Title of the article:

THE METAPHOR “JESUS CHRIST - SWEETNESS” IN THE CHORAL CONCERTS OF THE EAST SLAVIC BAROQUE

Author(s):

Irina V. Gerasimova

Information about the author/authors

Irina V. Gerasimova — DSc in History, DSc in Art, Docent of the Philosophy and Theology Department, Historical Faculty, Institute of Humanitarian Sciences and Language Communications, Pskov State University,
Lenina Sq., 2, 180000 Pskov, Russia.

Section

History of Arts

Year

2024

Volume

Vol. 74

Pages

pp. 249–266

Received

February 14, 2024

Approved after reviewing

September 10, 2024

Date of publication

December 29, 2024

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073‑9567‑2024‑74‑249‑266

Index UDK

801.733

Index BBK

85.313

Abstract

The article analyzes the musical and poetic compositions of Baroque choral East Slavic concerts, including a "taste" metaphor - the naming of Jesus Christ as spiritual sweetness. The composers and singers of these concerts were mainly natives of the Kiev Metropolia. Choral works in which Jesus Christ is called "The Sweetest", "Sweetest", "All–sweet", "sweetness" in the refrain "About Mary, Mother of Sweetness" of the concert "Theotokos, the Most Holy Virgin Mary" and the concert "All is my Desire, all is Sweetness, Jesus!" were distributed in baroque parts for three-five voices from the last third of the XVIIth c. The article discusses by what artistic means this analogy is revealed in baroque choral concerts and what semantic shades are born in the interaction of musical and poetic texts. The assumption is put forward that the identified layer of compositions belongs to the Vilnian school of the partes concert of the second half of the XVIIth c. The analysis of the concerts showed a variety of interpretations of the metaphor of Christ the Savior, called sweetness. The sources for the creation of concert texts were well-known Orthodox prayers, Catholic Litany, Orthodox Akathist genre. The epithet "Sweetest" and other derivatives of the word "sweetness" were included in a number of epithets that make it possible to feel Jesus Christ with all the receptors of human perception, in this particular case, to taste spiritual sweetness. The epithet "sweetest" was used to characterize the third hypostasis of the Holy Trinity — the Holy Spirit, as one of the epithets of praise in the praise of the Lord, and, finally, as a basis for contrasting the sweet eternal life in Christ and the bitter life in the sinful world

Keywords

Liturgical Text, Part Concert, East Slavic Baroque, Vilnian Composer School, Metaphor, Jesus Christ, Sweetness.

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