Музикалните ръкописи в Рилския манастир
The Musical Manuscripts at the Rila Monastery

Summary/Abstract: Bulgaria’s acceptance of Christianity in 864 marked the beginning of its monasteries, which are a basic form of the organization ofreligious life. After the advent of Slavic literacy, they became centers and active distributors of medieval culture. During the Ottoman period and up until the beginning of the 19th century, they were the only cultural institutions that had libraries and that preserved Bulgarian linguistic and spiritual traditions. In a number of monasteries literary and Damaskin homily schools arose, creating conditions conducive to the development of various types of art, including wood carving, icon painting, fresco painting and miniatures. Music as a specific kind of art, in that it is temporal rather than spatial, was primarily developed inland the large monastic centers. Over the centuries the rich usual life and vigorous literary activity of Rila Monastery led to the formation of an impressive manuscript collection, which also eventually included printed books. The monasteries singing school adapted late Byzantine musical models, judging from the numerous Greek musical manuscripts from the second half of the 18th century that are preserved in the library and which are notable for their rich song repertoire. Church Slavic musical manuscripts are important evidence of the historical role played by monks at Rila, as well as being a valuable source of information about the Revival-era musico-historical process. The carefully selected collection of printed Greek anthologies bears witness to the fact that the acceptance of new elements in the development of Eastern Orthodox church music (the New Method system) led to specialized and deliberately selected musical activity. During the 19th century the Rila song school was an important musical and creative center which gave rise to chance that is notable for its unique characteristics.

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