The SinGerS of The cenTral choirS of The rUSSian STaTe of 16 Th — 17 Th cenTUrieS aS The “ SlUzhilye lyUdi ” of The TSar ’ S and The paTriarch ’ S coUrTS

Bulletin of the South Ural State University. Ser. Social Sciences and the Gumanities, 2019, vol. 19, no. 3 The tsar’s and the patriarchal choirs in Moscow had already had a long history by the 16th century. The tsar’s one was originated from the choir of the grand duke court. Most likely, the choir of Moscow grand dukes was formed due to the fact that they considered themselves the rulers of all Russian lands. The creation of proper grand duke court, establishment of court ceremonial and erection of court churches were also of great importance here. All this is indicative of Ivan Kalita’s period of reign (1325—1340). One of the major events of that period was the relocation of the Metropolitan of Russia residence from Vladimir to Moscow. There, in the major spiritual centre of Russia from that day on, the Metropolitan court and the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin were erected (1327). In the following centuries they served as the place where the Metropolitan choir chanters carried out their duties. During Kalita’s reign the Archangel Cathedral was erected, as well as the new court one — Spas-na-Boru Church, which replaced John the Baptist old church at the duke court, where in all likelihood the grand duke chanters sang. However, the metropolitan choir, as compared to the Moscow Grand Duke one or the tsar’s choir, was, most likely, much older. One can hardly imagine that the metropolitan divine service in Ancient Russia was done without church chants. It is obvious that the creation of this choir ascends to the period of Russian metropolitanate establishment (988). After the establishment of the patriarchy in 1589 it was called patriarchal. The Russian scholar V. M. Metallov considered the date of patriarchy establishment in Russia to be the time of the patriarchal choir beginning [14, p. 1—2]. But at that time only the name of the choir was changed. The All-Russian metropolitanate, without doubt, had its own choir. The sources also confirm this fact: in the ceremony of bishops enthronement of 1456 it is stated that the metropolitan’s chanters sang “some chants”, “Mnoga leta” (expression of wishes for long life) and others [2, p. 470, 473]; on July, 7, 1543 Filipp Fedoseev, Protopopov’s son, who was a “metropolitan chanter”, contributed a book to the Chudov Monastery [16, p. 87]. The Metropolitan times brought us few names of chanters and brief information about their activities. That is why further on we shall dwell upon the patriarchal period of that choir mainly. The structure of the major choirs of Russia represented unique bodies of hierarchical arrangement, which were divided into specific subdivisions — stanitsas (small vocal groups). The status, salary and functions of a chanter were determined by the stanitsa he was singing in, and often by the place within a stanitsa as well. The only precise information about the arrangement and number of chanters of the tsar’s choir in the 16th century available today is the information about the choir of Tsar Ivan IV’s reign period. According to the staff list dated by March 20, 1573, the choir consisted of five stanitsas: the 1st and the 5th stanitsas consisted of 5 people each, the others — 4 people each. Besides, there were 5 “bezstanichnye” (not belonging to any stanitsa), reserve chanters. Thus, the whole choir of Ivan the Terrible in 1573 consisted of 27 chanters (“singing diaki”) [3, p. 35—37]. The tsar’s Treasury book of charges (1584—1585) specifies the names of the tsar’s choir chanters from only two stanitsas, though “minor” ones [9, p. 201; 26, No 198, fol. 64, 67]. This information is supplemented by monastic documents. In December 1585, on Christmas, the Chudov Monastery welcomed (besides the above mentioned chanters) the “diaki” of the four major stanitsas who came there to glorify Christ. Consequently, the choir of Tsar Feodor Ivanovich consisted of approximately 30 chanters. During their stay in Moscow the Fathers Superior