Alexander J. Fisher - Music, Piety, and Propaganda - The Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation Bavaria PDF

Music, Piety, and Propaganda
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd i 10/28/2013 10:35:36 PM

Series Editor Jane F. Fulcher
Series Board
Members: Celia Applegate
Philip Bohlman
Kate van Orden
Michael P. Steinberg
Enlightenment Orpheus: The Power of Music in
Other Worlds
Vanessa Agnew
Voice Lessons: French Mélodie in the
Belle Epoque
Katherine Bergeron
Songs, Scribes, and Societies: The History and
Reception of the Loire Valley Chansonniers
Jane Alden
Harmony and Discord: Music and the
Transformation of Russian Cultural Life
Lynn M. Sargeant
Musical Renderings of the Philippine Nation
Christi-Anne Castro
The Sense of Sound: Musical Meaning in
France, 1260–1330
Emma Dillon
Staging the French Revolution: Cultural
Politics and the Paris Opera, 1789–1794
Mark Darlow
Music, Piety, and Propaganda: The
Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation Bavaria
Alexander J. Fisher
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd ii 10/28/2013 10:35:37 PM

Music, Piety, and
Alexander Propaganda
J. Fisher The Soundscapes of
Counter-Reformation Bavaria
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd iii 10/28/2013 10:35:37 PM

3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by

Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
© Oxford University Press 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior
permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law,
by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization.
Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights
Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fisher, Alexander J.
Music, piety, and propaganda : the soundscapes of counter-reformation Bavaria / Alexander J. Fisher.
pages cm. — (New cultural history of music series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–976464–8 (hardback)—ISBN 978–0–19–931134–7
(online file)—ISBN 978–0–19–931135–4 (electronic text) 1. Church music—Germany—Bavaria—
16th century. 2. Church music—Germany—Bavaria—17th century. 3. Counter-Reformation—
Germany—Bavaria. 4. Music—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title.
ML3129.7.B38F57 2013
781.7100943’309031—dc23
2013016278
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
This volume is published with the generous support of the Margarita M. Hanson Endowment of the
American Musicological Society.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd iv 10/28/2013 10:35:37 PM

To Lisa and Charlotte
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd v 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd vi 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations for Source Locations xv
About the Companion Website xvii
chapter one Sound, Space, and Confession in

Counter-Reformation Bavaria 1
Historical Soundscapes 4
Sound, Space, and Place 9
Identity, Discipline, and Confessionalization 13
The Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation
Bavaria 17
The Structure and Scope of the Book 27
Chapter Two Sound and the Spaces of Worship 30
Public Churches and the Experience of
Liturgical Space 32
Congregational Song 32
The Jesuits and Counter-Reformation Worship
in Munich and Beyond 41
Cathedral, Collegiate, and Parish Churches in
the Age of Tridentine Reform 54
The Cathedral of Freising 55
Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich 56
St. Peter in Munich 64
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd vii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

Liturgy in the Religious Orders 66
Courtly Spaces for Liturgy: The Bavarian Court
Chapel 77
The Court Chapel of St. George and Liturgical
Music in the Sixteenth Century 77
The New Court Chapel of Mary of the
Immaculate Conception and Liturgical
Music under Maximilian I 85
Chapter Three Sound and the Spaces of Devotion 105
Devotional Polyphony for Cultivated Spaces 106
Monastic Devotion 130
Confraternities and Congregations 140
The Marian Congregations 141
Marian, Eucharistic, and Other
Confraternities 147
Corporate Devotional Services and
Gatherings 156
Funerals and Burials 156
Salve Services 159
Seasonal Devotions for Christmas and
Lent 161
Supplications and Celebrations 168
Song and the Soundscape 170
Protestant Song, Censorship, and
Suppression 172
Catholic Song in Bavaria 178
Chapter Four Sound and Confession in the Civic
Sphere 190
Bells and the Urban Soundscape 192
Regulating the Sounds of Profane Life 205
Song in the Public Sphere 213
Sound in Public Religious Spectacles 223
Chapter Five Music, Sound, and Processional
Culture 245
Corpus Christi Processions 249
The Corpus Christi Procession in Munich 253
Good Friday Processions 266
Processions of Supplication and Triumph 269
viii | c o n t e n t s
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd viii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

Chapter Six Sound, Pilgrimage, and the Spiritual
Geography of Counter-Reformation
Bavaria 276
Pilgrimage in the Reformation and
Counter-Reformation Bavaria 278
Songs and Litanies in Pilgrimage 283
Bavarian Pilgrimage Songs 284
The Litany in Bavarian Pilgrimage 304
Sound in the Practice of Pilgrimage 312
Departure 312
En Route and upon Arrival 313
A Pilgrimage to St. Benno in Munich 326
Bibliography 331
Index 353
c o n t e n t s | ix
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd ix 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd x 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM
Acknowledgments
My initial thoughts about a book project on the aural culture of

Counter-Reformation Bavaria go back about fifteen years, when I was
immersed in the archival research that led to my doctoral dissertation on the
biconfessional city of Augsburg. I was aware then of the richness of nearby
Munich, especially, as a musical center in the late sixteenth and early sev-
enteenth centuries, but it was difficult to anticipate the directions, both
geographical and methodological, that this project eventually took. While
I was still at student, my experience as a teaching fellow for a course on
soundscapes taught by Kay Kaufman Shelemay at Harvard compelled me
to think more holistically about the ways in which sound shaped space and,
ultimately, experience and identity. This in turn influenced my thinking
about the Augsburg material, but it took several more years of reading and
reflection before I could launch the present project, which in many respects
posed more complex challenges. The city of Munich was natural fulcrum for
research; unlike in the earlier project, however, I hoped to come to terms with
the soundscape on a regional level as well, embracing both the urban and the
rural. As a result I have had to sacrifice a certain amount of depth in favor of
breadth, and cannot hope to have been truly comprehensive. In the territory
of Bavaria there were many towns and a great many musical compositions
that have not found their way into this book. Nevertheless, I hope that what
I have presented here is plausibly representative of the culture of sound and
music in Counter-Reformation Bavaria, and that it might spur further work
on the medium of sound and how it shaped historical spaces and identities.
The kind of archival research required to reimagine an historical soundscape
involves equal amounts of time, drudgery, and luck, and whatever success
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xi 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

I have had is owed primarily to the expertise of many persons and institutions
that have assisted me over the last several years. I would like to acknowledge
some of them here.
Firstly, this project could not have existed without the generous assistance
of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC),
whose award of a Standard Research Grant in 2003 gave me the time and
resources to begin my work in various German archives and libraries. I am
also grateful to the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), an
organization that had supported my earlier dissertation work on Augsburg
and generously awarded me a Re-Invitation Grant in 2008 that allowed me
to wrap up many loose ends in my research on Bavaria. During my several
research trips to Germany, I benefited immensely from the help of many
archivists, librarians, and staff who guided me through dense forests of cata-
logues and resources. I am especially grateful to the Bavarian State Library
and particularly to the Music Division and the Division for Manuscripts
and Early Prints, in whose reading rooms I spent many hours. I am also
greatly indebted to the staff of the Bavarian Main State Archives in Munich,
where I conducted the majority of my archival research proper. Other criti-
cal resources in the city of Munich were provided by the Archdiocesan
Archive of Munich-Freising (where Dr. Roland Götz proved to be a most
friendly and helpful presence), the Munich City Archive, and the Library
of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. Outside Munich, I received kind
assistance from the Episcopal Central Archive of Regensburg, which houses
not only records from the Regensburg diocese but also the massive Proske
library of early music prints and manuscripts; here, Dr. Raymond Dittrich
was extremely kind and supportive of my work. I would also like to acknowl-
edge the assistance of the Bavarian State Archives in Amberg, the Ingolstadt
City Archive (especially Dr. Doris Wittmann), the Deggendorf City Archive,
and Dr. Hermann Neumann of the Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung. Closer
to home, I am very grateful to the staff of the Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center
in Friday Harbor, Washington, where I drafted considerable portions of this
manuscript, and also to Kirsten Walsh and the staff of the Music Library at
the University of British Columbia for their kind assistance.
The ideas presented in this book owe their shape to innumerable con-
versations I have had—both in person and through correspondence—with
scholars whose work I admire enormously. On the ground in Germany I had
particularly fruitful discussions with Franz Körndle, Bernhold Schmid, and
Rita Haub, all of whom provided useful ideas and advice for navigating
local resources. In the field of musicology, I have been fortunate to share
ideas with numerous colleagues, many of whom commented on aspects of
xii | a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

this material that I had presented previously at conferences and in shorter
essays. Among them are David Crook (whose own work on Orlando di Lasso’s
milieu in Munich has been a vital resource for me), Peter Bergquist, Robert
Kendrick, Erika Honisch, Susan Lewis Hammond, Janette Tilley, Mary
Frandsen, Andrew Weaver, Richard Freedman, Gregory Johnston, Christine
Getz, and Mary Paquette-Abt; I am particularly grateful to Kate van Orden,
who commented very thoughtfully on drafts of several chapters of this
book. I wish also to thank the historians who were so kind and welcoming
to me during my earlier Augsburg research, and have continued to support
me in ways both large and small: to name a few, Duane Corpis, Mitchell
Hammond, B. Ann Tlusty, Helmut Graser, Hans-Jörg Künast, Helmut Zäh,
Beth Plummer, Allyson Creasman, H. C. Erik Midelfort, Kathy Stuart, and
Christopher Friedrichs. The organization Frühe Neuzeit Interdiziplinär has
provided a valuable forum for me to share ideas with a broader range of
scholars who have influenced the material in this book in numerous ways,
including Jeffrey Chipps-Smith, Lee Palmer Wandel, Ulrike Strasser, Tanya
Kevorkian, Bridget Heal, Andrew Morrall, and Susan Karant-Nunn. I am
grateful to all of these fine scholars and to many more not named here who
have helped me along the way.
Finally, I am very grateful to my wife, Lisa Slouffman, for originally turn-
ing my attention to Bavaria many years ago and for providing invaluable
feedback that shaped the subject matter of this book in profound ways. She is
an incisive intellect and judicious editor, and I could not have completed this
project without her loving support and advice. This book is dedicated to her
and to our daughter Charlotte, whose cheerful laughter provided welcome
diversion as I finished these pages.
a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s | xiii
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xiii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xiv 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM
Abbreviations for Source Locations
AEM Archiv des Erzbistums München und Freising

ULF Unsere Liebe Frau (Munich)
BayHStA Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv München
FS Fürstensachen
GHA Geheimes Hausarchiv
GL Gerichtsliteralien
GR Generalregistratur
HR I Hofamts-Registratur
HR II Hofamts-Registratur, Rechnungen
HZR Kurbayern Hofzahlamt, Rechnungen
KÄA Kurbayern Äußeres Archiv
KGR Kurbayern Geistlicher Rat
KL Klosterliteralien
KLReg Klosterliteralien Regensburg
SV Staatsverwaltung
BayStA Amberg Bayerisches Staatsarchiv Amberg
GS Geistliche Sachen
OpRRa Oberpfälzisches Religions- und Reformationsakten
BSB Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München
BZaR Bischöfliches Zentralarchiv Regensburg
BDK Bischöflich Domkapitel’sches Archiv
OA-Gen Ordinariatsarchiv, Generalien
StA Deggendorf Stadtarchiv Deggendorf
R Rechnungen
StA Ingolstadt Stadtarchiv Ingolstadt
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xv 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

A Akten
StAM Stadtarchiv München
BR Bürgermeister und Rat
KKs Kirchen- und Kultusstiftungen
RP Ratsprotokollen
UBM Universitätsbibliothek München
(Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität)
xvi | a b b r e v i a t i o n s f o r s o u r c e l o c a t i o n s
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xvi 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

About the Companion Website
www.oup.com/us/musicpietyandpropaganda
Oxford has created a password-protected website to accompany Music, Piety,

and Propaganda, and the reader is encouraged to take full advantage of it. The
Companion Website contains several types of information for readers inter-
ested in learning more about this topic. An Extended Bibliography provides
lists of early monophonic and polyphonic prints from the Bavarian orbit,
as well as additional secondary literature. Several tables provide inventories
of key collections of printed music, data on salaries of Munich court musi-
cians, and an inventory of the music collection left by the Munich chapel-
master Giovanni Giacomo Porro (c. 1590–1656) at his death. A section of
Extended References provides much greater detail than is possible in the book
alone: here the reader will find original-language transcriptions, extended
commentary, and more in-depth citations of relevant secondary literature.
Finally, a series of Extended Musical Examples provide full transcriptions of
important musical compositions.
References to materials on the Companion Website are found throughout
the text and will be signaled by Oxford’s symbol .
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xvii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xviii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM
Music, Piety, and Propaganda
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xix 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xx 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM
Chapter One Sound, Space, and Confession in
Counter-Reformation Bavaria
O n sunday morning, June 19, 1558, congregants attending Mass in

the Augustinian church in Munich witnessed a remarkable spectacle.
A ragtag group of about a dozen men who had disrupted Mass the previous
Sunday by singing the inflammatory Lutheran chorale Erhalt uns Herr bei
deinem Wort (Lord, preserve us in Your Word, and turn away the murderous
Pope and Turk) were back, and had taken up positions around the pulpit.
As the time for the sermon approached, they broke into song. Led by a short
man with a thick, light-colored beard, the group sang the Lutheran chorales
Wir glauben all an einen Gott, Aus tiefer Not, and Vater unser im Himmelreich.
The group fell silent during the proclamations but then resumed singing—
more Lutheran chorales. As they sang the third stanza of the last song, Ich
ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ, which speaks of the need to forgive one’s enemies
and rely on God’s Word alone, the Benedictine father Wolfgang Seidl, long
a committed enemy of the Reformation, ascended the pulpit to begin his
sermon, trying to silence the impromptu choir with angry gestures, with-
out avail. Returning to the pulpit as the chorale ended, he began his ser-
mon a second time. His attempt to prove that the Pope was not, in fact,
the Antichrist was met with derisive laughter from the interlopers, and the
congregation hesitated to sing along with the usual Catholic songs sung after
the sermon. As the impromptu choir broke in again, its leader was admon-
ished that “if [they] wished to establish a synagogue with their outlandish
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 1 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

songs then they should hire their own preacher.” The bearded man retorted,
“In time, this may happen.”1
These men had done more than physically occupy the consecrated space
of a Catholic church: by lustily singing in unison, the sound of their words
reverberating through the nave and choir, they temporarily, and aggressively,
appropriated the whole of that space and transformed its very nature. Such
appropriations, however, were not confined to interior spaces. Just a few
weeks before the disturbances at the Augustinian church, a great proces-
sion had wound its way through the city on the Feast of Corpus Christi. An
elaborate spectacle of sight and sound, featuring the physical representation
of biblical scenes by the city’s various trade guilds, the Corpus Christi proces-
sion would assume massive proportions by the 1580s. We read, for example,
that in the year 1584, storm clouds threatening the procession were dispelled
by a performance of Orlando di Lasso’s motet Gustate et videte (Taste and see
how good is the Lord to whose who fear him and trust in him). As the sun
immediately broke through the clouds, the procession began, with the ring-
ing of trumpets, the beating of drums, and the pealing of bells. Much more
music was heard along the route, but even more impressive were the salvos of
musket and cannon fire that thundered at each of four stations made by the
procession—located at the principal city gates—as the Gospels were read.
At these moments in particular, the entire cityscape of Munich was pierced
by militaristic sounds, impossible to escape, that announced the triumph of
the Eucharist, the real presence of the flesh and blood of Christ that was so
central to Catholic belief.
These episodes raise a much broader question of how musical and non-
musical sounds shaped religious cultures in early modern Europe, and how
they were transformed in turn by religious forces. Previously, I have exam-
ined the culture of sacred music in the southern German city of Augsburg,
a biconfessional, imperial city whose Protestant majority, by the time of
the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648),2 were faced with an increasingly confi-
dent and militant Catholic minority. Although musical sounds—styles and
1
From Friedrich Roth’s transcription in “Eine lutherische Demonstration in der
Münchner Augustinerkirche,” Beiträge zur bayerischen Kirchengeschichte 6 (1900): 97–
109, here 101–2. This episode is also discussed at length in Hans Rößler, Geschichte und
Strukturen der evangelischen Bewegung im Bistum Freising 1520–1571 (Nuremberg: Verein
für Bayerische Kirchengeschichte, 1966), 43–46. For further comment, see Extended
Reference 1.1, and chapter 2 of this book.
2
Alexander J. Fisher, Music and Religious Identity in Counter-Reformation Augsburg, 1580–
1630, St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).
2 | m u s i c , p i e t y , a n d p r o p a g a n d a
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 2 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

compositional procedures, for example—could sometimes bridge the reli-
gious divide, music also expressed distinctive confessional identities and
could easily become a weapon in the city’s simmering religious tensions. The
sumptuous musical culture of the nearby Munich court led me to turn to the
duchy of Bavaria, which by the end of the sixteenth century had emerged
as the principal Catholic bulwark north of the Alps. The Bavarian dukes
managed to consolidate a fragmented territory after the War of Landshut
Succession (1504–1505) and by the mid-sixteenth century had succeeded
in centralizing state power at the expense of the landed estates. Under Duke
Albrecht V (r. 1550–1579), the court chapel, led by the internationally
famous composer Orlando di Lasso, emerged as perhaps the most opulent in
Europe, boasting dozens of singers and instrumentalists and performing an
ambitious, wide-ranging repertory for the music-loving prince. Albrecht’s
son Wilhelm V (r. 1579–1597) carried the tradition forward, though his
religious zeal compelled him to recast the liturgical music of his court in
a thoroughly Tridentine form. In 1597, Wilhelm, whose massive building
program on behalf of the Munich Jesuits had left the state finances in a dire
condition, retired to a life of religious devotion and charity. He handed the
reins of state to his son Maximilian I (r. 1597–1651), whose intense, even
militant devotion to Counter-Reformation Catholicism was reflected in his
personal involvement in the initial conflicts of the Thirty Years’ War (which
led Emperor Ferdinand II to award him the electoral dignity in 1623) and
the emergence of what Felix Stieve called—not without justification—a
“religious police state” in his own territory.3
Perhaps Bavaria embodied a much more homogeneously “Catholic”
musical culture than that found in Augsburg, for example, but the situ-
ation was more complex than one might imagine. As the aforementioned
episode suggests, the duchy of Bavaria was in many respects a confessional
borderland in which the triumph of Counter-Reformation Catholicism was
hardly assured: in the mid-sixteenth century, many of the landed nobility
in the duchy were receptive to Protestant ideas, and reformed sympathies
were widespread among the urban populace. The duchy itself bordered on
Protestant cities and territories, and even enveloped fully Protestant enclaves
like the imperial city of Regensburg and the counties of Haag and Ortenburg.
Only a long-term, concerted campaign of reform, persuasion, and propa-
ganda, promoted by the dukes and spearheaded by the Society of Jesus,
3
Felix Stieve, Das kirchliche Polizeiregiment in Baiern unter Maximilian I, 1595–1651
(Munich: Verlag der M. Rieger’schen Universitäts-Buchhandlung [G. Himmer], 1876).
s o u n d , s p a c e , a n d c o n f e s s i o n | 3
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 3 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

could remake the territory into the unified Catholic region that is the
normative image of Bavaria.
This book explores how music in Bavaria articulated religious identity
and difference—broadly speaking, the relationship of music to confession-
alization, the process by which the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Catholic faiths
consolidated themselves and became intertwined with state power—but it
also considers music within a wider panoply of sounds, both artificial and
natural, that characterized the early modern soundscape. Music, of course,
is and was an intentional sound, but it was often found in the company
of other artificial sounds—the pealing of bells and the thunder of mus-
ket and cannon fire, for example—which were used as demonstrations of
piety and propaganda, etching the fault lines between Catholicism and
its antagonists ever deeper. For the less powerful, such as the members of
the impromptu choir mentioned earlier, music could be used tactically to
foment disruption, but it did so accompanied by speech, shouting, and
mocking laughter. In an environment absent of the persistent hum of mod-
ern industrial noise, these kinds of sounds penetrated widely separated
spaces easily and were not always easy to localize or to control. Moreover,
separating music from the larger environment of intentional sound is dif-
ficult. One may view music as a text for stylistic analysis, but we need a
more systematic study of sound as a vehicle for articulating identity and
difference in an historical setting. This book, therefore, explores sound
as a medium for creating and shaping the spaces within which notions of
Catholic and Protestant identity became manifest. Early modern Bavaria
presents itself as an ideal arena to study this phenomenon, for it was not
only the northern epicenter of Catholic reform but a place of remarkable
aural richness as well. In what follows, I aim to join purely “musicologi-
cal” concerns with the study of soundscapes, on the one hand, and of space
and identity, on the other.
Historical Soundscapes
In recent years, scholars in a range of disciplines—including history, anthro-
pology, musicology, and ethnomusicology—have begun to tackle the sensory
dimensions of historical experience, pushing beyond traditional emphases on
sight as the primary mode of perception. The eventual triumph of sight in
the Western sensorium has been widely accepted, and we owe much of our
understanding of the process to Walter Ong and Marshall McLuhan, whose
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 4 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

pioneering studies drew our attention to the profound psychological effects
of writing and typography.4 The dominance of visualism in Western cul-
ture has made the “cherished objectivity” of science possible, but it has also
blunted our awareness of the broader array of senses and how they shape both
experience and understanding.5 We need not assume that the hierarchy of the
senses is fixed, either temporally or geographically. The field of ethnomusicol-
ogy has revealed the persistence of an aurally dominated sensorium in some
peoples of Papua New Guinea, for example: Steven Feld’s Sound and Sentiment,
demonstrating the symbolic system of Kaluli drumming and its connection
to the spirit world, deftly outlines an “acoustemology” that reveals auditory,
embodied ways of knowing that contrast with representational visualism.6
In his study of the Songhay culture of Niger, anthropologist Paul Stoller has
also critiqued the dominance of Western visuality, suggesting that atten-
tion to the full range of the senses, including sound, will lead to a more
embodied, and indeed more empirical, understanding of cultures and val-
ues.7 This work intersects with that of scholars tackling the anthropology of
the senses. David Howes, for example, proposes an ethical project to “liberate
us from the hegemony which sight has so long exercised over our own cul-
ture’s social, intellectual, and aesthetic life.”8 Howes and Constance Classen,
in fact, have offered a systematic means of studying the “sensory profile” of a
4
See, for example, Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word
(New York: Methuen, 1982); and Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The
Making of Typographic Man (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962).
5
On this point see Constance Classen, Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and
Across Cultures (London/New York: Routledge, 1993), 5–6.
6
Steven Feld, Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982). Feld’s work has extended also
to the culture of bells: his ongoing series of compact discs, The Time of Bells (VoxLox),
provides innumerable, global examples of how bell sounds shape the experience of
space and time. A vital collection of essays exploring the anthropology of sound and
listening may be in found in Veit Erlmann, ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound,
Listening and Modernity (London: Berg, 2004).
7
Paul Stoller, The Taste of Ethnographic Things: The Senses in Anthropology
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989); on sound in particular, see
chapter 6, “Sound in Songhay Possession,” 101–12.
8
See David Howes, “Introduction: ‘To Summon All the Senses,’ ” in Howes,
ed., The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 4.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 5 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

culture, calling for attention to a range of cultural features, from language to
childrearing to ritual and mythology.9
Historians of Europe and North America, too, have shown an increasing
awareness of the sensory dimensions of past experience. Among the more
prominent examples are Constance Classen’s exploration of smell and its
gradual decline as a cultural value relative to sight; Richard Rath’s and Peter
Hoffer’s studies of the sensory dimensions of early America; Mark Smith’s
study of the aural cultures of antebellum America; John Picker’s work on
aurality in Victorian literature and science; and Emily Thompson’s explora-
tion of architectural acoustics and the influence of technology on the mod-
ernist dissociation of sounds and spaces.10 Of special relevance to the present
study is A. Roger Ekirch’s At Day’s Close, which explores the cultural reso-
nances of darkness in the preindustrial landscape and helps us to understand
the ways in which sound was deployed to combat nocturnal threats, both
earthly and spiritual.11 Counter-Reformation Catholicism in particular was
invested in what Norbert Schindler has called the “colonization of the night,”
effected through the constant bell ringing that compelled prayer and drove
away evil spirits, as well as by the torchlit religious processions that illumi-
nated the cityscape.12 These measures had only limited effect, as the night
9
See David Howes and Constance Classen, “Conclusion: Sounding Sensory Profiles,”
in Howes, The Varieties of Sensory Experience, 262–85. A recent call for greater atten-
tion to sound in anthropology may be found in David W. Samuels, David W., Louise
Meintjes, Ana Maria Ochoa, and Thomas Porcello, “Soundscapes: Toward a Sounded
Anthropology,” Annual Review of Anthropology 39 (2010): 329–45.
10
Cited here are Classen, Worlds of Sense, 13–36, and her Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell
(London / New York: Routledge, 1994); Mark M. Smith, Listening to Nineteenth-Century
America (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001); Richard Cullen Rath, How
Early America Sounded (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003); John M. Picker,
Victorian Soundscapes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); Peter Charles Hoffer,
Sensory Worlds in Early America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003);
and Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture
of Listening in America, 1900–1933 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002). Also worthy
of mention is a recent collection of essays edited by Jill Steward and Alexander Cowan,
The City and the Senses: Urban Culture Since 1500 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), which
provides numerous perspectives on touch, sound, smell, taste, and vision in the early
modern and modern city.
11
A. Roger Ekirch, At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past (New York: Norton, 2005).
12
See Norbert Schindler, “Nocturnal Disturbances: On the Social History of the Night
in the Early Modern Period,” in Schindler, Rebellion, Community and Custom in Early
Modern Germany, trans. Pamela E. Selwyn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2002), esp. 194–201, as well as Ekirch’s discussion in At Day’s Close, 68–72.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 6 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

