Bokshaj’s Cerkovnoje Prostopinije is the most prolific anthology of Carpatho-Rusyn Plain Chant or Prostopinije and the oldest complete work of its kind in modern western musical notation. It is one of the most extensive and standard sources for Carpatho-Rusyn ecclesiastical music. It began as a turn of the twentieth century project, in the Diocese of Mukachevo, to both record and standardize the various Subcarpathian chant melodies. Prior to this, plain chant music was either written in old square notation, or often, was simply passed down by oral tradition, from master chanter to chanter, and varied by region. Some pieces were based on old ecclesiastical music not dissimilar to Galician, Znameny, or even Byzantine chant (for example the first irmos of the Nativity Canon), and some, analogous to trends observable in Romanian plain chant, was occasionally based on folk melodies, especially as seen in the Divine Liturgy and polychronion.

The Prostopinije was intended to, if not replace regional vernacular traditions, at the very least create a standard, which it achieved rather successfully.

The project began as a result of the call of Bishop Julius Firczak of Mukachevo, in 1899, to raise the standard of divine music in the diocese.

The monumental work was composed by the canon of the Uzhhorod Cathedral, father Ioann Bokshaj, who had a musical background, with the help of the head cathedral chanter Iosif Malinich.

An interesting fact was that Malinich, as was typical for senior chanters (the equivalent of a protopsaltis in the Greek world), knew the music masterfully by heart, but could not read or write music. As noted, these types of chanters, especially in rural regions, often learned through years and decades of chanting with a master, with whom they may very well be related, and often simply knew the local melodies by ear and long practice, as passed down, without needing to read music. As a result, Bokshaj sat down and Malinich sung all of the melodies for him, and Bokshaj recorded in standard western musical notation what he had heard. The result was this magnificent key work which became the gold standard for Carpatho-Rusyn plain chant since it’s publication in 1906.