of the Dorogobuzh Boldin monastery were giving money gifts to four (1598) or five (1600) tsar’s stanitsas; the monastery “heads” (Fathers Superior, cellarers, treasurers) of the Joseph Volokolamsk Monastery were giving money to the same number of the Tsar’s choir stanitsas in 1605—1608 [22, No 273, fol. 121; 27, No 15, fol. 54; No 19, fol. 158; 31, v. 37, p. 135, 177]. The following information, which allows to disclose the structure and members of the tsar’s choir to the fullest extent possible, dates back to the period of recovery of the state apparatus and palace subdivisions after the Time of Troubles. In 1613—1626 the number of maDOI: 10.14529/ssh190314 The SinGerS of The cenTral choirS of The rUSSian STaTe of 16Th—17Th cenTUrieS aS The “SlUzhilye lyUdi” of The TSar’S and The paTriarch’S coUrTS

The tsar's and the patriarchal choirs in Moscow had already had a long history by the 16 th century. The tsar's one was originated from the choir of the grand duke court. Most likely, the choir of Moscow grand dukes was formed due to the fact that they considered themselves the rulers of all Russian lands. The creation of proper grand duke court, establishment of court ceremonial and erection of court churches were also of great importance here. All this is indicative of Ivan Kalita's period of reign (1325-1340). One of the major events of that period was the relocation of the Metropolitan of Russia residence from Vladimir to Moscow. There, in the major spiritual centre of Russia from that day on, the Metropolitan court and the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin were erected (1327). In the following centuries they served as the place where the Metropolitan choir chanters carried out their duties. During Kalita's reign the Archangel Cathedral was erected, as well as the new court one -Spas-na-Boru Church, which replaced John the Baptist old church at the duke court, where in all likelihood the grand duke chanters sang.
However, the metropolitan choir, as compared to the Moscow Grand Duke one or the tsar's choir, was, most likely, much older. One can hardly imagine that the metropolitan divine service in Ancient Russia was done without church chants. It is obvious that the creation of this choir ascends to the period of Russian metropolitanate establishment (988). After the establishment of the patriarchy in 1589 it was called patriarchal. The Russian scholar V. M. Metallov considered the date of patriarchy establishment in Russia to be the time of the patriarchal choir beginning [14, p. 1-2]. But at that time only the name of the choir was changed. The All-Russian metropolitanate, without doubt, had its own choir. The sources also confirm this fact: in the ceremony of bishops enthronement of 1456 it is stated that the metropolitan's chanters sang "some chants", "Mnoga leta" (expression of wishes for long life) and others [2, p. 470, 473]; on July, 7, 1543 Filipp Fedoseev, Protopopov's son, who was a "metropolitan chanter", contributed a book to the Chudov Monastery [16, p. 87]. The Metropolitan times brought us few names of chant-ers and brief information about their activities. That is why further on we shall dwell upon the patriarchal period of that choir mainly.
The structure of the major choirs of Russia represented unique bodies of hierarchical arrangement, which were divided into specific subdivisions -stanitsas (small vocal groups). The status, salary and functions of a chanter were determined by the stanitsa he was singing in, and often by the place within a stanitsa as well.
The only precise information about the arrangement and number of chanters of the tsar's choir in the 16 th century available today is the information about the choir of Tsar Ivan IV's reign period. According to the staff list dated by March 20, 1573, the choir consisted of five stanitsas: the 1st and the 5th stanitsas consisted of 5 people each, the others -4 people each. Besides, there were 5 "bezstanichnye" (not belonging to any stanitsa), reserve chanters. Thus, the whole choir of Ivan the Terrible in 1573 consisted of 27 chanters ("singing diaki") [3, p. 35-37].
