journal of jesuit studies 3 (2016) 377-397 brill.com/jjs Music and the Jesuit “Way of Proceeding” in the German Counter-Reformation Alexander J. Fisher University of British Columbia
[email protected] Abstract The present essay considers the Jesuits’ relationship to musical culture along the con- fessional frontier of Germany, where the immediate presence of religious difference led to an explicit marking of space and boundaries, not least through visual and aural media. While Jesuit reservations concerning the appropriate use of music were always present, individual churches and colleges soon developed ambitious musical practices aimed at embellishing the Catholic liturgy and stimulating religious affect. The pres- ent essay traces a gradual shift in Jesuit attitudes toward music between roughly 1580 and 1650, showing steady growth in the Society’s use of musical resources in churches, colleges, hymnbooks, processions, and theatrical productions in the confessionally- contested German orbit. Keywords Germany – Austria – church music – organ – devotion – Marian Congregations – hymns – catechism – theater – confessionalization The origins of the well-worn phrase “jesuita non cantat” (a Jesuit does not sing) remain obscure, but it is clear that recent decades have seen a new upsurge of scholarly interest in Jesuit music.1 It is especially instructive to 1 For example, Thomas D. Culley, S.J., Jesuits and Music: I. A Study of the Musicians Connect- ed with the German College in Rome during the 17th Century and of Their Activities in North- ern Europe (Rome-St. Louis: Jesuit Historical Institute-St. Louis University, 1970); T. Frank Kennedy, S.J., “Jesuits and Music: The European Tradition, 1547–1622” (PhD diss., University © fisher, 2016 | doi 10.1163/22141332-00303003 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 4.0 Unported (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.