Music, Drama, and Religion: Sepolcri in Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy

The tradition of performing oratorios in front of the Holy Sepulchre (Santo Sepolcro) began in Italy, before spreading across Catholic central Europe. This tradition was first adopted at the court in Vienna in 1660 and continues to this day. However, the tradition of performing at the Holy Sepulchre during the Triduum sacrum – from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday – which gradually became established, was far from restricted to the Imperial court, with aristocrats, monasteries and churches also initiating such events. Because of the ban on performing operas and stage plays during the season of Lent in the 18th century, the very best singers and instrumentalists were readily available.

The objective was to arouse religious fervour as a response to the Passion of Christ and motivate people to reflect on the salvation promised to humanity through his death and resurrection. The dramatis personae portrayed in these works ranged from well-loved figures from both the Old and New Testaments to allegorical figures, with some works combining biblical and allegorical elements. The public spaces in which these performances took place not only made them accessible to all strata of society; the scenic backdrop they provided and, at times, the dramatic nature of the plot introduced a theatrical dimension to these events. Spread as it is over a wide geographical area, the sepolcro tradition is also linguistically diverse: Libretti to the works appeared in a number of different languages – Italian, Latin, German and Czech.

This project will examine the multifunctionality of these poetic texts and the compositions that followed from literary, musical, religious, political, social and pedagogical perspectives, and will demonstrate, on the basis of the surviving source material, how features of music for the Holy Sepulchre that are specific to dynasties, monastic orders and other institutions can nevertheless be identified as belonging to an overarching whole characteristic of the cultural sphere encompassing the Austrian and Bohemian lands as well as Salzburg. A systematic categorisation and indexing of the extant libretti will provide insights into the themes of the works, the extent of their dissemination and performance, and their structural organisation. Editions of four selected compositions will complement these insights from a musical perspective, while further source studies will illuminate the broader context of these cultural achievements.

• Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Hochradner (Mozarteum University), Principal Investigator
• Univ.-Prof. PhDr. Jana Perutková (Masaryk University Brno), Principal Investigator at external partner institution
• Ass.-Prof. Mgr. Vladimír Maňas PhD (Masaryk University Brno), Research Assistantship at external partner institution
• Dr. Matthias J. Pernerstorfer (Mozarteum University), Research Assistantship
• Dr. Mag. Andrea Zedler (Mozarteum University), Research Assistantship