Project Details
Projekt
musica angelica et consociatio hominum cum angelis. Angelic music in sacred spaces
Subject Area
Musicology
Protestant Theology
Art History
Protestant Theology
Art History
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 435118611
This sub-project draws on combined expertise in the history of music, art, theology and piety. The aim of it is to describe the performative and iconographical arrangement of angelic music as a manifestation of intense intermediality and to investigate the amplificatory interaction between images and inscriptions found in churches and the music that resounds in these spaces. The focus of the joint research will be on the interplay of music, words and images in the Early Modern period, with special emphasis being placed on analysing the hermeneutical and eschatological relevance of this specific expression of spiritual intermediality. Particular attention will be paid to the proleptic nature of all forms of horizontal mediality in conjunction with the Early Modern belief that music would be the only ars still practised after Judgement Day. To examine intermedial representations of angelic music in churches, the project will analyse two corpora of polychoral compositions which differ in terms of their compositional technique, transmission history and the religious institution in which they were created: firstly, compositions from German-speaking Protestant regions, and secondly, Roman Catholic compositions in the Colossal Baroque style. Polychorality is understood in these works as the compositional execution of the biblical principle ‘alter ad alterum’ as a quality of angelic singing – a viewpoint we know was held by Michael Praetorius and others in the 17th century. This principle gains a spatial dimension during performances, given the musicians’ positioning inside the church, and opens up new possibilities in terms of interaction with architecture and images. To enable adequate interpretation of the musical compositions in question, the interdisciplinary collaboration will link them closely with research into the Early Modern exegesis of pertinent biblical texts in commentaries, pious literature and sermons, and in decorative motifs added to images and inscriptions on church walls. Close attention will be paid to the iconography of angels and to inscriptions found on or in the vicinity of church organs as this is where the notion that church music-making paves the way for an earthly, proleptic experience of heavenly music is openly manifested – for instance, when organ music, song and images merge into one during worship to provide a context and commentary on the music resounding in the sacred space. This sub-project will benefit considerably from its close cooperation with SP 2, 3, 4 and 6 as the representation of angels also plays a major role in Early Modern discourses on love, in meditational literature, sacred operas and in textual and visual representations of fascination and ecstasy. The group’s research findings will be published in two monographs and four articles, three of which will be jointly written by all of the members.
DFG Programme
Research Units
