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The Soundscape of Early Modern Catholicism
This research project investigates the rich
and diverse soundscape of early modern Catholicism. Its songs, its silences, its noises.
Challenging elitist perspectives and working on a vast array of documents, I try to balance everyday life experiences and less easily accessible experiences of sound, in order to provide an interpretation of real and virtual sonic cultures:
How central were those experiences in Catholic life? What role did they play in the construction of identity, community, and tradition? What was the ideal soundscape envisaged by the Church? And how did it interact with the sonic reality of the time?
The main focus of the project is on Southern Europe in the period c. 1550–1650, but I also consider other areas and longue durée phenomena (c. 1500–1750).
Challenging elitist perspectives and working on a vast array of documents, I try to balance everyday life experiences and less easily accessible experiences of sound, in order to provide an interpretation of real and virtual sonic cultures:
How central were those experiences in Catholic life? What role did they play in the construction of identity, community, and tradition? What was the ideal soundscape envisaged by the Church? And how did it interact with the sonic reality of the time?
The main focus of the project is on Southern Europe in the period c. 1550–1650, but I also consider other areas and longue durée phenomena (c. 1500–1750).
General presentations of the project: ‘The soundscape of early modern Catholicism’, Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin, 31 January 2014;
‘Rewinding the tape of history: Everyday sonic reality in early modern Europe’, Junior Scholars in Conversation, Boston College, Boston (Mass.), 20 March 2013, and at the Thresholds Seminar, Boston College, Boston (Mass.), 30 April 2013; ‘Remapping the soundscape of early modern Catholicism’, the Jesuit Institute, Boston College, Boston (Mass.), 23 April 2013.
‘Rewinding the tape of history: Everyday sonic reality in early modern Europe’, Junior Scholars in Conversation, Boston College, Boston (Mass.), 20 March 2013, and at the Thresholds Seminar, Boston College, Boston (Mass.), 30 April 2013; ‘Remapping the soundscape of early modern Catholicism’, the Jesuit Institute, Boston College, Boston (Mass.), 23 April 2013.
The Sung Catechism
This line of research focuses on one of the most remarkable, and least studied, aspects of early modern Catholic soundscape: the teaching of the catechism through songs. The main source I examine is Michel Coyssard’s Traicté du profit (1608). This Jesuit was a key figure in the adoption of vernacular poetry and singing as tools for the teaching of Christian doctrine in France. His treatise is one of the most substantial methodological reflections on the subject: it shows Coyssard’s remarkable awareness of past and present practices in this field, and includes both practical guidelines and theoretical reflections. I use it as a gateway to this complex phenomenon.
Conference papers: ‘“Catechismum modulans docebat”: Teaching the doctrine through singing in early modern Catholicism’. Paper presented at the conference Listening to Early Modern Catholicism: New Perspectives from Musicology, Boston College, 14-16 July 2014.
Publications: ‘A sound doctrine. Early modern Jesuits and the singing of the catechism’, in Early Music History 34, 2015, 1-43.
This line of research focuses on one of the most remarkable, and least studied, aspects of early modern Catholic soundscape: the teaching of the catechism through songs. The main source I examine is Michel Coyssard’s Traicté du profit (1608). This Jesuit was a key figure in the adoption of vernacular poetry and singing as tools for the teaching of Christian doctrine in France. His treatise is one of the most substantial methodological reflections on the subject: it shows Coyssard’s remarkable awareness of past and present practices in this field, and includes both practical guidelines and theoretical reflections. I use it as a gateway to this complex phenomenon.
Conference papers: ‘“Catechismum modulans docebat”: Teaching the doctrine through singing in early modern Catholicism’. Paper presented at the conference Listening to Early Modern Catholicism: New Perspectives from Musicology, Boston College, 14-16 July 2014.
Publications: ‘A sound doctrine. Early modern Jesuits and the singing of the catechism’, in Early Music History 34, 2015, 1-43.
The Soundscape of European Missions
This line of research deals with another crucial phenomenon of early modern Catholicism: the implementation of a wide-reaching missionary strategy throughout Europe, variously known under the names of internal or popular missions. I concentrate on the sonic dimension of popular missions. I rely mainly on two sources, both by Jesuit authors and both referring to Italian missions: S. Paolucci’s Missioni de padri della Compagnia di Giesu nel Regno di Napoli (Naples, 1651) and M.A. Franchini’s Pratica delle missioni del padre Paolo Segneri della Compagnia di Gesù (Venice, 1714). _
Academic lectures: University College Dublin, School of Music, January 2014, ‘Echoes of Heaven and Hell: The sound of early modern popular missions’.
