Musical stylistics of church carols (to the issue of updating the discipline “Folk Musical Creativity”)

The article considers the religious carols as part of the modern Christmas holidays, including the performance of them during rites walking with “Vertep”, “Shopka”, “Koza”, “Malanka” etc. It is traced over the processes of implementation of songs of this genre in traditional folk music culture. Attention is paid to the history of the origin to religious carols, their authorship and transformation processes that occurred to them duringthe last few centuries. It is anlysed church carols, rhythmic forms of their verse and melodies, their folklore and musical forms, the types of melodic formation, and modal and sound row structure. It is defined the ways to perform the songs of this genre and adapt them into the local folk traditions.