Musicology Annotation << Back About Monastery Significance in the Development of Ancient Russian Church Chant Nataliya Zabolotnaya The article is devoted to the role of cloisters and their chant tradition during different stages of Russian church chant history. The author accentuate great significance of monastic rules in the keeping of ancient written heritage and support of church chant tradition in historical dynamics. Significance of cloisters during the periods of cultural transition is analyzed. The article notes important changes in the church chant through the peculiarities of ancient chant books (late XI–XII centuries), manuscripts of the period of Orthodox Divine service reform (XV с.), chant sources of early New age (XVII с.). Early stage of Russian church chant development is connected mostly with the activity of monks of Kiev-Pechersk monastery. Thanks to them rules of Alexius Studit Typikon and church chant (mainly oral tradition) applied to the whole territory of Kiev Russ. During XV–XVI с. a lot of monasteries elaborated Octoech system and exact forms of its reflection in musical script. Among them Trinity-Sergius, Joseph-Volokolamsk, Cyril-Belozersky and Solovetsky monasteries. Monasteries of XVII c. supplemented their singing repertoire by post-byzantine tunes from South-West Russ. Keywords: Russian Church chant, Orthodox Divine service, monastery chant tradition, Octoechos system, chant manuscript. Contacts: E-mail: zblt@mail.ru Pp. 03-08.