The exhibition of ancient Russian singing manuscripts will be open in Russian Science Academy (RAS) Library

The exhibition of ancient Russian singing manuscripts of XII-XIX centuries will take place on June 24 and 25, 2009 in Russian Science Academy Library as a part of international festival “The academy of orthodox music”. The handwritten collection of Russian Science Academy Library that includes monuments of Slavic and ancient Russian scripts dated from XI century and so forth represent a treasury of Russian and world culture. During the 300 years that library exists, scientists and curators worked hard to collect about 20 thousand of handwritten documents. The main part of the fund consists of Russian singing books. They illustrate all the essential stages and style schools of historical development of Russian church singing tradition. They keep in themselves the unique monuments of musical works of many generations of Russian chanters. One of the most ancient singing manuscripts is the parchment Hymn book of XII century that contains among feast chants some hymns glorifying the first Russian saints Boris and Gleb as well as saint Feodosy Pechorsky. This unique monument of pre Mongolian Russia is the evidence of the highest art of ancient Russian hymn writers and chanters who not only apprehended the ancient system of byzantine singing but created pieces of Russian liturgy works.