The tsar's Treasury book of charges (1584-1585) specifies the names of the tsar's choir chanters from only two stanitsas, though "minor" ones [9, p. 201; 26, № 198, fol. 64, 67]. This information is supplemented by monastic documents. In December 1585, on Christmas, the Chudov Monastery welcomed (besides the above mentioned chanters) the "diaki" of the four major stanitsas who came there to glorify Christ. Consequently, the choir of Tsar Feodor Ivanovich consisted of approximately 30 chanters. During their stay in Moscow the Fathers Superior of the Dorogobuzh Boldin monastery were giving money gifts to four (1598) or five (1600) tsar's stanitsas; the monastery "heads" (Fathers Superior, cellarers, treasurers) of the Joseph Volokolamsk Monastery were giving money to the same number of the The following information, which allows to disclose the structure and members of the tsar's choir to the fullest extent possible, dates back to the period of recovery of the state apparatus and palace subdivisions after the Time of Troubles. In 1613-1626 the number of ma- The SinGerS of The cenTral choirS of The rUSSian STaTe of 16 Th -17 Th cenTUrieS aS The "SlUzhilye lyUdi" of The TSar'S and The paTriarch'S coUrTS 1 On the changes in the tsar's choir until the end of the 1670s. see also: 17, p. 10, tabl.1.
2 Particular preference was given to "nizhniki" (low voices).They most often were indicated in the beginning of list of stanitsa, and in the early 1630s. even two stanitsas of young diaki-nizhniki were recruited [25, № 1943 3 .
The most significant changes in the organization of the tsar's singing and krestovye diaki took place in the late 70-s -early 80-s of the 17 th century. During the last years of Tsar Feodor Alekseevich's reign the singing diaki started to fall into two choirs. The first one consisted of masters of the Old Russian chant, who were members of 1 to 3 stanitsas. Fourteen people headed by Peter Pokrovets sang in the Spassky (Saviour) Cathedral ("u velikogo gosudarya v Verkhu"), forming the Tsar's choir proper. The second choir was formed from other, minor staff chanters and those who had not been previously specified in staff lists. Together there were 28-29 "partesniks" (performers of polyphonic chant) headed by Osip Sedoy. They sang at the court church of Evdokia ("u gosudaria na Seniakh"), forming a joint choir for the members of the Tsar's family (tsaritsas, tsareviches, tsarevnas). However the name of this or that singing diak could be seen in the staff lists of different choirs (for example, Vladimir Golutvinets, Maksim Vasiliev). It only proves that the singer possessed both the skill of the old Znamenny chant and the new polyphonic one. The first direct evidences of singing diaki division into "spasskie" (those of the Saviour Cathedral choir) and "evdokeinskie" ( In 1681-1683 the principle of division of the Tsar's choir into court churches was still preserved. The maximum number of "spasskie" chanters at that time reached 18. The singing diaki, formerly known as "evdokeinskie", in the new place of service at the Voskresenie (Resurrection of Christ) and John the Baptist Cathedrals got the new name -"voskresenskie and predtechevskie". The number of the latter amounted to 58, but among them there were 7 young "vspevaks", who were still in the process of learning, and 17 singing diaki, who were picked out for singing at the Elijah the Prophet Church, "that is at the court of Now let us pass over to the structure and size of the patriarchal choir. As far back as in February 1539, in the election ceremony record of the All-Russian Metropolitan Ioasaf, it was described how "Metropolitan chanters of both stanitsas" acted and what they sang. There were also mentioned "podiaki" [2, p. 158-160]. The documentary description of the events connected with the enthronement of the first Patriarch of all Russia Iov (January, 1589) also mentions two stanitsas of the patriarchal singing diaki -"bolshaya" (major) and "drugaya" (the other), who at that time performed "slavniks" (songs of praise) during welcome receptions and "selected sticheras". It is stated there that after the diaki all podiaki were ordered by "to sing according to their ranks" [31, v. 2, p. 319-323]. Unfortunately, the source does not specify the number of podiaki stanitsas, but it states that the patriarchal choir, like the metropolitan one before, consisted of chanters of two categories -diaki and podiaki.
