Recepcja Heilige Seelen-Lust Angelusa Silesiusa na rekatolizowanym Śląsku: dwa studia przypadku

Roughly around the same time when Johannes Scheffler was converting from Lutheranism to Catholicism for ideological reasons, many Lutheran inhabitants of Silesia were forced to undergo a similar process for political reasons. After the ruinous Thirty Years’ War, when religious differences often served as an excuse for new phases of the conflict, the cuius regio, eius religio principle was reinstated, resulting in many subjects of the Holy Roman Emperor being forced to, at least officially, convert to his faith. Evangelical churches were being closed by the way of committees, only to be reopened soon after, this time for the Catholic communities that, predominantly, consisted of exactly the same people. Exchange of repertoire would often take place long before the appropriate imperial decree was even issued, and afterward the newly appointed Catholic cantors would simply utilise the music left behind by their Protestant predecessors, often finding among it works of Catholic composers. Songs based on Angelus Silesius’ poetry, occurring in Protestant and Catholic songbooks alike, are, up to this day, an example of interconfessional repertoire exchange. In the early modern period, they were also sung across different religious communities, across territories affected by recatholicisation as well. Two case studies presented in the article are both focused on the reception of Angelus Silesius’ songs in such communities. The first case study deals with Martin Schneider’s print of Erster Theil Neuer Geistlicher Lieder, published in 1667 in Zacharias Schneider’s printing house in Legnica. The text contains 36 songs based on Angelus Silesius’ writings and four songs based on other authors’ works. The article contains new information regarding the biography of the composer from Jelenia Góra, as well as a discussion with the preexisting state of knowledge regarding the musical layer of these compositions and their possible contexts of performance. The other case study includes five songs based on the Angelus Silesius works from the collection Heilige Seelen-Lust with musical arrangements by a still unnamed composer. These songs come from the collection of Joannes Chrysostomus Zalaski, a cantor who worked in recatholicised churches in Prusice, Namysłów, and Brzeg in the second half of the 17th century. Presentation of the personal nature of the relationship between the soul and God, with emphasis on its nuptial nature – typically present both in the baroque Catholic religiousness and among groups such as pietists – is made not only through lyrics, but also through music. Solo vocals (with varying levels of difficulty in each song) are accompanied by a solo bowed string instrument – violin, soprano viola, or viola d’amore – the role of which is clearly decorative, exploring various tones through tuning and the use of multitones. Harmonious construction is completed by organs, in case of arrangements performed outside of the church space, likely substituted with another keyboard or string instrument. The article provides a characterisation of the songs from a musical perspective, as well as from the perspective of their historical and cultural context.