Music of the Doukhobors

Doukhobors believe that their greatest cultural tool to support cherished beliefs and values is their music, expressed through numerous community choirs in the Prairies and British Columbia and at the Sunday prayer meetings (Molenye) and cyclic festivals where they gather to sing. The psalms are central to Doukhobor religion and song; their uniquely melismatic (many notes to one syllable of text) style is apparently ancient but was refined in the eighteenth century, when most of the texts were created...