was continually appropriated by bands of unmarried male youths, embold-
ened by drink, whose belligerent “crowing” (Jauchzen) reverberated through-
out the city.13 The distinctive role of bells in the early modern world makes
the work of Alain Corbin indispensable for the present study. Although it
is primarily focused on developments in post-Revolution France, his Village
Bells demonstrates the tenacity of the traditional culture of bells in the face
of a resolute program of official desacralization.14
In many respects this scholarship evokes the idea of soundscape that lies
at the center of this book. My interest in soundscapes was first stoked by
Reinhard Strohm’s Music in Late Medieval Bruges, a book that opens with a rich
depiction of the urban sounds and music, ranging from bells to public criers
to song and polyphony, implied by the frozen canvasses of fifteenth-century
painters.15 Further impetus came from Kay Kaufman Shelemay’s Soundscapes,
a wide-ranging text that demonstrates the fluidity of musical forms as they
travel in different cultural spaces, shaping and expressing identities in mul-
tifaceted ways.16 But credit for introducing the term “soundscape” into
scholarly discourse is due above all to R. Murray Schafer, whose Tuning of
the World not only concerns itself with the deleterious effects of constant,
inescapable industrial sound, but also provides a starting point for imagin-
ing historical soundscapes.17 Particularly useful is Schafer’s effort to construct
a typology of a soundscape, identifying the background “keynote” sounds
of the natural environment, against which foreground “signals”—including
bells, whistles, horns, and sirens—are listened to consciously; some of these
become “soundmarks,” signals that possess a distinctive function generally
recognized by a community.18 One of Schafer’s collaborators in the theoriza-
tion of soundscape has been Barry Truax, who has argued forcefully that a
soundscape is not defined as the sum of perceptible sounds in a given space;
rather, “it refers to how the individual and society as a whole understand the
13
Schindler, “Nocturnal Disturbances,” 201–25. On the establishment of fixed closing
times for taverns, see also B. Ann Tlusty, Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink
in Early Modern Germany (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001), 186.
14
Alain Corbin, Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the Nineteenth-Century French Countryside,
trans. Martin Thom (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), xix. For a broader
discussion of the history of the senses, see also his Time, Desire, and Horror: Towards a
History of the Senses, trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge, MA: Polity, 1995).
15
Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), 1–9.
16
Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World
(New York: Norton, 2006).
17
R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977).
18
Ibid., 9–10.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 7 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

acoustic environment through listening.”19 Fundamentally, Truax proposes
a communicative model, one that moves beyond sound’s physical properties
and focuses on its potential to convey information. The early modern towns
and cities discussed in this book, devoid of the pervasive industrial noise
of later times (thus “hi-fi” sonic environments, according to Schafer), were
inhabited by what Truax would call “acoustic communities,” whose mem-
bers were dependent on acoustic signals of various kinds—bells, trumpets,
drums, song—that structured time and space. Indeed, it seems possible, fol-
lowing Steven Feld, to speak of an acoustemology of early modern commu-
nities, within which aural cues triggered distinctive ways of knowing and
navigating an environment.
Among the efforts to characterize an historical soundscape we might
single out Bruce Smith’s magisterial The Acoustic World of Early Modern
England: Attending to the O-Factor.20 We find here an all-encompassing effort
to grapple with the embodied nature of sound, describing a soundscape that
not only includes the widest variety of natural and artificial sounds but also
embraces the speaker and listener in an “acoustic ecology.” For Smith, as
for Schafer and Truax, then, the listening subject is not sundered from the
environment. Consistent with other critiques of visualism, Smith considers
sound as a peculiarly physical medium that reverberates from and through
bodies: through popular balladry, for example, the “sounding voice” of the
subject “reverberates inside her body, it projects itself into the space around
her, it rings out with the voices and the bodies of her peers, it strikes the
baffles of political authority—and sometimes penetrates them.”21 Smith has
written elsewhere that an historical acoustic ecology requires us to decode
sound evidence from graphic marks preserved in primary documents. For
the early modern period we must set aside the assumption that texts were
silently read and contemplated: so many of them, ranging from play scripts
to broadsides to handwriting tutors, were in fact cues for the production of
sound.22 The archival documents that form the basis for Smith’s work and my
19
Barry Truax, Acoustic Communication, 2nd ed. (Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing,
2001), xviii.
20
Bruce R. Smith, The Acoustic World of Early Modern England: Attending to the O-Factor
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).
21
Ibid., 196.
22
Bruce R. Smith, “Listening to the Wild Blue Yonder: The Challenges of Acoustic
Ecology,” in Veit Erlmann, ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity
(London: Berg, 2004), 33.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 8 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

own, then, gain a sounding potential that would dissipate with the advance
of modernity.
As Ari Kelman has argued, the widespread appropriation of Schafer’s idea
of soundscape has led to wildly divergent and sometimes inconsistent defini-
tions, and I claim no monopoly on the term.23 What seems to me most use-
ful here is to think of the soundscape as the totality of perceived sounds in a
given space and time, some of which command immediate attention, others
of which are habitual sounds that are invested with cultural meaning, and
still others of which recede into the background as constant acoustic phe-
nomena—signal, soundmark, and keynote sounds, to again use Schafer’s ter-
minology. These types of sounds are best seen, however, on a continuum: the
signals of bell sounds, for example, approached the quality of soundmarks as
they formed a constant part of the urban soundscape, and their various mean-
ings were habitually decoded by the city’s inhabitants. But keynote sounds as
well could bubble up to the surface of consciousness, such as when Bavarian
officials tried to still the background of “noise”—secular festivities as well as
the sounds of labor—during periods of penitence or mourning. The sound-
scape may be thought to embrace the widest panoply of potentially meaning-
ful sounds, including the natural sounds of rain, wind, thunder, birds, and
so forth; but in this book I chiefly concern myself with sounds deployed as
acoustic communication, ranging from speech to music, from to bells to gun-
fire. My view of the soundscape hews rather closely, in fact, to what Richard
Leppert has called the “sonoric landscape”: we are surrounded by all manner
of sounds, some of which are intentionally produced, may be read or inter-
preted, and are a “means by which people account for their versions of real-
ity—as it was, is, and/or might be.”24 As embodied experience, sound is vital
to the construction of social identity.
Sound, Space, and Place

A soundscape comes into being as one perceives sound as shaping the char-
acter of a given space. The notion of “space” or “place” is critical, for argu-
ably, the rise of confessional identities in early modern Europe was promoted
23
Ari Kelman, “Rethinking the Soundscape: A Critical Genealogy of a Key Term in
Sound Studies,” Senses & Society 5, no. 2 (2010): 212–24.
24
See Richard Leppert, “Desire, Power, and the Sonoric Landscape,” in Andrew Leyshon,
David Matless, and George Revill, eds., The Place of Music (New York: Guilford Press,
1998), 292.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 9 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

above all by efforts to distinguish not only “sacred” and “profane” spaces,
but “Catholic” and “Protestant” spaces as well. Elite strategies for imposing
confessional identity and popular tactics for resisting or redefining this iden-
tity depended primarily on the control of space in all its sensual dimensions,
including sound. We need not detour here into the lively debate on whether
abstract, Cartesian “space” is truly prior to the “places” that are imposed
upon it through human agency, except to note that Michel de Certeau dis-
tinguishes the two in a fruitful way: while spaces are characterized by fluid-
ity and mobility, their boundaries ever shifting according to the motion of
elements, places are relatively stable and defined by conspicuous physical
markers.25 In a rough sense, visual landmarks like buildings, monuments,
and paintings can be easily mapped as places, but sound seems to be more
constitutive of space: it is mobile and often difficult to localize, enveloping,
and evanescent. Sound, furthermore, does not simply inhabit space: as Henri
Lefebvre has argued, the spaces we perceive are in fact the products of human
action, constituted by sense impressions, and therefore reproduce social rela-
tions in fundamentally political ways.26 From the standpoint of the theory of
ritual, this insight hews closely to the ideas of Jonathan Z. Smith, who has
pointed to the arbitrary quality of “sacred places”: while it is true that physi-
cal markers, such as churches, sculptures, shrines, and so forth, can tempo-
rarily reify sacred places geographically, it is ritual actions—in all varieties
of fixity and mobility—that fundamentally create sacred spaces.27 When one
speaks of sound being used to appropriate space, then, it is not a matter of
25
Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 117. Note also Edward Casey’s
influential critique of the “natural attitude” that place is a manifestation of preex-
isting space: see his “How to Get from Space to Place in a Fairly Short Stretch of
Time: Phenomenological Prolegomena,” in Steven Feld and Keith Basso, eds., Senses of
Place (Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 1996), 18.
26
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (Oxford,
Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1991). On the manner in which sound creates place,
see also Martin Stokes, “Introduction: Ethnicity, Identity and Music,” in Stokes, ed.,
Ethnicity, Identity and Music: The Musical Construction of Place (Oxford: Berg, 1994),
1–27, as well as Georgina Born’s comments in her introduction to Music, Sound and
Space: Transformations of Public and Private Experience (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2013), esp. 9–24.
27
“Ritual is not an expression of or a response to ‘the Sacred’;” Smith writes, “rather,
something or someone is made sacred by ritual (the primary sense of sacrificium).” See
Jonathan Z. Smith, To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1987), 105.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 10 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

sound waves “occupying” a neutral environment. Rather, we must imagine
sound as creating a sense of space for auditors.
The production of space was how confession in early modern Europe
was made manifest. Sound could define religious space on various levels
of scale: within an architectural space, such as a private home or a church;
within a civic environment; and even on a regional level: in the countryside
the sounds of bells defined parish boundaries over wide areas, and sound
traced the rural routes to pilgrimage shrines. The spaces created by sound,
as one might expect, are highly malleable. Even within “fixed” architectural
sites like church interiors, the character of the space could change mark-
edly depending on the kinds of sounds heard within: speech, song, chant,
and polyphony in various configurations created a sense of liturgical space,
devotional space, and even confessionally contested space, as we saw in the
episode narrated at the beginning of the chapter. Furthermore, the visual
and aural senses of space were rarely coterminous. The “acoustic horizon,” to
use a term coined by Barry Blesser and Linda Salter, could far outstrip the
horizon created by visual cues alone. The acoustic arena of a parish, defined
by the audible radius of church bells, was far larger than the area from which
the church tower could be observed, and during processions and other festal
celebrations the ringing of bells and gunfire could expand an acoustic arena
to large dimensions indeed.28
Conceiving of such arenas or spaces requires the notion of boundaries.
Fredrik Barth argued over forty years ago that boundaries are indeed what
define social groups to begin with, even if we acknowledge the reality of con-
tact and exchange between communities.29 Following on Barth’s lead, ethno-
musicologist Martin Stokes has written that “ethnicities are to be understood
in terms of the construction, maintenance and negotiation of boundaries,
and not on the putative social ‘essences’ which fill the gaps within them.”30
Likewise, in early modern Europe the formation and maintenance of religious
boundaries was in fact the principal task of the major confessional churches,
carried out with varying degrees of success. Religious space and boundar-
ies were naturally marked by an array of visual cues, some static and some
28
On acoustic horizons and arenas, see Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter, Spaces Speak,
Are You Listening? (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006), 22.
29
Fredrik Barth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Cultural Difference
(Bergen/Oslo: Universitets Forlaget, 1969), 1–2.
30
Stokes, “Introduction: Ethnicity, Identity and Music,” 6. On this point, see also de
Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, 123, who notes that “it is the partition of space
that structures it.”
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 11 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

mobile, and included such things as vestments, paintings, and statuary;
public monuments and architectural details; and the movements of people,
who circumscribed communal space in supplicatory processions and traced
large-scale spiritual geographies in their pilgrimages to holy shrines. We
might also point to olfactory cues in the burning of incense that marked the
Catholic liturgy and processions, or haptic cues in the form of devotional
objects like rosary beads and amulets. More broadly, the imposition of “con-
fession,” the insistence that subjects adhere to and profess a specific constel-
lation of religious beliefs, drew lines within which one abided and violated
at one’s own risk.
Drawing confessional boundaries by means of sight and sound was natu-
rally a key strategy on the part of Bavarian authorities, but their habitual
conflation of the heretical with the profane confounds any simple distinc-
tion between “sacred” and “secular” spaces.31 Imposing social and religious
discipline in the public sphere meant that “music” must be separated from
popular “noise,” the definition of which correlated closely with social class.
A soundscape polluted with profane or heretical sounds could bring down
God’s vengeance on a sinful populace; silence, conversely, was the aural
symbol of public discipline. And to the extent that commoners enjoyed the
agency of song, it was to be carefully supervised: the repertory of orthodox
vernacular songs for the Catholic liturgy was very limited, while pilgrims
had to reckon with appointed singing-leaders (Vorsänger) who presumably
kept “profane” music at bay. Nevertheless, if sacred space could be manufac-
tured through official strategies, it could easily be violated or complicated.
As Hamilton and Spicer have pointed out, the mundane easily invaded the
“sacred” space of the church, and simple distinctions between the two realms
may have been of limited relevance to the common people.32
Whatever the hurdles preventing a simple notion of “sacred” or “Catholic”
space, the relative proximity of the confessional frontier seems to have
encouraged authorities toward a rather direct and polemical use of sound and
music. This may be seen not only in the widespread deployment of milita-
ristic sounds in Catholic processions and festal services but also in the active
31
On the multivalence and fluidity of “sacred space” see Will Coster and Andrew Spicer,
“Introduction: The Dimension of Sacred Space in Reformation Europe,” in Coster and
Spicer, eds., Sacred Space in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2005), 1–16; and Sarah Hamilton and Andrew Spicer, “Defining the Holy: The
Delineation of Sacred Space,” in Spicer and Hamilton, eds., Defining the Holy: Sacred
Space in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 1–23.
32
Hamilton and Spicer, “Defining the Holy,” 10–19.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 12 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

dissemination of an orthodox alternative to Lutheran vernacular song: it is
hardly an accident that most Catholic songbooks were produced along the
confessional fault lines of Germany, in such cities as Cologne, Speyer, Mainz,
Ingolstadt, and Munich. The propagandistic potential of certain Protestant
chorales, notably the infamous Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort, certainly
encouraged the Jesuits bring out new vernacular songs, including propagan-
distic contrafacta. Songs connected to Catholic pilgrimage shrines, too, fre-
quently display propagandistic elements, reflecting the role of these shrines
in delineating a distinctly Catholic spiritual geography. These and other pro-
grammatic efforts in Catholic Bavaria evoke most vividly Jacques Attali’s
views of the instrumental power of music and sound: “make people Forget,
make them Believe, Silence them.”33 In other words, sound was used to erase
heresy and to indoctrinate in proper belief, and was systematically denied to
those who might disrupt an atmosphere of spiritual and moral discipline.
Identity, Discipline, and Confessionalization

The aural shaping of space was a key dimension of confessionalization, which
in turn implicates the formation of religious identity and the imposition of
religious and social discipline. The theory of confessionalization has been
a powerful explanatory paradigm in early modern European history for at
least thirty years, and derives from essential insights by Reinhard Schilling,
Wolfgang Reinhard, Ernst Walter Zeeden, and others on the gradual inter-
twining of religious and state power.34 Their work fundamentally chal-
lenged an earlier notion that modernity was closely linked to the rise of
Protestantism alone, and demonstrated that the linkage of state and church
authority, with its concomitant emphasis on social and religious discipline,
33
Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music, trans. Brian Massumi
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985), 19.
34
See, for example, Zeeden, “Grundlagen und Wege der Konfessionsbildung in
Deutschland im Zeitalter der Glaubenskämpfe,” Historische Zeitschrift 185 (1958): 249–
99, and his Die Entstehung der Konfessionen. Grundlagen und Formen der Konfessionsbildung
im Zeitalter der Glaubenskämpfe (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1965); Reinhard, “Konfession
und Konfessionalisierung in Europa,” in Reinhard, ed., Bekenntnis und Geschichte. Die
Confessio Augustana im historischen Zusammenhang (Munich: Verlag Ernst Vögel, 1981),
165–89, and Schilling, “Die Konfessionalisierung im Reich. Religiöser und gesell-
schaftlicher Wandel in Deutschland zwischen 1555 und 1620,” Historische Zeitschrift
246 (1988): 1–45. For further references and commentary see Extended Reference 1.2.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 13 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

was broadly shared across confessional boundaries. Certainly, a critical aspect
of Counter-Reformation culture was a conscious effort to appeal to the anti-
quity of the church, asserting the authority of the clergy and drawing—
albeit selectively—on certain aspects of pre-Reformation belief and ritual.35
The very term “Counter-Reformation,” with its strong reactionary flavor, has
been the subject of considerable historiographical debate; in the Bavarian
context, the proximity of Protestant cultures gives some support to the use
of this term, even if we acknowledge that Catholicism in this period was not
merely a reactive force.36
The tension between top-down and bottom-up views of the confession-
alization process has always been present, but it has recently led to greater
skepticism about the successful imposition of religious and social disci-
pline. Increasingly, commoners and laity have been seen to enjoy consider-
able agency in defining their social and religious identities. Marc Forster’s
studies of popular religion in southwestern Germany, for example, have
demonstrated that a coercive confessionalization led by elites was largely a
failure, and that a revival of Catholic identity and devotion can be attrib-
uted much more strongly to popular initiative.37 Some have seen the notion
35
On the medieval roots of Counter-Reformation theology, see Klaus Ganzer, “Das Konzil
von Trient und die theologische Dimension der katholischen Konfessionalisierung,”
in Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling, eds., Die katholische Konfessionalisierung.
Wissenschaftliches Symposion der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus Catholicorum
und des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1993 (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus,
1995), 50–69.
36
Hubert Jedin in particular has argued strongly for both internal and reactive elements
in Tridentine Catholicism; see his “Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation?”
trans. David M. Luebke, in Luebke, ed., The Counter-Reformation: The Essential
Readings (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999), 44–45. For a discussion of
“Counter-Reformation” as a paradigmatic term, see also Luebke’s introduction to the
same volume (pp. 1–16). Jedin’s essay was originally published as Katholische Reformation
oder Gegenreformation? Ein Versuch zur Klärung der Begriffe nebst einer Jubiläumsbetrachtung
über das Trienter Konzil (Luzern: Josef Stocker, 1946).
37
See Forster’s Catholic Revival in the Age of the Baroque: Religious Identity in Southwest
Germany, 1550–1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), as well as
his essay “The Thirty Years’ War and the Failure of Catholicization,” in Luebke,
The Counter-Reformation: The Essential Readings, 163–97. Forster has also argued
for the effectiveness of persuasion and propaganda over outright coercion in his
“Catholic Confessionalism in Germany after 1650,” in John M. Headley et al., eds.,
Confessionalization in Europe, 1555–1700. Essays in Honor and Memory of Bodo Nischan
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), 227–42. The limited applicability of the confessionaliza-
tion thesis outside Germany is argued by Mack P. Holt in his “Confessionalization
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 14 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

of “confessionalization” as being limited to certain contexts, or as unviable
altogether. Anton Schindling has argued that the concept is best applied to
regions such as Germany, where the proximity of different faith communi-
ties made the construction of religious boundaries inevitable; even here, one
must distinguish between varieties of “early” and “late” confessionalization.38
Walter Ziegler, stressing the continuity of post-Tridentine Catholicism with
pre-Reformation beliefs and practices, has wondered whether one can speak
of Catholic confessionalization as a “modernizing” process at all.39 Reinhard
Schilling himself, while defending the overall viability of the confessional-
ization thesis, has acknowledged that we must attune ourselves to the differ-
ences between and within the various confessional churches, and be aware of
“non-confessionalized” groups and the “unconfessionalized” dimensions of
culture.40
In the case of Bavaria, confessionalization remains a useful concept given
the proximity of the religious frontier and the remarkably intense atmosphere
of confessional persuasion and propaganda. The evidence for a programmatic
attempt on the part of the House of Wittelsbach and the Jesuits, above all,
to impose a strict religious discipline on the populace is indeed overwhelm-
ing, and it expressed itself in the elaborate shaping of both visual and aural
space. Nevertheless, a powerful Protestant movement did erupt in Bavaria in
the 1520s and again at midcentury, particularly in urban areas and among
beyond the Germanies: The Case of France,” in Headley et al., Confessionalization in

Europe, 1555–1700, 257–74.
38
Anton Schindling, “Konfessionalisierung und Grenzen von Konfessionalisierbarkeit,”
in Schindling and Walter Ziegler, eds., Die Territorien des Reichs im Zeitalter der
Reformation und Konfessionalisierung (Münster: Aschendorff, 1997), 7:20.
39
Reviewing the different varieties of Catholic confessionalization, Ziegler is critical of
the term as a unitary concept: see his “Typen der Konfessionalisierung in katholischen
Territorien Deutschlands,” in Die katholische Konfessionalisierung (op. cit.), 405–18.
Ziegler has also stressed Tridentine Catholicism’s continuity with pre-Reformation
traditions; see his “Altgläubige Territorien im Konfessionalisierungsprozess,” in
Schindling and Ziegler, Die Territorien des Reichs, 7:67–90.
40
Heinz Schilling, “Die Konfessionalisierung von Kirche, Staat und Gesellschaft—Profil,
Leistung, Defizite und Perspektiven eines geschichtswissenschaftlichen Paradigmas,”
in Reinhard and Schilling, Die katholische Konfessionalisierung, 1–49. See also his closely
related essay in English, “Confessionalization: Historical and Scholarly Perspectives of
a Comparative and Interdisciplinary Paradigm,” in Headley et al., Confessionalization in
Europe, 1555–1700, 21–36. A recent review of the various critiques of the confession-
alization thesis may be found in Diarmid MacCulloch, Mary Laven, and Eamon Duffy,
“Recent Trends in the Study of Christianity in Sixteenth-Century Europe,” Renaissance
Quarterly 59 (2006): 715–19.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 15 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

those classes that enjoyed greater mobility.41 Despite its later Catholicity, then,
Bavaria was in fact a contested area within which the Protestant-minded had
considerable agency at their disposal. Furthermore, we need also to imagine
how individuals might have internalized certain elements of Catholic discipline
while resisting others. Localized and emphemeral “tactics”—such as the sing-
ing of vernacular song—among the less powerful often counterbalanced official
strategies for social control. Commoners were not always sufficiently enthusias-
tic about their participation in conspicuous religious rituals, and often failed to
observe the “pious silence” mandated by Bavarian authorities during times of
tribulation or mourning. Furthermore, officials’ efforts to stifle “superstition”
were arguably hindered by their tacit retention of some traditional beliefs, such
as the power of bells to dispel demons, the salvific power of the physical, conse-
crated Host, and the magical efficacy of formalized prayers like litanies and the
rosary.42
Ascribing intent is a difficult business, and not every example of what we
might identify as “propaganda” was necessarily or always intended as such. The
conspicuous asceticism of the Wittelsbach house, for example, was as much an
expression of conviction as an instrumental attempt at persuasion.43 Likewise,
not every instance of Protestant singing, for example, must be interpreted
as conscious resistance. Visitation reports from various Bavarian parishes in
the sixteenth century suggest that many clergy saw the singing of vernacu-
lar “psalmen” and other songs as normal and unremarkable.44 Moreover, we
41
As argued by Hans Rößler in “Warum Bayern katholisch blieb. Eine Strukturanalyse
der evangelische Bewegung im Bistum Freising 1520–1570,” Beiträge zur Altbayerischen
Kirchengeschichte 33 (1981): 91–108, here 93–4.
42
On the largely unsuccessful campaigns against “superstition” in early modern Germany,
see esp. Robert W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation
Germany (London, Ronceverte: Hambledon Press, 1987), 42–44. On popular “tactics”
see de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, 29–44.
43
On the “model piety” of absolutist princes, see Breuer’s “Absolutische Staatsreform
und neue Frömmigkeitsformen. Vorüberlegungen zu einer Frömmigkeitsgeschichte
der frühen Neuzeit aus literarhistorischer Sicht,” in Breuer, ed., Frömmigkeit in der
frühen Neuzeit: Studien zur religiösen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland und
Spanien. Volkskündliche und kulturkündliche Beziehungen, Zusammenhänge äbendlandischer
und ibero-amerikanischer Sakralkultur (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1984), 5–25. Note also
Dougal Shaw’s essay criticizing the facile identification of propaganda, “Nothing but
Propaganda? Historians and the Study of Early Modern Ritual,” Cultural and Social
History 1 (2004): 139–58.
44
Robert W. Scribner cautioned against a facile view of popular culture as inherently sub-
versive; see his “Volksglaube und Volksfrömmigkeit. Begriffe und Historiographie,”
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 16 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

need not assume that the confessionalist programs of the Bavarian dukes and
the religious orders were a sufficient cause for popular religious enthusiasm.
Confraternities, pilgrimages, processions, and other Catholic practices all bur-
geoned after 1600, but in many respects they represented a continuation of
traditional, pre-Reformation practices that clerical elites tried to channel in
productive directions. We see the persistence of what Robert Scribner called
“paraliturgy” and Susan Karant-Nunn has called “pararitual,” ritual practices
that, while bearing tenuous connections with official religion, served as vital
expressions of popular religious sentiment and sociability.45 Among these were
functiones sacrae, for example, the sepulchral devotions during Holy Week or the
Salve devotions that took place on Saturday evenings. Even the erection of a new,
“programmatic” monument like the Mariensäule in Munich’s market square
(1638) appears to have touched off an enthusiastic public devotion that resisted
direct clerical control, even as it implicitly endorsed the Marian ideology of the
ruling house.46 It seems well to avoid a two-tiered model of religious culture
that, in Karant-Nunn’s words, contrasts “the spontaneous, ebullient peasantry
and the dour, oppression-bent wielders of power.”47 So many manifestations of
Bavarian religious culture, ranging from confraternal devotions to processions
and pilgrimage, cut easily across lines of both class and gender.
The Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation Bavaria

Given the previous discussion, it is axiomatic that music was one facet of
a much broader soundscape that included natural as well as other types of
intentional sounds, such as bells, gunfire, and speech; time and again, the
surviving evidence suggests how music was embedded into larger aural con-
texts. Music was quite naturally integrated into public spectacles that were
rich in both visual and aural media. Within the walls of churches one must
in Hansgeorg Molitor and Herbert Smolinsky, eds., Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen

