Features of the Pospivka «Derbytsia» in LITURGICAL MODE Chants (Based on Ukrainian and Belarusian Sources from the Late XVI – XVIII centuries)

Author

Prylepa Olesya

a Ph.D. in Art Studies, a research fellow at Musicology and Ethnomusicology Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8438-1589

Features of the Pospivka «Derbytsia» in LITURGICAL MODE Chants

(Based on Ukrainian and Belarusian Sources from the Late XVI – XVIII centuries)

Abstract

The article explores certain features of the functioning of the Octoechos system, whose musical and intonational vocabulary is based on a corpus of melodic formulas. The study examines the distinctive features of a structural element of modal melody – the pospivka derbytsia – in monodic chants preserved in notated sources from Ukrainian territories dating from the late sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It is argued that within the Octoechos system, the derbytsia plays a significant role in shaping the intonational identity of the Third Mode, particularly in the melodic organization of irmoi and stepennyi antiphons. In these genres, it functions as one of the dominant structural and formative elements. The most widespread variety is the great derbytsia. In other Octoechos genres, the derbytsia appears as a rare yet essential and enduring element of the formulaic structure. In certain samoglasnyi genres, it serves as a musical vehicle for lexemes or phrases that are theologically related or semantically equivalent. The derbytsia is characterized by the stability of its neumatic notation, the consistency of its melodic content, and the persistence of its variant forms in chants. It represents a historically invariant component of the Octoechos system – its micro-stolp (pillar) – serving as a unifying canonical factor both within a specific genre or hymnographic group and within individual modes, as well as on a macro level across the first four authentic modes. The study employs textual and source-critical analysis for the attribution and interpretation of the role and significance of formulaic elements within modal melody, as well as comparative analysis to identify the principles governing the functioning of pospivky within the melodic fabric of liturgical chants.

Keywords

Octoechos, theory of melodic formulas, pospivka derbytsia, oktoechos, irmologion, stolp (pillar) chant.

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