Conference papers: ‘Sound, experience, and identity in the popular missions of early modern Jesuits’. Paper presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, New York, 27-29 March 2014.
This line of research deals with another crucial phenomenon of early modern Catholicism: the implementation of a wide-reaching missionary strategy throughout Europe, variously known under the names of internal or popular missions. I concentrate on the sonic dimension of popular missions. I rely mainly on two sources, both by Jesuit authors and both referring to Italian missions: S. Paolucci’s Missioni de padri della Compagnia di Giesu nel Regno di Napoli (Naples, 1651) and M.A. Franchini’s Pratica delle missioni del padre Paolo Segneri della Compagnia di Gesù (Venice, 1714). _
Academic lectures: University College Dublin, School of Music, January 2014, ‘Echoes of Heaven and Hell: The sound of early modern popular missions’.
Conference papers: ‘Sound, experience, and identity in the popular missions of early modern Jesuits’. Paper presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, New York, 27-29 March 2014.
The Soundscape of Extra-European Missions
From Asia to America, European missionaries were quick to realize that music was a powerful tool for establishing a connection with the natives, and pave the way for their conversion to Christianity. Here I investigate how music was used to support the missionary endeavor. Even though liturgy was an ambit of primary importance, my focus here, as in rest of the project, is on the extra-liturgical use of music, particularly in connection with the teaching of Christian doctrine and the fostering of spiritual life.
Conference papers: ‘Song, memory, and language in early modern missionary methods: from Europe to the Indies, and back’. Paper presented at the conference Vokalpolyphonie zwischen Alter und Neuer Welt. Musikalische Austauschprozesse zwischen Europa und Latein-amerika im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (troja Colloquium 2015), Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, 25-26 June 2015
Publications: same as above, forthcoming in troja Jahrbuch für Renaissancemusik 2015
From Asia to America, European missionaries were quick to realize that music was a powerful tool for establishing a connection with the natives, and pave the way for their conversion to Christianity. Here I investigate how music was used to support the missionary endeavor. Even though liturgy was an ambit of primary importance, my focus here, as in rest of the project, is on the extra-liturgical use of music, particularly in connection with the teaching of Christian doctrine and the fostering of spiritual life.
Conference papers: ‘Song, memory, and language in early modern missionary methods: from Europe to the Indies, and back’. Paper presented at the conference Vokalpolyphonie zwischen Alter und Neuer Welt. Musikalische Austauschprozesse zwischen Europa und Latein-amerika im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (troja Colloquium 2015), Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, 25-26 June 2015
Publications: same as above, forthcoming in troja Jahrbuch für Renaissancemusik 2015
Conflicting soundscapes
This line of research deals primarily with the areas of friction between liturgical (or officially sanctioned para-liturgical) celebrations and popular rituals. This confrontation involved different agencies and different acoustic communities, and was often reflected in a conflict between the ‘ideal’ Catholic soundscape and the sounds that threatened it (loud and unrestrained vocal emissions, laughter, dance music, and noise were the ubiquitous ingredients of these ‘popular’ intrusions). Furthermore, here I reflect on another aspect of the interaction between top-down and bottom-up instances: the relationship, virtually ignored so far by modern scholars, between the sonic inculturation carried out by the Catholic Church in the post-Tridentine era and the orally transmitted repertoires, linked to confraternities or other religious groups, still alive today (or that survived well into the twentieth century) in many parts of Southern Europe.
Conference papers: ‘Reconstructing the sonic cultures of early modern Europe: Working notes’. Paper presented at the First International ESSA Conference, “Functional Sounds”, Berlin, Humboldt Universität, 4-6 October 2013;
’Performing God’s score amidst the noise of the world: The soundscape of early modern Catholicism’. Paper presented in tele-conference at the interdisciplinary symposium Early Modern Soundscape, Bangor University, 24-25 April 2014.
This line of research deals primarily with the areas of friction between liturgical (or officially sanctioned para-liturgical) celebrations and popular rituals. This confrontation involved different agencies and different acoustic communities, and was often reflected in a conflict between the ‘ideal’ Catholic soundscape and the sounds that threatened it (loud and unrestrained vocal emissions, laughter, dance music, and noise were the ubiquitous ingredients of these ‘popular’ intrusions). Furthermore, here I reflect on another aspect of the interaction between top-down and bottom-up instances: the relationship, virtually ignored so far by modern scholars, between the sonic inculturation carried out by the Catholic Church in the post-Tridentine era and the orally transmitted repertoires, linked to confraternities or other religious groups, still alive today (or that survived well into the twentieth century) in many parts of Southern Europe.
