Fragmentary notation in Russian singing manuscripts of the XVth century
“Hook manuscript” with omissions notation is sustainable, it is to some extent in all extant manuscripts. This phenomenon depends on many factors, including changes in the system of singing in the 15th century («epoch of style change»). In the collection of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra at the Russian State Library hook manuscript no. 407, 439, 440 belong the ﬁrst half of 15 century, no. 408, 409 belong the second half of the century. They demonstrate the patterns of «epoch of style change». The manuscripts of the ﬁrst half of the 15th century retain the traits of the ancient tradition. Here predominantly “istinnorečnyj” (“right”) text, ancient signs (“hooked arrow”, “double apostroph” etc.). The manuscripts of the second half of the 15th century, no. 409 represents the ﬁnal look of a text and revision of the singing, and no. 408 represents the main fracture and shows the fragmentary notation. Certain chants or microcycles, individual textlines or syllables have the fragmentary notation in no. 408. It is due to the a diﬀerent nature and depends on the speciﬁ c problems arising from the transition to Jerusalem Charter, formation of new znamenny books (Octoechos), the need to create a new melodies for Oktoihe, Stihirare mineiny. Text in no. 408 shows that singing was a poetical editing, structural modiﬁcation of the text and of the necessity of prosodic changes. This is reﬂected to the changes in notation, creating new neumes.