The History of Vocal and Instrumental Capella of the Holy Dormition Monastery in Zhirovichi in the 17th—18th Centuries

The article describes the history of the vocal and instrumental chapel of the Zhirovichi Monastery in the 17th—18th centuries based on narrative and documentary sources. Narrative sources are five lists of manuscript obituaries of Basilian Monks from the second half of the 17th to the first third of the 18th century in Latin and Polish, which do not copy, but supplement information about each other. The most famous in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth churchmen, composers and regents of the first half of the 17th century who served in the monastery were Theodosius Borovik and Yelisey Ilkovsky. The analysis of the document has allowed us to identify a whole layer of regents, statute-makers and copyists of church books and notes, singers, instrumentalists who served in the monastery. The rotation of monks every four years from one monastery of the Basilian Order to another allowed them to constantly improve their skills as singers and instrumentalists, adopting the best practices. Documentary sources are inventories and visits carried out to Zhirovichi, containing inventories of books, sheet music and instruments of the choir of the Holy Dormition Cathedral. The repertoire was expanded by the inclusion of Latin rites — masses, nesphoras, litanies, as well as secular genres — arias and symphonies. For the first time the article contains a historical note “Zhirovitskaya Kapelle” with translation into Russian, which tells about the foundation of the instrumental chapel of the monastery in 1703. The analysis of the document showed that teaching to play instruments was situational: the teacher was the one who could play: the priest, the regent of the chapel, a visiting master or a travelling musician. In the first quarter of the 18th century the vocal and instrumental a cappella included: flutes, oboes, bassoon, violins, trumpets and positivo. During the 18th century the chapel was enriched with new instruments: keyboard (piano, clavichord); strings (viola, basset, violin); wind instruments (trumpet, trombone, French horn, flute, bassoon, clarinet) and percussion instruments. At the same time an organ with pedals “for thirteen voices” was purchased.

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