Conference papers: ‘Reconstructing the sonic cultures of early modern Europe: Working notes’. Paper presented at the First International ESSA Conference, “Functional Sounds”, Berlin, Humboldt Universität, 4-6 October 2013;
’Performing God’s score amidst the noise of the world: The soundscape of early modern Catholicism’. Paper presented in tele-conference at the interdisciplinary symposium Early Modern Soundscape, Bangor University, 24-25 April 2014.
The Sounds of Processions
In this area of research, I intend to shed light on the sonic phenomenology of early modern processions, and at the same time to stimulate reflections that apply to a much broader range of events. To do so, I study a sermon delivered in Vienna in 1588 by a distinguished Jesuit preacher, Georg Scherer. Scherer’s “Sermon for the feast and procession of Corpus Christi”, integrated with other sources (notably the homilies of another contemporary preacher, Juan de Avila) can be read as a sort of general theory of multimedia in early modern Catholicism.
In this area of research, I intend to shed light on the sonic phenomenology of early modern processions, and at the same time to stimulate reflections that apply to a much broader range of events. To do so, I study a sermon delivered in Vienna in 1588 by a distinguished Jesuit preacher, Georg Scherer. Scherer’s “Sermon for the feast and procession of Corpus Christi”, integrated with other sources (notably the homilies of another contemporary preacher, Juan de Avila) can be read as a sort of general theory of multimedia in early modern Catholicism.
The Mass as Sonic Experience
In this line of research I try to answer questions such as: What kind of sonic experience was the Mass in the early modern era? And what role did the sonic play in the dynamics of participation, of individual and collective involvement in the Eucharistic celebration? I explore the precept of hearing the Mass, as discussed by various early modern authors such as the Jesuit Georg Gobat (1600-1679) and the Augustinian Cherubino Ghirardacci (1518/19-1598) – in this connection I also touch on the problem of the interior participation of musicians in the Mass. I also examine some of the proposed solutions and try to understand “what people did” during the celebration, considering, among others, some examples of sonically relevant practices.
Conference papers: ‘Reconstructing the sonic cultures of early modern Europe: Working notes’. Paper presented at the First International ESSA Conference, “Functional Sounds”, Berlin, Humboldt Universität, 4-6 October 2013;
‘“Audire Missam non est verba missae intelligere…”, or: What Did the Duke Do During the Mass?’ Paper presented at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference, Brussels, 6-9 July 2015.
In this line of research I try to answer questions such as: What kind of sonic experience was the Mass in the early modern era? And what role did the sonic play in the dynamics of participation, of individual and collective involvement in the Eucharistic celebration? I explore the precept of hearing the Mass, as discussed by various early modern authors such as the Jesuit Georg Gobat (1600-1679) and the Augustinian Cherubino Ghirardacci (1518/19-1598) – in this connection I also touch on the problem of the interior participation of musicians in the Mass. I also examine some of the proposed solutions and try to understand “what people did” during the celebration, considering, among others, some examples of sonically relevant practices.
Conference papers: ‘Reconstructing the sonic cultures of early modern Europe: Working notes’. Paper presented at the First International ESSA Conference, “Functional Sounds”, Berlin, Humboldt Universität, 4-6 October 2013;
‘“Audire Missam non est verba missae intelligere…”, or: What Did the Duke Do During the Mass?’ Paper presented at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference, Brussels, 6-9 July 2015.
Between Body and Soul: Devotional songs and spiritual practices
My aim here is that of opening a discussion on the consumption of devotional music in early modern Catholicism: how did music helped individuals to express their religious experiences? how did spiritual songs work as models and vehicles of prayer? was music a mere sonic support for the words, or could it be a source, or trigger, of more intense and complex experiences?
Conference papers: ’Meditar cantando: Agostino Manni, la Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo e la spiritualità filippina’. Paper presented at the conference 1515-2015: V Centenario della nascita di Filippo Neri, un santo dell’Età moderna, Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, 16-17 September 2015.
My aim here is that of opening a discussion on the consumption of devotional music in early modern Catholicism: how did music helped individuals to express their religious experiences? how did spiritual songs work as models and vehicles of prayer? was music a mere sonic support for the words, or could it be a source, or trigger, of more intense and complex experiences?
Conference papers: ’Meditar cantando: Agostino Manni, la Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo e la spiritualità filippina’. Paper presented at the conference 1515-2015: V Centenario della nascita di Filippo Neri, un santo dell’Età moderna, Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, 16-17 September 2015.
