This Page Last Updated November 6th, 2008 (new style reckoning)

 

Znammeny Chant

 

 

 

The photo above is from one of the guides to Znamenny Chant that I found, page 61. Honestly, Znamenney Chant not only sounds very different from heretic music but it also looks much different. The Old Believers Znamenny Chant stands separate from the rest of the music in the world today. I hope that other people might find its unique beauty which is outside this world. People are attempting many earthly means to do this but will never succeed unless they take the time to consider alternatives such as this.

One of the many capitulations that Russia allowed itself to fall into is the corruption of the old Znammeny. I really do not know why, but I would expect they wrongly thought Znammeny was ugly and that the new style polyphony of the western heretics was “pretty” enough to start using. Today the music of the Russian Orthodox Church sounds like a foriegn opera house far removed from what Russia actually is or ever was. They knew this corrupt music had no good ground, but the corruptors overlooked common sense and decided they knew better. What a travesty. Strict Old Believers do not use computers and therefore there is really no example of it online. I make an effort to show something about this topic, merely as an introduction. If you really want to make Znamenny a part of your life I recommend finding the strictest Old Believer you can and learn from them.

 

Old Believers use the pure old Znamenny type of chanting in their worship, so I thought I would include some links I found about it.

Russian Znamenny Chant, Znammeny Chant, Znameny Chant

Znamenny Chant - Oktoikos some Western type sheet music, in English, very heretical.

Znamenny chant information from Nikonites who do not get it all correct.

Chants of the Russian Middle Ages looks like a book.

Pashka in Riga a group of some MP3 Znammeny Chants to listen too. Much closer to the pure Old Slavonic than the impostor neo-Znammeny made by Nikonites. I found them from an Old Believer Popovtsy parish page.

Here are some links to Spiritual Songs and other MP3s from what we might called an Old Believer convent, near Novgorod.

Also there is Oktay from Pure Nature Music which has a few samples of MP3s which are more like spiritual songs sung around the meal table. Still it is part of the long standing Old Believer tradition and well worth getting a better understanding of. Some consider this a lowly folk style music, but it is completely based upon Znammeny, far closer to heavenly music than any of the modernized Russian Church practices today. Even the people of the Russian Church today that try to mimic the ancient way do so in a spiritually defiling way, due to their distance from any practical experience.

 

Znammeny Chant is not written at all like the linier notation in western sheet music.

Below is an example of a handwritten Znammeny hook notation manuscript, that is centuries old.

 

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