F. Horkoff choir of mixed elders, Grand Forks, British Columbia

Transcription

1 EARLY HYMNS The ealy hymns may be egaded as tansitional psalms that have not achieved the metical symmety of the late hymns. Thee is some confusion among the Doukhobos themselves about the classification of many ealy hymns; some goups on the paiies efe to them as psalms, while othes in Bitish Columbia egad the same pieces as ealy hymns. n any case, the quasi-symmetical aangement of both the musical and the textual mateials places the ealy hymns midway in style between ihe asymmetical psalms and the metically oganized late hymns. Some ealy hymns. such as Had Realized, Mona] Man, Thai My Life Span Was Shot, ae moe psalm-like, while othes, like A Young Man Was Walking, ae musically late in style and can be oganized somewhat by means of ba lines. Some ealy hymns cay ove the use of staggeed beathing fom the psalms to poduce a continuous flow of sound. Those with metical texts allow the choi to beathe as a whole at the end of each line. 50

2 F. Hokoff choi of mixed eldes, Gand Foks, Bitish Columbia

3 Had Realized, Motal Man, That My Life Span Was Shot PEA Slow 72 Sung by the Pete F. Hokofj choi of mixed eldes Gand Foks, B.C., July 26, 1963 A H jji U qe

4 f f, 1.] K. WTo He ' l ( p 1-; 4' c. '2 J 9 [ma a ' b t L'c ç 53

5 KaGb H 3Haa Gm, qeaobek, 4T0 He MOfi FCaGm x 3HaJ Gm, qejioseg, 4io upectpamnah MOX cmeptb; H 6b1 H, Ha CH0M Fopy; H Ob H, MalOseK, no ohefiflofi peke. hymn TOMHO no cyxy ][yujsi pelnuble Ce6e He Mafi)&yT. Tm, Mnxauji ApxaneA, npasejinblfi Thi Ham. Tu noitgn ge K HaM cmjia, flepenean Hac Ty4a, Ha clopohy pekh, Ha npekpacnbe MeCta, Bo BOKHh pafl. Tanslation: Had ealized, motal man, That my life span was shot; Had ealized, motal man, That my death was so teibly imminent; would have ascended, motal man. The mountain of Zion; would have gazed, motal man, Down along the ive of flames Whee ighteous souls ae walking As if upon a paved pathway. The sinful souls ae tavelling, They cannot find any fim footing. You, Michael the Achangel, You ae ou judge, so just. Come ove hee to ou side And take us ove safely To the othe side of the [flamingi ive, To the wondeful places, nto God's most adiant Paadise. 54

6 DATA: This vey old hymn goes back to the fist yeas of the oigin of moden Doukhoboism in the late seventeenth centuy when ealy Doukhobo sects wee pesecuted with enewed vigou by both Chuch and State. The apocalyptic imagey, howeve, suggests much ealie influences. Fo example, compae this hymn with the following passage fom The Sibylline Oacles, a collection of old Geek texts that inspied many ealy Chistian sects. Like the Doukhobos, ealy Chistian believes would be led "tho' the flaming Rive. into a place of Light and into a Life without Caes, whee the immotal Path of the geat God is, and whee thee Fountains of Wine, Honey and Milk flow. And the Eath shall be equal to all, not divided by Walls o Patitions, but shall bea much Fuk spontaneously: All shall live in common, and thei Wealth shall be undivided; neithe Poo no Rich shall be thee, no Tyant, no Sevant, no one geate o less than the othe: No King (no Leade, all shall enjoy all Things in common (tans. Si John Floye, 1713,. p. 30 1). This Sibylline pophecy could be consideed an almost pefect bluepint fo the much late Doukhobo Chistian commune. Compae also with the two Doukhobo texts in the ntoduction (p. ) and with the hymn The Holy Ten,p!e of ihe living God (p. 73). 55

7 1* :4 Women eldes fom Billiant. Bitish Columbia. singing an old hymn

8 , A Young Man Was Walking (Recod, Side 7) PF.A 276d681 Modeately slow 5,4 ng by the Nick anvil 'j of c/c/e., Gand 2/, /v63 'p444 H op. J HP [tutti] ' 444 F H *' 7 i' 1 3 H (.' : 57

9 4'.% è, 1 ii? CX SNO tu tie?. c ', 58

10 OH mea, OHOJa. OH Hfl5HH, njaqet, B3gb!xaeT. H Ha BcPpetly emy, CaM HHcyc X:pHcToc: - Tb! 0 4CM lohoma? - ila H KaK xe MHC, He njakatb? N<e H 3OaOTy KHHy, YpoHH.n s Mope UepKOBHbh KJ0Y. Tm He w!ayb, He H.'aqb 'ohoula. 3oiioiy KHKV H Ce A CHile Mope eo Bmcynly, H uepkoehbfi KJlK)4 H.goctaHy, U Ha HCTHHHbti HVTb A HacTaBjno. Tanslation: A young man was walking, And as he passed he wept pofusely. Letting foth soowful sighs. Jesus Chist Himself met him and asked: "Why ae you weeping, young man?" "How can help weeping? have lost the golden book, have dopped the chuch key into the sea." 'Do not weep any moe, young man; shalt wite out anothe golden book, shall cause the blue sea to dy up. And ecove the chuch key, And shall put you on the oad of tuth" DATA: Accoding to Doukhobo tadition, the youth in this ealy hymn was Daniel Filipovitch. a pominent leade of the Russian sect known in the seventeenth centuy as the 'Childen of sael' o 'People of God.' Outsides sometimes efeed to them deisively as the Khlisti o 'Self-Lashes' fom thei custom of self-flagellation to gain geate spiitual insight. Aside fom this ancient pactice, some of thei othe beliefs seem emakably 'moden.' They did not believe in the Tinity and efused to woship ikons. They believed Chist's bith was natual, that only his spiit aose afte his cucifixion, and that his spiit late became esuected in thei leades. This latte belief was inheited by the Doukhobos but has now passed fom geneal acceptance, except among a few of the moe adically oiented membes of the Feedomite sect. Although Daniel Filipovitch was an educated man 59

11 and used the Bible as a basis fo his witings and teachings, in a fit of despai one day he thew eveything into the Volga Rive. This 'cleansing' emoved the emaining obstacles to tue enlightenment, and, as the hymn elates, the spiit of Chist soon visited him and set him on the oad of tuth.' The People of God' late aose to pominence again as the Staovei (Believes in the Old Ways) duing the ea of efoms instituted by Pete the Geat. n Eli A. Popoff's Histoical Exposition on Doukhobo Beliefs (mimeogaphed by SKRA. Gand Foks, BC.) Popoff wites: "Some extemists of this goup wee so fanatical in thei opposition to the efoms of Pete the Geat, whom they efeed to as the 'Antichist,' that they fomed into goups and secluded themselves in the wildeness. Thee they made fo themselves lage paye houses and payed fo thei tibulations to pass. But when it seemed evident that Pete's efoms wee thee to stay, athe than etun to bow down to them, many of the goups used to lock themselves in the paye houses and bun themselves alive, ea The Doukhobos still ead and sing psalms that point to this time." Tacing the oigins of these ealy Doukhobo texts will equie yeas of diligent eseach. Some may wish to daw analogies between the extemist tendencies of these ealy sects and the zealot finge of the Feedomite sect. The analogies may be valid. Howeve. of fa geate impotance is the fact that Doukhobo cultue in geneal, both in Russia and in Canada, has evolved to a ational level fa highe than some of these ealy pactices would indicate. 60