Post Description

The precise origins of this early polyphony continue to be disputed by pro- and anti-western factions, but the abundant links between Novgorod, source of the earliest surviving evidence, and western Europe (the city was a member of the Hanseatic League, and had a Roman Catholic church) make it impossible to rule out western influence. [Morosan 1986: 17]

Of this early polyphony (referring specifically to a three-voiced setting of Eis polla eti Despota taken from Uspensky's anthology), Gardner says "it is clear that the texture, the voice leading and the sonority of this piece of music are fundamentally different from those of Western polyphonic compositions of the seventeenth century. Particularly noteworthy is the abundance of dissonant combinations and the distinctiveness of the assymetric rhythm." [Gardner 2000: 298] Such observations may, indeed, be made about the generality of the repertoire. Antonowycz is more forthright, and describes it as "eine Kakophonie" [Antonowycz 1990], but the large number of successful performances recordings made in recent years by Russian choirs (and especially the work of the Russian Patriarchal Choir under Anatoly Grindenko), belies this.