Nikolay Kompaneyskiy On the Distortions of Authentic Church Tunes Made by [V. M.] Metallov Publication and comments by E. V. Zolotova and N. Yu. Plotnikova

Nikolay Ivanovich Kompaneiskiy (1848–1910) was a well-known St Petersburg music critic and composer of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, an active supporter of the New Direction in Russian sacred music. Many of his articles devoted to current issues in church singing were published in such journals as Muzïka i penie (“Music and Singing”), Muzïkal’nïy truzhenik (“Music Worker”), and others. The article “On the Distortions of Authentic Church Tunes done by V. M. Metallov” was intended for publication in Russkaya muzïkal’naya gazeta (“Russian Musical Newspaper”); currently it is stored in the collection of the newspaper’s editor N. F. Findeyzen in the Manuscript Office of the Russian National Library (Fund 816. Inventory 3. Storage unit 2518). It is the apogee of a long polemic between Kompaneiskiy and Archpriest Vasiliy Mikhaylovich Metallov (1862–1926) — church chant scholar, teacher at the Moscow Synodal College, and member of the latter’s Supervisory Council. The text we are publishing shows how topical and burning the issue of polyphonic arrangement of chants was, and how emotionally the violation of the integrity of ancient tunes was perceived. The article did not find its reader during Kompaneisky’s lifetime, most likely due to the high intensity of the controversy and the harshness of the criticism directed at the highly respected priest and scholar. Here it is published for the first time.