Musik vor 1600 - 180629_chemotti
29. Juni 2018, 15:30 Uhr
Dr. Antonio Chemotti
(HERA Project »Sound Memories«, Universität Warschau)

Musical past and regionalism in early modern Silesia:
the hymnbook of Valentin Triller (Wrocław 1555)


Always a borderland territory, Silesia was a meeting point for different ethnic groups, cultures, and confessions. Tolerance between the Lutheran and Catholic parties existed side by side with confessional conflicts within the Evangelical church. Notwithstanding its multicultural and multiconfessional character, Silesia developed a strong territorial and ideological cohesion. This peculiar situation influenced artistic practices, among them music. In my contribution, I will focus on the Lutheran hymnbook »Ein Schlesich [!] singebüchlein«, published in Wrocław in 1555. Curiously, the hymnbook avoids the usual ›Lutheran‹ hymn repertoire, and instead relies on a more peculiar and markedly retrospective repertoire. I will argue that the characteristics of the hymnbook’s paratexts and content are representative of a specific Silesian ›regionalism‹ (intended as regional consciousness), and they mirror the theological debate within the Silesian evangelical church. Analysis of the polyphonic hymns will also serve to address the reasons behind the survival of ›archaic‹ repertoires (a common phenomenon also in other central European regions), the ways of their circulation beyond borders and confessions, and their role in shaping religious and regional identities.