The Sonic Like of a Prelate: Carlo Borromeo
This line of research aims at reconstructing the ‘sonic life’ of one exemplary figure of early modern Catholicism: the archbishop of Milan, Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584). In musicological contexts, Borromeo is invariably associated with a fixed set of topics: the ‘textual intelligibility’ issue, the liturgical repercussions of his ecclesiastical reforms, and so on. This stereotyped view has obscured many other aspects of Borromeo’s experience of music. Following clues contained in recent interdisciplinary literature on the Milanese scene, and browsing through Carlo’s early biographies and other documents, I try to give a much more vivid and accurate account of the future saint’s sonic life. His music therapy sessions as a (worn out) student in Pavia, the musical homages he received during his life and after his death, the letters documenting his policies in recruiting musicians, the impressive details about the Milanese soundscape given by his biographers, all suggest that the relationship between this influential figure and the musical civilization of his time was rich and complex, well beyond the clichés.
Conference papers:
Publications: ‘Carlo Borromeo and Tomás Luis de Victoria: A Gift, Two Letters and a Recruiting Campaign.’ Early Music 43, no. 1 (2015) : 37-51;
‘Carlo Borromeo e la musica, “a lui naturalmente grata”.’ In Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Musica Sacra (Roma, 26 maggio - 1 giugno 2011). Edited by Antonio Addamiano and Francesco Luisi. 3 vols. Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2: 665-676.
This line of research aims at reconstructing the ‘sonic life’ of one exemplary figure of early modern Catholicism: the archbishop of Milan, Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584). In musicological contexts, Borromeo is invariably associated with a fixed set of topics: the ‘textual intelligibility’ issue, the liturgical repercussions of his ecclesiastical reforms, and so on. This stereotyped view has obscured many other aspects of Borromeo’s experience of music. Following clues contained in recent interdisciplinary literature on the Milanese scene, and browsing through Carlo’s early biographies and other documents, I try to give a much more vivid and accurate account of the future saint’s sonic life. His music therapy sessions as a (worn out) student in Pavia, the musical homages he received during his life and after his death, the letters documenting his policies in recruiting musicians, the impressive details about the Milanese soundscape given by his biographers, all suggest that the relationship between this influential figure and the musical civilization of his time was rich and complex, well beyond the clichés.
Conference papers:
Publications: ‘Carlo Borromeo and Tomás Luis de Victoria: A Gift, Two Letters and a Recruiting Campaign.’ Early Music 43, no. 1 (2015) : 37-51;
‘Carlo Borromeo e la musica, “a lui naturalmente grata”.’ In Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Musica Sacra (Roma, 26 maggio - 1 giugno 2011). Edited by Antonio Addamiano and Francesco Luisi. 3 vols. Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2: 665-676.
The Soundscape of the Afterworld
Early modern Catholicism inherited the far from obvious idea of a sonic afterworld (the harmonious music of Heaven, the harrowing noise of Hell) from earlier Christian tradition. Contemporary soundscape-building policies were deeply influenced by this idea. Two opposite paradigms loom: the City of God, whose soundscape is characterized by a perpetual, exultant liturgy performed by angels and saints (strongly reminiscent of the Apocalypse), and the “horrible and darcke Cittie” of Hell, a hideous environment invaded by disorder and noise, where all human sonic experiences are perverted. These models served as archetypes and symbolic referents, and the processes resulting from the interaction between real and ideal soundscapes influenced many aspects of Catholic sonic experience.
Publications: ‘Sonic Afterworld. Mapping the Soundscape of Heaven and Hell in Early Modern Cities.’ In Cultural Histories of Noise, Sound and Listening in Europe, 1300-1918. Edited by Ian D. Biddle and Kirsten Gibson. Routledge, in press (due June 2016).
Early modern Catholicism inherited the far from obvious idea of a sonic afterworld (the harmonious music of Heaven, the harrowing noise of Hell) from earlier Christian tradition. Contemporary soundscape-building policies were deeply influenced by this idea. Two opposite paradigms loom: the City of God, whose soundscape is characterized by a perpetual, exultant liturgy performed by angels and saints (strongly reminiscent of the Apocalypse), and the “horrible and darcke Cittie” of Hell, a hideous environment invaded by disorder and noise, where all human sonic experiences are perverted. These models served as archetypes and symbolic referents, and the processes resulting from the interaction between real and ideal soundscapes influenced many aspects of Catholic sonic experience.
Publications: ‘Sonic Afterworld. Mapping the Soundscape of Heaven and Hell in Early Modern Cities.’ In Cultural Histories of Noise, Sound and Listening in Europe, 1300-1918. Edited by Ian D. Biddle and Kirsten Gibson. Routledge, in press (due June 2016).