Archivum Lithuanicum

In Prussian Lithuania, several religious works were published in Lithuanian in the second half of the nineteenth century, in which the melodies of hymns were marked not in the traditional way, but in numbers and other conventional graphic symbols. The introduction of numerical notation should be linked to Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi’s (1746–1827) pedagogical attitudes and changes in the educational system of the Kingdom of Prussia. These changes were driven by changing attitudes towards the education of young people from the lower social stratum. Elementary schools and teachers’ seminaries were paying more attention to the musical education of young people. The aim of this article is to identify, register, and describe the hymnbooks of Prussian Lithuanian schools and surinkimai (home-prayer service) as well as other Protestant books published in Prussian Lithuania in the second half of the nineteenth century, in which the melodies of hymns are given in numbers. The article presents the reconstruction of a number of melodies and their transcription in modern musical notation. The melodies reconstructed are those to which the compilers of the books added musical explanations.