According to Antwerp, Reformed to Rome: Music, Liturgies, and Identities in the Bishopric of Antwerp (1559–1801)

Liturgy and ritual formed the foundations of institutional, municipal and regional religious identities in Counter Reformation Europe. Plainchant was the essential sonic element of the liturgy and an integral part of the worship experience for all segments of society. Yet there is a dearth of research on chant and its role in crafting and communicating Catholic identities in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. The present project aims to fill this vital scholarly lacuna by investigating the production, practice and performance of plainchant during this period in the main institutions in the bishopric of Antwerp: the Cathedral of Our Lady and the Church of Saint James (1559-1801). The foundations of religious reform in Antwerp will be reassessed through overlooked musical evidence. The particularization of the liturgies to reflect institutional identities will be investigated textually and musically through the celebrations of significant saints and feasts. The performance of chanted liturgies in the physical spaces of the Cathedral and St. James will be reconstructed. In so doing, the project aims to understand how Post-Tridentine liturgies were established, expressed, and experienced. The project will provide an innovative perspective on the role of liturgical plainchant in forming and embodying a wide range of identities in the Age of Catholic Renewal. As such, it will significantly benefit and enhance multidisciplinary studies into liturgical and religious reform.

Keywords:plainchant, liturgy

Disciplines:History of religions, churches and theology, Musicology and ethnomusicology