COURT CHANT

COURT CHANT –  Compendium of liturgical melodies, taken, for the most part, from abbreviated Kievan, Greek, and Bulgarian chants, which became standard in the usage of the Imperial Court Chapel in St. Petersburg during the late 18th-early 19th centuries. Eventually, it was systematized and published, first in two voices by D. Bortniansky in 1815, then in four voices by A. Lvov in 1848, under the title The Common Book of Notated Singing used at the Imperial Court. Because Court chant is by its nature a compilation of several chants and is performed polyphonically, some scholars believe that the term “chant” should not be applied to it. On the other hand, it contains melodies in Tones for all categories of liturgical hymns, except for those that by the 19th c. were no longer sung at the Imperial Court and in many parish churches, but continued to be sung only in monasteries.