Neuzeit (Münster: Aschendorff, 1994), 131–32.
45
See Karant-Nunn, The Reformation of Ritual: An Interpretation of Early Modern Germany
(London: Routledge, 1997), 185. Robert W. Scribner articulates a similar theme in his
Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany, 41.
46
I borrow the term functiones sacrae (or actiones sacrae) from Robert Scribner, Popular
Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany, 41.
47
Karant-Nunn, The Reformation of Ritual, 198. Scribner also addressed the imperative to
avoid simple polarities between “elite” and “popular”; see, for example, his remarks in
“Volksglaube und Volksfrömmigkeit,” 132.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 17 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

begin with the celebration of the Mass, which by the early seventeenth cen-
tury was the site of ever-more-frequent and opulent polyphony in the larger
parishes. This polyphony was balanced, however, by the heightened recita-
tion of liturgical texts and plainchant, all performed amid a soup of ambient
noises—walking, talking, prayer, perhaps even the barking of dogs—that
filled the reverberant nave.48 These sounds inflected what was increasingly a
strong and programmatic visual focus on the ritual acts of the clergy—in par-
ticular, the elevation of the host and the chalice as the real, transubstantiated
flesh and blood of Christ—and the central mysteries of the Catholic faith. For
example, the interior of the Jesuit church of St. Michael in Munich, charac-
terized by a massive barrel vault uninterrupted by supporting pillars, with
a relatively shallow choir and side chapels, functioned as a single volume,
encouraging congregants to devote their complete visual and aural attention
to the liturgical ritual. The interplay of visual and aural media was also strik-
ing in a variety of paraliturgical and devotional activities that unfolded inside
churches: we might cite here the “cradle” devotions at Christmastide and the
construction of representations of the Holy Sepulchre for Holy Week; the
singing of penitential psalms accompanied by bloody self-flagellation during
Lent; and the triumphal, militaristic performance of the Te Deum hymn on
occasions of collective celebration (see chapter 3).
Outside the consecrated spaces of churches, music was frequently deployed
as part of a more imposing soundscape, one that could expand the acoustic
horizon to encompass an entire city. Jesuit theater, for example, began in rela-
tively modest productions for the educational benefit of students but in the
seventeenth century moved into the public spaces of the city and augmented
the Jesuits’ Latin dialogues with increasingly elaborate staging, costumes,
and music (see chapter 4). Grand theatrical productions were fixed in a single
location, but a principal feature of Catholic devotional culture was mobility,
as processions and pilgrimages departed from their home parishes and physi-
cally appropriated space with spectacles of sight and sound (see chapters 5
and 6). Most remarkable here must be the great processions in Munich on
the feast of Corpus Christi, involving thousands of participants who circum-
ambulated the city, presenting “live” scenes from various episodes from the
48
I refer here to John Craig’s ideas on the soundscape of the contemporary English parish
church in “Psalms, Groans and Dog-Whippers: The Soundscape of Sacred Space in the
English Parish Church, 1547–1642,” in Coster and Spicer, Sacred Space in Early Modern
Europe, 104–23. A recent examination of the aural culture of early modern sermons
may be found in Arnold Hunt, The Art of Hearing: English Preachers and Their Audiences,
1590–1640 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 18 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

Old and New Testaments in scriptural order. As we shall see, the procession
was regularly articulated by musical ensembles, and the approach of the host
itself, displayed in a dazzling monstrance, was signaled by the militaristic
sounds of trumpets and drums. The procession made stations at the four
principal city gates for the singing of the Gospels, a ritual accompanied by
musket and cannon fire whose thundering enveloped the entire city in the
symbolic triumph of the Eucharist over its enemies. The pilgrimage routes to
holy shrines, furthermore, were traced aurally by the singing of litanies and
songs and instrumental music, and as the pilgrims approached their destina-
tion they were greeted by the copious pealing of bells; more elaborate music
often awaited them inside the pilgrimage chapel itself. Yet these musical
sounds were only a part of a wider fabric that included the rhythm of breath
and step, idle chatter and gossip, and secular songs as well, whose perfor-
mance could only be controlled to a degree by clerical oversight.
Nearly all these rituals, whether liturgical or devotional, unfolded under
and interacted with the near-constant sound of bells from the principal church
towers of cities and towns. The culture of bells is nearly lost to us today, but
it is vital that we give bells due attention, for they represent the aural articu-
lation of time, space, and power. To return again to Murray Schafer, bells in
an age of limited literacy were an acoustic calendar that marked the com-
plex interlocking cycles of the diurnal hours and liturgical observance. They
exerted “centripetal” force, calling together the community for worship and
aurally symbolizing the unity of the Christian polity; but they also enjoyed
the “centrifugal” power of dispelling demons and storms, functions habitu-
ally represented in their inscriptions.49 Bells were a symbol and enactment of
authority, no small matter in an age when the confessional state increasingly
sought to discipline its subjects both morally and spiritually. As we shall see
in chapter 4, in Counter-Reformation Bavaria bells were increasingly used as
signals for mandatory and conspicuous public prayer: at the sound of a spe-
cific bell, all inhabitants, whether on the streets, in workshops, or in private
homes, were enjoined to doff their hats, drop to their knees, and pray for
mercy and salvation. Far from being mere background or “keynote” sounds,
then, the numerous bells of the early modern city transmitted profoundly
meaningful signals whose interpretation would have demanded a remarkable
aural acuity on the part of listeners.
We are also drawn to the polyphonic music performed in sacred and devo-
tional spaces, music that in many respects took the splendid achievements
49
Schafer, The Tuning of the World, 53–55.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 19 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

of the Bavarian ducal chapel under Orlando di Lasso as a model. It is not
my ambition here to provide a thorough music-historical study of Lasso’s
accomplishment and the full range of musical developments in the cha-
pel that he headed. I do, however, hope to draw out various threads of
musical culture at the court and other institutions that have some bearing
on the question of religious representation and identity in the age of the
Counter-Reformation. This compels me not only to discuss key works and
genres within Lasso’s œuvre—the Magnificats, the litanies, the Ulenberg
psalms, and the spiritual madrigal cycle Lagrime di San Pietro, to name a
few—but also to more carefully plumb the relatively obscure depths of
the court music in the period after his death in 1594. Wilhelm V’s lavish
outlays on behalf of the Jesuits had brought the court finances to a ruinous
state, leading to severe cutbacks in chapel expenditures under Maximilian
I, a more austere personality who did not initially seem to favor elaborate
court music. Nevertheless, the early decades of the seventeenth century
saw a remarkable recovery in the numbers of musicians employed by the
chapel, which was now led by a series of chapelmasters, beginning with
Orlando’s former deputy Johannes à Fossa (1594–1602), and then followed
by his son Ferdinand di Lasso (1602–1609), the Italians Giacomo Perlazio
(1609–1612) and Bernardino Borlasca (1612–1614), Orlando’s grandson
Ferdinand II di Lasso (1614–1629), Giovanni Battista Crivelli (1629–
1635), and finally, by Giovanni Giacomo Porro (1635–1656). Court musi-
cians in this period were among the earliest German enthusiasts for the
Italianate sacred concerto for few voices and organ bass, setting texts that
embraced religious symbols that were indebted to Maximilian’s Catholic
confessionalist ideology—in particular the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist.
In the hands of such local composers as Rudolph di Lasso (Orlando’s
younger son), Bernardino Borlasca, and the court organist Anton Holzner,
the sacred concerto offered a more intense, intimate effect that emphasized
the expressive potential of the solo voice.
Another influential musical trend stemming from Italian—and specifi-
cally Venetian—practice was the polychorus, the positioning of multiple
choirs of voices and instruments around the space of the church, which had
the potential to create an overwhelming aural experience for congregants.
Not surprisingly, polychoral music was heard on festal and representative
occasions in Bavaria, but we also find that the musical adornment of the
liturgy, including the use of instruments, routinely expanded as a conse-
quence of Roman Rite, which was finally imposed in the diocese of Freising
(which includes the city of Munich) by 1605. At Munich’s principal parish
church of Unsere Liebe Frau, the introduction of the Roman Rite together
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 20 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

with the insistence of Duke Wilhelm V—now retired to his private palace
and devoting himself to ascetic works of piety—led to a dramatic expansion
of the regular performance of polyphonic music, not without complaint from
the now-overtaxed singers of that institution. The chapter protocols of Unsere
Liebe Frau record these struggles, but they also show that numerous musi-
cal instruments were acquired for use in the divine liturgy. By roughly 1620,
then, the aural experience of the liturgy in this church had entirely changed (see
chapter 2).
Any discussion of the early modern soundscape must try to come to terms
with “popular” song and music as well, which was likely far more ubiquitous
and characteristic than polyphony. Textual and musical literacy was highly vari-
able, and this may have been especially true in rural areas, where formal educa-
tion was limited or absent entirely. It has been argued that Catholic regions
in particular were characterized by a profound illiteracy that had the effect of
privileging visual modes of communication and stifling literary production.50
But in Protestant as well as Catholic lands the circulation of notated melodies
played a relatively small role in the culture of vernacular song, and contrafac-
ture—the singing of a new text to a known, preexistent tune—was a primary
avenue of musical transmission.51 Extant songbooks with notation are likely
unrepresentative of the broader and more invisible oral culture of religious sing-
ing. Furthermore, firm distinctions between sacred and secular song are elusive.
One thinks, for example, of Orlando di Lasso’s published collections of poly-
phonic German Lieder, where a drinking song like “So trincken wir alle” jostles
with a moralistic work like “Der Welte Pracht ist hoch geacht.”52 Monophonic
songs on sacred topics, too, drew on secular imagery, and vice versa, and the
process of contrafacture frequently joined texts and tunes having very different
associations; furthermore, a large repertory of moralistic songs cannot easily be
50
Bruce Smith draws such a distinction in The Acoustic World of Early Modern England, 261.
On the importance of seeing the Eucharist in Bavarian Catholicism, see Philip Soergel,
Wondrous in His Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1993), 90. Note, however, Benno Hubensteiner’s critique of the
facile distinction between a Protestant Wortbarock and Catholic Bildbarock in Vom Geist
des Barock: Kultur und Frömmigkeit im alten Bayern (Munich: Süddeutscher Verlag,
1967), 15–16.
51
On the prominence of oral modes of communication in the spread of Reformation
ideas, including sermons, reading aloud, songs and ballads, see Scribner, Popular
Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany, 49–69.
52
In Lasso’s Der dritte Theil schöner, neuer, teutscher Lieder (Munich: Adam Berg, 1576;
RISM L899).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 21 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

categorized.53 Some authors were careful not to prescribe specific tunes for their
texts, hoping that their spread would be facilitated by the choice of any appro-
priate tune, regardless of its origins. It is not difficult to imagine, then, that
religious texts were sung to melodies with secular overtones, and indeed the
success of contrafacture more generally may have depended on these borrowings.
The intermingling of the sacred and profane may have been particularly strik-
ing in the case of pilgrimage, where authorities struggled to keep worldly and
frivolous behavior at bay, and engaged singing-leaders to keep pilgrimage music
within the bounds of proper decorum (see chapter 6).
Whether “heretical” or merely “profane,” the culture of popular song
compelled Catholic authorities to promote an alternative orthodox reper-
tory. Although one might expect that newly produced Catholic songs—
especially of the Jesuit variety—were primarily oriented toward propaganda,
there were in fact a wide variety of approaches, ranging from edification
and devotion to outright confessional antagonism. One dimension of this
effort was the revitalization of pre-Reformation songs, but newly composed
Catholic song often displays a programmatic quality. The Jesuits were likely
responsible for a number of anonymous songs attacking the Protestants out-
right: belligerent contrafacta turned well-known Protestant songs like Erhalt
uns Herr on their heads and made them vehicles for Catholic propaganda.
Confessionalist programs can also be discerned in the new pilgrimage songs
produced for specific Bavarian shrines, as well as in the large body of mostly
anonymous thoroughbass songs that emerged from local presses beginning
around 1640. The popularity of Protestant vernacular psalmody was a spe-
cial target, and led to the widespread dissemination of Caspar Ulenberg’s
Catholic Psalter, first published at Cologne in 1582. In none of this music
can a simple polarity between “elite” and “popular” culture be maintained in
the face of the fluidity and exchange of musical and devotional culture across
the boundaries of class, status, and literacy.54 Musical literacy, for example,
was not necessarily coterminous with textual literacy. Educated laypersons
and male and female religious, in particular, were able to read mensural
53
This is one manifestation of a broader interpenetration of the sacred and the profane
in Reformation Europe, one that persisted despite reformers’ attempts to distinguish
them. See Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany, 1–16.
54
For one argument against the segregation of “popular” and “elite” cultures in early
modern Catholicism, see Keith P. Luria, “ ‘Popular Catholicism’ and the Catholic
Reformation,” in Kathleen M. Comerford and Hilmar M. Pabel, eds., Early Modern
Catholicism: Essays in Honour of John W. O’Malley, S.J. (Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 2001), 114–30.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 22 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

notation but were not necessarily equipped to negotiate elaborate polyphony.
Indeed, confraternities and religious orders were likely common sites for a
brand of “intermediate” polyphony that was composed in a mainly homo-
phonic style (i.e., simple litanies) or involved simple, accessible monophonic
melodies with rudimentary bass accompaniments. The burgeoning reper-
tory of mid-seventeenth-century thoroughbass lieder, furthermore, could be
deployed in varying circumstances, sometimes with instrumental accompa-
niment, sometimes without.
The preceding is simply a taste of the range of music and sound that
constituted the soundscape; we need also to reflect on some broader themes
this book will return to time and again. First is the ephemeral, yet powerful
nature of sound and music. The visual landscape or cityscape was character-
ized by static nodes of signification as well as motion: we think here both of
fixed landmarks, such as the great Mariensäule in Munich’s market square,
and of the splendor of the processions that passed through city streets for the
Corpus Christi feast. Music and sound, by contrast, were evanescent, even
if concatenations of bell sounds, music, and gunfire could be sustained for
brief periods of time. Sound is fundamentally entropic: it is immediately and
inevitably attenuated, as waves emanating from a source lose energy and are
reflected by a panoply of surfaces. It is perhaps by dint of its very ephemeral-
ity, however, that sound has such a powerful influence. It may have been pos-
sible for early modern city dwellers to tune out most keynote sounds of street
song or daily bell ringing, taking note only of particular soundmarks that
required their attention. But on festal occasions, especially, artificial sounds
such as cannon fire, bells, and large-scale polychoral music would have been
all but impossible to escape, and proved especially provocative in cities with
substantial Protestant populations.
The medium of sound expressed communal belief, marked bound-
aries, imposed order, and, as Bruce Smith has written, it “made maps”
that delineated spaces: sacred and profane, Catholic and Protestant.55 In
Counter-Reformation Bavaria sound and music frequently embraced sym-
bols of confessional controversy. Among the most potent of these was the
Eucharist, whose relationship to—or identity with—the body and blood of
Christ went straight to the heart of the nature of the divine service and the
role of the clergy as mediators between the laity and God. The Catholic Mass
itself, the enactment of the Eucharist as clerical sacrifice on behalf of the
laity, was inherently a sounding event: whether spoken, recited, or sung,
55
See Smith, The Acoustic World of Early Modern England, 31–37 and 287–341.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 23 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

Latin texts drawn from the sanctioned liturgical books created a distinctive
sacred and confessional space.56 Polyphony had long adorned the divine ser-
vice with greater solemnity, but the introduction of the Roman Rite meant
a considerable expansion of church music, including instrumental and poly-
choral music, into larger collegiate and parish churches. The new liturgy,
furthermore, led to far greater demands on the religious orders: for example,
women in Munich’s Franciscan convents, fully claustrated in the early 1620s,
faced a new and rigorous regime of chanting Latin texts in their services. But
the sounding nature of the Eucharist went far beyond the Mass itself: one of
the most striking features of devotional life in Munich and elsewhere was the
expansion of the great procession of the Corpus Christi feast, which adorned
the progress of the Host with a web of significant sounds, including chant,
polyphony, the pealing of bells, and the report of cannon and musket fire, all
of which projected the triumph of the Catholic Eucharist and appropriated
space over a wide acoustic horizon.
More central to the confessional program of the ruling Wittelsbach
dynasty was the Virgin Mary, whose cult was promoted in innumerable ways,
both visually and aurally. As Bridget Heal has shown, the fate of Marian
imagery in Reformation Germany depended greatly on local circumstance;
in Bavaria in particular, Mary became a symbol of confessional division.57
Conceptualized as a triumphant Virgin of the Apocalypse, Maximilian
I would enshrine her as the “Patroness of Bavaria” on the façade of the ducal
residence in 1616, and in 1638 would elevate her image to crown the great
Mariensäule in Munich’s market square, a monument of gratitude for Mary’s
protection of Munich from Swedish depredation. This period also saw the
intense promotion of Marian pilgrimage in Bavaria, and particularly to the
Altötting shrine, a favorite destination of the Wittelsbach family. The inten-
sification of the Marian cult in Bavaria left a considerable musical legacy.
The greater emphasis placed on the celebration of Vespers led to a remark-
able explosion of Magnificat settings by numerous Munich composers, not
least by Orlando di Lasso, whose production in this genre was unsurpassed.58
56
On the act of consecration as defining sacred space, see Andrew Spicer, “ ‘God
Will Have a House’: Defining Sacred Space and Rites of Consecration in Early
Seventeenth-Century England,” in Spicer and Hamilton, Defining the Holy, 207–30.
57
See Bridget Heal’s The Cult of The Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany. Protestant and
Catholic Piety, 1500–1648 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), which
brilliantly examines Marian piety and imagery in Nuremberg, Augsburg, Bavaria, and
Cologne.
58
See David Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats for Counter-Reformation Munich
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), esp. 77–82.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 24 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

Into the early seventeenth century court composers continued to embrace
the Magnificat, the Marian antiphons, and other forms of Marian devotional
polyphony. No less common were polyphonic settings of the Litany of Loreto,
which appears to have been a special focus of Bavarian devotion to the Virgin
and formed the greater part of the litany settings in Georg Victorinus’s great
Thesaurus litaniarum (1596), the richest anthology of polyphonic litanies ever
produced (see chapter 2).
The depth of Victorinus’s litany anthology and the prevalence of litany
settings more generally in Bavaria had both spiritual and practical expla-
nations. Like the sounds of consecrated bells and music like Lasso’s motet
Gustate et videte, the recitation or singing of litanies could be invested with
great thaumaturgical power: they could bring about mystical visions, aid in
the performance of exorcisms, and even bring a Marian statue to life. From a
confessional standpoint the litany expressed the dogma of sanctoral interces-
sion: Catholics insistently and repeatedly prayed together to divine persons—
most commonly, the Virgin Mary and the saints—who would intercede on
their behalf, becoming vehicles for divine grace and, at times, for miraculous
happenings. Bavarian and clerical authorities almost always prescribed collec-
tive litanies and processions in times of tribulation, compelling their subjects
to submit to divine will and aiming to avert calamity through divine agency.
Practically speaking, the litany was perfectly suited to a wide range of per-
formance contexts. Spoken simply or recited monophonically, it rhythmically
regulated the breath and pace of marchers in processions and pilgrimages;
but in grand polyphonic settings for professional choirs, it could be deployed
to great effect in festal or supplicatory services. The litany, then, had a highly
flexible relationship to space, embodying fixity as well as motion.
In Eucharistic processions, especially, the relatively static ebb and flow of
the litany was often punctuated by the thunder of gunfire and the strident
sounds of trumpets and drums, lending a militaristic dimension to the ven-
eration of the sacrament. This was certainly true of the great Corpus Christi
processions in Munich, but we see the deployment of military music for
all manner of Catholic processions in other Bavarian towns as well: trum-
pets, drums, and gunfire underlined the distinctiveness of Catholic dogma,
reflected in devotion to the Eucharist as the transubstantiated flesh and blood
of Christ, to the Virgin Mary as the triumphant queen of heaven, and to the
saints as intercessors on behalf of the Catholic polity. It stands to reason that
Catholic authorities would deploy the loudest artificial sounds available to
aurally mark these sites of stark confessional difference.
Such efforts could hardly succeed without a parallel move to appropri-
ate and channel existing forms of popular devotion, some of which were
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 25 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

remarkably tenacious. Protestant efforts at “desacralization” often foundered
against traditional shoals of popular belief in magic, in the interaction of the
living and the dead, in the investment of particular places and objects with
spiritual power, and indeed, a widespread tendency toward syncretic and
inconsistent systems of belief.59 Catholic reformers, on the other hand, could
reckon with sustained popular interest in collective rituals like pilgrim-
ages and in what Scribner called “sacramentals”—objects ritually blessed by
the clergy, including eucharistic wafers, holy water, and bells.60 Authorities
channeled these interests in confessionally productive ways. Confraternities,
a late medieval legacy, were heavily promoted but subjected to strict cleri-
cal oversight, and newer confraternities and congregations tended to devote
themselves to more explicitly confessional objects like the Eucharist and
the Virgin. Catholic authorities promoted urban processions as well, but
imposed a strict, hierarchical order and suppressed potential abuses; here the
sonic accompaniment mirrored the social hierarchy, as trumpets and drums
were reserved for the vanguard of the procession and for the approach of the
Eucharist itself. Pilgrimage in particular was a rich popular tradition and
one in which worldly concerns and pleasures constantly threatened spiritual
decorum. Hoping to preserve order and inculcate spiritual values, Catholic
authorities engaged singing-leaders and composed new pilgrimage songs
with clear confessionalist programs, dabbling in anti-Protestant polemics
while promoting the spiritual potency of holy sites.
Bavarian authorities also took firm measures to control the urban sound-
scape, a highly complex environment featuring a wide assortment of sounds
natural and artificial, sacred and profane. Public, conspicuous sounds such
as bells, military music, and gunfire were to be the monopoly of state and
church, sonic expressions of authority and inducements to obedience and dis-
cipline. Conversely, authorities tried to limit secular merrymaking and any
sounds they perceived as popular “noise”. Sundays, feast days, the Lenten
59
On the persistence of traditional beliefs and the gradual nature of change see Robert
W. Scribner, “Reformation and Desacralisation: from Sacramental World to Moralised
Universe,” in R. Po-Chia Hsia and Robert W. Scribner, eds., Problems in the Historical
Anthropology of Early Modern Europe (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), 75–92.
60
Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany, 39–47. On
the persistence of traditional forms of religious culture see also Ernst Walter Zeeden,
“Aspekte der katholischen Frömmigkeit in Deutschland im 16. Jahrhundert,” in
Konfessionsbildung: Studien zur Reformation, Gegenreformation und katholischen Reform
(Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1985), 317–19, and Marc Venard, “Volksfrömmigkeit und
Konfessionalisierung,” in Die katholische Konfessionalisierung, 258–70.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 26 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

season, and times of public mourning were all occasions for authorities to
still the secular soundscape. They continually struggled to evict itinerant
musicians, and by the seventeenth century limited the ability of poor school-
children to sing in public, depriving them of much-needed income. The
frequency of their mandates suggests that these efforts to monopolize the
soundscape were mostly fruitless. Public music and “noise” were widespread,
yet evanescent, and became ever more difficult to localize and suppress as
night fell. The challenge was far greater in the case of private households
suspected of hosting religious conventicles, at which heretical songs and
psalms might be sung. Bavarian authorities saw censorship and interdiction
of forbidden literature as a more attractive strategy than combating the gath-
erings themselves: strict censorship ordinances subjected all newly printed
literature to state oversight and forbade the importation of materials from
Protestant lands. Something of the monumentality of the task, however, is
suggested by the case of the Upper Palatinate, where officials searched private
households for banned literature beginning in 1628. The over 10,000 books
that were confiscated and catalogued included many hundreds of Psalters and
Protestant songbooks likely used in private conventicles, many of whose title
pages had been torn away, perhaps deliberately in anticipation of the arrival
of electoral officials. The struggle to control heretical song is a reminder, to
cite Michel de Certeau, that when it came to sound official strategies were not
always equal to popular tactics.
The Structure and Scope of the Book

In this book I hope to capture some of the ways in which music and sound
reinforced and shaped an emerging identity of Bavarian Catholicism, but
also contained the potential to confound the boundaries that were so insis-
tently drawn between communities of faith. We begin with the deployment
of music and sound in relatively enclosed architectural spaces, and gradually
emerge into the public spheres of city and countryside. Chapter 2 examines
sound in spaces of worship, including the Bavarian court chapel, the Jesuit
churches, parishes, and monasteries. As the definition and significance of the
Eucharist becomes a confessional flashpoint in early modern Germany, we
see a renewal of emphasis on the sacrifice of the Mass and its adornment
with visual and aural media. Broadly speaking, the imposition of the new
Tridentine liturgy led to an expansion of liturgical music in many institutions
and its recasting in an explicitly Roman manner. By the early seventeenth
century, traditional polyphony for equal voices was supplemented by newer
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 27 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

and more fashionable genres derived from Italy, especially the Venetian poly-
chorus and the sacred concerto for few voices and organ continuo. The Office
of Vespers became a site for elaborate music as well, as the Magnificat became
an intense focus of compositional activity for Orlando di Lasso and his suc-
cessors. We shall see that the control of the liturgical soundscape was hardly
assured, however: congregations in many Bavarian parishes persisted in sing-
ing vernacular, Lutheran songs well into the late sixteenth century, compel-
ling Catholic authorities to produce and disseminate a competing, delimited
repertory of “approved” songs. In chapter 3, we turn to “devotional” spaces,
broadly framed as enclosed spaces—including churches, chapels, and private
homes—in which the liturgy was not explicitly being celebrated. Here we
examine the published collections of Latin-texted sacred concertos by com-
posers in the Munich milieu, prints that have a strongly devotional hue. We
will also consider the persistence of “heretical” song in Bavaria and official
attempts to suppress its dissemination and performance. By the late sixteenth
century, feverish efforts were underway to spread an alternative repertory of
Catholic song; some of these were aimed at devotion or edification, but others
confronted the confessional challenge directly, mocking popular Protestant
songs through belligerent contrafacta. By the 1640s Munich was an active
site for the production of Catholic songs with thoroughbass accompaniment,
which were well suited to devotional and monastic contexts in which a bass
instrument was available. From here, we turn to the use of music in confra-
ternities, congregations, and in various corporate religious gatherings. Many
of these groups gathered within the walls of consecrated churches, reminding
us that these buildings were not simply “liturgical” spaces but hosted a wide
variety of devotional and paraliturgical activities as well.
In chapter 4, we move into the streets and squares of the early modern city.
We begin with the sound of bells, a relentless and dense network of signals
that articulated time, space, and authority, drawing the Christian commu-
nity together while driving away evil spirits and storms. Bells also became
a sonic medium for imposing religious discipline: their sounds were meant
to compel conspicuous prayer in both public and private, although the level
of popular observance remains unclear. In this chapter, we see that Bavarian
authorities regulated the urban soundscape in other ways, severely limiting
the “profane” sounds of popular festivities and various forms of street-singing,
and combating the occasional irruption of heretical songs. The attempt to
silence popular “noise” in the cities was accompanied by a burgeoning of
programmatic, public spectacles in which sound and music played a promi-
nent role: especially notable here are the numerous theatrical productions
offered by the Jesuits, the elaborate ceremonies for the canonization of Saints
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 28 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

