The establishment of the Ohrid Literary School is a milestone in the development of medieval culture and tradition in Macedonia. This school was founded in the 9th century by Kliment Ohridski, a disciple of the brothers Cyril and Methodius, who were also the most important figures in Slavonic literacy and literature. St. Kliment Ohridski, who taught his students orthodox chant, has left a number of manuscripts with music signs and is considered the author of the chant "Salvation through Suffering." This is the very beginning of the orthodox chant in Macedonia which maintained its continuity, tradition and distinguished features up to today, as an intermix of the Byzantine tradition, Macedonian folklore and Macedonian and church tradition in neighboring countries. These features can be found in the preserved written documents dating from different historical periods. Among the most significant documents with music inscriptions are: the 14 manuscripts  from  the  Ohrid  collection  (10-14 century)    Resen  fragment triod (10 century), Cyprianus leaflets (10 century, Zagreb Macedonian triod (12 century) Bologna Psalms (13 century).

    The composer and musicologist Sotir Golabovski (1937-) is one of the few who has fully devoted himself to the research of Macedonian orthodox chant. His 30-year experience as a paleographer and byzantologist resulted in his lifetime achievement dedicated to traditional orthodox chant.

    His theoretical interest influenced his compositional work. As a direct and unifying result he published four major works on Macedonian orthodox chant: Octoechos of Macedonian orthodox chant (two volumes), the Liturgy of Chrysostom, Common chant A, and the Matins. His last two works, which are in print at the moment, finalize his opus and are dedicated to Macedonian orthodox chant: Vespers and Evening prayers.

    Sotir Golabovski's works are mainly based on original manuscripts discovered in the territory of Macedonia or composed by Macedonian authors between the 10th and 19th centuries. Depending on the time of their appearance, these chants are related  to  various types of notation: ecphonetic, paleobyzantine, mediobyzantine, Kukuzel and Hrisant, as well as theta notation which is still under theoretical dispute.

    It is obvious that Golabovski's compositional and theoretical work is deeply interconnected. His theoretical interest lies in the reconstruction of the Macedonian orthodox chant, which contributed to his composition involvement in the final version of the modern notation.
 
 

    Golabovski's major theoretical and compositional work is the Octoechos of Macedonian church chant published in two volumes. He explains his approach through an analogy with the processes of the creation of the Macedonian standard language. Because standard Macedonian is a product of the selection amongst several dialects that reflect the unique features of Macedonian language, Golabovski concluded that the Octoechos should be grounded on the unique features of the Macedonian orthodox chant and the Macedonian folklore tradition. In fact, despite the strict canons in the orthodox tradition - similar to the other traditions related to the church part of the orthodox oikoumene, Macedonian orthodox chant owes its specific features to the strong influence of Macedonian folklore. These elements are what make Macedonian chant specific, unique, and different from the chants of surrounding countries.

    One of the main musical features of Golabovski's Octoechos is his understanding of Macedonian chant as strictly diatonic. This is why Golabovski only uses the diatonical 1, 5, 4 and 8 mode in the first volume of his Octoechos, as the most relevant modes within the Macedonian tradition. (AS 7).
 

(“Stychirs”  of “Gospodi vozvah” in mode 1 performed by the vocal group of the soloists from the Moscow Patriarchy Choir -Macedonian Traditional Church Chant, CD-2, Macedonian Octoechos I, Delta Records, 2000 MP3/Stychirs.mp3 )
 

He uses these modes  as the basis of his further reconstruction of the music inscriptions. Besides the explicit information about the system of modes, the first volume of the Octoechos refers to the style of sticherarion chanting (a chant based on the structure of the psalms), which is an essential part of the transition from the old manuscript to the modern Macedonian orthodox chant.
 

    This type of chant consists of a psalm marked as a STIHOS and a song added to the original psalm called a STIHIR. There are three kinds of STIHIRS in the Octoechos: Oh Lord to Thee I have Cried,  (STIHOSes of psalms 129, 140 and 141), Praise the Lord (psalms 148,149,150), and Vispers.  The scores in this Octoechos contain the reconstruction of the above-mentioned stihirs in three different modes, and one can easily distinguish their tonal characteristics.
 

