Kriuki — "Hooks", the common term for the neumatic musical notation used by the pre-Nikonian Russian Orthodox Church. The "hooks" are written in black ink above the text of the hymns. (from synaxis.info/azbuka/4_calligraphy/Glossary.html).

Website with tutorial and more information [html]

Αναστασιματάριο σε σημειογραφία Κριούκι / Anastasimatarion in Kriuki notation [pdf, 70 Mb]
Xειρόγραφο Αναστασιματάριο σε παλαιά Σλαβονική σημειογραφία Κριούκι (από ortodoxmedia.com)
A manuscript Anastasimatarion in kriuki (old Slavonic) notation scanned by Romanian nuns from Stavropoleos Monastery from Bucharest (from ortodoxmedia.com)

S. Reynolds:
The ms doesn't look really ancient; the forms of the kriuki are those of the last four centuries, more or less--those still in use today.

S. Reynolds:

There are indeed books, although I will have to do a bit of rummaging around to see if there is anything currently in print in English (possibly in Greek?). The Old Believers in Riga have put out recently an excellent book on the kriuki and related topics, but of course it's all in Russian, and moreover has not a single note of staff notation to explain to most of the rest of the world just what the verbal descriptions mean. It would be useful to have this in an English translation and with transcriptions to the staff, but the market would be limited and there is little prospect that it will ever be done. Here is a list of publications:

Mezenets, Aleksandr Stremmoukhov. _Azbuka znamennago peniia (Izvreshenie o so-glasneishikh pometakh)._ Ed. with commentary by Stepan Smolenskii. Kazan: Ti-pografiia Imperatorskago Universiteta i tipo-litografiia N. Danilova, 1888. 132 pp + 13 pp of tables.

Smolenskii, Stepan Vasil'evich. _Palaographischer Atlas der altrussischen linienlosen Gesangsnotation._ Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Abhandlungen, neue Folge, Vol. 80. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1976. (Originally printed in 1886 without title, subsequently given the title _Snimki s pevcheskikh rukopisei k opisanie [neizdannomu] solovetskikh rukopisei._)

O drevne-russkikh pevcheskikh notatsiiakh: Istoriko-paleograficheskii ocherk St. Smolenskago, chitannyi v Obshchestve l'ubitelei drevnei pis'mennosti, 27 ianvari 1901 goda._ Pamiatniki drevnei pis'mennosti i iskusstva, 143. St Petersburg: I. N. Skorokhodov, 1901. 120 pp.

Riesemann, Oskar von. _Die Notation des alt-russischen Kirchengesanges._ Publikationen der Internationalen musikgesellschaft, Beihefte, 2. Folge, Heft 8. Moscow: Synodal Buchdrukerei, 1908; Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hartel, 1909. x + 108 + xvii pp.

Panoff, Peter. _Die altslavische Volks- und Kirchenmusik._ Wildpark-Potsdam: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion m. b. H., 1929; reprint edn: New York: Musurgia Publishers, 1949. 31 pp. „Das altrussische einstimmige Kirchenlied ‚Znamenny Rospev", pp. 13-31.

Gardner, Johann von, and Erwin Koschmieder, eds. Lein handschriftliches Lehrbuch der altrussischen Neumenschrift._ Three volumes. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Part 1. _Text._ Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Abhandlungen, neue Folge, Vol. 57. 1963. xix + 330 pp., 19 plates.
Part 2. _Kommentar zum Zeichensystem._ Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Abhandlungen, neue Folge, Vol. 62. 1966. [viii] + 59 pp., 2 plates.
Part 3. _Kommentar zum Tropen- und Schlusselformen-System._ Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Abhandlungen, neue Folge, Vol. 68. 1972. 288 pp.

Floros, Konstantin. _Universale Neumenkunde._ 3 vols. Kassel-Wilhelmsh‏ohe: Barenreiter–Verlag, 1970
(Vol. 1: Entzifferung der altesten byzantinischer Neumenschriften und der altslavischen sematischen Notationen; das modale System der byzantinischen Kirchenmusik; Beitrage zur Geschichte der byzantinischen Kirchendichtung.
Vol. 2: Ursprung und Deutung der lateinischen Neumen; Beitrage zur Figurenlehre und Rhythmik des gregorianischen Chorals; die byzantinichen Herkunft des lateinischen Dodekaechos.
Vol. 3: Die byzantinischen, slavischen, und gregorianischen Tonfiguren und Formeln; Dokumentation.)

_Einf‏‏‎uhrung in die Neumenkunde._ Taschenbucher der Musikwis-senschaft 60. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen's Verlag, 1980. ISBN 3795901316. 213 pp.