Ignatius and Xavier in 1622, and the festal consecration of the Mariensäule in
Munich’s market square in 1638. The most distinctive and regular forms of
urban religious spectacle were processions, which merit separate discussion in
chapter 5. A special focus here is the grand processions for the Feast of Corpus
Christi, which by the late sixteenth century assumed massive proportions and
featured a rich array of both visual and aural media. In chapter 6, we leave the
city altogether and accompany pilgrims on their way to the rich network of
holy shrines that defined the spiritual geography of Bavaria. Pilgrims traced
their routes aurally by chanting litanies and singing litany-like songs. The
presence of singing-leaders, the programmatic quality of many newer pil-
grimage songs, and admonishments in contemporary pilgrimage manuals all
suggest, however, that pilgrimage was a site of lively interaction between the
sacred and profane. Critical nodes along the pilgrimage route—the departure
church, towns transited by pilgrims, and the destination itself—featured a
variety of distinctive sounds and music as well that underlined the festal
nature of pilgrimage and distinguished it from the rhythms of everyday life.
In the sounds of pilgrimage we find encapsulated a theme to which this book
returns time and again, the ways in which sound expressed and shaped reli-
gious identity, yet proved stubbornly resistant to outright control.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 29 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

Chapter Two Sound and the Spaces of Worship
I n a time when religious and secular authorities increasingly subjected

space, both public and private, to all manner of surveillance, no task
was more pressing than to control the experience of public worship. Even
if paraliturgical and devotional activities assumed greater importance in
post-Tridentine Catholicism—one thinks of the great pilgrimages to holy
shrines, the grand processions on the Feast of Corpus Christi, and the bur-
geoning number of lay confraternities—spiritual culture remained fixed on
the act of corporate worship. The Eucharist in particular, the centerpiece
of the Mass, was perhaps the greatest flashpoint in the Catholic-Protestant
divide: even as the Lutheran and Reformed faiths rejected outright the prin-
ciple of the Mass as a sacrifice, the Catholic church reaffirmed the centrality
of the priestly sacrifice and the transubstantiation of bread and wine, an act
which in popular consciousness was enriched by a traditional belief in the
mystical, indeed magical, properties of the consecrated Host. In Protestant
lands divine worship was no less important, but here Eucharistic culture was
displaced by a focus on the sermon and on congregational participation in a
vernacular liturgy.
We begin, therefore, with an exploration of the aural experience of cor-
porate worship in Counter-Reformation Bavaria. While it is difficult, if not
impossible, to recreate the full panoply of sounds in a given worship ser-
vice—including clerical speech, reciting tones, chant, polyphonic music, bell
sounds, whispered conversation, and even barking dogs—several characteris-
tic aspects of the interior soundscape of the church shaped the experience of
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 30 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

the post-Tridentine liturgy.1 A fundamental feature, naturally, was the reten-
tion of the Latin language: while semantically opaque to the typical parishio-
ner, it was an aural symbol of the liturgy’s venerable authority. Quite common
in the public churches, at least, was the effort to create unified spaces—both
architecturally and acoustically—that allowed the laity to follow the conduct
of the liturgy without hindrance. The “heretical” songs they had sometimes
sung were now to be replaced with a carefully delimited repertory of ortho-
dox German songs, allowing for lay engagement without endangering the
fundamental authority of the clergy. Polyphonic music, too, took on new
dimensions as the liturgy became thoroughly Romanized, and the devotional
preoccupations of the Wittelsbachs and Jesuits came to the fore. The age of
the Counter-Reformation saw the expansion of polychoral, organ, and instru-
mental music in many churches, making for a potentially overwhelming syn-
aesthetic experience that underscored the sacral quality of Catholic liturgy.
Moreover, the official cult of the Virgin Mary and the re-emphasis of the
dogma of sanctoral intercession helped to stoke a radical rise in Magnificat
and litany composition. Finally, the relentless Italianization of the court cha-
pel in the seventeenth century led to the adoption of new types of music that
were at once fashionable and highly affective, decorating texts that embraced
divisive confessional symbols of Marian, Eucharistic, and sanctoral devotion.
As we begin to explore these spaces, it is well to remember that while con-
secrated churches were thought to embody a fixed, permanent sacral space,
liturgical space proper could be “produced”—to use Henri Lefebvre’s termi-
nology—only through the deployment of specific and ephemeral cues, both
visual and aural: vestments, candles, the display of the consecrated bread and
wine, and the sounds of liturgical texts, whether spoken, recited, or sung.2 As
we shall see in the next chapter, church spaces were also routinely appropri-
ated for other purposes, including devotion, supplication, and celebration, all
of which involved their own distinctive cues of sight and sound.
1
On the difficulty of controlling popular noise in church spaces, see Peter Thaddäus
Lang, “ ‘Ein grobes, unbändiges Volk.’ Visitationsbericht und Volksfrömmigkeit,” in
Hansgeorg Molitor and Herbert Smolinsky, eds., Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit
(Münster: Aschendorff, 1994), 55.
2
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).
s o u n d a n d t h e s p a c e s o f w o r s h i p | 31
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 31 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

Public Churches and the Experience of Liturgical Space
For most people, the parish churches and the public churches of the religious
orders and societies were the locus of the experience of divine worship. The
keynote sounds of the liturgy included spoken text, heightened recitation,
and plainchant by the clergy and choir, accompanied by the ambient sound of
human activity in the nave; to this we must add the more infrequent signals or
soundmarks that attracted the attention of listeners, including congregational
song, vocal polyphony, and—in the largest urban churches—opulent polychoral
and instrumental music performed for festal occasions. The physical traces of
the modest music heard in the rural parishes are mostly lost to us, but visitation
records tell of the widespread presence of songs associated with Lutheranism
by the second half of the sixteenth century, which in turn touched off an effort
to displace them with orthodox alternatives. Lay singing was but one aspect of
profound changes in both architecture and music that by the early seventeenth
century had transformed the spaces of liturgical celebration. The new Jesuit
church of St. Michael in Munich (1597) exemplifed a single, unified worship
space in which the laity could fully apprehend the liturgy, an idea that led to
remodeling and redecoration in many existing churches. In the more prominent
and wealthy churches, at least, congregants heard new and imposing sounds: a
marked increase in polyphony following upon the imposition of the Roman
Rite, the embellishment of the service with multiple choirs of voices and instru-
ments, new organs and galleries for musicians, and possibly some of the fashion-
able and virtuosic Italianate music for solo voices that by the 1620s had begun
to flood into Germany. In many churches parishioners were now enveloped in
a sensuous web of sight and sound, drawn into a common experience of divine
worship and even raising their voices in (carefully approved) song.
Congregational Song
There is little doubt that vernacular song became a vital expression of Lutheran
identity, whether heard in the confines of the church or in more informal ven-
ues. Communal song was a powerful expression of a “culture of belonging”
with deep roots in medieval society, and what began as an effort on the part
of Luther and his colleagues to embed the practice in worship culminated in
a widespread culture of religious song that penetrated the household, tavern,
and street.3 Vernacular song transmitted news of the day, derided Catholics
3
See Andrew Pettegree’s focus on communal song as a militant expression in his
Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 32 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

and their political patrons, disrupted Catholic services and public spaces,
and served as a witness to belief; in short, it was a handy tool for both pious
expression and propaganda.4 In Bavaria, the singing of German songs—some
with strong Lutheran overtones—seems to have been widespread by the time
regular official visitations began taking place after 1558, and their tenacity
was related to another aspect of lay participation in the service, the provision
of communion in the form not only of bread but also of wine, a privilege
traditionally reserved to the clergy alone. The demand for the lay cup, or
Laienkelch, in Bavaria was suppressed in the later sixteenth century, but vari-
ous episodes point to the continuing incendiary potential of polemical song,
giving credence to the estimation by Adam Contzen—the Jesuit confessor
of Maximilian I—that “the songs of Luther have killed more souls than his
writings and sayings.”5
By the time of the great visitations of the Bavarian dioceses in the
mid-sixteenth century, vernacular song in the divine service was already
an object of official concern. The participants at the Mühldorf provincial
synod held in 1553 debated the status of the lay cup but also concluded that
“deceptive and [falsely] translated Psalms” were widely sung in the churches;
the report includes a lengthy listing of parishes in the diocese of Salzburg
where the forbidden singing was taking place.6 In Landshut, a short distance
east of Munich, the congregation of the Carmelite church was reported to
sing vernacular song habitually in the divine service, a practice that drew a
stern rebuke from Albrecht V to the city council in 1555. The council, after
reassuring the duke of its obedience in all other matters, responded that the
2005), esp. 40–75. For further arguments on the embeddedness of song in Protestant

culture, see Patrice Veit, “Kirchenlied und konfessionelle Identität im deutschen 16.
Jahrhundert,” in Hören, Sagen, Lesen, Lernen: Bausteine zu einer Geschichte der kommuni-
kativen Kultur. Festschrift für Rudolf Schenda zum 65. Geburtstag (Bern: P. Lang, 1995),
750–53; and Christopher B. Brown, Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success
of the Reformation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).
4
On the functions of vernacular song, see Robert Scribner’s influential study Popular
Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (London: Hambledon Press,
1987), esp. 60–62.
5
“Hymni Lutheri animos plures, quam scripta et declamationes occiderunt,” from
Contzen’s Politicorum libri decem (Mainz: Johannes Kinck, [1621?]), 2:100.
6
See Reiner Braun, ed., Die bayerischen Teile des Erzbistums Salzburg und des Bistums
Chiemsee in der Visitation des Jahres 1558 (St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1991), 135–36,
citing BayHStA, KÄA 4049, fol. 489r–v. For further commentary, see Extended
Reference 2.1.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 33 10/28/2013 10:35:41 PM

singing of German songs, including Luther’s translation of Psalm 130 (De
profundis), Aus tiefer Not, was not only traditional but widespread “in the
public streets in front of homes [ . . . ] in the churches, during the Mass and
the sermon.”7 Luther’s Aus tiefer Not was one of the most venerable songs in
the repertory, and had long been used in a variety of liturgical positions and
as a catechism hymn. Its emphasis on repentance and faith in God’s grace
through His Word—rejecting works and acts of penance—made it confes-
sionally problematic as Catholic reform proceeded.8 In these years Lutheran
song even penetrated Munich’s largest parish church, Unsere Liebe Frau,
where the new reform-minded dean Adam Bartholomaeus—having intro-
duced German song in his previous post at Bretten in Württemberg—aimed
his sermons “so that all of Bavaria would believe the Gospel and that all will
sing Psalms openly everywhere, during the sermon as well as in the fields.”9
German song was well embedded in the day-to-day experience of the
divine service, but it could also disrupt the soundscape of the Catholic lit-
urgy. A particularly brazen episode, recounted briefly at the beginning of
chapter 1, took place at the Augustinian church in Munich in June 1558,
when a group of men sang Lutheran songs, some of them quite inflamma-
tory, during the service in direct defiance of the clergy. Albrecht V, hearing
of the disturbance, was furious. He demanded the arrest and interrogation of
eleven individuals, who were questioned on June 28 in the presence of city
and ducal officials (the leader of the singers, a short, bearded man, had eluded
arrest and was never found). The singers gave varied excuses for their behav-
ior and in some respects protested their innocence and naivety; however, on
the recommendation of the city councilors, Albrecht showed the prisoners
leniency, agreeing to their release, but admonishing them against making
such disturbances again within the duchy. We need not be detained here by
their individual responses to the questions, but one notes the leading role of
7
From the Landshut city council to Albrecht V, October 20, 1555, BayHStA, KÄA
4263, fols. 208r–211v; for original text see Extended Reference 2.2. On the promi-
nence of Aus tiefer Not in this repertory, see Braun’s commentary in Die bayerischen Teile
des Erzbistums Salzburg und des Bistums Chiemsee in der Visitation des Jahres 1558, 135–37.
8
On the origin and significance of Aus tiefer Not, see Robin A. Leaver, Luther’s Liturgical
Music: Principles and Implications (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2007),
142–52.
9
See Hans Rößler, Geschichte und Strukturen der evangelischen Bewegung im Bistum Freising
1520–1571 (Nuremberg: Verein für Bayerische Kirchengeschichte, 1966), 38–39.
Bartholomaeus would later inform the Munich city council of his desire to introduce
the lay cup, as he had done in his previous position; see ibid., 48.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 34 10/28/2013 10:35:41 PM

the Vorsänger, implying a degree of organization, and the common socioeco-
nomic standing of the perpetrators—goldsmiths, metalsmiths, tailors, and
their apprentices, the very class of mobile and literate people among which
Reformation ideas spread most readily.10 More generally, the episode dem-
onstrates the aural contestation of the worship space by song, laughter, and
shouting.
By this time, Albrecht V was convinced of the need for a general visita-
tion in Bavaria. In September 1558 the visitation of individual parishes in
the archdiocese of Salzburg commenced, followed quickly in the next two
years by visitations to the dioceses of Passau, Regensburg, and Freising.11
With respect to service music the ducal and episcopal visitors were instructed
to ask each parish priest “whether he calls on the people to pray at the
beginning and end of the sermon, whether he believes that the Ave Maria
is a prayer, and what songs and psalms he allows to be sung.”12 The visi-
tation reports revealed that congregations often sang unapproved vernacu-
lar songs—identified as “neue psalmen” or “neue rueff,” as opposed to the
“alte kirchengesäng”—in the divine service willfully, and sometimes in defi-
ance of the clergy, particularly in the towns and cities near the confessional
boundaries and in the valleys of major rivers.13 Wittingly or unwittingly,
10
On the social and geographical origins of those arrested, see ibid., esp. 45–46. For
further sources and commentary see Extended Reference 1.1.
11
The records of the Bavarian visitations are scattered throughout several sources: for the
diocese of Passau, see BSB Cgm 1737, studied at length in Brigitte Kaff, Volksreligion
und Landeskirche: die evangelische Bewegung im bayerischen Teil der Diözese Passau
(Munich: Kommissionsbuchhandlung R. Wölfle, 1977). Records of the Regensburg
diocesan visitation are preserved in a 1792 copy, BZaR, Visitationsprotokoll 1559,
which has been transcribed and edited by Paul Mai in Das Bistum Regensburg in der
bayerischen Visitation von 1559, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Bistums Regensburg 27
(Regensburg: Verlag des Vereins für Regensburger Bistumsgeschichte, 1993). Records
from the Freising diocesan visitation are available in BayHStA, KÄA 4207, a tran-
scription and extensive study of which is provided in Anton Landersdorfer, Das Bistum
Freising in der bayerischen Visitation des Jahres 1560 (St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1986).
Records from the dioceses and Salzburg and Chiemsee are found in AEM, Salzburg 37,
transcribed with commentary in Braun, ed., Die bayerischen Teile des Erzbistums Salzburg
und des Bistums Chiemsee in der Visitation des Jahres 1558.
12
“Ob er zu anfanng und ennde der predig das volckh petten haiss unnd ob er das ave
Maria auch gebrauch als ein gebeth, ob unnd was er fur rueff und psalmen singen
lass?” Qtd. in Landersdorfer, Das Bistum Freising in der bayerischen Visitation des Jahres
1560, 43. It was important for priests to regard the Ave Maria not simply as a text of
praise or grues, but rather as a prayer to the Virgin.
13
In the diocese of Passau, for example, no less than half of all parishes had adopted
Lutheran practices, particularly in the valleys of the Inn, Vils, and Rott rivers, and in
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 35 10/28/2013 10:35:41 PM

these parishioners transformed the space of their parish churches through their
songs, which commonly included the Vater unser, Wir glauben all an einen Gott,
Jesus ist ein süsser Nam, and especially Luther’s Aus tiefer Not. Singing took place
before and/or after the sermon, but it also sounded in the place of Latin liturgical
items: most commonly Wir glauben all an einen Gott for the Credo, but also Vater
unser for the Offertory, Erbarm dich Herr for the Sanctus, and Aus tiefer Not for
the Communion.14 Most clerics reported the presence of these songs as a simple
matter of fact, but in a remarkable number of cases, they indicated that the
parishioners had initiated this singing against the cleric’s will. In Ottring, for
example, the pastor fears for his life if he prevents his parishioners from singing
Aus tiefer Not; in Neukirchen, the pastor reports that “his parishioners no longer
wish to sing the old Catholic songs”; in the parish of Au, the priest insists that
“his parishioners sing German Psalms against his will, and when he begins to
sing a Catholic song to them, they remain silent,” adding that many of them
own forbidden books and stay at Mass only for the sermon. These examples can
be multiplied.15
In some cases German schoolmasters taught the “neue rueff ” to their stu-
dents, sometimes at the instigation of the parents. In Munich, one teacher
replies that “he is admonished by some burghers to allow Psalms to be sung,
but he doesn’t wish to do it; on account of this he has to put up with difficulties.
He cannot name any of them [in particular], but they are common artisans.”16
the city of Passau itself (Kaff, Volksreligion und Landeskirche, 400–401); for the diocese
of Freising, Anton Landersdorfer, in Das Bistum Freising in der bayerischen Visitation des
Jahres 1560, 138, has identified various towns along the Mangfall river (a tributary of
the Inn) as centers for the new teachings, as well as towns in the immediate vicinity of
the county of Haag, a Protestant enclave until 1567.
14
These alterations are summarized in the final visitation report, preserved in BayHStA,
KÄA 1752, 155v–156r. For further commentary see also Landersdorfer, Das Bistum
Freising in der bayerischen Visitation des Jahres 1560, 154, and Walter Ziegler, ed.,
Altbayern von 1550–1651, Dokumente zur Geschichte von Staat und Gesellschaft
in Bayern, Abteilung I, Band 3 (Munich: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung,
1992), 281.
15
See examples qtd. in Mai, Das Bistum Regensburg in der bayerischen Visitation von 1559,
40–41, 186, 204, and 227; and in Landersdorfer, Das Bistum Freising in der bayerischen
Visitation des Jahres 1560, 131, 523–24, 556–57, 625, 656, and 664. See Extended
References 2.3–2.5 for selected examples.
16
Questioning of Wolfgang Ringelstorffer, qtd. in Landersdorfer, Das Bistum Freising in
der bayerischen Visitation des Jahres 1560, 407 (see Extended Reference 2.6). See ibid.,
382–408, for more examples of Munich students and congregations singing vernacu-
lar Psalms and songs in the service. On parents’ encouragement of schoolmasters to
teach their children Protestant songs, see also Rößler, in Geschichte und Strukturen der
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 36 10/28/2013 10:35:41 PM

More troublesome was the schoolmaster Peter Prechler, who had his students
sing the Vater unser, Wir glauben all an einen Gott, Dies sind die heiligen zehn Gebot
and “other Psalms, for no one has forbidden it.” He claims to prefer the Lutheran
sermon to “the other,” and praises the dean of Unsere Liebe Frau—referring to
Adam Bartholomaeus—for preaching “both ways,” which is likely a reference
to the provision of communion in both species. Going even further, Prechler
states that “if German [songs] were sung in church, everyone could understand
them; and there are some in the city council and community that have asked
him to sing German psalms to their children. He will, however, not name any
of them, even though he was asked three times.”17 Bartholomaeus, for his part,
claimed that vernacular Psalms were not sung at Unsere Liebe Frau, but his
colleagues insisted that the local German schoolmasters were teaching them
to their charges.18 One schoolmaster in Rosenheim who had his students sing
Psalms in the churches went as far as changing the text of the Salve Regina
to Salve Rex Christe, a move that brought down punishment from the regional
governor, the Rentmeister.19 In general, it is difficult to determine how reform
of these practices was carried out at the local level after the conclusion of the
visitations, but unsanctioned vernacular song was persistent in the decade of the
1560s, and in 1565 the archbishop of Salzburg felt compelled to issue a man-
date that the laity should refrain from initiating singing themselves and wait
for the clergy to begin the first verse before joining in.20 The evidence of illicit
singing in the divine service gradually thins out, but as late as 1615, the bishop
of Freising felt compelled to issue a mandate for clerical reform that decried
“strange poems and songs” heard in the church and in processions and insisted
evangelischen Bewegung im Bistum Freising 1520–1571, 40–41, who cites several exam-
ples from the year 1560.
17
Questioning of Peter Prechler, qtd. in Landersdorfer, Das Bistum Freising in der bayer-
ischen Visitation des Jahres 1560, 407–8; for original text, see Extended Reference 2.7.
18
See Landersdorfer, Das Bistum Freising in der bayerischen Visitation des Jahres 1560, 383,
385, 386; for original text see Extended Reference 2.8.
19
See Landersdorfer, Das Bistum Freising in des bayerischen Visitation des Jahres 1560, 546.
For original text see Extended Reference 2.9. On other examples of this practice, see
Mary Frandsen, “Salve Regina / Salve Rex Christe: Lutheran Engagement with the Marian
Antiphons in the Age of Orthodoxy and Piety,” Musica disciplina 55 (2010): 129–218.
20
See Braun, ed., Die bayerischen Teile des Erzbistums Salzburg und des Bistums Chiemsee in der
Visitation des Jahres 1558, 138–39. Some other instances of Lutheran song in Bavarian
churches were found in Landshut in 1563 (BayHStA, KÄA 4268, 8v), Wasserburg in
1565 (BayHStA, KÄA 4267, 55r ff), and Wembding in 1567 (BayHStA, KÄA 4267,
96r ff).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 37 10/28/2013 10:35:41 PM

that “no song be sung that is not already included in the Roman Obsequiale or
otherwise in [books] by other approved authors.21
How did Catholic authorities respond to this appropriation of liturgi-
cal space? As it happens, the alte kirchengesäng were by no means absent
in traditional Catholic practice, and they formed one aspect of what Susan
Karant-Nunn has called “pararitual,” popular religious practices that had
only a tenuous relationship to ecclesiastical rites.22 One especially informa-
tive source for this is the Pfarrbuch (Parish Book; c. 1535) by the theolo-
gian Johannes Eck (1486–1543), who, after his famous disputations with
Martin Luther in the 1520s, served as parish priest at Unsere Liebe Frau
in Ingolstadt. The book calls for several well-known vernacular songs to
be sung by the populace before the sermon: Mitten unsers Lebens Zeit for
the First Sunday of Advent and on Septuagesima; Der Tag der ist so freud-
enreich for Christmas; Christ ist erstanden for Easter; and Komm Heiliger Geist
for Pentecost.23 The same songs are mentioned in a 1557 Agenda for the
Salzburg archdiocese, which also calls congregational singing before the ser-
mon a “praiseworthy tradition in the Catholic Church”—an early acknowl-
edgment, then, of the desire to make the space of the liturgy inclusive for
parishioners.24
As the century wore on, Catholic officials condemned the singing of
Lutheran songs, but called for their replacement with a parallel Catholic
repertory. As we have seen, a critical question was who had the authority
to control church space: should the clergy or the laity initiate vernacular
21
From the Mandat so der Hochwürdig Fürst vnd Herr, Herr Stephan Bischoff zu Freysing,
&c. an dero Clerisey deß gantzen Diœces außgehn lassen, &c. (Ingolstadt: in der Ederischen
Truckerey, bey Elisabeth Angermayrin, Wittib, 1615), 10. For original text, see
Extended Reference 2.10.
22
On pararitual, see Susan Karant-Nunn, The Reformation of Ritual: An Interpretation of
Early Modern Germany (London: Routledge, 1997), 185.
23
See commentary in Ruth Hofmann, “Notendruck,” in Siegfried Hofmann, ed., Musik
in Ingolstadt. Zur Geschichte der Musikkultur in Ingolstadt. Ausstellung des Stadtarchivs
und Stadtmuseums Ingolstadt vom 19.10. bis 18.11.1984 (Ingolstadt: Historischer Verein
Ingolstadt, 1984), 136–37, and Siegfried Hofmann, Geschichte der Stadt Ingolstadt
1506–1600 (Ingolstadt: Donaukurier Verlagsgesellschaft, 2006), 459.
24
“Consuetudo etiam laudabilis in Ecclesia Catholica est, quod Laici ante sermonem
pro impetranda gratia dei Germanicas et pias cecinere cantiones.” From the Libellus
Agendarum circa Sacramentum, Benedictiones et Caeremonias secundum antiquum usum
Metropolitanae Ecclesiae Salisburgensis (Salzburg, 1557), 230v, qtd. in Braun, ed., Die
bayerischen Teile des Erzbistums Salzburg und des Bistums Chiemsee in der Visitation des Jahres
1558, 131–39.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 38 10/28/2013 10:35:42 PM

singing in the service? Responding to the alarming tendency for the laity
to begin forbidden songs like Aus tiefer Not, Salzburg officials specified in
1569 that the priest himself should intone the approved songs—drawn from
the existing Agenda or approved by the local bishop—before and after the
sermon.25 For Duke Albrecht V, preventing the import of “heretical” lit-
erature from Protestant regions was one key strategy, but a more practical
approach is evident in his great school ordinance of 1569: schoolboys were
now to be trained to learn and sing orthodox songs in the churches, either in
Latin or German, and to strictly avoid “New German Psalms and songs.”26
At the same time, orthodox songs were to be made available in print. In
1570 a small group of songs concluded an Obsequiale printed for the dio-
cese of Regensburg, and in later years a small and consistent repertory—
including songs like Der Tag der ist so freudenreich for Christmas, and Der zart
Fronleichnam for Corpus Christi—may be found both in diocesan ritual books
and in smaller, local chapbooks, reflecting a grudging acknowledgment of
the utility of lay singing in church.27 At the same time, a wider variety of
congregational songs began to appear in more comprehensive Catholic song-
books of regional importance, beginning with the great Geistliche Lieder und
Psalmen by Johannes Leisentrit (1567ff) and a redacted version of the same
for divine worship issued by the diocese of Bamberg in 1575.28 Whether the
Bavarian clergy used these larger collections of congregational song as practi-
cal resources remains unclear.
25
See Gerhard B. Winkler, Die nachtridentinischen Synoden im Reich: Salzburger
Provinzialkonzilien 1569, 1573, 1576 (Vienna: Bohlau, 1988), 221, 229, as well as
Michael Härting, “Das deutsche Kirchenlied der Gegenreformation,” in Fellerer, ed.,
Geschichte der katholischen Kirchenmusik (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1976), 2:60.
26
As early as 1566, Albrecht had banned the import of printed materials from any-
where apart from a carefully delimited list of Catholic cities and regions (see Extended
Reference 2.11). Albrecht’s school ordinance is the Schulordnung der Fürstenthumb Obern-
und Nieder- Bayerlands (Munich: Adam Berg, 1569): see Extended Reference 2.12 for
original passages from this ordinance concerning vernacular song.
27
The Regensburg manual is the Obsequiale, vel liber Agendorum [ . . .] secundum antiquum
usum, & ritum Ecclesie Ratisbonensis (Ingolstadt: Ex Typographia Weissenhorniana,
1570); later diocesan rituals providing German songs include those for Augsburg
(1580) and Freising (1612). For further discussion of these and other contemporary
prints containing German songs for Catholic worship, see Extended Reference 2.13.
28
Leisentrit, Geistlicher Lieder und Psalmen (Bautzen, 1567; RISM B/VIII, 156705); and
the Kurtzer Außzug: Der Christlichen und Catholischen Gesäng [ . . . ] in der Catholischen
Kirchen sicherlich zusingen (Dillingen, 1575; RISM B/VIII, 157504). For further discus-
sion, see Extended Reference 2.14.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 39 10/28/2013 10:35:42 PM

