The Verbal and Musical Structure of the Monophonic Liturgy of John Chrysostom from the Seventeenth-Century Manuscript of Przemysl

The article outlines the specifics of the musical presentation of the monophonic Liturgy of John Chrysostom from the 17th-century Przemysl manuscript, highlighting its uniqueness and cultural and historical significance. An analysis of the verbal and musical structure of the monophonic Liturgy and its connection with the words-symbols is provided. The peculiarities of the artistic construction of the work reveal the internal interconnection of its semantic elements and emphasize the semantic essence and aesthetic expressiveness, which manifest its cultural and historical importance. It is illustrated that the purpose of monophonic liturgical singing was to help the believer prepare for diligent prayer, rather than to receive aesthetic pleasure. This type of musical culture is directly related to the hymnody tradition of spiritual life, an integral element of the Orthodox tradition. Hesychia, as a cult of silence, is not inherently contradictory to «inner» music — the music of the soul and heart. The ratio of «silent» and «sound» prayer resembles the synergy of Silence and Word, which fills the Hesychast prayer. Hence, hesychasm in music was based on the understanding and manifestation of harmony in both external and internal forms of spiritual life and art. Its manifestation is the synergy embodied in the practice of «intelligent» prayer, which leads to inner peace, balance with the world, and God’s grace. Therefore, the highest form of monastic life was hermitage, the cult of silence, in which the «heartiness» of coexistence with God, the world, and oneself was comprehended. The subject of this study is holistic and unique, one of a kind. The other known monophonic works of the liturgical genre are only separate parts of the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine rite. Individual hymns performed for particular church feasts and sung in separate parts during the Liturgy can be found. The monophonic liturgy of John Chrysostom contains all the elements of the canonical liturgical structure and requires more detailed musicological, cultural, and historical research and popularization in the country and abroad.