(“Stychirs “ of  “Gospodi vozvah” in mode 4 performed by the vocal group of the soloists from the Moscow Patriarchy Choir - Macedonian Traditional Church Chant, CD-2, Macedonian Octoechos I, Delta Records, 2000  MP3/Gospodivozvah.mp3   )
 
 

    The second volume of the Octoechos covers the remaining two styles that contain specific tonal characteristics in the Macedonian orthodox tradition: Troparion and Hirmological chant. Their distinctive features are extracted from the comparative analysis with similar modes in Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian chants, and also through a comparison of Atanas Badev's chants and those of the Macedonian folk tradition.
    Troparion chants consist of short chants whose diatonic melodic structures are related to Macedonian folklore. They are performed individually and are subject to change depending on the performer who may choose to alter the music by improvising or adding ornaments. The Hirmologic chant is similar to the troparion chant,  but  refers to the first  stanza  (Hirmus)  of the canon. The Hirmus is basically a rhythmic melodic pattern upon which the troparions (stanza) of the canon are sung.
 
 

    Troparion and Hirmological chants are alike, but they differ in the tonal bases of the 2, 5, and 6 modes and in the melody of the Hirmologic chant, which is richer than the troparion's. Golabovskis' Octoechos offers an overview of the tonal bases of the modes of the two previously mentioned styles of chant, the ornamentation and the characteristics of the scores of Macedonian music manuscripts. The musical sections contain reconstructions of chants that are various in style and are arranged in modes.

    The second work by Golabovski - Liturgy of Chrystosom follows up similar work by the outstanding Macedonian composer from the XIX century, Atanas Badev, published in Leipzig in 1898. Badev's Liturgy is a collection of melographed and harmonized chants from the regions around city of Prilep. In his Liturgy, for the first time, Badev tried to implement features of the west-European music tradition such as western harmony and polyphony. On the other side, Golabovski's looks for the basis of his Liturgy in Kalistrat Zografski's chant "Father and Son," 5th mode. This chant is included in Kalistrat Zografski's four volume edition "Eastern orthodox chants" published in Sveta Gora, 1905. Both liturgies differ manly because of their concepts. Badev based his liturgy on chants from the oral tradition that he himself collected, while Golabovski tried to build his approach upon the reconstruction of a tradition from the written historical documents.
 

Golabovski's Liturgy is divided into theoretical and musical parts. In the first part Golabovski explains the general historical and theoretical characteristics of the liturgy.
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    The remaining part contains the musical reconstructions, i.e. the transcriptions of sections of the liturgy: initial, mystical and a solemn section. For practical reasons there are three variants of the Liturgy:

- a monodic or polyphonic variant with a drone i.e. written ison, (for church service purposes),

- a polyphonic variant for male or female choir,

- a second polyphonic variant for a mixed choir (for art performance purposes).

    THE MATINS presents the church service conducted in the beginning of the day. Common Matins is composed of three parts: six psalms  (psalms 3,37,62,87,102 and 142), a canon (composed of 9 chants with an identical drone) and Great doxology. Much like the Liturgy, the music structure of Golabovski's Matins has several variants: monodic, polyphonic (male or female choir) and polyphonic for a mixed choir. For practical reasons the Matins includes troparions of all 8 modes, as well as SEDALNI of all the modes (that are performed in accordance to the troparion and hirmological way of chanting).

    Sotir Golabovski's theoretical and compositional work resulted in the production of the double CD "Macedonian orthodox chant" which includes The Liturgy of Chrisostom and the Macedonian Octoih, performed by the choir of soloists of the Russian Patriarchy. Father Ludwig Pihler of the Vatican said that these works are a starting point for studying all Macedonian orthodox chant. Sotir Golabovski's reconstruction work reflects also on the performances of the ensemble for the preservation of the old Macedonian orthodox chant "St. Jovan Kukuzel" which has made a great contribution to the promotion of his works.

    Sotir Golabovski's theoretical approach was also influenced by the recordings made in Macedonian churches during the years 1970-1975. This precious and original audio material is kept in the private collection of Sotir Golabovski, Dragoslav Ortakov, the Sandjakovski family, etc. The fact that these recordings have been made and stored by means of analog sound carriers, mostly audiocassettes and real to real tapes, makes them one the most perishable and unstable media. This calls for their urgent conversion into digital formats which would preserve this valuable cultural and spiritual heritage for future generations of performers, composers and theoreticians.
 
 

(“Praise our Lord in Heaven” performed by the vocal group of the soloists from the Moscow Patriarchy Choir - Macedonian Traditional Church Chant, CD-1, Liturgy of Chrusostom I, Delta Records, 2000  MP3/PraiseourLord.mp3 )