Come, Let Us Thank Joseph is based on the interaction of plot and non-plot elements. The rhythm of the form in its line composition of end-to-end development is created by the periodic symmetry of threefold repetition. The group of small texts representing the direct speech of the characters: Joseph, Mary, and Simeon the God-Receiver is embedded in the “large text”: the call to prayer and the prayer of believers. The author of the article describes it with a mathematical formula, and offers a geometric analogue in the form of a gnomon — a figure suggested by Greek mathematician Heron of Alexandria in the second half of the 1st century AD. The archaic text code of the stichera has traversed from century to century and acquired a modern sound due to the expressive means corresponding to the musical stylistic system of the epoch. The polished text models provide canonical ritual chants with centuries-old functioning in the form of the variant multitude of musical compositions.