Between liturgy and theatre : the Jesuit Lenten meditations from the Baroque Silesia

Vol.49,No.1(2014)

Tomasz Jeż

https://doi.org/10.5817/MB2014-1-16

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/130216

PDF
Abstract
The pastoral practice of Jesuits in early modern Silesia involved a variety of cultural experiences. Its objective was to influence and transform the religious life of diverse social circles. In order to fulfill their purposes, they used different strategies both adopted from the tradition and newly invented ones. One of the fields of their experiments was music, which served both to enrich various forms of the liturgy and to strengthen the persuasiveness of various genres of Jesuit school drama. Both trends interfered in the hybrid form of the Lenten meditations, organized by Marian Sodalities and served to those communities. The meditationes quadragesimales paradoxically combined elements of the liturgical worship with theatre performance. Its keystone was the concepts of compositio loci and applicatio sensuum borrowed from Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. Both methods served for the sensual representation of the spiritual themes and their meditation, presented for the community but carried on by its individuals. Its social impact was extremely large, because of its synesthethic poetics, which combined language, visual, movement, design and music elements. The perception of such multimedia repraesentatio should develop in the audience the ability of describing and controlling their own emotions. Of equal importance was the rhetorical form of presentation itself, which encouraged the addressees to identify with the presented contents. Music performed in this context revealed features of as well liturgical like the theatre actions. The combining of the rhythms of liturgical life with the community-building scenic activities associated with the different periodic forms of music architectonics. Librettos of Silesian meditationes preserved in Wrocław University Library juxtaposed to some compositions connected to this practice confirms the key role of music there. For the participants of meditationes the music was a medium of rhetorically amplified affect, coded (as affectus musicus) and received on the level of the receiver's psyche. Its purpose was to interiorize the message and to retain it in the man's volitive sphere.

Keywords:
Jesuits; music; meditations; confraternities; passion music

Pages:
261–273
References

BREUER, Dieter. Der Zodiacus Laetofatalis des Bartholomäus Christelius SJ und die jesuitische Meditationsliteratur. In Bohemia Jesuitica 1556–2006. Eds. CEMUS, Petronila. Praha: Karolinum, 2010, p. 793–803.

ERLACH, Thomas. Unterhaltung und Belehrung im Jesuitentheater um 1700: Untersuchungen zu Musik, Text und Kontext ausgewählter Stücke. Essen: Die Blaue Eule, 2006.

HOFFMANN, Hermann. Die Jesuiten in Oppeln. Die Tätigkeit der Jesuiten in d. Fürstentümern Oppeln u. Ratibor, den Standesherrschaften Beuthen und Pleß, in Oberglogau und Ziemientzitz, in Oppeln Tarnowitz und Piekar, in den Volksmissionen und den neuen Niederlassungen (Zur schlesischen Kirchengeschichte, 8). Breslau: Frankes Verlag, Otto Borgemeyer 1934.

JEŻ, Tomasz. Kultura muzyczna jezuitów na Śląsku i ziemi kłodzkiej (1581–1776). Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Sub Lupa, 2013.

KAPSA, Václav. Jesuiten komponieren. Bemerkungen zu den erhaltenen Kompositionen der böhmischen Jesuiten. In. Aurora Musas nutrit – Die Jesuiten und die Kultur Mitteleuropas im 16.– 18. Jahrhundert. Acta conventus, Bratislavae 26.–29. Septembris 2007. Eds. KAČIC, Ladislav, ZAVARSKÝ, Svorad. Bratislava: Slavistický ústav Jána Stanislava SAV, Teologická fakulta Trnavskej univerzity, 2008, p. 193–208, here p. 196–198.

LANG, Franz. Theatrum affectuum humanorum, sive considerationes morales ad scenam accomodatae… München: Mathias Riedl 1717.

LANG, Franz. Theatrum doloris et amoris sive considerationes mysteriarum Chrtisti patientis… München: Mathias Riedl 1717.

LANG, Franz. Theatrum solitudinis asceticae, sive doctrinae morales per considerationes melodicas ad normam S. Exercitiorum S. P. Ignatii compositae… München: Mathias Riedl 1717.

MAGNIEZ, Anne-Claire. Des Exercices spirituels théâtralisés et musicaux. L'exemple du Theatrum Solitudinis Asceticae de Franciscus Lang SJ (1717). In Aurora Musas nutrit – Die Jesuiten und die Kultur Mitteleuropas im 16.–18. Jahrhundert. Acta conventus, Bratislavae 26.–29. Septembris 2007. Eds. KAČIC, Ladislav, ZAVARSKÝ, Svorad. Bratislava: Slavistický ústav Jána Stanislava SAV, Teologická fakulta Trnavskej univerzity, 2008, p. 135–144.

MAŇAS, Vladimír. Hudební aktivity náboženských korporací na Moravě v raném novověku. Disertační práce, Ústav hudební vědy Filozofické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity, Brno 2008.

MASEN, Jakob. Palaestra eloquentiae ligatae dramatica… Köln: Johannes Busaeus, 1657.

ORLITA, Zdeněk. Postní a velikonoční období v praxi olomouckých jezuitských sodalit v druhé polovině 17. století. Časopis Matice moravské, 2006, vol. 125, no. 1, p. 53–76.

SAMMER, Marianne. Die Fastenmeditation. Gattungstheoretische Grundlegung und kulturgeschichtlicher Kontext. München: tuduv 1996 (Kulturgeschichtliche Forschungen 22. Ed. MOSER, Dietz-Rüdiger).

SCHMIDL, Johann. Historiae Societatis Jesu provinciae Bohemiae… Praha, 1754.

SCHNITZLER, Henry. The Jesuit Contribution to the Theatre. Educational Theatre Journal, 1952, vol. 4, no. 4. p. 283–292. | DOI 10.2307/3204009

STECZEK, Bogusław, KOŁACZ, Jakub (eds). Konstytucje Towarzystwa Jezusowego wraz z przypisami Kongregacji Generalnej XXIV oraz Normy uzupełniające zatwierdzone przez tę samą Kongregację. Kraków: Wydawnictwo WAM, Warszawa: Polskie Prowincje Towarzystwa Jezusowego, 2006.

TROLDA, Emilián. Jesuité a hudba. Cyril, 1940, vol. LXVI, nos. 5–6, p. 53–57, 1940, vol. LXVI, nos. 7–8, p. 73–78; 1941, vol. LXVII, nos. 1–2, p. 2–10, 1941, vol. LXVII, nos. 3–4, p. 42–46, 1941, vol. LXVII, nos. 5–6, p. 53–63, 1941, vol. LXVII, nos. 7–10, p. 106–108.

VALENTIN, Jean Marie. Les jésuites et le théâtre (1554–1680). Contribution à l'histoire culturelle du monde catholique dans le Saint-Empire romain germanique. Ed. BEHAR, Pierre, Paris: Desjonquères, 2001.

Metrics

2

Crossref logo

0

web of science logo

18

Views

0

PDF views

PDF