Cithara octochorda – najważniejszy śpiewnik kościelny w dziejach Chorwacji
The Most Important Songbook of the Church in the History of Croatia

Summary/Abstract: Octochorda cithara songbook was first published in Vienna in 1701. The texts which were included in it came from the second half of the seventeenth century from the area of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, as this set was created as the main songbook in that area. Cithara Octochorda became so important because it is the first printed collection of songs in Croatian church containing the notation. All the previous works of this type written in Latin, are printed, but do not have the notation, and those written in the earlier period in various dialects of the Croatian language at that time remained still in manuscript form, but often have the musical notation. The purpose of this paper is to present the most famous Croatian church songbook, which became a model for the editors of later works of a similar nature. The paper includes such issues as a language, literary and cultural role that cithara Octochorda played in the development of consciousness and national identity of Croats. The paper will also mention research capabilities that Cihtara Octochorda songbook gives researchers of different scientific fields. The songbook also contains Croatian texts written in kajkavian dialect used in the eighteenth century as a literary language in the Archdiocese of Zagreb, which is the reason why from the linguistic point of view the work is a source for linguistic analysis. For musicologists this collection is important and valuable, as it contains the notation of many songs, which is one of the first in Croatia. Songbook can also be a source of historical research because of the names of the authors of some texts and melodies.

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