The complete destruction of the metropolitanpatriarchal "Prikaz" (Department) in the Moscow fire of 1626 forces us to reconstruct the organization and composition of the earlier period of choir on the basis of the Tsar's Treasury Department documents and monastery records. On Christmas, 1585-1586, three stanitsas of the Russian metropolitan choir and three "adolescents", i.e. the youngest podiaki of the same choir who played the role in "Peschnoe deystvo" (rite "Burning fiery furnace"), came to the Chudov Monastery to glorify the Lord. In 1605-1607 the St. Joseph Volokolamsk Monastery's cellarer and treasurer gave glorified money to seven stanitsas of patriarchal chanters, and the following year -to four stanitsas [22, № 273, fol. 121-122; 27, № 15, fol. 54; № 16, fol. 118-119; № 19, fol. 158]. Thus, the most complete sources state that in the very beginning of the 17 th century the patriarchal choir was already divided into seven stanitsas.
The Tsar's Treasury books of charges (since 1614) disclose the composition of two stanitsas of diaki -"major", or the 1st one (5 men), and "the other", or the 2nd one (4-5 men). Four stanitsas composed of podiaki with 5 men each were also mentioned. In one of the years (1618/19) there was even mentioned a group of "elder" podiaki, who held intermediate positions Since Nikon's patriarchate, to be more exact, since 1653, each of the singers from subdeacon stanitsa started to bear the name "subdeacon". The stanitsa itself since 1655 began to be registered in the staff list of the choir even before the diaki [23, № 36, fol. 11-12; № 38, fol. 330-331]. Over the last third of the 17 th century the number of stanitsas of podiaki rose to eight [23, № 75, fol. 217; № 137, fol. 91-92; № 160, fol. 103, 255 etc.] 1 .
The Russian professional musicians of the 16 th -17 th centuries, who served in Russia's major choirs, received certain types of annual payments (monetary, bread, cloth etc.). Each of those types and more frequently the position in a choir or stanitsa had a fixed salary. Thus, the full salary of a singer consisted of a system of monetary payments and natural products payments. The salaries were closely connected with obligatory and regular grants ("slavlenoe", "prichastnoe", etc.), which were fixed for a chanter at the moment of his enlistment and given out on some special occasions.
We can estimate the system of singing diaki salaries of the 16 th century by the staff list of Ivan the Terrible's choir of 1573. According to the documents of the 17 th century, which are preserved almost to the full extent, salaries fixed in the central choirs were extremely stable during a long period of time: some of them underwent no changes in that century. Therefore, we can assume that the system and the amount of salaries of the Tsar's singing diaki reflected in the staff list of 1573 are also typical of the other periods of the 16 th century.
The first one mentioned is the annual monetary payment. It was between 5 and 10 rubles and was given to almost all diaki, except for five singers who additionally performed functions of "nedelschiks" (bailiffs who performed their duties by weeks), which gave them additional income. Instead of annual amount of cloth all diaki got money to the amount of 48 altyn (1,44 rubles).
The gradation of the annual bread remuneration was determined inside each stanitsa individually; except those who owned some lands, each of the diaki was assigned an equal amount of quarters (from 12 to 30) of rye and oat. The other types of reward by natural products -salt and meat -except for chanters-landowners, were also given to everyone. Some singers, who got no monetary grants, received 2 rubles of "holiday payment". Special attention should be paid to the fact that two singing diaki got land payment [3, p. 35-37; 17, p. 19, tabl. 4].
The types of salaries fixed for the tsar's choir in the 17 th century can be traced by means of the sources coming from the second half of the century. Thus, the consolidated budget of 1680-1681, estimated at Tsar Fedor Alekseevich's request, included general data on annual choir expenditure. It also specifies expenditures on monetary payments and "kormovye" (money on food products or food itself), on giving "slavlenoe" (fee for singing before Christmas), food and drinks, cloth and bread [15, p. 5]. Almost the same types of payments for singing diaki were specified in the consolidated "Ruzhnaya kniga", written as a report to Tsar Peter in January 1699 and based on the books of charges of various departments according to which this or that payment was given out [13, p. 435; 24, № 96, fol. 1]. This document gives in details the amounts of salaries of singers as well 2 . But it says nothing about the fact that the diaki of the tsar's choir received complete sets of clothing.