The need to substitute Catholic for Protestant congregational sing-
ing was especially pressing in the recatholicized areas where Lutheran song
had been entrenched. In the decade following the Bavarian takeover of the
Upper Palatinate in 1621, Catholic Masses were gradually introduced in the
territory’s principal towns, including Amberg, Neumarkt, and Cham. At
first, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Catholic communities shared church spaces;
but first the Calvinists and then the Lutherans were deprived of access to
their former churches, and 1628 saw a general mandate for conversion to
Catholicism.29 The first wave of Jesuit priests in the Upper Palatinate were
attached to Catholic military companies, and, at least in some cases, they con-
ducted services under the protection of the soldiery; in 1622, soldiers sang
German songs during the newly introduced Catholic Mass in Hirschau.30
Characteristically, in their services the Jesuits aimed to impress the senses
through music and visual display, and in fact, it was “heretical” students
who provided service music in the early years of recatholicization. Discussing
services at the Frauenkirche and Georgskirche in Amberg, a Jesuit chronicle
reports that “sacred music, with the finest harmony of voices, strings, and
winds, was embellished by the soldiers of the garrison as well as the students
of the school, not only Lutherans but Calvinists as well.”31
If these students initiated Catholic congregational songs, did the laity
follow suit? As we shall see in the next chaper, a massive program of book
confiscation and burning commencing in 1628 suggests that Lutheran song
29
See overviews in Josef Hanauer, Die bayerischen Kurfürsten Maximilian I. und Ferdinand
Maria und die katholische Restauration in der Oberpfalz, Beiträge zur Geschichte des
Bistums Regensburg, Beiband 6 (Regensburg: Verlag des Vereins für Regensburger
Bistumsgeschichte, 1993), 34–46, 62–65; Walter Ziegler, “Die Rekatholisierung
der Oberpfalz,” in Glaser, ed., Um Glauben und Reich: Kurfürst Maximilian I. Beiträge
zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kunst, 1573–1657, Wittelsbach und Bayern II/1
(Munich: Hirmer, 1980), 436–47; and in Trevor Johnson, Magistrates, Madonnas
and Miracles: The Counter Reformation in the Upper Palatinate (Farnham: Ashgate,
2009), 49–54.
30
Hanauer, Die bayerischen Kurfürsten Maximilian I. und Ferdinand Maria und die katholische
Restauration in der Oberpfalz, 63.
31
Franciscus Xaverius Kropf, Historia Provinciae Societatis Jesu Germaniae Superioris. Pars
IV. Ab anno 1611 ad annum 1630 (Munich: Johann Jakob Vötter, 1740), 274. See
also Philipp Schertl, in “Die Amberger Jesuiten im ersten Dezennium ihres Wirkens
(1621–1632),” Verhandlungen des historischen Vereins von Oberpfalz und Regensburg
102 (1962): 115; and Achim Fuchs, “Die Durchführung der Gegenreformation in
der Oberpfalz,” in Karl-Otto Ambronn, ed., Die Oberpfalz wird bayerisch. Die Jahre
1621 bis 1628 in Amberg und der Oberpfalz (Amberg: Kulturamt der Stadt Amberg,
1978), 54–55.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 40 10/28/2013 10:35:43 PM

remained firmly rooted in popular practice.32 As late as 1654, electoral offi-
cials were saddened to report the poor state of Catholic observance in the
Upper Palatinate, where “in many places and locales Psalms and other songs
are being sung in church in the Lutheran manner, due to the lack of Catholic
songs and with the knowledge and approval of the priests.”33 Even in the
Catholic churches of a nominally recatholicized territory, Lutheran spaces
still routinely bubbled up, created through the medium of “heretical” song
that proved to be remarkably resilient.
The Jesuits and Counter-Reformation Worship

in Munich and Beyond
Lay participation in divine worship was but one aspect of broader changes in
the aural experience of worship in Counter-Reformation Bavaria. It is natural
to begin with the churches built or occupied by the Society of Jesus in Bavaria
after the mid-sixteenth century, for they provided distinctive new spaces for
the experience of divine worship and provided powerful models that were
imitated in other parish and monastic churches. Indeed, the older parishes
were quite nervous about the Jesuits’ ambitions, for the opulent services of
the Society threatened to draw away their own parishioners.34 The bellwether
was, of course, the the new Jesuit church of St. Michael in Munich, begun
with financing by Wilhelm V in 1583 and finally consecrated in July 1597.
The building of the church and its accompanying Jesuit college was primar-
ily responsible for bringing state finances to near bankruptcy and indirectly
led to Wilhelm’s abdication in 1597, but the visual effect of the new church
must have been impressive (see Figure 2.1). St. Michael was modeled in part
on the Jesuits’ home church in Rome, Il Gesù, and in fact outstripped its
parent in dimensions. Characteristic of both churches are their vast barrel
32
See Friedrich Lippert, “Bücherverbrennung und Bücherverbreitung in der Oberpfalz
1628,” Beiträge zur bayrischen Kirchengeschichte 6 (1900): 178–89; and Johnson,
Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles, 162–3. Original catalogues of confiscated books
may still be found at BayStA Amberg, OpRRA 553, 563, 564.
33
This was one of several critical problems that stemmed in part from the lack of a suf-
ficient number of Catholic clergy. See BayStA Amberg, OpRRA 892, no. 1. Johnson
provides further Upper Palatine examples of inflammatory Lutheran songs, including
Erhalt uns Herr, in his Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles, 38.
34
See, for example, the complaint of the clergy of Unsere Liebe Frau to ducal visitors in
1560, qtd. in Landersdorfer, Das Bistum Freising in der bayerischen Visitation des Jahres
1560, 386. See Extended Reference 2.8.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 41 10/28/2013 10:35:43 PM

F i g u r e 2 . 1 St. Michael, Munich, interior
vaults: that of St. Michael, the largest in the world after St. Peter’s basilica
in Rome, is over 28 meters high, is unsupported by pillars, and generates
a single, unified space with uninterrupted sightlines from the rear of the
nave to the choir—a length of 78 meters. The stuccoed walls and vault were
whitewashed, suffusing the vast interior with reflected light. Unlike medi-
eval churches, then, whose spaces were often articulated by regular pillars,
choir screens, and large, intricately decorated side chapels, the layout of St.
Michael invited churchgoers to see and hear the conduct of the liturgy with
utmost clarity. Jeffrey Chipps Smith, furthermore, has pointed to the striking
artistic program of St. Michael’s altars and altarpieces, which led the viewer
on a spiritual journey from the rear of the nave to the choir, broadly parallel-
ing the course of the Jesuits’ Spiritual Exercises.35 Reaching the edge of the
35
See Jeffrey Chipps Smith’s “The Art of Salvation in Bavaria,” in John O’Malley et al.,
eds., The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts 1540–1773 (Toronto: University of
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 42 10/28/2013 10:35:43 PM

choir, the laity’s eyes would have rested first on the great bronze crucifixion
group by Giovanni da Bologna and Hans Reichle—the cross embraced from
below by a weeping Mary Magdalene, a crucial symbol of penitence—and
finally on Christoph Schwarz’s massive high altarpiece depicting St. Michael
striking down Satan.36
While the visual program drew the the eyes inexorably toward the
choir, the interior of St. Michael offered acoustic advantages to the laity’s
experience of the liturgy. Despite the ample reverberation time stemming
from the impressive height of the barrel vault (nearly 27 meters) and the
church’s ample length (nearly 80 meters), the space functions as a single
air volume, with the shallow side chapels and transepts reducing delayed
reflections; an even diffusion of sound is provided by the intricate stucco
decoration of the vault and walls.37 While a full acoustic assessment of
the church lies beyond the bounds of this study, it is plausible that, in
comparison to medieval architectural plans, the spatial organization of
St. Michael allowed congregants to see and to hear the celebration of the
liturgy with little hindrance. It is no exaggeration to depict the Jesuit
conduct of the liturgy as a kind of theater, a sacral analogue to the opu-
lent plays with which they hoped to impress the eyes, ears, and souls of
laypersons.
By 1600, church music was frequently heard at St. Michael —the poor
students of the Jesuits’ Domus Gregoriana negotiated a demanding schedule of
services and rehearsals—but it was quite conservative, dominated by works
for equal-voiced ensembles of four to six parts, with Orlando di Lasso’s music
Toronto Press, 1999), esp. 574–81, as well as his Sensuous Worship: Jesuits and the Art of
the Early Catholic Reformation in Germany (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
2002), 77–101.
36
Originally intended as part of a massive burial monument for the church’s founder,
Wilhelm V, the crucifixion group was placed at the entrance to the choir in 1602. It
now occupies the east transept.
37
Further empirical research would be needed to determine the precise acoustic
properties of the church. Studies of acoustics in historical spaces may be found, for
example, in Deborah Howard and Laura Moretti, in Sound and Space in Renaissance
Venice: Architecture, Music, Acoustics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010);
Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture
of Listening in America, 1900–1933 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), esp. 13–57;
and Dorothea Baumann, Music and Space: A systematic and historical investigation into the
impact of architectural acoustics on performance practice followed by a study of Handel’s Messiah
(Bern: Peter Lang, 2011).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 43 10/28/2013 10:35:44 PM

assuming a major role.38 The extant choirbooks suggest, however, that the
Office of Vespers, with the Magnificat at its center, was a prominent locus
for polyphony, reflecting the increasing devotional and confessional signifi-
cance of the Virgin Mary among the Jesuits and their allies.39 St. Michael
was also a crucial site for the performance of the litany, a genre of such broad
importance in the Catholic world that it requires some introduction here.
The litany is an ancient prayer of petition that by this time opened with a
threefold Kyrie, a petition for mercy, and concluded with a threefold Agnus
Dei, framing a very lengthy series of brief invocations, or “titles,” of divine
personage(s) (the Virgin, the communion of saints, Jesus, and so forth), each
of which was followed by a communal response such as ora pro nobis (pray for
us) that was to be repeated many times. Processional litanies of All Saints
had fixed liturgical positions on the feast of St. Mark (April 25) and dur-
ing Rogation Days, but in fact they were widely used in the Catholic world
for a wide variety of paraliturgical and devotional activities, including festal
services, supplicatory processions, and pilgrimage. In Counter-Reformation
Bavaria the intense cultivation of the litany was surely linked to its expres-
sion of the dogma of sanctoral intercession, the ability of the saints—the
Virgin Mary chief among them—to intercede with God on mankind’s
behalf. Whether Catholics accepted this official view or the more common,
unorthodox view that the saints could directly exert their power on earth,
litanies were efficacious, conferring God’s grace on the polity. In Germany
they were also a powerful symbol of confessional difference, an aural marker
of the boundary between Catholic and Protestant devotion.40 The ebb and
38
Copied between roughly 1565 and 1605, the extant choirbooks of the church reflect a
fairly conservative musical practice and are dominated by Magnificats, Masses, hymns,
and antiphon settings: see BSB, Mus. mss. 70, 71, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 82, and the
manuscript appendix to 2 Mus. pr. 15; for discussion see 5/1 in the series Kataloge
bayerischer Musiksammlungen; hereafter KbM 5/1 (Munich: G. Henle, 1971ff). On the
musical activities of the Domus Gregoriana, see Hannelore Putz, Die Domus Gregoriana
zu München. Erziehung und Ausbildung im Umkreis des Jesuitenkollegs St. Michael bis 1773,
Schriftenreihe zur Bayerischen Landesgeschichte 141 (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2003),
esp. 138–53.
39
The available Magnificat repertory included music by Jacobus Vaet (imperial chapel-
master under Maximilian II), Lasso, the Jesuit music director Georg Victorinus, and
Christoph Perckhofer, choralist at the neighboring parish church of Unsere Liebe Frau.
For further detail, see Extended Reference 2.15.
40
A recent and valuable overview of the litany’s musical embellishment may be found in
Robert Kendrick, “ ‘Honore a Dio, e allegrezza alli santi, e consolazioni alli putti’: The
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 44 10/28/2013 10:35:44 PM

flow between the constantly changing invocations and the static responses is
the aural essence of the litany, whose performance could range from the spoken
word to heightened recitation, chant, falsobordone (a manner of heightened choral
recitation in a static harmonic frame), and full-blown polyphony. In polyphonic
settings composers generally preserved this steady alternation in a number of
ways, by alternating plainchant or falsobordone with choral counterpoint, or by
alternating two or more vocal ensembles that contrasted in numbers or tessitura.
Litanies, then, always implied an ideal of spatial separation between different
groups, and tended to have the aural effect of joining together disparate mem-
bers in a single collective body of supplication. As we shall see later in this book,
their close links with processional culture meant that litanies impelled bodies
through sacred space as well.
The Society of Jesus played a fundamental role in promoting the litany as a
regular feature of religious gatherings, a leading advocate having been the famed
“Apostle of Germany,” Peter Canisius (1521–1597).41 In 1583, the German
College in Rome spearheaded the practice of performing litanies on Saturdays
during Lent, and soon after Jesuit school ordinances began to prescribe the reci-
tation of Marian litanies after Saturday Vespers throughout the year.42 By 1591
at the latest, polyphonic litanies were performed at the church of St. Michael in
Munich on Saturdays and on the vigils of important feasts at four o’clock in the
afternoon, a practice that appears to have continued well into the seventeenth
Musical Projection of Litanies in Sixteenth-Century Italy,” in Plasmare il suono: Il culto

dei santi e la musica (secc. XVI-XVIII), ed. Simon Ditchfield (Rome: Viella, 2009), 15–
46. The litany is a relatively unstudied genre of prayer and music; an important study
still of great value is Joachim Roth’s Die mehrstimmigen lateinischen Litaneikompositionen
des 16. Jahrhunderts, Kölner Beiträge zur Musikforschung 14 (Regensburg: Gustav
Bosse, 1959).
41
Canisius seems to have arranged for the first German printing of the Litany of Loreto in
a Latin prayer book at Dillingen in 1558, and, at his insistence, the litany was sung on
the vigils of high feasts at the Jesuit college in Prague from 1560 onward. See David
Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats for Counter-Reformation Munich (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), 73–74. As we shall see in chapter 6, it was
Canisius who used the litany to great effect in his exorcism of Anna von Bernhausen at
Altötting in 1570, an episode widely publicized in a German pilgrimage manual for
that shrine.
42
The German College appears to have used a litany for three choirs by Annibale Stabile,
the maestro of that institution between 1578 and 1590, composed for double choir
plus an additional choir of boys or tenors singing some of the invocations in plain-
chant. Prescriptions for the performance of litanies at Saturday Vespers appear in the
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 45 10/28/2013 10:35:45 PM

century.43 An undated (mid-seventeenth century?) set of ordinances for the con-
duct of the liturgy at St. Michael shows that litanies were embedded in highly
elaborated ritual ceremony. The priest first approached the altar, on which had
been placed two burning candles, and prayed from memory or from the Breviary.
After the recitation of the Litany of Loreto on Saturdays, an antiphon was sung
(likely one of the four Marian antiphons), but on the days when the Litany of
the Saints was performed, it was followed by a motet; the whole was surrounded
by the intonation of various versicles and prayers.44 Litanies also marked more
festal and representational occasions in Jesuit churches and colleges. Prominent
examples can be seen in the litany texts in both Latin and German published
for the 1597 consecration of the church of St. Michael. Unlike the Marian, sanc-
toral, and Christological litanies regularly heard on Saturdays and vigils, these
are nonstandard litanies invoking the saints whose relics were preserved in the
newly consecrated edifice.45
A sense of the sonic quality of the litanies performed at St. Michael can be
gleaned from a publication directly connected with that church, the Thesaurus
litaniarum (Treasury of Litanies) issued in 1596 by Georg Victorinus, who
served as music director there from 1591 to around 1618.46 The Thesaurus
is surely the most extensive collection of polyphonic litany settings pub-
lished in early modern Europe and testifies to the vitality of this form in
the Bavarian capital. Its sixty-seven litanies (augmented by three motets)
are dominated by music by Orlando di Lasso and Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina, and also feature a range of settings from better- and lesser-known
composers in Munich and the southern German orbit, led by Victorinus
Jesuits’ Ratio atque institutio studiorum in editions of 1586, 1591, and 1599. For further
details, see Extended Reference 2.16.
43
Adalbert Schulz, in Die St. Michaels-Hofkirche in München (Munich: J. J. Lentner, 1897),
59, cited a 1591 ordinance stating that “alle Sambstäg vnd Feyrabendt, da nit primae
vesperae, singt man ein Litaney vmb 4 Vhr, dazu man ain viertel stundt zuvor läutet.”
44
Described in BayHStA Jesuitica 39, “De ritibus ecclesiasticis Soc. Jesu,” pp. 95–99.
Slightly different ritual actions were prescribed for the Litany of the Name of Jesus
performed during the octave of Corpus Christi; see pp. 97–99.
45
These are the Newe Letaney Zu Gott vnd denen Heyligen [ . . . ] in der newgeweichten Kirchen
deß H. Ertzengels vnnd Himmelfürsten Michaelis (Munich: Adam Berg, 1597); and the
Litaniae novae, ad Deum et eos præcipue Sanctos, quorum memoriae vel reliquiæ in basilica nova
S. Michaelis Archangeli honorifice servantur (Munich, 1597).
46
On the biography of Victorinus, who was likely from Silesia, see Rita Haub, “Georgius
Victorinus und der Triumphus Divi Michaelis Archangeli Bavarici,” Musik in Bayern
51 (1995): 82–83. Victorinus appears to have died in 1632. For further discussion, see
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 46 10/28/2013 10:35:45 PM

himself.47 The Jesuit-organized Marian Congregations of the Upper German
Province were the dedicatees of the volume and likely a prime audience for
Victorinus, who identified himself as member, or “sodalist.” Although a vari-
ety of Christological, Marian, and sanctoral litany texts are included in the
Thesaurus, it is not surprising that it is dominated by settings of the Litany
of Loreto, which appears to have enjoyed special favor in the Bavarian capital
and would eventually, in 1601, be confirmed by the papacy as the standard
Marian litany.48
The litanies of the Thesaurus could have been deployed equally in
liturgy, paraliturgy, pilgrimage, or devotion; this flexibility is reflected
in their style, which ranges from short, formulaic works suitable for
singing while walking to large-scale, fully contrapuntal settings suit-
able for liturgical or paraliturgical use by stationary, professional
choirs. 49 A few of the litanies of the Thesaurus are quite rudimentary,
consisting largely of plainchant or falsobordone invocations followed by
simple contrapuntal cadential tags, a profile that seems suitable for use
in pilgrimage (see chapter 6). The majority, however, are more elabo-
rate settings that imply stationary performance by a trained choir, such
as the one shown in Example 2.1 for ten voices by Victorinus himself,
who creates registral and spatial constrast by dividing his ensemble
into a high quartet and a low sextet. Of course, double-choir writing
like this was increasingly fashionable at the turn of the seventeenth cen-
tury among Germans in thrall to Venetian models, but the style proved
particularly apt for the litany, where the contrast of call and response was
almost a compositional imperative. Although specific evidence is lack-
ing, it is easy to imagine that for litanies such as these St. Michael’s choir
would have divided itself into spatially separated groups to dramatize this
distinction.
As I mentioned previously, the extant choirbooks of St. Michael imply a
relatively conservative practice, but Victorinus himself was also an active pro-
ponent of the sacred concerto, a highly fashionable, Italianate genre for small
numbers of solo voices accompanied by a chord-producing instrument, usually
47
For a full inventory of the Thesaurus litaniarum and notes on its contents, see Extended
Reference 2.18 and table 2.1.
48
See Kendrick, “ ‘Honore a Dio’,” 17.
49
For further notes on the stylistic diversity of the Thesaurus litaniarum, see Extended
Reference 2.19 and Musical Examples 2.1 and 2.2, which provide excerpts from lita-
nies by Ferdinand di Lasso and Fileno Cornazzano, respectively.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 47 10/28/2013 10:35:45 PM

E x a m p l e 2 . 1 Georg Victorinus, Litany of Loreto, from Thesaurus litaniarum
(1596), mm. 17–18
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 48 10/28/2013 10:35:46 PM

E x a m p l e 1 . 1 (Continued)
an organ.50 Unlike the choral polyphony of the previous century, which was
performed by balanced vocal ensembles and did not require instrumental
50
An extensive study of the sacred concerto and its adoption in southern Germany can
be found in Axel Beer, Die Annahme des “stile nuovo” in der katholischen Kirchenmusik
Süddeutschlands (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1989).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 49 10/28/2013 10:35:46 PM

participation, the sacred concerto was a genre of great intimacy, encouraging
virtuosic passagework for singers and experiments—not unrelated to early
Baroque theatrical music—with the affective setting of textual ideas. During
his tenure at St. Michael, Victorinus was collecting the one hundred concertos,
mostly of Italian origin, that he would publish in his Siren coelestis of 1616, and
it is reasonable to ask whether he may have deployed this music in worship ser-
vices at St. Michael.51 On this question we should be cautious, for the the large
acoustic space of the church may have been less suitable for such an intimate
and detailed type of music, and one that was regarded with suspicion by at
least some Jesuits. As early as 1586, the Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis
Jesu, which strictly governed educational practices in the Jesuit colleges, had
counseled against excessive opulence or complexity in church music, especially
in Germany, where it could bear little spiritual fruit.52 In the next century, con-
servative views were expressed locally by Jeremias Drexel, who wrote against
“this new mode of singing” and encouraged musicians to “revive something of
that ancient religiosity in sacred music,” while Georg Wittweiler called on prel-
ates and officials to abolish the “frivolous” music condemned by the Council of
Trent, “for many will never stop with their pipes and trombones.”53
Yet Jesuit concerns about impropriety existed in tension with a keen desire
to impress the emotions of listeners. Maximilian I’s confessor Adam Contzen
did condemn “immoral” music and Lutheran song, but he also embraced the
power of “worthy” music that “not only tickles the ears through modula-
tion and harmony, but also instructs the mind with the light of words and
sentiments, and affects the will through piety.”54 That small-scale concertos
51
Victorinus, Siren coelestis (Munich: Adam Berg, 1616; RISM B/I, 16162). A second edi-
tion, with minor changes, would be issued in 1622. I have examined the Siren coelestis
along with Victorinus’s other anthologies in “Celestial Sirens and Nightingales: Change
and Assimilation in the Munich Anthologies of Georg Victorinus,” Journal of
Seventeenth-Century Music 14, no. 1 (2008).
52
For excerpts from the Ratio studiorum and commentary, see Extended Reference 2.20
53
For Drexel’s commentary from his Rhetorica caelestis (Munich, 1638) see Extended
Reference 2.21, as well as commentary in Franz Körndle, “Between Stage and Divine
Service: Jesuits and Theatrical Music,” in John W. O’Malley, ed., The Jesuits II: Cultures,
Sciences, and the Arts, 1540–1773 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), 492.
The theologian Georg Wittweiler, while approving organs and instruments for divine
worship in principle, condemns immoral music in his Catholisch Haußbuch (Munich,
1631); see Extended Reference 2.22.
54
“Primo loco musicam piam ac grauem colloco, quae non sola modulatione & harmonia
aures mulceat, sed multo magis verborum, & sententiarum luce mentem instruat,
sanctitate voluntatem afficiat. Veritas suauitate illa facillime discitur, & retinetur.”
Contzen, Politicorum libri decem (Mainz: Johannes Kinck, [1621?]), 2:99; see commentary
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 50 10/28/2013 10:35:46 PM

like those cultivated by Victorinus were already in use in Jesuit churches is
suggested by a memorandum issued from the Congregation of the Upper
German Province held in Munich in 1633 that explicitly allowed for concer-
tos in the divine service as long as they were suited to devotion, and eschewed
vain or secular aspects.55 Furthermore, we can look to the published score
of the sacred opera Philothea by Johannes Paul Silbermann (or Johannes
Paullinus), which premiered at St. Michael in March 1643. This work, which
we examine in greater detail in chapter 4, consists largely of concerted works
for smaller and larger forces on scriptural texts, organized to allow the staged
representation of the fall of the eponymous female figure into worldly temp-
tation and her subsequent turn toward God. The front matter of the 1669
printed score includes a listing of excerpts suitable for performance during
the Gradual, Offertory, and Elevation, and also specifies appropriate feast
days or seasons. It is notable that the more intimate concertos for one to three
voices and strings are mostly assigned to the Gradual, while nearly all the
music for the Offertory and Elevation—representing the theological focus
of the Mass—is scored for larger forces of five to eight voices with strings.
Although we lack specific accounts of their actual performance in divine wor-
ship, sacred concertos such as these may well have been deployed, provided
they served morally uplifting ends and avoided overtly secular associations.
Other evidence points to an expansion of musical resources at St. Michael
in the early seventeenth century, lending the worship space an aural sumptu-
ousness that underlined the sacral quality of the liturgy. In addition to their
singing duties, the poor boys of the Domus Gregoriana at Munich were also
taught instruments, suggesting the possibility of larger-scale music that was
more timbrally differentiated. By 1645, the core of the choir consisted of
eight discantists, six altos, four tenors, and three basses; the majority of these
singers could play the lute, and a number of them were trained on the organ
in Dieter Breuer, Oberdeutsche Literatur 1565–1650: deutsche Literaturgeschichte und

