Specificity of early letter marks in Russian notation of “Evangilical Stiherons” Byzantine emperor Leo VI

The article examines early letter marks in neume-notation (before-reforms of Alexandr Mezenets) of the “Evangelical sticherons” of Emperor Leo VI in the church-singing manuscripts of the 1-st half of the 17th century. Specific feature of these letter marks in some manuscripts is their unregular affixing and presence of unusual points with unknown function. Unlike «mezenets» letter marks, which indicated the exact pitch, early letter marks showed area of tune, rising and lowering of the tune, and they indicated techniques of performance: rhythm, expression, volume, etc. These details were of importance for the performance of melismatic melody of 11“Evangelical sticherons”. Also these marks characterize the state of music theory at the time.