Meantime, during the 17 th century occasional grants in the form of separate articles of clothes were transformed into a specific type of payment. In the second half of the 17 th century all diaki had it, including those who were not assigned any monetary or other remunerations. Probably, a "walking" garment was given as casual wear: "odnoryadka" (a long coat with very long sleeves), warm and cold "feryazi" (a garment that was ankle length), "kaftan" (coat, at least knee-length), "zipun" (a short, narrow jacket), woolen hat trimmed with sable, "rukavitsy" (mittens), trousers. For escorting the tsar and members of his family during the "trips" the singers were given traveling garment: "doloman" (semi-kaftan decorated with braid) or "kaftan", "epancha" or "emurluk" (long cloak), mittens, for winter -a fur coat. "Prihodnoe" or "prihozhee" garments were given to diaki, apparently, to be worn when on duty; it included: two "outwear" kaftans, two "underwear" kaftans, a woolen hat with sable, mittens, trousersall to the amount of 20,8 rubles. Besides casual garments, singers were provided with holiday clothes, or "dobroe" (good) garment: "odnoriadka", "feryazi", "kaftan", a velvet hat trimmed with sable. Such set of garment sometimes cost the Treasury  Apart from the mentioned grants from the tsar, singing diaki got patriarchal Christmas "slavlenoe" as 2 Salaries are also indicated in the choir of Tsar Ivan, but with his death in the same year the choir was abolished. See also: 17, p. 21, tabl. 5. 3 Often, the Treasury Department gave not a readymade dress, but "goods" and money for sewing it [ex . The information about the salaries of the Tsar's krestovye diaks in the 16 th century can be found in the staff list of service class people of Ivan the Terrible's court of 1573. Those singing diaki are specified before the tsar choir, but their salary merely consisted of annual monetary payments (from 4 to 25 rubles) and 1,44 rubles, the amount of money for "cloth" [3, p. 35].
In the 17 th century the system of salaries of the tsar's krestovye diaki was expanding. In the second half of the century this category of the court people exceeded the tsar's chanters in the types and amounts of payments. 17  The most important type of natural products payment was bread payment. Before the division of diaki into separate choirs, by the beginning of the 1680-s 10 salaries had been formed of equal amounts (from 3 to 16) of rye and oats quarters [15, p. 5]. Then for each choir they developed a specific scale of salaries, which underwent minor changes for ordinary diaki and determined the increased salaries of senior choir singers -to 25 quarters of rye and 25 quarters of oats [13, p. 437-441]. What exactly a daily meal payment was can be assumed by its detailed description of 1681 1 .
In Tsar Peter's documents of the 1690-s there is no mentioning of this payment but in terms of money it must have been included into the unified food products payment.
The earliest (since 1613) and fullest information available testifies that krestovye diaki received sacramental cloth as a reward for taking part in the ceremony of the Tsar's family Communion. Later in the 17 th century this type of payment became essential with the established monetary value: the first diak, being senior choir singer, was given cloth in the value of 6 rubles, others -in the value of 3 rubles, and in the 1630-s they were given money. Since around 1657-1658 sacramental cloth payment was given out twice a year -on the Great  Having studied the consolidated "Ruzhnaya kniga" in 1699, Tsar Peter ordered to limit the amount of people in each krestovye diaki choir to 12 men and establish unified salaries with the cancellation of others ones (except for bread) starting from September of the same year: the first diak in the choir staff got 60 rubles, the following four -40 rubles each, others -30 rubles each [13, p. 438-441].
The professional activity of the singers belonging to the second, in order of importance, choir -the patriarchal choir, in many ways was remunerated similarly to the procedure of the court chanters' maintenance. The available documents of the patriarchal treasury since 1626 demonstrate an extremely stable character of monetary payments for diaki (10-12 rubles) and variations of amounts of those salaries for podiaki (2-10 rubles) till the very end of the century [17, p. 24, tabl. 6].
