Court Singing Capella and Divine Рractice of the Russian Orthodox Church

Abstract

This article attempts to consider the influence of the Court Singing Chapel on the development of divine practice of the Russian Orthodox Church during the synodal period. After the Church split of the 17th century, the continuing development of liturgical practice was not reflected in the corpus of liturgical books. In the XVII century the Russian Church had two almost equal in importance exemplary Metropolitan choirs: the choir of Patriarchal singing deacons and
the choir of sovereign singing deacons. With the abolition of the Patriarchate and the transfer of the capital to Saint Petersburg during the Synodal period of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Court singing Capella became the main Church choral group, whose main duty was to sing at divine services in the court churches. In the 19th century, the Court singing chapel was given special administrative rights in the Church singing sphere related to the censorship of Church singing works and the training of Church Regents. The exclusive rights to publish Church singing books in the Russian Orthodox Church, which were assigned by the Holy Synod to the Court singing chapel, caused a wide spread of liturgical features of the service of court churches in the Russian Empire. The practice of mandatory certification of Church Regents by the Court singing chapel has increased the spread of not only its Church music tradition, but also the court liturgical order, which has had a significant impact on the practice of performing Cathedral and parish services. The study of the liturgical practice of the Russian Orthodox Church in the XVIII–XX centuries is unthinkable without taking into account the activities and heritage of the court singing chapel.