The manuscript is by an Orthodox cantor (dyak) Ivan Yuhasevych (c. 1741–1814), the famous collector of liturgical, para-liturgical and secular songs in the Subcarpathia/Transcarpathia region.

exhibition

Ivan Yuhasevych (c. 1741–1814): [Spivanyk]
Nevytske (near Uzhhorod, Ukraine); 1798, [2], 1–27, [1] ff, 28–102, 104–199, [1] ff
Shelf mark: Rd 067830 / T 000259
16r: The first two verses of a Christmas carol Час радости, веселости (ENG: The time of joy and cheer, CZE: Čas radosti, veselosti)

The manuscript is by an Orthodox cantor (dyak) Ivan Yuhasevych (c. 1741–1814), the famous collector of liturgical, para-liturgical and secular songs in the Subcarpathia/Transcarpathia region. The hymnbook contains 271 songs. Of central importance are 22 songs which have five-part musical notation with melodies (18 religious and 4 secular songs). The so-called Spivanyk or Pisennyk from 1798 was examined in 1946 by Ivan Paňkevyč in a church in the village of Uherský Žipov (currently Nižný Žipov, the Trebišov okres, Slovakia). Paňkevyč’s resulting article was published in the journal Národopisný věstník českoslovanský, Vol. XXXII, Iss. 1–2, pp. 73–87.

The manuscript is considered to be the most significant collection of para-liturgical songs by Ivan Yuhasevych: he was then one of the Carpathian top transcribers and compilers of hymns and other spiritual texts. Yuhasevych also illustrated many of his works. Five of Juhasevych’s hymn books are known, of which the National Library of the Czech Republic owns two (1761–1763 and 1811), and the National Museum of the Czech Republic owns one (1812). The Spivanyk from 1798 was discovered in the Slavonic Library before Christmas 2024 by the librarian Rita Lyons Kindlerová with the help of Valentyna Bochkovska, director of the Kyiv Museum of Books and Printing. The rediscovery of the manuscript fills a gap in Yuhasevych’s extensive work, mainly because notations were not commonly included in hymnbooks at that time.

The manuscript contains, among other songs, the Christmas carol ‘The time of joy and cheer’ (Ukrainian: Час радости, веселости, Czech: Čas radosti, veselosti, ff 16r–16v), which is considered a ‘traditional Ukrainian carol’ in some Ukrainian regions (including the diaspora). However, it is originally a Czech song that was first published in print in Cantus Catholici (Levoča, 1655, p. 48), the first Slovak printed hymnbook in the vernacular approved by the Roman Catholic Church.

It is likely that Yuhasevych knew not only this Christmas carol, ‘The time of joy and cheer’, but also other songs of Czech origin. He included this particular carol in his first Spivanyk (1761–63), which he created during his stay in his native village of Príkra (1761 to 1795, currently the Prešov region, Slovakia).