Bread payments record dates back only to the second half of the 17 th century, but one of the sources mentions that in February of 1627 all diaki and podiaki received "monetary bread payment" [23, № 1, fol. 412]. Books of charges of 1669-1671 testify that the patriarchal chanters were assigned bread payments: diaki of the 1st stanitsa -25 quarters of rye and the same amount of oats, 2nd stanitsa -20 quarters, podiaki of the 1st and 2nd stanitsas -8 quarters each, "minor" ones -7, 6 and 5 quarters [24, № 22, fol. 139-146, 335-342]. Since 1672, with the beginning of Pitirim's patriarchate, the first two stanitsas of podiaki had their salaries increased to 10 quarters of rye and 10 quarters of oats, the others -by one quarter of each; the new, sixth stanitsa's salaries were equal to 4 quarters of rye and the same amount of oats [24, № 29, fol. 83-90 etc.].
Books of charges of 1696-1698 recorded the pay-off "like giving in the past years" of payments with meat, and it appears from them, that till the middle of the 1690-s all "married" chanters were given the salary of 7 poods, and "single" -5,5 poods of meat, then singers were given money up to the amount of  The documents of the second half of the 17 th century had records of the expenses on daily meals and drinks ("estva"). The feeding of the "domovoi" (home) choir was taking place on service days in the Krestovaya palata or in the special "singing chamber", drinks were also given "in the cellar". Meals included: granular caviar, viziga, steamed fish (sterlets, breams, pikes), fish soup, shchi, porridges, pies, "segments" of sturgeon or great sturgeon, etc. Drinks included different sorts of mead and beer [12, p. 1112-1178; 24, № 140].
The patriarchal choir was regularly granted garments, which can be divided into three types. Garments for everyday life included: odnoriadka, kaftan, trousers, hat "with sable" and a fur coat. Singers were also given several surplices of "various colours" for divine services. For escorting the patriarch during his "trips" they were given a "traveling" garment -warm kaftan or feriazi and doloman [ The sources do no mention any regular distribution of the annual amount of cloth to singing diaki and podiaki. Apparently, this type of payment was not established for them. But some early documents of the Tsar Treasury Department (since 1613) testify that for singing in liturgical drama "Peschnoe deystvo" (rite "Burning fiery furnace") chanters were given "peschnoe" cloth to the amount of 2-2,5 rubles every year, or money to the amount of its value. After 1640-1641 there is no information about such cloth granting [26, № 199, fol. 196-197; № 207, fol. 224-226; № 277, fol. 132; etc.].
Thus, the remuneration of Russian professional musicians' work in the 16 th -17 th centuries presented a complex system of salaries and obligatory grants. Most of the payment rates (service land, monetary, cloth) in this or that combination were typical of those different categories that the service class people of the Russian state belonged to [e. g.: 4; 8].
The central choirs were staffed with the most musically talented people who came from various regions and different strata of society. According to the staff list of singing diaki of Ivan the Terrible dated by March, 20, 1573 the salary of two of them, Savluk Mihailov and Ivan Danilov, included 300 quarters of the "manor".
Undoubtedly, those diaki were noble by birth. They, most likely, received the manors not for their service in the choir, where that kind of salary was not used. We do not see any reasons for them being specially rewarded with the manors as they were ordinary singers; one of them was registered under number four in the staff list of the 1st stanitsa, the other -the last in the 3rd stanitsa [3, p. 35-36]. Probably, krestovy diak (then senior choir singer) Andrei Konstantinov Vereschevsky owned the great land property and had great incomes, enriching his manors. He paid 240 roubles only for the acquisition of village Zhestylevo from a tsar's groom in 1580, it had its own church "with all church buildings", and wasteland Repekhovo [28, fol. 1] 2 .
