Old traditions in new vestments: Musical and textual reworkings in the performing practices of liturgical music

Musical genres have developed, changed, and transformed over time. Some of them, even if they existed in the same period, were perhaps strictly separated, but the others were connected more than we would assume regarding their function and form. The genres of some seemingly incompatible traditions of completely different origins met in time because they found themselves in a common function. Such traditions in Slovenian territory during the time between the Council of Trent and the end of the eighteenth century included liturgical plainchant and music originating in secular, even profane, genres such as opera, which was of more recent origin. In the eighteenth century—if not before—they met in the liturgy, with the same texts and in the same function. Plainchant music of that time usually continues or reworks older tradition, but in the case of secular music textual and sometimes musical reworkings can be found. Both genres of music were probably known to listeners, each from a different context: one from the liturgical, the other from the profane context; one genre was the most sacred, while the other was probably the most secular; one had the patina of tradition, the other excitement of novelty. How could such different musical styles exist and coexist under a common liturgical cover?

This unusual pair is the subject of the proposed project, which studies the performance practice of two different musical traditions that can be found in liturgical “vestments” (i.e., reworkings) in the time between the Council of Trent and the end of the eighteenth century in the territory of what is today Slovenia. The main repertoire studied is post‐Medieval chant, for which many sources are preserved and which can be observed throughout the whole time in question, as a tradition with possible further reworkings. A contrasting, even opposite tradition to this “most ecclesiastical” one, the tradition of reworkings of the (perhaps most) “profane music” (such as opera compositions), serves for the comparison. The project attempts to answer the following questions: what the repertoire of Modern Era plainchant from Slovenian territory was; where, how, and in which context it was written down; and when, how, in which context, and by whom it was performed. At the same time, it tries to establish possible connections with other musical genres, especially with the hitherto unknown profane music reworked for liturgical use. It also aims to discover parallels of this segment of musical life in Slovenia in the music from other European countries, where similar research is becoming ever more frequent.

The research focuses on the sources used within Slovenian territory and preserved in Slovenia or abroad. They will be analyzed, catalogued, and categorized, and the results of this analytical work will enable comparisons between both repertoires. Later, comparisons will be carried out in a broader European (especially central European) context, because comparable European sources will be viewed side-by-side. We are explicitly interested in roles of both traditions in the liturgy, their performance practice, and their probable stylistic differences. Implicitly, the project will raise questions about the relationships between the sacred and profane in music of a certain period, between the original and its reworking, and between the text and music in the original piece as well as in its reworking.