Territorialgeschichte in frühabsolutistischer Zeit (Munich: Beck, 1979), 155–56.
55
“Concertationes, ut vocant, tolerandos, si devotioni sint accom[m]odae: fin verò spe-
cies vanos, & veluti saeculares choreas leviter menti obiiciant, penit[us] excludendas.”
BayHStA, Jesuitica 85, 11v, also discussed in Bernhard Duhr, Geschichte der Jesuiten
in den Ländern deutscher Zunge in der ersten Hälfte des XVII. Jahrhunderts (Freiburg im
Breisgau: Herder, 1913), 2/2:53. Apart from its language on concertos, this Memoriale
also allows for the use of musical instruments during performances of the Miserere dur-
ing Lent and Advent, prohibits music by “heretical” authors and that which is trivial
(leviores), and forbids Jesuit priests from particpating in church music, except for those
specifically designated as musical directors.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 51 10/28/2013 10:35:47 PM

as well. In addition, the choirmaster had at his disposal a number of other
lutenists, trumpeters, and players of brass instruments (but, apparently, no
strings).56 Expense records for the school (1635–1674) record regular pay-
ments for such items flutes or recorders, mouthpieces for trombones, reeds for
dulcians, and so forth.57 Vocal and instrumental music was augmented by the
principal organ, an instrument of imposing height and twelve registers that
had been constructed for the church’s consecration in 1597 and certainly out-
stripped the capability of the previous instrument, an old organ transferred
from the old Wittelsbach palace—the Alter Hof—in 1590.58
The exemplary influence of St. Michael on the sonic decoration of the lit-
urgy in Jesuit churches can be seen, for example, in Landshut, where the new
Jesuit church of St. Ignatius was consecrated in 1640. Officials at Landshut’s
other two principal churches, the collegiate church of St. Martin and the parish
church of St. Jodok (or Jobst), reacted with alarm when the Jesuits proposed
to introduce regular church music for Sundays and feast days at St. Ignatius,
expressing their deep concerns in a letter to the Jesuit Provincial.59 Among
other legalistic arguments, they protested that the Jesuits habitually presented
such music only at their older and larger churches (such as those in Munich and
Neuburg), not at the new ones. Furthermore, the initial agreement (1629) to
begin construction on St. Ignatius did not foresee the need for church music,
since it was already being adequately provided at the other churches—and the
Jesuit rector planned to install an expensive organ as well! The concern, of
course, was that the Jesuits’ music would draw parishioners away from the
established churches: they would wake up late, neglect to go to early Mass,
and go instead to the musical service at St. Ignatius beginning at nine. The
Jesuit Provincial rejected these charges, stating in his response that such music
was indeed common at many Jesuit churches in the province, and that it was
everywhere met “with great approbation and fruitful assistance, for the greater
glory of God and the edification of our neighbors.”60 And indeed, the Jesuits
56
Putz, Die Domus Gregoriana zu München, 141–42.
57
BSB, Cgm 1985, “Rationes expensi in pauperes audiosos Gymnasii Monacensis.” For exam-
ple, on July 13, 1642, 1 Gulden, 2 Kreuzer “für 2. mundstukh p[ro] tubis ductilib[us]”;
and in August 1644, 1 Gulden, 12 Kreuzer “Pro fagot rörle”. Numerous entries refer to
small payments to musicians “pro tibialibus,” which may refer to flutes or recorders.
58
Schulz, Die St. Michaels-Hofkirche in München, 77–78. On the 1597 organ, see
Brenninger, Orgeln in Altbayern (Munich: Bruckmann, 1982), 42, 194. This instru-
ment was only about 3.5 meters wide, but ascended to an impressive height of 6.3
meters.
59
Draft preserved in BayHStA, Jesuitica 2145, dated January 14, 1641.
60
For excerpts from this correspondence see Extended Reference 2.23.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 52 10/28/2013 10:35:47 PM

would make good on their intent to install an organ in their church, built over
the course of nine months between 1641 and 1642.61 Made to resemble the
unified interior of St. Michael in Munich with its characteristic barrel vault
and unimpeded sightlines to the choir, St. Ignatius now provided Landshut’s
residents with a similarly theatrical experience of the liturgy.
The expansion of sonic resources in churches like those in Munich and
Landshut suggests the Jesuits’ interest in drawing auditors to their regular
services, but at times the Jesuits also strove to make an overwhelming sensory
impression—through singers, organs, instruments, bells, and the explosion of
gunpowder—on occasions of great religious or political significance. Of these,
the two most noteworthy were certainly the final consecration of St. Michael
at Munich in 1597 and the ceremonies surrounding the canonization of SS.
Ignatius and Xavier in 1622, which played themselves out in spectacular, pub-
lic form in all the Jesuit colleges and residences in the duchy (the latter festivi-
ties, which spilled out of the Jesuit churches into the surrounding cities, are
discussed in chapter 4). Already in 1591, when Masses began to be celebrated
in the still incomplete church of St. Michael, vocal and instrumental music
under the direction of court Kapellmeister Orlando di Lasso was heard on the
feast of that saint.62 This music must have paled in comparison to that heard
six years later, on July 6, 1597, when the final consecration of the church was
accompanied by a lavish aural, visual, and olfactory spectacle. At four o’ clock
in the morning a great bronze bell was struck, fireworks were sent up into the
air, and twelve cannons stationed outside the city walls were discharged. The
opening procession, which remained in the nave of the church due to the poor
weather, included a group of musicians who preceded the consecrated Host in
its monstrance. As the procession reached the middle of the church, “trumpets
and drums suddenly began to ring out with a festive clangor from the galleries
[ex odeo], alternating back and forth.” The solemn service that followed began
with the singing of five distinct choirs, augmented with all manner of instru-
ments.63 The whole was followed by a grand feast for some 1500 people, and
finally by the climactic open-air drama Triumphus Divi Michaelis Archangeli, an
61
See Brenninger, Orgeln in Altbayern, 47–78.
62
Haub, “Georgius Victorinus und der Triumphus Divi Michaelis Archangeli Bavarici,”
79–80; see also Barbara Bauer and Jürgen Leonhardt, eds., Triumphus divi Michaelis
Archangeli Bavarici. Triumph des Heiligen Michael, Patron Bayerns. München, 1597.
Einleitung, Text und Übersetzung, Kommentar (Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2000), 18.
63
From “Historia Collegij Monachiensi[s] ab anno 1587 ad 1632,” pp. 73–75, BayHStA,
Jesuitica 2268, qtd. in Bauer and Leonhardt, eds., Triumphus divi Archangeli Bavarici,
22–24. See Extended Reference 2.24.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 53 10/28/2013 10:35:47 PM

eight-hour theatrical spectacle involving some 900 participants that allego-
rized the triumph of Catholicism over its enemies and the special confessional
role played by the Wittelsbach house (see further discussion in chapter 4).64
Other Jesuit churches celebrated their consecrations with large-scale music
as well, if not on a scale comparable to that of St. Michael. In Landshut, for
example, the consecration of St. Ignatius on November 25, 1640, saw the
performance of the hymn Te Deum laudamus the previous evening; the follow-
ing morning, after the suffragan bishop of Freising had consecrated all the
church’s altars, he “made the sacrifice of the Host to God in the great hall [i.e.,
nave], which is rarely done in this place, and with an unheard-of multitude
of voices and instruments making harmony, many of which had been sum-
moned from Munich.”65 With the striking visual and aural character of these
ceremonies the Jesuits created a distinctive space, one that joined clergy and
laity together in a sensuous experience of the sacral.
Cathedral, Collegiate, and Parish Churches in

the Age of Tridentine Reform
The churches of the Jesuits, and St. Michael in particular, were powerful
models for the established church hierarchy, which alternately feared the
Society’s growing influence in Bavaria and imitated its example in the visual
and aural embellishment of its cathedral, collegiate, and parish churches. The
Wittelsbach dukes, too, provided strong impetus for the reform of worship
spaces. A telling measure was Maximilian I’s mandate in 1613 that all choir
screens in Bavarian churches be torn down, enabling the laity to observe
the celebration of the liturgy without hindrance.66 This would have natural
64
See the extensive study of this work in Bauer and Leonhardt, eds., Triumphus divi
Archangeli Bavarici, as well as the further discussion in chapter 4. It is worth noting
that similarly festal music was heard in 1598 for the first ordination of a Jesuit priest at
St. Michael. The musicians of the ducal chapel provided the music, which emphasized
the strident sounds of trumpets and drums. See Felix Joseph Lipowsky, Geschichte der
Jesuiten in Baiern (Munich: Jakob Giel, 1816), 2:29–30.
65
“Quibus ritè peractis Rd.mus Antistes Pontificio apparata primam inibi in ara maxima
hostiam DEO litauit, raro hic loci, & multis inaudito vocum ac Symphoniacorum, quo-
rum multi Monachio exciti erant, concenta.” From “Historia collegii Landishutani”
[1629–1704], BayHStA, Jesuitica 2081, 16r–v.
66
See Tobias Appl, “Der Ausbau geistlicher Zentren als Kernstück der Kirchenpolitik
Herzog Wilhelms V. (1579-1597/98) in Bayern” (PhD diss., Universität Regensburg,
2009), 87, citing BayHStA, KL München, Kollegiatstift ULF 12, and AEM,
Stiftsakten München, ULF 95, Prod. 3, Kirchengestühl 1604.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 54 10/28/2013 10:35:47 PM

consequences for audition as well, as the sound of recitation and music per-
formed in the choir could now spill more easily into the space occupied by the
congregation. The decades around 1600, furthermore, were rife with the new
erection of altars and altarpieces, the construction of large-scale organs and
galleries to accommodate musicians, and quite commonly, the whitewashing
of walls, significantly brightening previously dim Gothic interiors. More and
more parish churches visually resembled the unified, even theatrical, spaces
for liturgical performance that were common among the Jesuits, but there
was also a great augmentation of the aural experience of worship. Many par-
ishes saw a great increase in the amount of polyphony, a consequence in part
of the newly imposed Roman Rite. In the wealther institutions, furthermore,
the enthusiasic embrace of large-scale polychoral music for voices, organs,
and instruments lent greater splendor to the experience of liturgical space. As
in the case of the Jesuit churches, the various reforms were aimed at creating
distinctive worship spaces that visually and aurally impressed congregants
with the sacral, liminal quality of the Eucharistic sacrifice, in turn expressing
and shaping confessional identities.
The Cathedral of Freising

At the cathedral of Freising, one of the most ancient of Bavarian churches,
significant architectural and musical changes in the early seventeenth cen-
tury signaled the creation of a fundamentally new space for the experience
of the liturgy. During the episcopate of Veit Adam von Gepeckh (r. 1618–
1651), the Gothic interior of the cathedral was radically transformed in a way
reminiscent of the Jesuit church of St. Michael in Munich. The choir screen,
which formerly had separated the nave from the sanctuary, was demolished
in 1622 and replaced with a broad staircase, and the walls were whitewashed
and encrusted with stucco decoration. By 1624, a new, broad gallery for the
new organ—with fifteen registers and elaborately painted wings—and musi-
cians was constructed at the west end of the nave. The architectural modifi-
cations were accompanied by a new series of altars and altarpieces depicting
scenes from the life of Mary, culminating in the massive high altarpiece by
Peter Paul Rubens showing the Virgin of the Apocalypse. In contrast to its
previous state, the interior of the Freising cathedral was now a single unified
space, suffused with reflected light: music from the west gallery now flooded
the nave without obstruction.67
67
The architectural changes made under Veit Adam are described in detail in P. Leo
Weber, “Die Neugestaltung des Domes unter Fürstbischof Veit Adam von Gepeckh,”
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 55 10/28/2013 10:35:47 PM

These architectural changes went hand in hand with an impressive
expansion in church music, particularly of the polychoral variety. Sadly, all
the cathedral’s original musical sources from this period have disappeared.
A 1651 inventory of the music collection by the choir director, Sebastian
Karpf, however, lists an impressive array of large-scale music, emphasizing
the liturgical genres of Mass and Magnificat but with a significant number
of motets as well that could be used more flexibly.68 Among the 747 works
listed no less than 434 are for ensembles of between seven and twenty-four
voices; 144 of these are by the Venetians Andrea Gabrieli and Giovanni
Gabrieli; otherwise, we find a great deal of music by Orlando di Lasso, Hans
Leo Hassler, and other Germans that was indebted to Venetian models. By
the early 1620s, furthermore, the episcopal court was fully capable of fielding
large ensembles for the performance of this music, drawing on resources from
Munich and from local religious foundations.69 The bishops seem to have had
a genuine predilection for polychoral music, but they may also have desired
appropriately representative sounds given the ducal court’s strenuous efforts
at the turn of the seventeenth century to relocate the seat of the bishopric to
Munich. Quite apart from the political considerations, this splendid music
harmonized with the newly unified interior space of the church to envelop
congregants in a sensuous union of sight and sound, focusing attention on
the sacral rites of the liturgy. It became a soundmark that communicated the
authority of the bishop as well as of the liturgy itself.
Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich

A similar effect was achieved at Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich, the city’s
principal parish church and a particular focus of Wittelsbach-sponsored
reform. With the financing of Wilhelm and Maximilian, the whitewashing
of the walls began in 1601, again likely inspired by the example of nearby
in Joseph A. Fischer, ed., Der Freisinger Dom. Beiträge zur seiner Geschichte (Freising:
Verlag des Historischen Vereins Freising, 1967), 141–96. On the disposition of the
new organ, built by Christoph Egedacher from Straubing, see Brenninger, Orgeln in
Altbayern, 194.
68
The contents of the inventory are listed in Karl Gustav Fellerer, “Ein Musikalien-Inventar
des fürstbischöflichen Hofes in Freising aus dem 17. Jahrhundert,” Archiv für
Musikwissenschaft 6 (1924): 471–83, and is also discussed at length in Heinrich Rosner,
“Mehrchörige Musikpflege in Freising 1550–1650,” Frigisinga 46 (1963): no. 6, 1–4.
69
Rosner, “Mehrchörige Musikpflege in Freising,” 3–4. On music at Freising cathedral
in general see also Karl Gustav Fellerer, “Die Dommusik im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert,”
in Fischer, Der Freisinger Dom. Beiträge zur seiner Geschichte, 225.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 56 10/28/2013 10:35:47 PM

St. Michael.70 The fifteenth-century church had never had a choir screen; the
separation of nave from choir in the new church would be symbolized by a
massive triumphal arch honoring St. Benno (the Bennobogen, or “Benno Arch,”
built between 1604 and 1623), whose relics, “rescued” from Protestant dep-
redation and festally translated to the church in 1580, became a focus for a
Wittelsbach-sponsored cult in the early seventeenth century. Reminiscent of
Roman imperial arches, the Bennobogen, poised directly over the tomb of the
German emperor Louis the Bavarian, underscored the triumphalist character
of Wittelsbach spirituality; but unlike medieval choir screens sundering the
clergy from the laity, the arch invited passage in both directions.71 Despite
the considerable length of the church (109 meters), the high altar with its
depiction of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Peter Candid, 1617–1620)
was clearly visible through the Bennobogen from the nave, allowing congre-
gants to follow the course of the liturgy with their own eyes and ears.72 The
aural embellishment of the liturgy was enabled not only by the expansion of
the west organ gallery but also by the construction of galleries in the choir
on the east side of the Bennobogen, designed to accommodate princely persons
as well as musicians.73
The nature of church music at Unsere Liebe Frau was decisively altered
by the introduction of the Roman Rite in 1605, a largely Wittelsbach ini-
tiative and one that made heavy new demands on the church’s musical per-
sonnel. While the Roman ceremonies had long been in place in the Jesuit
churches and, as we shall see, in the Bavarian court chapel from around 1580,
their implementation elsewhere was delayed both by clerical inertia and the
very halting appearance of new liturgical books.74 A mandate to initiate the
70
See Christl Karnehm, Die Münchner Frauenkirche. Erstausstattung und barocke
Umgestaltung, Miscellanea Bavarica Monacensia 13 (Munich: Kommissionsverlag
UNI-Druck, 1984), 126–27.
71
See Peter Pfister and Hans Ramisch, Die Frauenkirche in München. Geschichte, Baugeschichte
und Ausstattung (Munich: Erich Wewel Verlag, 1983), 74–75. In 1858, the Bennobogen
was torn down, a victim of the contemporary enthusiasm for Gothic restoration.
72
Karnehm, Die Münchner Frauenkirche, 236.
73
Ibid., 116–17, 142–43.
74
These included the new Roman Breviary (1568), Missal (1570), Pontifical (1596),
Ceremonial (1600), and Ritual (1614). For discussion see Gottfried Maron, “Die
nachtridentinische Kodifikationsarbeit in ihrer Bedeutung für die katholische
Konfessionalisierung,” in Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling, eds., Die katholische
Konfessionalisierung. Wissenschaftliches Symposion der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus
Catholicorum und des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1993 (Gütersloh: Gütersloher
Verlagshaus, 1995), 104–24. See also Extended Reference 2.25.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 57 10/28/2013 10:35:47 PM

Roman Rite in the Salzburg archdiocese came only in 1595, and it was not
until late 1610 that Bishop Ernst of Freising (brother of Wilhelm V and
concurrently archbishop of Cologne) mandated its introduction throughout
his diocese.75 At Unsere Liebe Frau, however, the Roman reforms arrived
several years earlier at the behest of Duke Wilhelm V, who in 1597 had
abdicated in favor of his son Maximilian and retired to a life of religious
contemplation and public charity. Indeed, the reforms at Unsere Liebe Frau
would not have been possible without significant financial subsidies from
the Wittelsbachs. Although polyphonic music had been performed at the
church on major feasts for some time, Wilhelm insisted on its presence on
all Sundays and feast days, adding considerable expense and difficulty for the
chapter and the singers in its employ. The years between 1605 and 1610,
moreover, saw an outburst of compositional and copying activity on the part
of the church’s musicians: documentary evidence shows an expansion of not
only vocal music in the divine service but instrumental music as well. This
was not achieved without a cost. The musicians frequently complained of the
intensity of the demands placed upon them and their poor recompense, while
the Wittelsbach dukes made clear their displeasure with the church’s music
and the halting pace of liturgical reform more generally.
Polyphonic and instrumental music at Unsere Liebe Frau was by no means
rare before 1605, but it was certainly more modest, with polyphonic music
restricted to Mass and/or Vespers on major feast days, with chant or falsobor-
done sufficing otherwise.76 Matters would change dramatically in the early
seventeenth century, however. Rumor of the Roman reforms may have been
afoot by the late 1590s, for beginning in 1597 a series of inventories of the
music and liturgical books of Unsere Liebe Frau were drawn up, partly by the
cantor Bernhard Megerle.77 The music of Lasso dominated the 1597 inven-
tory, but we see that by November 1601 a significant musical expansion
was already underway. The two choralists Christoph Martin (d. 1610) and
75
Mandate of November 19, 1610, AEM, Generalien, November 19, 1610. See Extended
Reference 2.26.
76
The collegiate statutes of 1498 call for at least eight choralists (male adult sing-
ers), although by the late sixteenth century the church only seems to have supported
five, augmented naturally by choirboys from the school. See Leo Söhner, Die Musik
im Münchner Dom unserer lieben Frau in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (Munich: Verlag
Lentnersche Buchhandlung, 1934), 17–18.
77
These inventories are extant in BayHStA, GL 2663/251, and summarized in Söhner,
Die Musik im Münchner Dom unserer lieben Frau, 31–34. Megerle served as cantor
between 1583 and 1635. For detailed notes on the 1597 and 1601 inventories, see
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 58 10/28/2013 10:35:48 PM

Christoph Perckhover (d. after 1621) provided new Salve Regina settings,
Magnificats, and Office music, and the church acquired many more Masses
and motets by the Lasso family, the chapelmaster Johannes à Fossa, Jakob
Reiner, and Jakob Regnart. The available polyphonic repertory, then, was
growing rapidly; the inventories list chant and liturgical books as well, sug-
gesting an awareness of impending Roman reforms a few years before their
actual implementation.78
The actual mandate for the Roman liturgy in 1605, however, appears
to have been met with surprise and dismay. In May of that year the chapter
received a letter from Bishop Ernst von Wittelsbach expressing his displea-
sure at the “poor and disorderly” state of the divine service at the church.
The bishop demanded the full introduction of the Roman Rite and noted
that he had been in communication with both Wilhelm V and Maximilian
I concerning the matter.79 The chapter was initially concerned about the costs
of taking this step but soon realized that Duke Wilhelm, “as the director of
this whole work” (alß dises gantzen werckhs Director), was willing to contribute
financially toward the transition.80 On July 18, Wilhelm and Maximilian
issued a more detailed mandate for the Roman ceremonies. With respect
to music, the dukes made plain that Mass and Vespers were to be sung in
polyphony on all Sundays and feast days, with the participation of the organ.
The choir director was to ensure that the necessary books were made avail-
able and that both polyphony and chant were performed “diligently and in an
orderly manner, and not precipitiously as [they have] been sung in the past”;
furthermore, he was to prevent any lack of uniformity in the music, as might
happen when singers chose different reciting tones simultaneously.81 In the
fall, the chapter hurried to purchase new Roman liturgical books in antici-
pation of the impending change, which was finally consummated at Mass
and Vespers on the first Sunday of Advent in 1605; the newly prescribed
polyphony and organ music likely began to sound on Gaudete Sunday, the
third Sunday of Advent.82
78
For details see Extended Reference 2.28.
79
BayHStA, KL München, Collegiatstift ULF 12, no. 4, dated May 2, 1605.
80
BayHStA, KL München, Collegiatstift ULF 29, 1v ff.
81
BayHStA, KL München, Collegiatstift ULF 12, no. 2, dated July 18, 1605. Apart
from the formal introduction of the Roman Rite itself and the musical reforms noted
here, the mandate addresses the need for proper clerical attire, sufficient copies of the
Roman liturgical books, and a master of ceremonies (magister cæremoniarum) to super-
vise the liturgical reform.
82
The chapter purchased several new liturgical books in early October; see BayHStA,
KL München, Collegiatstift ULF 29, 6r, dated October 4, 1605. Two years later the
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 59 10/28/2013 10:35:48 PM

Wilhelm planned not only to increase the frequency of polyphony in
the liturgy, but also to augment it with the varied timbres of instruments.
Ultimately, the boys of the parish school were to play these instruments—
including trombone, cornetto, dulcian, and strings—but in the interim
court instrumentalist Fileno Cornazzano and his colleagues would perform
on Sundays and feast days, as well as give instruction to promising school-
boys.83 The organist, furthermore, was expected to play at both Mass and
Vespers on all solemn feast days and on a range of other occasions as well.84
New ordinances specified that the cantor or schoolmaster was to select appro-
priate music for the service, and, on high feasts in particular, distribute part-
books to the “divided choirs” in a timely fashion—presumably, these choirs
would have been stationed either in the west organ gallery or in the side gal-
leries next to the Bennobogen. Secondly, special music with instruments was
heard on Sundays and feast days during the Offertory and Elevation: for the
Offertory, “something well appointed for trombones with the great organ,”
and for the Elevation, “something for two or three voices and violins, with
the regal [a type of small table organ] or positive organ.” Finally, the ordi-
nance shows that the previously endowed litanies and Salve settings were to
be accompanied with strings and regal on feasts of the Virgin Mary.85
With the mandate for more frequent polyphony in place, the choralists
Martin and Perckhover redoubled their efforts at composition and copy-
ing, focusing on the Mass Proper (Introit, Alleluia, and Communion) and
for the Offices of Vespers and Compline (Vespers antiphons, hymns, and
chapter would agree to sell off the church’s old Freising liturgical books, conclud-
ing that there was little chance that the introduction of the Roman Rite would be
reversed; see ibid., 33r, dated November 27, 1607. See Extended Reference 2.29 for
more details.
83
See Wilhelm’s correspondence to the chapter, September 1605, in BayHStA,
Fürstensachen 448, 14r. For further details see Extended Reference 2.30.
84
The duties for the organist are specified in a 1606 supplication from the organist
Abraham Wisreutter to the chapter, cited by Söhner in Die Musik im Münchner Dom
unserer lieben Frau, 43. See Extended Reference 2.31 for details. The chapter had hoped
to install a new, larger organ as early as 1610, but these plans failed due to a lack of sup-
port from the city authorities. Maximilian I donated a positive organ to Unsere Liebe
Frau in 1611, but a new fixed instrument had to wait until 1631, when Hans Lechner
finally completed a massive organ of at least seventeen registers. See Brenninger, Orgeln
in Altbayern, 43–44, 194.
85
Copies of these ordinances, which cannot be precisely dated, are preserved in BayHStA,
GL 2663/251, and are discussed at some length in Söhner, Die Musik im Münchner Dom
unserer lieben Frau, 44–45. See Extended Reference 2.32.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 60 10/28/2013 10:35:48 PM

Magnificats, as well as settings of Marian antiphons).86 On the whole this
music was functional and traditional, adhering largely to sixteenth-century
models. Like Orlando di Lasso’s late Office music, the liturgical authority of
the chant is projected through its careful preservation, either in pure form in
alternation with polyphony, or embedded in the polyphonic texture itself as
a slower-moving cantus firmus (Example 2.2).
In contrast to this fundamentally conservative repertory, there is little
evidence in this period that the church’s musicians adopted the small-scale
sacred vocal concerto that was so prized by many of Munich’s leading com-
posers in the first decades of the seventeenth century. One wonders whether
the large and reverberant space of the Gothic church of Unsere Liebe Frau,
with its towering vaults 37 meters high, would have suited compositions
characterized by small numbers and agile, solo voices. Rather, the effect of
the reforms was to saturate this space with a sound of greater variety and
amplitude, augmenting the sensual impact of the liturgy’s performance.
While the everyday polyphony at Unsere Liebe Frau was fairly tradi-
tional, we must add that especially solemn occasions saw large-scale poly-
choral music being deployed for representative effect. This music was
likely performed from the newly constructed galleries in the choir or from
the expanded west organ gallery. For example, the wedding of Wolfgang
Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg—a new convert to Catholicism—to Duke
Wilhelm V’s daughter Magdalena in 1613 was celebrated with great pomp
at Unsere Liebe Frau. At the consecration, “the Gloria in excelsis was sung
with three choirs of the most varied instruments; then three discantists made
an echo with coloratura so excellently that they could not be praised enough.
The third echo disappeared into silence, as if coming from afar in a forest.”
At the end of the ceremony, “the military drums and trumpets made a great
noise [Farcaso] in the church.”87 To the assembled auditors the confessional
implications of Wolfgang Wilhelm’s conversion to Catholicism and marriage
86
These are described in detail in Helmut Hell, Monika Holl, and Robert Machold,
eds., Die Musikhandschriften aus dem Dom zu Unserer Lieben Frau in München: the-
matischer Katalog: mit einem Anhang, Ein Chorbuch aus St. Andreas in Freising. KbM
8 (Munich: G. Henle, 1987), 3–60, and bear the signatures Mf Chb. 1–6. My thanks
to Dr. Roland Götz of the Archiv des Erzbistums München und Freising for provid-
ing access to these choirbooks. For detailed notes on the contents of these choirbooks,
which were copied by Perckhover and Martin between 1605 and 1612, see Extended
Reference 2.33.
87
Otto Ursprung, Münchens musikalische Vergangenheit. Von der Frühzeit bis zu Richard
Wagner (Munich: Bayerland-Verlag, 1927), 71–72, citing Anton Mayer, Die Domkirche
U. L. Frau in München (Munich, 1868).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 61 10/28/2013 10:35:49 PM