In the 17 th century documents one can come across the references to the facts that owners of manors and peasants were included into the staff of singing and krestovye diaki. Matvey Ignatyev Polyaninov, for example, used "to be a groom" of the tsar, a noble position, and served at first in the 4th, and afterwards -in the 3rd stanitsa of the tsar's choir in the late 1670-sfirst half of the 80-s, reserving the manors [20, p. 59 ]. Interestingly enough that Matvey Polyaninov received fixed salaries, but in the annual salary staff lists it was never specified that he owned manors. It allows us to assume that among singing diaki he and his son were not the only nobles by birth 3 . Quite illustrative is the following fact. In 1699 Tsar Peter ordered his senior choir singer S.I. Suvorov, who was receiving the highest salaries of every type and who by that time had been serving in the court as a senior choir singer and krestovy diak for about 30 years, to take an "official confirmation" telling that he owned no "villages, stalls and other enterprises". Suvorov appeared to be an adequate representative of "the new time" and owned not only 61 peasant households in "different towns of various regions", but also several stalls in Moscow shopping rows, two cellars, selling "red drink", and "commercial baths" [13, p. 435].
All this means that in the 16 th -17 th centuries taking noble men as singing diaki on serving was not occasional. Their activity in the choir was considered as one of the types of state service. When being fixed a salary, they reserved the right to their manors and peasants.
Quite frequently their singers' children or relatives replenished tsar and patriarchal choirs. In 1648 the son of the tsar's singing diak Ivan Nikiforov be- Local singers also joined the Tsar's choir, for example, Ivan Smagin "was taken from the archbishop" to the choir of Ivan the Terrible and in 1573 was listed as "bezstanichny" (not belonging to any stanitsa) diak, or Maksim Afanasiev Sibirets, who arrived in Moscow with his family in the beginning of the 1660-s and who had previously served in the choir of the Siberian archbishop [3, p. 37; 20, p Interestingly enough, some of the singers, who were taken on the staff from the "tiagletsy" (taxed people), remained being taxed. For example, in the 1670-s in Ordynskaya street behind the Moskva river a tsar's singing diak Kipriyan Evtikheev together with his brother owned a yard on a taxed land of Sadovaya sloboda, which was passed on to them from their father, and every year paid 10-12 roubles of "obrok" (quitrent); in the same position was Peotr Pokrovets (future senior choir singer of Tsar Peter), to whom after his wedding a taxed land plot in Nikitskaya street in Ustyzhskaya sloboda was passed on [25, № 17440, fol. [3][4][7][8]. In 1677-1678 Osip Sedoy was admitted to the tsar's choir from the class of taxed people from Barashskaya sloboda after his chant collection book was purchased for the tsar's choir [19, p. 120 The names of singers with such last names can be frequently met in documents, even more frequently, than references to their social origin.
The given examples demonstrate that the service class people were employed for the tsar's and the patriarchal choirs in a typical way: "by birth" (from noble families of Moscow and other cities) and "by order" (from tradespeople, the clergy, etc.) [8, p. 75-79 etc.; 33, p. 138, 144]. In general the position of the central Russian choirs' singers in the 16 th -17 th centuries can be characterized as a privileged one. In the "Ulozhenie" (Old Code) of 1649 in special articles about the honour protection of different "ranks" this position was fixed and supported: "for bringing dishonor" to the tsar's Искусствоведение Вестник ЮУрГУ. Серия «Социально-гуманитарные науки» 2019, т. 19, № 3 singing diaki the guilty person had "to pay" the penalty at a rate of monetary salaries of the given singers; the patriarchal chanters got a little less: the diaki of the major stanitsa were given 7 roubles each, the diaki of the 2nd stanitsa and podiaki of the first two stanitsas -5 roubles each, the other diaki -3 roubles each [20, p. 47, 58-59]. Those singers, who owned manors and peasants, as it was already mentioned, reserved this right, having also the rights of nobility and those of the boyars' children.
Law allowed keeping holops in houses of singing diaki. On October, 8, 1685 an Order was issued, telling "to give bondages to senior choir singers, singers and krestovye diaki on those who file a petition to become a holop" [18, p. 688]. Most probably, the same rules were applied for the patriarchal singers as well. In 1695 in the majority of their yards there were people (some of them, apparently, enslaved) who lived "with poruchnye zapisi" (written debt guarantees) [10, p. 9-10 etc.].