_Introduction to Early Mediaeval Notation._ (A translation of _Einf‏‏‎uhrung in die Neumenkunde._) 2nd edn, rev. & enlarged, trans. & with an illus-trated chapter on cheironomy by Neil K. Moran. Detroit Monographs in Musicol-ogy/Studies in Music no.45. Warren, Michigan; Harmonie Park Press, 2005. ISBN 0899901298. xxiv + 171 pp.

Grigor'ev, E. _Posobie po izucheniiu tserkovnago peniia i chteniia: Osnovy znamennoi sistemy, Osmoglasie i stolpovoi raspev, poglasitsy chteniia, penie na glas i podoben, spravochnik znamen, lic i fit, popevki stolpovogo raspeva._ 2nd edn, enlarged and re-vised. Riga: Rizhskaia Grebenshchikovskaia staroobriadcheskaia obshchina, 2001. 319 pp. ISBN 9984-9337-7-6

See also:

Kreuz, Inge, ed. _Die Antiphonen der Passion aus Neumenhandschriften der Altglaubigen und einen russischen Fruhdruck_. Studia slavica musicologica; Texte und Abhandlungen zur slavischen Musik und Musikgeschichte sowie Ertrage der Musikwissenschaft Osteuropas, Band 11. Berlin: Verlag Ernst Kuhn, 1997. ISBN 3928864513. 528 pp.

Sava, Stela, ed. _Die Gesange des altrussischen Oktoechos samt den Evangelien-Sticheren._ 2 vols: 1. Faksimile/Ubertragung; 2: Kommentar. Ngoma: Studien zur Volksmusik und auBereuropaischen Kunstmusik, Band 9. Munich and Salzburg: Musikverlag Emil Katzbichler, 1984. ISBN 3873973081. [xii] + [420] + vii and [vi] + 156 pp.

W. Churchill: The Mesenets book is to be found on-line at [html]. The same site also has a collection of six volumes of Znamenny chant in kriuki, which may be of some interest [htm].

But there are major issues with this edition. See the critique offered by Nikita Simmons in message 571 of the Podoben discussion group (see below).

Nikita Simmons (17 Feb. 2004): I have had several people write to me and tell me about a scanned copy of a Russian chant book with kriuki ("hook") notation at http://www.seminaria.ru/raritet/morozov.htm.

However, before people get too excited about this book and try to use it to learn how to sing according to kriuki notation, I feel obligated to speak about this book. It is volume 1 of a 6 volume set (Krug/cycle) prepared by a secular organization in the late 1800s to promote the study of Znamenny Chant. Sadly, there are MANY problems with these volumes, and I greatly discourage people from thinking that they represent the authentic chant tradition. Namely, there are severe problems with tampering of the traditional melodic structures and inaccurate notation of the neumes. Furthermore, there has been a deliberate attempt to truncate the Great Chant melodies by eliminating "Fity" (melismatic passages) that are part of the received tradition. But perhaps most disturbing about these books is a complete misunderstanding of a number of common melodic patterns, rendering the books completely useless for those who wish to learn from them.

The "Krug" (6 volume set) was not produced by Old Ritualists, although it had the financial backing of the Morozov family, a wealthy Old Believer family of merchants who controlled the textile industry in Moscow and whose icon collection formed the basis of the Tretiatov Gallery. PLEASE be advised that Old believers avoid these books as severely defective, and I encourage people to be extremely wary of them. (I have the complete collection, but I find them more of a curiosity than a resource. They are a failed experiment to revive an interest in Znamenny Chant in the broader Russian culture.)

The are also some minor problems with the Kalashnikov editions, but for better or worse these have become the accepted editions of the chant books in use among the priested Old Believers. But if one truly wants to learn authentic Znamenny, the editions of the Preobrazhensky community (a Pomortsy priestless community in Moscow) are the most accurate that one can locate in printed editions. The Preobrazhensky volumes (which were printed in the early years of the 20th century and now very difficult to find) represent the last great flourishing of the Znamenny Chant tradition in Russia during the mid- to latter-1500s; these are the products of the great singing masters unger the patronage of Tsar Ivan IV in the Alexandrov suburb of Moscow. They took their final form around 1600, and all later versions of Znamenny are a devolvement of the tradition in Great Russia.

One should also understand that the versions of Znamenny Chant that evolved outside of Muscovite Russia (especially in Ukraine and Galicia) never went through the great flourishing that happened in Moscow. Thus the Carpatho-Russian and Galician rescensions of Znamenny do not have an equivalent "Great Znamenny Chant" tradition. Their form of Znamenny is remarkably simpler, but there is no mistaking the common roots shared by all these traditions.