E x a m p l e 2 . 2 Christoph Martin, Vidimus stellam eius from AEM, Mf Chb. 1,
mm. 1–7
could not have been plainer. Of even greater significance was the Catholic
victory over Protestant Bohemian troops at White Mountain seven years
later, on November 8, 1620. For his leading role in the battle, Maximilian
I would be awarded control over the Upper Palatinate and, in 1623, the elec-
toral dignity. The news of the victory was greeted with performances of the
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 62 10/28/2013 10:35:49 PM

Te Deum in various churches, and on November 23, Maximilian, his brother
Duke Albrecht VI, and Bishop Veit Adam of Freising returned to the city
in a festal procession that terminated at Unsere Liebe Frau “with a fine har-
mony,” according to Johannes Hellgemayr.88 Until the late eighteenth cen-
tury, the anniversary of the Battle of Prague, as it was called, was marked by
a grand procession and Te Deum at that church. The engagement of multiple
instrumentalists for the performance—augmented by salvoes of gunfire from
the cemetery—suggests the ample scope of music for this occasion.89
Whether it was traditional choral polyphony or splendid polychorality
that filled the space of Unsere Liebe Frau, the chapter protocols and other
correspondence suggest that its musicians had great difficulty meeting the
practical demands of liturgical reform; conversely, the chapter and the dukes
themselves were far from pleased with the decorum and efforts of the choral-
ists in particular. On several occasions the singers asked for salary increases,
but these requests were typically met with delaying tactics and disdainful
admonishments.90 For his part, Duke Wilhelm V was very displeased with
the implementation of liturgical reform, criticizing the canons of the chapter
for their refusal to personally recite the Office hours and wondering what
could be done to improve the lot of the choralists and the choirboys in their
employ.91 It is plausible that these difficulties encouraged Duke Maximilian
to provide a major subsidy in January 1608 in the amount of 500 Gulden
annually, intended initially for the decoration of the church and the sup-
port of twenty-four poor students who habitually sang chant and polyph-
ony together with the adult choralists.92 Yet the mutual displeasure of the
Wittelsbach dukes, the chapter, and the musicians did not abate. In 1610,
fully five years after the initial introduction of the Roman ceremonies, the
chapter received personal complaints from Wilhelm, and separately, from
Maximilian, on the poor state of the divine service and the lack of fidelity to
88
Diary of Johannes Hellgemayr, qtd. in Horst Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche
Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen Kapellaltisten Johannes Hellgemayr 1595–1633.
Ein Beitrag zur Münchner Stadt- und Musikgeschichte,” Oberbayerisches Archiv für
vaterländische Geschichte 100 (1975): 174. See Extended Reference 2.34.
89
Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen Kapellaltisten
Johannes Hellgemayr,” 174, also who notes that eight instrumental musicians
(Spielleute) were engaged for the occasion. See Extended Reference 2.35.
90
For various instances from the chapter protocols of Unsere Liebe Frau, see Extended
Reference 2.36.
91
92
BayHStA, GL 2664/258, January 3, 1608. See also Extended Reference 2.38.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 63 10/28/2013 10:35:49 PM

the Roman liturgy.93 These difficulties remind us that the expansion of aural
resources in the Counter-Reformation church was by no means accomplished
easily.
St. Peter in Munich

Whatever the challenges of introducing regular polyphony at Unsere Liebe
Frau, circumstances at St. Peter, Munich’s other major parish church, were
far less favorable for music, at least initially. Unlike the former church, St.
Peter was not a collegiate foundation, and its dean struggled to maintain
his independence from the city council. The financial state of the parish
around the turn of the seventeenth century was quite difficult: major reno-
vation projects were delayed until the period between 1630 and 1654, when
the choir was expanded and the nave gradually redecorated. To complicate
matters, St. Peter was unusually prone to suffering damaging lightning
strikes: one in 1607 destroyed the peaks of the church’s twin towers (and
nearly their bells as well), and another in May 1619 completely ruined a
new organ.94
We are fortunate to have an extensive report on the recent history of
church music at St. Peter in the form of a 1663 letter to the Munich city
council from Kaspar Kirmayr, who served as dean from 1649 to his death
in 1687.95 In it, Kirmayr champions his own effort to revive church music
after a long, fallow period; he also sheds light on the halting introduction
of polyphony at St. Peter and the need to rely on external musicians to pro-
vide a suitable aural experience for worship. Until 1602, he writes, only chant
according to the older Freising Rite was performed by the schoolmaster, cantor,
and choirboys, while polyphony was completely unknown. Efforts to introduce
regular polyphony by the dean, Wolfgang Hannemann (1601–1607), were
93
Reprimands of the church’s personnel, both for absences and for drunkenness, are
found in the chapter protocols in July 1607, November 1608, and April 1610: see
BayHStA, KL München, Collegiatstift ULF, 27r, 46v, and 79r. See Extended Reference
2.39 for further discussion.
94
On the general history of the parish in the early seventeenth century see Ernest Geiß,
Geschichte der Stadtpfarrei St. Peter in München (Munich: Druck der Officin des königl.
Central-Schulbücher-Verlages, 1867).
95
The text of this letter is reproduced in J. Neureuther, “Beiträge zur Kirchenmusik bei
St. Peter in München im 17. Jahrhundert,” St. Peterskalender (1919): 49–51, as well
as in Ursprung, Münchens musikalische Vergangenheit, 90–95. Unfortunately, neither
source gives a shelfmark for the original source. My translation of the letter appears as
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 64 10/28/2013 10:35:50 PM

scuttled due to opposition from the Munich city council.96 Only in 1618, with
the arrival of the new schoolmaster Georg Victorinus, was the cause of polyph-
ony taken up again. By 1624, Kirmayr could speak of a “a fine music” (eine
feine Musik) that was performed by a miscellany of musicians assembled on an
ad hoc basis.97 During the difficult period of the Swedish invasion in the early
1630s, Kirmayr writes, the church music at St. Peter benefited from the pres-
ence of electoral musicians, whose master was continually absent from the city.
Nevertheless, after the death of the “music-loving cantor” (certainly meaning
Victorinus in 1632) church music declined rapidly, and despite Maximilian’s
personal objections to the “disorder, squalidness, and lack of diligence” in the
conduct of the liturgy, little improvement was seen until Kirmayr assumed
the post of dean himself in 1649, after which he was able to found a proper
“singing school” (Singschul) to support musical activity at St. Peter. Around
this time St. Peter finally obtained an imposing new organ as well, constructed
by the local builder Hans Mehrer, which was set in a new gallery “where the
trumpeters stand.”98
Kirmayr’s letter gives a partial and retrospective picture of church
music at St. Peter in the early seventeenth century, but it does suggest that
Victorinus played an important role in supporting musical life there. In
1618, perhaps shortly after his arrival, Victorinus produced a religious drama
with his students on the subject of John the Baptist’s beheading; several
scenes at Herod’s court may have called for sung or instrumental music, but
the surviving Perioche (vernacular plot summary) indicates that “at the end of
each act special music with various instruments is heard.”99 The next possible
96
The city opposed polyphony at St. Peter for several reasons: people would remain in
the church for too long listening to the polyphony; the music would distract them
from proper prayer; and it might supplant the attention that the sermon deserved. It is
difficult to assess the truth of this, since no similar objections seem to have been made
by the city to the expansion of polyphony at the nearby parish of Unsere Liebe Frau.
97
Kirmayr writes “around 1634” but likely meant the year 1624; see Extended Reference
2.41.
98
See Brenninger, Orgeln in Altbayern, 44, 195; more extensive details may be found
in J. Neureuther, “Die große Renaissance-Orgel bei St. Peter,” St. Peterskalender
(1920): 50–55, which in turn is based on extant materials in BayHStA, GL 2680/365.
The significance of the reference to the “Trommeterey” is unclear.
99
“Zu endt eines ieden acts wirdt ein besondere Music mit mancherley Instrumenten
angestelt.” From Victorinus, Summarischer Inhalt der Aktion Von Enthauptung deß
H. Joannis Tauffers vnnd Vorlauffers Christi vnsers Seligmachers (Munich: Nikolaus
Heinrich, 1618). Acts IV and V, centered on the festivities at Herod’s court, may have
included musical passages.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 65 10/28/2013 10:35:50 PM

document of Victorinus’s musical activity at St. Peter may be found in his
second anthology of sacred concertos, the Philomela coelestis of 1624.100 Unlike
his earlier Siren coelestis, this volume contains distinct complexes of falsobor-
doni for psalmody (composed in the octenary system by Victorinus himself),
Magnificat settings for Vespers, and the Marian antiphons that tradition-
ally concluded the Office of Compline. Whereas other motets in the volume
appear to be a miscellany, suitable for both liturgical or devotional use, these
complexes point to the increasingly important role of Vespers and Compline,
with their prominent Marian components, as sites for musical elaboration in
German Catholic churches. Was this the music that Kirmayr said was per-
formed by the “zusammengeklaubte und erbetene Musiker” that Victorinus
was able to engage on an ad hoc basis? The problematic state of affairs in
these decades, during which music for larger ensembles may have been dif-
ficult to present on a regular basis, may have made the performance of these
smaller-scale works more likely.
Liturgy in the Religious Orders

To a certain degree, the trends we have seen in the aural decoration of the
liturgy in the cathedrals and parishes can be discerned in the religious orders
as well, whose churches were also prominent sites for public worship. A com-
plete picture is impossible given the very great losses in music and archival
documentation that occurred during the secularization of these houses in
1802 and 1803. Although some of these materials were taken into the col-
lections of the court library (later the Bavarian State Library), an incalculable
number of documents have certainly been lost.101 What we do know is that
centuries-old traditions of plainchant for the Mass and Offices continued to
be performed by religious men and women, and—in the male houses—by
boys taught by a monastic schoolmaster. The spread of Reformation ideas
and practices in the early to mid-sixteenth century brought many founda-
tions into serious decline; in some cases only a handful of religious remained
in the spacious monasteries of the traditional monastic orders, such as the
100
Victorinus, Philomela coelestis (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1624; RISM B/I, 16241).
For further notes on the volume’s dedication see Extended Reference 2.42.
101
A number of recent essays on Bavarian secularization can be found in Alois Schmid,
ed., Die Säkularisation in Bayern 1803: Kulturbruch oder Modernisierung? (Munich: Beck,
2003). For an overview see also Eberhard Weis, Die Säkularisation der bayerischen
Klöster 1802/03: neue Forschungen zu Vorgeschichte und Ergebnissen (Munich: Verlag der
Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1983).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 66 10/28/2013 10:35:51 PM

Benedictines, Augustinians, and Cistercians.102 The successful progress of
Catholic reform in Bavaria in the later sixteenth century, however, stabilized
the situation in many foundations, and by the end of the century we can
observe a new vitality, not only among the Jesuits and the mendicant orders,
such as the Franciscans and Capuchins, but in the traditional monastic orders
as well.
Not surprisingly, the most striking expansion in liturgical music in
this period was found in the wealthier houses, with the Benedictines,
Augustinians, and Augustinian Canons taking leading roles. Polyphony had
become a staple in these foundations by the later sixteenth century at the very
latest, surviving choirbooks testifying to great efforts to procure older and
newer music of high quality, including a great deal by Orlando di Lasso.103
In the seventeenth century, we find a notable expansion in music scored for
larger forces, suggesting that monastic churches were seeking an opulent lit-
urgy, paralleling the trends we have already seen at the cathedral of Freising
and in the parish of Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich. The Benedictine abbey of
Tegernsee, in the Alpine foothills to the south of Munich, was one promi-
nent site of this expansion. For example, a codex of double-choir Masses by
Palestrina and others, originally copied at the Munich court, came into the
possession of the Benedictines of Tegernsee during the time of the abbot
Paul Widmann (1594–1624), who was well known for his musical connois-
seurship.104 An extant 1650 inventory from the same monastery shows a
wide range of polychoral music for up to sixteen voices by such composers
102
For example, only two or three older monks remained at the Augustinian monas-
tery in Munich by the mid-sixteenth century; see Josef Hemmerle, Geschichte des
Augustinerklosters in München (Munich, Pasing: Verlag Bayerische Heimatforschung,
1956), 21.
103
In what follows I draw primarily on Robert Münster’s observations in “Die Musik in
den bayerischen Klöstern seit dem Mittelalter,” in Robert Münster and Hans Schmid,
eds., Musik in Bayern. I. Bayerische Musikgeschichte. Überblick und Einzeldarstellungen
(Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1972) , 243–60, as well as the detailed descriptions of sur-
viving materials in the KbM series. On Lasso’s connections to Bavarian monasteries see
104
See Bernd Edelmann, “Zu den vier Messen des Münchner Hofkapellcodex Mus.ms.
64,” in Göllner and Schmid, eds., Die Münchner Hofkapelle des 16. Jahrhunderts im
europäischen Kontext (Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
2006), 434–66. Robert Münster discusses Paul Widmann’s musical interests in his
“Fragmente zu einer Musikgeschichte der Benediktiner Abtei Tegernsee,” Studien und
Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige 79 (1968): 66–91.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 67 10/28/2013 10:35:51 PM

as Giulio Belli, Anton Holzner, and Michael Kraf.105 Robert Münster, fur-
thermore, has identified a large number of prints, currently housed in the
Bavarian State Library, that were once held at Tegernsee and suggest an opu-
lent musical repertory in the early seventeenth century. Apart from works
of Orlando di Lasso, we find a wide selection of music by both Italian and
German composers, such as Johann Stadlmayr and Giovanni Valentini, a con-
siderable amount of which is scored for larger forces.106 Whether the scope of
the Tegernsee repertoire was duplicated at other Bavarian monasteries is dif-
ficult to determine, but previous studies have pointed to the prominence of
polychoral music at several foundations, including the Benedictine houses of
Benediktbeuern and Weihenstephan and the Augustinian houses of Polling,
Au am Inn, and St. Zeno in Reichenhall.107
It was in the wealthier traditional orders, furthermore, that organ music
is likely to have been cultivated, although we lack precise information about
the organ’s role in the conduct of the liturgy. The Augustinian Canonry
of Polling, which enjoyed the services of organists Wilhelm Krumper and
Christian Erbach (son of the prolific Augsburg composer of the same name),
possessed no fewer than four organs by the late 1620s, suggesting the possibil-
ity of accompanied polychoral performances; in this period new organs are also
documented for the Augustinians of Munich (1618–1620), the Augustinian
Canons of Beyharting (1620), the Benedictines of Tegernsee (1620–1621),
and the Cistercians of Fürstenfeld (1623).108 Organ music was comparatively
rare among the mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans, whose vows of pov-
erty obviated the need for such instruments; however, the Augsburg patrician
Philipp Hainhofer reported in 1611 that the Franciscan church in Munich,
which stood directly adjacent to the ducal residence, “has a fine organ and
an amusing clock that strikes every hour, sounding the Hail Mary, and an
105
On the Tegernsee inventory, see esp. Münster, “Fragmente zu einer Musikgeschichte
der Benediktiner Abtei Tegernsee,” 67–69.
106
See ibid., 70–74, and commentary in Extended Reference 2.44.
107
For discussion see Winter, “Das mehrchörige Musizieren in Bayern,” in Münster and
Schmid, Musik in Bayern, 159–61; and Rosner, “Mehrchörige Musikpflege in Freising
1550–1650,” 4:1.
108
Robert Münster, “Die Musik im Augustinerchorherrenstift Polling vor der
Säkularisation,” in 10 Jahre Pollinger Bibliotheksaal ([Polling]: [Freunde des Pollinger
Bibliotheksaals], 1985), 2; Hemmerle, Geschichte des Augustinerklosters in München,
26–27; and Klaus Mohr, Die Musikgeschichte des Klosters Fürstenfeld, Musik in bayer-
ischen Klöstern 2 (Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1987), 18–20. For further details see
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 68 10/28/2013 10:35:51 PM

angel plays a trombone.”109 One might speculate that the frequent presence
of courtiers or the ducal family demanded a liturgy that was more sonically
embellished than was otherwise typical for the Franciscans. With respect to
organ repertory, a number of manuscript tablatures from Bavarian monas-
teries (Au am Inn, Polling, Irsee, and Tegernsee) consist largely of motets
rather than strictly liturgical items, making it difficult to reach firm con-
clusions about the prominence of the organ in worship.110 Nevertheless, the
active building of new instruments in the early seventeenth century points to
a desire to further augment the aural experience of the liturgy.
Relatively few Bavarian religious of the sixteenth century are known to have
been active composers, but circumstances begin to change by the end of the
that century, particularly in the well-endowed monasteries of the Benedictine
order. Though not located in Bavarian territory proper, the monastery of
Weingarten had hosted Lasso’s student Jakob Reiner (d. 1606), a substantial
portion of whose Masses and Magnificats, all published in his late years, likely
had their origins in the abbey liturgy.111 Liturgical music at Weingarten con-
tinued to be opulent well into the seventeenth century thanks to the efforts
of Reiner’s successor Michael Kraf (1595–1662). Kraf served as choir director
between 1616 and 1633, producing at least twelve volumes of mostly litur-
gical music in a wide variety of contemporary styles and genres, including
Masses, Magnificats, and litanies scored for larger forces.112 Strong tendencies
toward liturgical composition can also be seen in the work of Sebastian Ertl
(d. 1618), who may have spent some time at the Benedictine monastery of
Weihenstephan in Freising before returning to that of Garsten (in Steiermark)
in his Austrian homeland. The Munich printer Nikolaus Heinrich brought
out all of Ertl’s published music, which consisted of Masses, Magnificats, and
109
Christian Häutle, “Die Reisen des Augsburger Philipp Hainhofer,” Zeitschrift des
Historischen Vereins für Schwaben 8 (1881): 111. On the general absence of organs among
the Franciscans, at least before the later seventeenth century, see Hildegard Hermann,
“Die Musikpflege der bayerischen Franziskaner von der Gründung der Provinz bis zur
Säkularisation,” in Musik in bayerischen Klöstern (Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1986),
1:269–70.
110
A number of organ tablatures from these institutions are preserved in the Bavarian
State Library; see Extended Reference 2.47 for details.
111
On Reiner see Alfons Kriessmann, Jacob Reiner, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Musik an den
oberschwäbischen Klöstern im XVI. Jahrhundert (Augsburg, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1927); for
details on his musical production see Extended Reference 2.43.
112
See Extended Reference 2.44 for details on Kraf’s liturgical music. The only major study
of his music can be found in Axel Beer, “Michael Kraf (1595–1662)—Lebensweg und
Schaffen,” in Erhard Nowak, ed., Bedeutende Bad Neustädter: Ein musikalisches Dreigestirn
(Bad Neustadt: Rötter, 1998), 33–76.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 69 10/28/2013 10:35:51 PM

other liturgical compositions mainly in double-choir and polychoral format
with organ bass.113 Although we must acknowledge that the published litur-
gical music by Reiner, Kraf, Ertl, and other like composers is not necessarily a
sure indicator of the music heard routinely in monastic worship, it does sug-
gest that in the early seventeenth century the wealthier foundations embraced
a somewhat traditional manner of polyphonic composition that unfolded in
larger formats for double and multiple choirs. This music filled their spacious
churches with waves of vocal and instrumental sound, lending gravity and
sumptuousness to the conduct of the liturgy. In turn, this music foreshadows
a period of flourishing compositional activity to come in Baroque monaster-
ies, one that would be heavily indebted to Italianate, even operatic models.114
Secularization was even more unkind to the libraries of the female monas-
teries, from which relatively little musical repertory survives; here we depend
almost entirely on scattered archival references. A modest amount of this docu-
mentation survives for the three female institutions in the city of Munich: the
Pütrich convent, the Ridler convent, and the Poor Clares of St. Jakob am Anger,
all of which were communities of Franciscan tertiaries; outside Munich, a few
documents shed light on developments at the Cistercian convent of Seligenthal
in Landshut as well. In addition to some printed literature, we are fortunate
to have the diary of a Bavarian abbess that makes sporadic references to occa-
sionally well-appointed church music: this is the “Geschicht-Buech” of Maria
Magdalena Haidenbucher, abbess (1609–1650) of the Benedictine convent of
Frauenwörth, poised on the small island of Frauenchiemsee in the Chiemsee.115
113
The printing of all of his music by Nikolaus Heinrich in Munich testifies to his dura-
ble relationship with the Bavarian musical scene. On Ertl see Renate Mutschlechner,
“Ertl [Ertel, Erthel, Ertelius], Sebastian,” Grove Music Online, www.oxfordmusiconline.
com (accessed December 3, 2011). See Extended Reference 2.49 for more details on
Ertl’s output.
114
For a thorough overview see esp. Münster, “Die Musik in den bayerischen Klöstern
seit dem Mittelalter.” It should be noted here that monastic composers also engaged
to some degree with the few-voiced sacred concerto, a genre that could travel between
liturgical and devotional spaces. Examples include the Nymphae duplicium aquarum inco-
lae (Venice, 1630) by Johann Brandstetter, organist and choir director at Zwiefalten,
and the Alveus sacer (Ingolstadt, 1630) by Rufinus Sigelius from Seeon. See Beer, Die
Annahme des “stile nuovo”, 142–43.
115
Haidenbucher’s diary is preserved under BSB, Cgm 1767. A modern edition has been
prepared by Gerhard Stalla as the Geschicht Buech de Anno 1609 biß 1650. Das Tagebuch
der Maria Magdalena Haidenbucher (1576–1650), Äbtissin von Frauenworth, Geistliche
Literatur der Barockzeit 11 (Amsterdam: APA–Holland University Press, 1988). On
this as well as other chronicles written in convent contexts, see Charlotte Woodford,
Nuns as Historians in Early Modern Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 70 10/28/2013 10:35:52 PM

Women in Munich’s Franciscan tertiary houses had begun to sing liturgical
chant by the late fifteenth century.116 A “Directorium chori” from the Pütrich
house (dated 1617) gives a comprehensive listing of liturgical texts to be sung
in the daily Offices, specifying sets of Vesper Psalm and Magnificat antiphons,
hymns, and other Proper collects for a wide range of feast days; for major feasts
like Christmas provisions were made for Second Vespers, Compline, Matins,
and Lauds as well.117 Following Second Vespers on Christmas Day, further-
more, the women observed the popular custom of Kindlwiegen, rocking a rep-
resentation of the Christ child in his crib while singing a range of Latin and
German songs.118 At the Pütrich house, as elsewhere, there is little suggestion
of polyphony or instrumental music being performed at this time.
Although liturgical chant was frequently heard in the convent churches,
it would have been sung with the careful oversight of male superiors and
visitors, who did not hesitate to intervene when necessary. At the Cistercian
convent of Seligenthal, for example, a visitation was carried out in 1591 by
Johannes Dietmayr, abbot of the Aldersbach abbey, who begins by praising
the women for their thorough and committed celebration of the traditional
ceremonies and religious practices. However, he finds some faults in their
celebration of the divine services and insists that “all excesses, and particu-
larly those songs that are foreign to Our Holy Order,” be banished, “whether
they be for the Kyrie, Sequence, Patrem, Sanctus, and the like.” By this time,
then, the women of Seligenthal were celebrating Mass with music that went
beyond the liturgical prescriptions, possibly adding textual or musical tropes
to parts of the Ordinary and the Sequence, consequently lengthening the
duration of the Mass considerably.119
116
On the Allowance of nuns’ singing in 1492, see the eighteenth-century chronicle
of the Pütrich house, Bittrich Voll Deß Himmlischen Manna. Süssen Morgen-Thau. Das
ist: Historischer Discurs, Von Dem Ursprung, Fundation, Auffnamb, glücklichen Fortgang,
Tugend-Wandel, vnd andern denckwürdigen Sachen Deß Löbl. Frauen-Closters, Ordens der drit-
ten Regul deß Heil. Francisci, Bey Sanct Christophen im Bittrich genannt (Munich: Johann
Lucas Straub, 1721), 24. A late sixteenth-century manuscript Antiphonale from the
Benedictine convent of Frauenwörth also survives (BSB Clm 27442), providing litur-
gical texts only without notation.
117
BSB Clm 9383, “Directoriu[m] Chori, Welches sich vflegen zuegebrauchen Die
Closter Junkhfrawen Ordinis S. Francisci, B · H.”
118
BSB Clm 9383, 57r–58v. The Christmas songs included Dies est laetitiae, Resonet in
laudibus, Sunt impleta quae praedixit Gabriel, Eya Eya virgo Deum, Magnum nomen Domini
Emanuel, Hodie apparuit in Israel, and the macaronic In dulci jubilo, Singen und seid froh.
119
The visitation ordinance, BayHStA, KL Fasz. 320/14, 126r–140v, is quoted at length
in Extended Reference 2.50. Like the choir ordinance for the Pütrich house cited
above, it also spells out the extent to which the liturgy was sung, specifying mainly
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 71 10/28/2013 10:35:52 PM