If we compare the position of the tsar's singers with the position of the patriarchal singers, we can easily assume that the first ones had advantages over the others, and not only the legal ones. The tsar's diaki had a greater variety of payments and higher salaries. On those occasions, when both choirs had to sing together, the tsar's singers took more honourable places (for example, in the cathedral it was the right kliros), than the patriarchal ones. It was conditioned by the Middle Ages etiquette that pointed at the difference in their social positions.
It is quite difficult to identify the social status of the main choirs' singers when the formation of the main classes in Russia was still in progress. As far as chanters had to sing, in the first place, in cathedrals, they all went through a special admission ceremony. But that did not mean, that they were referred to the clergy [for example: 11, p.15 etc.]. Most probably, different categories of singers (the tsar's singing diaki, court krestovye diaki, the patriarchal singing diaki, podiaki) had some differences in the social status. D.V. Razumovsky noted, that as for "the civil rights", the tsar's singing diaki enjoyed all rights and advantages of people, serving in the Tsar's court, they "belonged to the rank of court people" [20, p. 58]. Indeed, in the staff lists for salary of the 16 th -17 th centuries singers were registered "among various ranks of people" of the tsar's court. In the Staff List of 1573, for instance, they were registered after boyars, stokers, guards, carpenters, etc.; after them there were tailors, shoemakers, fur dressers, armourers, etc. [3, p. 21-40]. Consolidated State Budget of 1680-1681 of salaries "for various ranks of people in Moscow and in different towns" begins with expenses of the Bolshoy Dvorets (the Great Palace) Prikaz. In that department data on expenses on the court choir diaki were concentrated, and the data were written before expenses on podiaki, court guards, etc. [15, p. [5][6]. Till the end of the 17 th century payment of salaries to the tsar's singers were registered in "salary sheets" and other books with expenses on other serving people. The growing specialization of the state machinery was creating specific functions for different categories of service class people. The service was getting more and more fixed and looked like the performance of direct professional functions -"work". In 1684 Pavel Yukhnovsky wrote in his petition to Tsars Peter and Ivan: "I, holop of yours, work as a chanter without salary"; in 1690 Ilya Leontiev said, that he "has been working" without being paid with cloth "for many years" [29, fol. 96, 102]. In such a way, following the above mentioned facts, as well as all considered information in aggregate (professional activity, principles of staffing, system of salaries, legal position), we may conclude, that the tsar's singing diaki were part of the court high-society class of serving people.
The majority of the patriarchal diaki, before achieving their social position, for some time served in podiak stanitsas. And podiaki, due to the fact, that they sang and performed different actions in different parts of cathedrals, including the sanctuary, had to go through a complex, elaborately worked out ceremony of admission held by the patriarch himself 1 . At the cathedral services podiaki, as a rule, sang in surplices. But, basing on the documents, we have already mentioned, that the casual garments of singers consisted of odnoryadka, kaftan, hat with zibeline, etc. Researchers, on the basis of the sources, mention those singers among the ranks of the patriarchal court -okolnichy (one of the highest ranks of boyars), solicitors, boyars' children, etc. [e. g.: 32, p. 156]. If we take all these facts into consideration, as well as the factors, which we have already mentioned while dwelling upon the tsar's choir diaki, the patriarchal singers, apparently, can be identified as a special category of "semi-high-society" serving people, who took some intermediate position between the clergy and the service class people of the patriarchal court. most types of their salaries (manor, monetary payments and natural products payments) in this or that combination were typical of those different categories that the service class people of the Russian state in the 16 th -17 th centuries belonged to. With the entry (transition) of even representatives of nobility into singing diaki their position did not change. Their activities in the choir were considered as one of the types of state service, and when they were assigned salaries, their estates and peasants were preserved. Consequently, the entire set of the most important social characteristics of this group of people (professional activity, principles of recruitment, salary system, legal status) indicates that the tsar's and patriarchal singers of the court choirs were included in the category of service class people.