Extracts from the cd booklet:


              Probably Western and Baroque... yet somehow not quite Western or Baroque... but certainly not Eastern, this music has not reached its ultimate state, with well established styles and formulas; it has been interrupted in its evolution. And all that explains why this music has largely escaped musilogical studies and interpretations.

In Russia these songs were the heralds of secular music, music reflecting the personality of a composer, and modern experimentation.

Before the 17-th century, there was no creation outside religious and popular art.

Most of subjects are borrowed from the Scriptures. We find the traditional Psalms and paraphrases of biblical subjects.

Some admirable songs, such as "My only joy" and "By your great and touching beauty", were inspired by The Song of Songs.

These pieces, with their diverse influences and potentials, were intended for varous interpretations: unaccompanied chorus or vocal ensemble; one or several singers, accompanied by one or several instruments.
The latter included the instruments that had recently been adopted in the West, but also traditional instruments such a theorbo, known in Russia as torban

These songs were at their height in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Performes inthe towns and cities by people of modest or aristocratic origins, they became increasingly secular during that period.