Project Details
Projekt
Subproject 5: Te Deum laudamus. Early Modern Inauguration and Ruling Ceremonies in the Ancient Empire and Rome as Events of Spiritual Intermediality
Applicants
Professor Dr. Markus Friedrich; Professor Dr. Sebastian Holzbrecher; Professor Dr. Oliver Huck
Subject Area
Early Modern History
Roman Catholic Theology
Musicology
Roman Catholic Theology
Musicology
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 435118611
The aim of subproject 5 is to research the intermedial design of early modern Te Deum events at the interface of spiritual and secular contextualizations with historical, musicological, and ecclesiastical-historical expertise. The concept “Te Deum event” expresses the fact that the focus is less on the text of the hymn as such (i.e., its tradition, form, and theological message), which has been known since the sixth century, but more so – according to the research unit’s (FOR’s) approach – on its changeable (inter)medial manifestation in text, music, space, and staging. The commissioning and performance of Te Deum in the context of public occasions reveals a communicative interest, creating horizontal community and enabling vertical communication between those who offer praise and the one praised. Te Deum events can have different purposes. They can be liturgical-praising, acclamatory-thanking, legal-legitimizing, and communicative-affirming. In view of the omnipresence of Te Deum events in the early modern period, the wealth of available material will be examined along three axes to provide a pragmatic and systematic approach. First, we observe the role of Te Deum in a (liturgically and dogmatically prominent) ecclesiastical location (Rome). Second, the functionalization of Te Deum for a (politically and culturally prominent) secular setting (dynastic occasions and coronation celebrations). Third, the inherent logic and the formative power of the most important element of the intermediality (music) in the decisive formation phase in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, in which the basic distinction between a “sung” and a “musical” Te Deum was established. This holds also true of the integration of the sonorous presence of trumpets as insignia of power in musical performances. The central research questions include: What are the characteristics of a spiritual-intermedial use of the hymn, and what are the medial specifics of secular use? How do the different functionalizations relate to ecclesiastical and secular occasions, and how do they correspond to different intermedial stagings? What communicative, communalizing, and identity-creating intentions underlay the intermedia stagings? Were there shifts in the use and function of Te Deum that can be interpreted as indicators of changes in the relationship between the spiritual and secular spheres? How is the design of intermediality constructed, specifically the decision for certain musical options or for certain spatial or physical arrangements? To answer these questions, researchers will catalogue and analyze manuscript sources from archives of state and ecclesiastical provenance in Rome, Austria, and Germany as well as printed descriptions of festivities.
DFG Programme
Research Units
