Receptions of French Liturgical Music in Central Europe in the High Middle Ages

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Konstantin Voigt
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 531057846

The widespread presence of liturgical music of French origin in high medieval Central Europe is a hitherto not systematically researched aspect of music history before 1300. However, this aspect is highly relevant for understanding mobility and transfer, for locating the liturgical culture of Central Europe, and for understanding later imprints. Its development promises a better understanding of the processes from which the specific profile of Central European music of the late Middle Ages emerged and will help to re-evaluate concepts of periphery and center. Prague appears as a key site of French cultural import long before the networks of the Luxembourg-dynasty became established in the 14th century: the troper of Dean Vitus, acquired for Prague Cathedral in 1235, transmits French ordinary-tropes, and the processionals of Prague's St. George's Monastery contain benedicamus of Aquitanian and Northern French origin. Concordances have also been recognized in troped lessons, sequences, planctus, and office chants. Beyond Prague, liturgical music of French origin is also found in Olomouc as well as in other places with close ties to Bohemia, such as the Poor Clares of Stary Sącz and Cistercian monasteries in Silesia. How, why, and when these chants, which originated west of the Rhine, were introduced into Central Europe requires further investigation. Recent research points to actors such as the Bishop of Olomouc, Robert (tenure 1202 -1240), whose political and intellectual influence combined with his English origins and French socialization may explain the import of French repertoire. However, monastic networks, especially those of the Cistercians, also emerge as rout of transfer, which requires more detailed investigation, including both musicological work and interdisciplinary discourse with historians, literary scholars and art historians. Determining the extent, routes, and consequences of the receptions of French music in Central Europe before 1300 and situating these findings in their cultural-historical contexts is the goal of the project. For this purpose, concordances will be evaluated in their pan-European context and previously neglected manuscripts will be made accessible. In addition to Prague sources, the focus is primarily on Cistercian manuscripts from various places of origin. Moreover, since a large part of the French repertoires around 1100 belong to new idioms of liturgical chant with texts in verse form ("New Song", "New Sequence"), the question of influence of theses idioms on early Bohemian cantiones arises beyond the concordances. The results are made available in an interdisciplinary thematic monograph, a dissertation, and articles.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Czech Republic
• Cooperation Partner: Hana Vlhová-Wörner, Ph.D.