Music of Belarus

A neumatic chant, called znamenny, from the word 'znamia', meaning sign or neume, used until the 16th century in Orthodox church music, followed by two hundreds of stylistic innovation that drew on the Renaissance and Protestant Reformation.

The earliest musical instruments on Belarusian territory were found at the Dubakray settlement near Lake Sennitsa, on the border of Vitsyebsk and Pskov regions.

Excavations of the Neolithic settlement of Asavets (Beshankovichy district) uncovered a fragment of a reed pipe (zhaleyka) made from the bone of a small bird.

This facilitated the assimilation of Byzantine spiritual music, influencing genres of church chants such as the antiphon, irmos, troparion, canon, and sticheron.

A connection with broader European folk traditions in the Middle Ages is evident in the activities of skamarochy—wandering professional performers whose art synthesized various forms.

They were musicians (playing husli, bagpipes, recorders, drums, reed pipes, shawms, later violins, and cymbals), singers, acrobats, gymnasts, illusionists, and animal trainers who performed in town squares, villages, castles, taverns, and other venues.

Greek played a significant role in ancient Eastern Christian worship in Belarus, and Byzantine church music was assimilated, while original forms of neumatic notation and an oktoichos system with its characteristic set of chants were developed.

Belarusian theorists, alongside Ukrainian and Russian scholars under the guidance of Novgorodian Ivan Šajdura, developed the kinavarnyja notational marks and formalized the expanded tonal system (based on tetrachords) widely used in singing practice at the time.

Belarusian A. Miezianiec created the sole theoretical work on znamenny chant, Izveščenie o soglasnejšich pometach (1668), while C. Makarjeŭski from near Orša authored Kliuč razumienia (late 17th century).

With the introduction of Belarusian and Ukrainian kant culture, polyphonic (partesny) singing entered Russia, aiding the transition of Russian church music to a new Western European level.

By the late 16th century, Belarusian choirs of the Vilnius, Niaśviž, Sluck, Minsk, Mahiloŭ, Orša, and Kuceiń brotherhoods were distinguished for performing both spiritual and secular works in 4, 6, 8, and 12 parts.

During this time, there was an expansion of humanistic and democratic spiritual kanty, alongside the development of a rich tradition of Belarusian folk songs and instrumental works.

Following the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the 18th century, Belarusian church music, while retaining its local characteristics, evolved within the framework of Russian liturgical singing.

The arrival of Catholicism facilitated the cultivation of organ music in Belarus, including cycles of Mass ordinaries, Requiems, individual Introits, Graduals, Sequences, Communions, and Office chants.

Protestantism's spread in Belarus during the mid-16th century, under the impact of Reformation ideas embraced by much of the local aristocracy, contributed to the growth of musical culture.

In the 16th-18th centuries, musical accompaniment was characteristic of theatrical performances in educational institutions of various denominations in cities and towns of Belarus, including Bieraści, Haradnia, Žyrovičy, Mahiloŭ, Minsk, Orša, Polack, and Słonim.

A manuscript score of one of them has been preserved — "Apalon-zakanadavca, abo Refarmavany Parnas" by R. Vardoсki and M. Ciacerski from the Dominican Collegium in Zabieĺ (1789), which organically combines features of school productions and actual opera.

Among the largest musical centers were Niasviž and Słuck (Radziwiłłs), Słonim (Michał Kazimierz Ogiński), Hrodna (A. Tyzenhauz), Škłoŭ (Semyon Zorich), and Dziarečyn (Sapiegaŭ).

Talented local musicians such as Jerzy Bakanovič, Ljaŭon Sitanski, Jan Ciancyłovič, and future renowned composers like Józef Kozłowski also worked there.

The first publications of melodies of Belarusian folk songs are found in the works of Maryja Čarnouskaja ("Monuments of Slavic Mythology in Customs Preserved among the Rural Population of Belarus," 1817), Łukasz Gołębiowski ("Polish People, Their Customs, Superstitions," 1830), and Anton Abramovič (article "Several Melodies of Belarusians Recorded and Arranged by the Piano Society," 1843).

The period of intensive accumulation of information about the folk musical culture of Belarusians, recording of tunes and instrumental pieces, and their publication falls on the second half of the 19th — early 20th century.

The activities of Mikalaj Janczuk were characterized by organizational scope and innovative scientific approach, which allowed ethnomusicology to gain the status of one of the ethnological sciences.

In the first half of the 19th century, manor theaters, galleries, libraries, and private schools of the magnates Tyszkiewicz in Łahojsk, Astrašycki Haradok, Plesčańicy, Śvislač, Count Zakhar Chernyshev in Mahiloŭ and Čačersk, princes Sapieha in Ružany, the music lover and patron V. Rakićki in Haradzišča near Minsk, gained fame.

Boarding schools in Minsk, Pinsk, Homiel, Viciebsk, Polack, Słuck, Mścisłaŭ, Biełastok, Bieraście, and Hrodna played an important role in its expansion.

Some musicians engaged in music-theoretical activities: N. Orda created the "Grammar of Music, or Theoretical and Practical Teaching of Melody and Harmony with a Brief Appendix on Fugue, Counterpoint, Orchestral Instruments, Organ, Piano and the Science of Singing for Pianists" (1873), Ja.

Belarusian folk song themes or intonations were occasionally used by Polish (F. Chopin, S. Manioŭszka, M. Karłowić) and Russian (N. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. Glazunov) classical composers.

A significant role in the study and promotion of Belarusian folk songs was played by the music-ethnographic commission of the ethnographic department of the Society of Lovers of Natural History, Anthropology, and Ethnography at Moscow University, organized in 1901 by M. Janczuk.

In 1872—1897, an organist school operated in Minsk (founded by canon F. Sencykoŭski), where piano, violin, singing, music theory, and performance on the organ and in wind orchestra were taught.

Among the musicians who performed in Belarus at that time were L. Auer, M. Batystyńi, A. Vieržbilovič, H. and J. Vieniaŭski, M. Helmar (soloist of the Vienna Opera, native of Minsk), I. Hofman, K. Davydaw, H. Jesipava, A. Ziloty, A. Koncki, S. Mentar, Mikalaj and Miedea Fihnery, F. Shaliapin.

At the turn of the 19th—20th centuries, Belarus was toured by pianists R. Puińio, I. Sliwiński, violinists K. Hryharovič, P. Sarasate, cellist D. Popier, an orchestra of Russian folk instruments under the direction of V. Andrejew and others.