Gusli (a collection of hymns)

Gusli was not the first collection of spiritual chants published in Russian. They were preceded by “Offerings to Orthodox Christians” (St. Petersburg, 1864, 2nd ed. 1867). Many songs were translated from German and were based on Lutheran choirs. In 1870, the book "Spiritual Songs" (comp. Floken, 90 songs) was printed in Constantinople . In 1882, Pashkovites in St. Petersburg (V. S. Balashev's printing house) published "Favorite Songs" (36 songs) and "Joyful Songs of Zion" (17 songs). In the same year, the Stundists publish a collection entitled “Hymns for Christians of the Evangelical Lutheran Religion” (88 pages, 60 songs). In the same year, the Voice of Faith collection was published, which summarizes the three previous collections. In 1893 a collection of spiritual poems for Christians of the Evangelical Lutheran faith was published in Sevastopol with 400 songs.

According to the recollections of the compiler:

The second and subsequent editions contain the following sections:

• I. The love of God and His greatness.
• II. A call to faith and a new life.
• III. Prayer and petition.
• IV. Praise and thanksgiving.
• V. The first steps of faith.
• VI. Feelings of faith.
• VII. The peace of God and Christian joy.
• Viii. The path of faith.
• IX. The fruits and exploits of faith.
• X. The Aspirations of Faith.
• Xi. Songs for various occasions of Christian jeni.
• XII. Songs for children.
• Xiii. Different chants.

The collection mentions the “ Eternal Trinity ” (140). God is also referred to as Lord, Sovereign, Almighty, Almighty, Lord, Friend (248), the Redeemer, Redeemer, Healer, Mentor, Shepherd, Patron, Creator, Savior, Creator, Intercessor, King. The world of God is described as a “superstellar abode,” where “ angels sing” (91). There is also the opposition of Zion as the place of God - Babylon as the local world (289). Mention is made of salvation through the “ Calvary Cross” through the shedding of the “holy blood” of Christ the Lamb. Sometimes there is a veiled polemic with Orthodoxy, including in the works of Orthodox authors included in the collection, in particular, “The Earth Trembles” - a slightly altered ^[3] poem by A. S. Khomyakov “After reading the psalm” (28) or transcription of 25 psalm N M. Shatrova “Rise, Father, and be a judge!” (267).

S.P. Lieven recalled:

The printing of new collections of hymns was not permitted for a long time, while the number of spiritual songs increased; loyal friends were found who undertook to write them by hand in a large number of copies; there were no typewriters then. For many years, we have used handwritten songbooks and are quite used to such a primitive publication. The number of hymns grew every day, some of them were translations from other languages, some were written by Russian believers. One of them was my brother; to his hymns my sister wrote the appropriate melody. All of them subsequently ended up in print collections. Later, Ivan Stepanovich Prokhanov, who worked hard on God's field with translations and his own works, increased the number of these hymns. Then all these hymns merged into one collection called "Gusli", however, along with this, other collections continued to be published. One of the most common hymns, especially beloved by Ivan Stepanovich Prokhanov, “Joy, joy is never-ending ...” my elder sister translated from German as a teenager.

- S.P. Lieven ^[4]

To prevent the collection from being banned by state censorship before its publication, the first edition was printed by the publishing bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire as a private order of I.S. Prokhanov, by agreement with the director of the publishing house, with a circulation of 20,000 copies. Duplication was carried out in a hurry in order to have time to distribute the collection before measures were taken to remove it, despite the fact that the rush led to an increase in the number of typos. Also, I. S. Prokhanov was in a hurry to distribute the collection “to all churches and groups”. Such measures were not in vain: the police, having discovered the next edition of the Protestant hymns, were confused when they saw that the publication was “Printed by the Publishing House of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, St. Petersburg, Fontanka”. Soon, the Ministry of the Interior issued an order to seize the entire circulation, but by then the circulation of the collection had already been distributed among the communities of evangelical Christians ^[5] .

Subsequent editions were printed after the imperial decree “On Strengthening the Beginnings of Tolerance” (1905), which introduced religious freedom in Russia, entered into force.

By 1914, the collection had withstood 5 editions without notes (1st in 1902, 2nd in 1908, 3rd in 1911, 4th in 1912, 5th in 1914) and several more editions with notes, in including in 1909 and with “digital” (digital) notes in 1911 ^[6] .

In 1907 ^[7] . The Rainbow Publishing House ( Halbstadt ) published a collection of "Spiritual Songs, consisting of collections:" Gusli "," Christian Songs "," Tympans "," Himalayas "and" Dawn of Life "" ^[8] , which received a short unofficial name " The Five Collectors " ^[9] . The "Five-Book" was repeatedly reprinted until 1922 (the 1922 edition was published in Kassel , Germany) ^{[7] [8]} .

In 1924, the book "Spiritual Songs" prepared by I. S. Prokhanov was published in Lodz (Poland), which included five more collections by I. S. Prokhanov - therefore it received the unofficial name "Ten Book". “Spiritual songs” ^[7] . This publication had a pre-reform spelling (with b, ѳ, i ... ). In 1927, the collection "Spiritual Songs" was reprinted in Leningrad without notes, and in 1928 - there it was published with notes in three volumes. The collection contained 1237 hymns. It included:

• "Gusli" - 507 anthems (in comparison with the pre-revolutionary "Gusli" supplemented, hymns about the tsar and Russia (No. 478, 485 and 486) are replaced by others in all editions of the collection "Spiritual Songs", and the replacements in the 1924 edition do not coincide with the replacements in editions of 1927 and 1928);
• “Songs of the Christian” - 101 hymns;
• “Tympans” - 100 hymns written by Prokhanov at “various moments of spiritual experience”;
• “Himbals” - 100 hymns translated by Prokhanov from English;
• "Dawn of Life" - 100 children's hymns;
• “Songs of the First Christians” - 104 hymns written by Prokhanov “from the point of view of the first Christianity”;
• “The Flute of David” - 100 youth hymns written by Prokhanov in prison, where he was with young people arrested after the national conference in Tver;
• “New Chants” - 75 hymns, mainly for choral performance ^[10] ;
• "Songs of Anna" - 30 hymns intended for women. Written in memory of the wife of Prokhanov, who died in 1919.
• "Songs of the Depth" - 20 hymns, "directed to the objects of Christian life and deep reflection." They were written during the second arrest of Prokhanov in Moscow. ^{[9] [11]}

The editions of 1927 and especially 1928 contained a number of corrections ^[10] : the words of a number of hymns were changed, including for better correspondence with notes, inaccuracies in epigraphs were corrected (biblical text and footnotes), two tunes were given for some hymns ^[7] .

• Gusli, third edition - scanned text in the Russian State Library
• The publication of collections of spiritual songs in the context of the development of sacred music of evangelical Christians-Baptists of Russia

• God-consonant
• Song of the Renaissance (songbook)