The early 1620s saw more-radical forms of discipline that meant
far-reaching changes, not only for the celebration of liturgy, but also for the
very nature of convent life, particularly for the Franciscan tertiary nuns of the
Pütrich and Ridler houses in Munich. In May 1620, monks of the Reformed
branch of the Franciscan order, led by Antonio Galbiato, arrived in Munich
and set about to fully enclose the two communities, which for centuries had
enjoyed relatively free access to Munich’s public spaces. We need not pur-
sue the enclosure process in detail here except to say that both houses were
architecturally modified to prevent the women’s interaction with the civic
environment; from this point forward, nuns’ contact with the world outside
was confined to the space of the convent church (in which they were shielded
from public view, though their words and music could be heard) and to the
parlatorium, a space in which they could hold conversations with visitors by
speaking through a grille.120 As before, the women sang Latin chant in their
convent churches; in 1622 Galbiato imposed upon them the Roman Breviary
as well, a duty that would require the women to appear more regularly in
the church and to conduct their prayers exclusively in Latin.121 This new
regime was not implemented, however, without considerable resistance from
the women themselves, particularly the elderly among them, for whom the
new requirements represented a new and unwelcome burden. At the Ridler
convent, mistress of the novices and scribe Maria Maximiliana von Wartenberg,
a zealous devotee of convent reform and a determined ascetic, “had to endure
much trouble and persecution” as she taught the Latin Breviary to her charges.122
Nevertheless, reform prevailed. By 1624, a visitor to the convent church
would have continued to hear the women singing regularly at Vespers and for
more of the daily Offices on major feasts, but now periodic prayer in German was
Office music for Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi,
All Saints, and all feast days of the Virgin Mary.
120
A detailed study of the enclosure process and its meaning for the lives of the women
within may be found in Ulrike Strasser, State of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics
in an Early Modern Catholic State (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004), esp.
119–48.
121
On the imposition of the Latin Breviary see Strasser, State of Virginity, 124. For fur-
ther detail on the specific occasions upon which chant was permitted, see Extended
Reference 2.51. A similar mandate was made for the women of the Benedictine con-
vent of Frauenwörth in 1622, as noted in Maria Magdalena Haidenbucher’s diary: see
Stalla, ed., Geschicht Buech, 49.
122
On resistance to these reforms see esp. Strasser, State of Virginity, 127–32. See also
Bittrich Voll Deß Himmlischen [ . . . ], Manna. Süssen Morgen-Thau (Munich: Johann
Lucas Straub, 1721), 99–100, which gives a more anodyne account of the new practice;
see Extended Reference 2.52.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 72 10/28/2013 10:35:52 PM

supplanted by a seemingly unrelenting flow of Latin liturgical texts, whether
spoken, recited, or sung. Curiously, it was of little concern to the male superiors
whether the women understood the texts they were reciting: in fact, Leo X’s origi-
nal statutes for the Third Orders, reprinted in Munich in 1622, stated clearly that
a cloistered nun should not waste her time learning the Latin language, for she
would be a “destroyer of our reformed simplicity and a cause (as is well known)
of much disorder, strife, rumor, pretension, extinguishing of sisterly love, and
other evils.” Rather, a single woman literate in Latin should take it upon herself
to teach her peers solely what they needed to know to perform the liturgy prop-
erly.123 For the convents’ male superiors the sounding of the proper words in the
choir at the proper time was at stake; an awareness of their meaning by those who
spoke or sang them was entirely beside the point, and even considered detrimen-
tal to sisterly unity. The women created the sounds of the orthodox liturgy in
their convent churches, yet their access to its semantics remained limited.
But was there scope for more elaborate church music as well? At the Pütrich
house, an organ seems to have been installed between 1608 and 1620, although
we are not informed about its use.124 The women there were allowed to sing
chant on many feast days of the year; but, according to an undated archival
document, choral polyphony was only heard on eight annual Jahrtage (com-
memorations).125 As for the Ridler house, Fortunatus Hueber reported in his
1695 chronicle of that institution that
from 1624 to 1628 the sisters sang the Mass in plainchant. Then,
as more and more virgins entered the cloister, they gradually added
figural music to the plainchant at particular times, and in 1628 they
celebrated the [Feast of the] Dedication with a musical [i.e., poly-
phonic] service. And so with the increase in the young [sisters] cho-
ral music flourished, in that a regular and orderly choir with singers,
123
See Regel vnd Leben Der büssern, oder deß dritten Ordens, deß Seraphischen Vatters S. Francisci
(Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1622), 82–84, quoted in Extended Reference 2.53.
124
A fragment of a manuscript chronicle, BayHStA, KL Fasz. 423/1, 24v, contains the
annotation “Widerumb beÿ diser Muetter [Apollonia Ostermayrin] ist die Orgl
gemacht wordten, in welchem Jahr stehet nit geschriben.”
125
BayHStA, KL Fasz. 424/11 contains a document, possibly from the late seventeenth
century, entitled “VerZaichnus aller Ambter so Wür durch daß gantz Jahr haben,”
specifying the days on which a simple service without music (schlechtes Ambt), a service
with chant, and a service with polyphony was held. Another document here, dated
November 4, 1652, and signed by Ambrosius Kirchmayr, the Reformed Franciscan
provincial, gives a list of feast days on which the women sang, although no distinction
is offered between chant and polyphony.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 73 10/28/2013 10:35:53 PM

wind players, and string players made an agreeable harmony for the
praise of God, seeming to have learned it from the Angels.126
Instrumental music at the Pütrich and Ridler houses may have further
expanded in scope in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, as
newly professed nuns—often from more comfortable backgrounds—brought
instruments into the convents.127 It is not clear whether instrumental music
was also cultivated at the third Franciscan house in Munich, the Poor Clares
of St. Jakob am Anger, but an early eighteenth-century chronicle states that
its abbess, Susanna Blanck (1634–1657), introduced organ playing as an
accompaniment or complement to plainchant in 1652.128 The “Geschicht-
Buech” of Maria Magdalena Haidenbucher hints at a more elaborate musical
life, although, understandably, she was wont to write of special occasions
rather than the quotidian. On the occasion of her election as abbess in April
1609, for example, she noted that the ceremony was crowned by the pealing
of all the bells and that the organ and choir began performing Te Deum lau-
damus in alternatim fashion. A Mass followed, during which the Augustinian
Canons of Herrenchiemsee (whose convent was situated on a larger island in
the Chiemsee) sang polyphonic music.129 Under Haidenbucher’s authority
the organ was expanded and renovated in 1615, a move that speaks to its
126
From Fortunatus Hueber, Lob-Danck- vnd Ehren-reiche Gedächtnuß, Von dem Geist-
und Löblichen Jungfrau-Closter deß III. Ordens S. FRANCISCI. Bey den zweyen Heiligen
Joannes, dem Tauffer, vnd dem Evangelisten. Auff der Stiegen (deren Ridler genamset) zu
München in Bayern an der Chur-Fürstlichen Residentz. Jn seinem Vierhundert-jährigen
Sæculo, oder Welt-Lauff, mit Freuden erneuert, vnd auffgericht den 1. May, im Jahr 1695
(Munich: Sebastian Rauch, 1695), 59. See Extended Reference 2.54 for original
language.
127
Sabine John cites examples of theatrical performances with impressive musical
resources in the early eighteenth century, generally connected to internal celebrations
for the election of new mothers superior and the like. See her “ ‘Mit Behutsambkeit und
Reverentz zu tractieren’: Die Katakombenheiligen im Münchner Pütrichkloster—
Arbeit und Frömmigkeit,” Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde (1995): 8 and 29
(note 56).
128
“Under anderen auch dises/ daß sie Anno 1652. den Göttlichen Dienst desto auffer-
bäulicher vnd trostreicher zuverrichten/ zu deme ohne das schweren Choral-Gesang die
Orgl auffgerichtet/ so vorhero zu Closter Anger niemahlen gewesen.” From Barnaba
Kirchhuber, Der Gnaden- und Tugend-reiche Anger, Das ist: Die sonderbare grosse Gnaden,
tugendsame Leben, vnd andere denck- vnd lob-würdige Begebenheiten, So In dem Uhr-alten vnd
Hoch-berühmten Gotts-Hauß, vnd Jungfräulichen Closter S. CLARÆ Ordens in München bey
S. JACOB am ANGER biß in die 480. Jahr verschlossen, vnd verborgen gelegen, nunmehr
angemerckt und eröffnet (Munich: Maria Magdalena Rauchin, 1701), 18–19.
129
See Stalla, ed., Geschicht Buech, 7–8, and Extended Reference 2.55.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 74 10/28/2013 10:35:53 PM

regular use in divine worship.130 The women of Frauenwörth sang polyph-
ony on a variety of special occasions, particularly on the visits of important
prelates: for example, in 1621 the visit of the Capuchin general minister,
Clemente de Noto, was greeted with the pealing of bells and a “sung motet
with the organ”; a polyphonic Te Deum and further “pieces in figural [polyph-
ony]” were sung for the visit of the Bishop of Chiemsee in July 1631, and a
polyphonic Mass and Requiem were sung by the women for the translation
of the relics of St. Irmengard in October 1631.131
A natural site for elaborate music in the convent would have been the lit-
urgy accompanying the investiture (Einkleidung) of a new novice or the pro-
fession of a novice as a nun, ceremonies that typically duplicated elements of
secular weddings.132 In an ordinance copied in 1643 that governs the investi-
ture ceremony at Frauenwörth, we learn that the new “bride,” dressed in her
wedding clothes and holding a lighted candle, processed to the altar under
the sound of ringing bells and the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus or Veni Sancte
Spiritus, sung by the professed nuns, after which a Mass of the Virgin was cel-
ebrated. After being sprinkled with holy water, the “bride” was led in a sec-
ond procession to the portal marking her enclosure: during this procession,
the bells were rung again, and the women sang the Great Responsory Regnum
mundi, whose text embodies the renunciation of the temporal world.133 The
130
“Jtem so haben wür auch die orgl erweittern laßen, vnd von neuen stim[m]en, vnd
ringer zum schlagen laßen machen, auch das schwarz werkh, hinauf laßen sezen,
vnd auch wid[er] stim[m]en vnd erneuern laßen, aufwendig auch wid[er] malen
laßen.”Ibid., 34.
131
See ibid., 47, 70, 79–81. In 1632 elaborate music was heard at Frauenwörth for the
arrival of the so-called Wunderbares Gut, an allegedly miraculous Host from the church
of Heilig Kreuz in Augsburg, a city that was now under siege by Swedish forces. The
Wunderbares Gut would be kept safe here until its return to Augsburg in 1635. The
splendid ceremonies were accompanied by polyphonic and instrumental music, appar-
ently provided by the male Augustinian Canons of Heilig Kreuz and Herrenchiemsee.
See ibid., 100–102, 112–13.
132
On the parallels to secular weddings, see Strasser, State of Virginity, 125–26. On
music of such ceremonies in a Sienese context, see esp. Colleen Reardon, “Veni sponsa
Christi: Investiture, Profession and Consecration Ceremonies in Sienese Convents,”
Musica disciplina 50 (1996): 271–97. Her accounts of these services resemble those
described here in broad respects.
133
“Regnum mundi et omnem ornatum saeculi contempsi propter amorem Domini mei
Jesu Christi quem vidi quem amavi in quem credidi quem dilexi” (“I have scorned
the kingdom of the world and all worldly adornment for the love of my Lord Jesus
Christ, whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, whom I have
adored”).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 75 10/28/2013 10:35:53 PM

ceremony concluded with a benediction by the officiating priest, and the
novice proffered her lit candle to the abbess.134 A more highly textured
account of a profession ceremony is provided by Haidenbucher, who relates
the profession of one Anna Jacobe von Schwarzendorff, a woman from a fam-
ily of means whose arrival with a dowry of two thousand Gulden in 1621
was the occasion for a special service, officiated by the suffragan bishop of
the Salzburg archdiocese. The novice having prostrated herself before the
altar, the Veni Sancte Spiritus was sung “with the organ” (auf der Orgl), after
which the suffragan sang two versicles and a prayer. The novice then kneeled
in a pew, and the formal service began. After the Epistle, “a short motet was
sung with the organ”; the novice expressed her readiness by singing Suscipe
me, Domine, secundum eloquium tuum et vivam (Receive Me, Lord, According to
Your Promise, and I Shall Live) before the altar. The novice prostrated herself
again, and the suffragan read a litany and sang several versicles. The cere-
mony continued with the exchange of her novice’s garb for that of a professed
nun; her hair was shorn, and the suffragan placed a wreath with pearls on her
head. Another motet “with the organ” was sung before the Offertory, and the
service concluded with the Te Deum laudamus, again sung “with the organ.”135
The poor preservation of sources precludes a more comprehensive view
of polyphony and instrumental music in the convent churches, but the exis-
tence of this music did provide a crucial creative outlet for these women
and was a way they could actively shape the aural spaces of their churches,
even if the women were invisible to those observing the liturgy from the
nave.136 In the next chapter we find further indirect evidence for musical
cultivation in the form of printed collections of devotional music dedicated
to the mothers superior and communities of Munich’s Franciscan tertiary
houses. As we shall see, the thoroughbass lieder—simple vernacular songs
134
Described in “Form und Weiss des NOVITIAT und PROFESS In dem lobwürdi-
gen Gottshaußs vnd Closter FRAUEN CHIEMSEE In Ertzbistumb Saltzburg vnd
Nidern Baÿrn gelegen Ruemblich hergebracht, vnd bißhero Practiciret abgeschriben
von Honorato Abbten Zu Sein,” BayHStA, KL Fasz. 167/9, no. 1. Honoratus Kolb
was abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Seeon from 1634 to 1653.
135
Stalla, ed., Geschicht Buech, 45–46. Anna Jacobe’s father was Hans Wolf von
Schwarzendorff, a Bavarian councilor and Pfleger of the village of Uttendorf (ibid., 182).
136
I would echo Barbara Lawatsch Melton’s observations with respect to the Benedictine
nuns of the Nonnberg abbey in Salzburg, for whom music was a critical vehicle for
agency. See her “Loss and Gain in a Salzburg Convent: Tridentine Reform, Princely
Absolutism, and the Nuns of Nonnberg (1620 to 1696),” in Lynne Tatlock, ed.,
Enduring Loss in Early Modern Germany: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives (Leiden: Brill,
2010), 270.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 76 10/28/2013 10:35:53 PM

with bass accompaniment—of the Munich chaplain Johannes Khuen sug-
gest possible currents in women’s devotional expression in the period after
claustration, but may also represent a powerful and comprehensive apologia
for full enclosure.
Courtly Spaces for Liturgy: The Bavarian Court Chapel

We turn now to the Bavarian court chapel, arguably the richest site for liturgical
music in Counter-Reformation Bavaria, but a space that could only be experi-
enced by the nobility of the Wittelsbach house, their courtiers, retinue, and
prominent visitors. Unlike the public churches, where visual and aural splendor
served as a kind of propaganda, underscoring the sacrality of the Catholic liturgy
for an audience of uncertain confessional commitment, the court chapel liturgy
was more precisely an expression of the spiritual identity of the Wittelsbach
dukes and electors, particularly in their embrace of the Roman Rite and exal-
tation of the Virgin Mary as the “Patroness of Bavaria.” The representation of
Bavarian Catholicism unfolded in a sumptuous musical dress, which, under
Dukes Albrecht V and Wilhelm V and their chapelmaster Orlando di Lasso,
was famed throughout Europe by the late sixteenth century. After Lasso’s death
in 1594, the music of the court chapel saw significant cutbacks; but in the early
seventeenth century musical life flourished again under Duke Maximilian I,
now with rather different contours that merit deeper exploration. The remain-
der of this chapter reflects on the spaces of court liturgy and how they were
shaped both aurally and visually in the spirit of Catholic reform.
The Court Chapel of St. George and Liturgical

Music in the Sixteenth Century
By the sixteenth century, the Bavarian dukes, having previously resided in
the medieval Alter Hof—with its chapel of St. Lorenz—closer to the cen-
ter of Munich, now occupied the more spacious Neuveste in the northeast-
ern quadrant of the city, a complex of buildings that would gradually be
expanded over the next few centuries. The ducal chapel there had originally
been consecrated in 1434; it was expanded in a Gothic style by 1540, and
received new Renaissance decoration around 1560.137 A painted illumination
137
On Wilhelm V’s abortive attempts to build a new court chapel and establish a col-
legiate foundation there see Appl, “Der Ausbau geistlicher Zentren als Kernstück der
Kirchenpolitik Herzog Wilhelms V,” 47–48, 54–57. On the history of this chapel see
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 77 10/28/2013 10:35:53 PM

of that chapel by Hans Mielich appears in a lavish codex containing Orlando
di Lasso’s Penitential Psalms, one of several luxurious volumes executed
between 1563 and 1571 and intended for the private collections of Albrecht
V (see Figure 2.2). The viewer’s perspective is from the altar, where a service
is evidently being celebrated. The singers of the court chapel, presumably
under Orlando di Lasso’s direction, nearly fill the space of the modest-sized
sanctuary, which is set off from the space behind by a simple screen; a gal-
lery is poised above.138 The evident vaulting over the space likely provided a
degree of additional delayed reverberation, but the modest overall volume of
the space would have allowed for more aural detail than was possible in larger
public churches. It was a space quite suitable, then, for the performance of
choral polyphony of a contrapuntal nature, including that of the Kapellmeister
Lasso. While the illumination implies the performance of a capella polyphony,
we know from an account by Massimo Troiano (1568) that on Sundays and
high feast days, at least, wind instruments accompanied the singers at both
Mass and Vespers. Moreover, a positive organ was built into a wall within the
chapel, although we are not certain about its use.139
Mielich’s illumination gives us some impression of the space in which
the liturgy was conducted, but to understand the music performed therein, we
also Otto Meitinger, “Die baugeschichtliche Entwicklung der Neuveste. Ein Beitrag
zur Geschichte der Münchner Residenz,” Oberbayerisches Archiv 92 (1970): 33, and Karl
Busch, “Die Residenz der Wittelsbacher in München,” in Der Mönch im Wappen: aus
Geschichte und Gegenwart des katholischen München (Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1960),
262–63. The precise nature of the St. George chapel’s decoration is not entirely clear;
the chapel was destroyed along with much of the Neuveste by fire in 1750.
138
Possibly Lasso is depicted as the figure to the left of the stand with his arm pointing
to or resting on the stand, but this is inconclusive; see Horst Leuchtmann, Orlando di
Lasso (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1976–1977), 1:253.
139
On the presence of wind instruments, see Hell and Leuchtmann, Orlando di Lasso,
1:130. Troiano’s report comes in his extensive account, in dialogue format, of the
marriage of Wilhelm V to Renate von Lothringen in 1568, published as Kurtze doch
gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Fürsten vnnd Herren [ . . . ] Wilhalmen [ . . . ] Vnd
derselben geliebsten Gemahl der [ . . . ] Fürstin Frewlin Renata [ . . . ] gehalten Hochzeitlichen
Ehren Fests (Munich: Adam Berg, [1568]), p. 72. See also Leuchtmann, ed., Die
Münchner Fürstenhochzeit von 1568. Massimo Troiano: Dialoge (Munich, Salzburg: Verlag
Emil Katzbichler, 1980), 45, and Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats, 34.
A reference to “Ain Positiph in der Ritter St. Georgen Capellen in der Maur eingericht”
appears in a 1655 inventory of court chapel instruments held in the Museum Section
of the Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen, Munich.
See commentary in Bettina Wackernagel, Musikinstrumentenverzeichnis der Bayerischen
Hofkapelle von 1655. Faksimile, Transkription und Kommentar (Tutzing: Hans Schneider,
2003), 62–63.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 78 10/28/2013 10:35:53 PM

F i g u r e 2 . 2 Hans Mielich, illumination of the Chapel of St. George, from BSB,
Mus. ms. A, II, p. 186. Reproduced courtesy of the Bavarian State Library
must turn to the large series of extant manuscript codices—some seventy-five

altogether—that preserve the chapel’s liturgical music.140 Beginning in the
time of Ludwig Senfl, who was appointed composer to the Munich court in
1523, the choirbooks demonstrate a continual concern with revising the reper-
tory in response to new liturgical and musical demands, and they show that
older and newer music often coexisted easily. More importantly, they testify
140
These manuscripts are surveyed in detail in Martin Bente, Marie Louise Göllner,
Helmut Hell, and Bettina Wackernagel, eds., Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Katalog der
Musikhandschriften. 1. Chorbücher und Handschriften in chorbuchartiger Notation, KbM 5/1.
This number does not include the several lavish presentation manuscripts now held at
the Bavarian State Library, including the aforementioned Mus. ms. A, as well as Mus.
ms. B, containing motets of Cipriano de Rore.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 79 10/28/2013 10:35:53 PM

to the desire of the Bavarian dukes—chief among them Albrecht V—to build
out the polyphonic repertory to embellish ever-greater portions of the liturgy.
Certainly, plainchant remained a steadfast part of liturgical observance; but in
the later sixteenth century it was increasingly augmented by falsobordone, choral
polyphony (much of it the work of Lasso), and the participation of instruments.
As we shall see, Tridentine reform beginning around 1580 affected the repertory
performed in the chapel in at least two major aspects: it led to the revision or
new composition of certain portions of the liturgical repertory, mostly the work
of Lasso and done at the behest of Wilhelm V; and it dramatically increased
music that embraced the confessionally specific imagery prized by Wilhelm and
his successor Maximilian I, particularly that of the Virgin Mary.
Duke Wilhelm IV (r. 1508–1550) had set in motion the lengthy and gradual
expansion of polyphony in the court chapel liturgy. His possible candidacy for
emperor, long an ambition of the Wittelsbach house, would have been bolstered
by a ritual modeled on the elaborate ceremony of the imperial court.141 Having
arrived from the imperial court in 1523, Wilhelm’s chapelmaster Ludwig Senfl
established the basis for later efforts with his liturgical music, first for Sundays
and high feasts, and later for the Sanctorale.142 A more comprehensive scheme of
music for the liturgy was foreshadowed by Albrecht V’s call for new polyphonic
Propers for weekdays, begun by Matthaeus Le Maistre and Ludwig Daser but
discontinued after Le Maistre’s departure for Dresden in 1554—most likely in
anticipation of coming Tridentine reforms.143 Orlando di Lasso arrived in Munich
in 1558 but at first was not involved in the composition of new liturgical music
under Daser’s tenure. After Daser’s departure in 1563 (likely a consequence of his
adherence to Protestant views), the new Kapellmeister Lasso mainly occupied himself
with the cyclic Mass settings that would embellish the daily morning service—the
141
On this point see Franz Körndle, “Der ‘tägliche Dienst’ der Münchner Hofkapelle
im 16. Jahrhundert,” in Nicole Schwindt, ed., Musikalischer Alltag im 15. und 16.
Jahrhundert (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2001), 25–26.
142
Recent research has shown that Senfl, who had been dismissed from Charles V’s service
in 1520, may not actually have brought choirbooks to Munich copied at the imperial
chapel, as was previously believed; see Birgit Lodes in “Ludwig Senfl and the Munich
Choirbooks. The Emperor’s or the Duke’s?”, in Göllner and Schmid, Die Münchner
Hofkapelle, 224–33. Martin Bente, in KbM 5/1, 13–14, had argued for the imperial
provenance of at least some of this repertory.
143
On this point see Bente, KbM 5/1, 15–16. For an overview of Le Maistre’s Proper set-
tings for Lent, intended to complement and supplant existing music by Heinrich Isaac,
see Stefan Gasch, “Die Fastenzeit Proprien Mattheus Le Maistres für den Münchner
Hof,” in Göllner and Schmid, eds., Die Münchner Hofkapelle, 334–63.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 80 10/28/2013 10:35:55 PM

täglicher Dienst—under Albrecht V.144 Massimo Troiano’s 1568 account stated that
choral polyphony was heard every morning at Mass, and also at First Vespers on
Saturdays and on the vigils of major feast days; as noted earlier, wind instruments
were added on Sundays and feasts.145 While Albrecht’s more parsimonious aides
grumbled about the expense of bringing such elaborate daily music into the cha-
pel, it did lead to an unprecedented aural richess in the conduct of the liturgy, as
sumptuous vocal polyphony, both older and newer, joined the sounds of recitation,
plainchant, and falsobordone for psalmodic recitation.146
After his accession in 1579, Duke Wilhelm V displaced the Freising Rite
with the Roman Rite in his chapel, leading to significant musical revisions
as well as expansion.147 In late 1581 he engaged the Jesuit priest Walram
Tumler from the German College in Rome as master of ceremonies, a move
that intensified the drive toward Romanization; nevertheless, Tumler appears
to have been at least as concerned with the appearance and deportment of the
chapel singers as with the repertory itself.148 He noted Lasso’s composition
144
On Lasso’s focus on the cyclic Mass Ordinary between 1562 and roughly 1580, see
Bente in KbM 5/1, 16–18.
145
There is of course some ambiguity here, for if wind instruments were deployed for
Sunday Vespers (that is, Second Vespers), this would imply choral polyphony for this
service as well. Yet Troiano indicates previously that choral polyphony was heard
at First Vespers only. The Vespers polyphony by Senfl preserved in BSB, Mus. ms.
52 (1520s?) omits music for Second Vespers. See Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation
Magnificats, 42.
146
Debate broke out between Albrecht and his aides over music expenses in 1557.
Nevertheless, daily performance of music in the chapel dated back to the early reign
of Wilhelm IV; see Körndle, “Der ‘tägliche Dienst’ der Münchner Hofkapelle im 16.
Jahrhundert,” 23–24. Newer and older styles seem to have coexisted easily in the cha-
pel repertory, as David Burn demonstrates in “On the Transmission and Preservation of
Mass-Propers at the Bavarian Court,” in Göllner and Schmid, Die Münchner Hofkapelle,
323–26.
147
Wilhelm appears to have laid the ground for Tridentine reform some years before.
As early as 1565, Lasso included a textual reading found in the Roman and not in
the Freising Breviary in his Lectiones ex propheta Iob, and the Proper settings of the
third volume of Patrocinium musices in 1574 included a number of texts that were
found only in the Roman Use and that would be published in the 1579 Roman Missal
for the diocese of Freising. For commentary see Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation
Magnificats, 56–63, and Körndle, “Der ‘tägliche Dienst’ der Münchner Hofkapelle im
16. Jahrhundert,” 27–28.
148
Much of our knowledge of Tumler’s work and difficulties with the Munich chapel
personnel comes from the testimony of Wilhelm Fusban (d. 1664), also a priest from
the Collegium Germanicum. For discussion see Thomas D. Culley, SJ, Jesuits and
Music: I. A Study of the Musicians connected with the German College in Rome during the 17th
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 81 10/28/2013 10:35:55 PM

of secular music and the appearance of married men among the chapel sing-
ers, some bearing swords during the divine service; the singers, furthermore,
omitted commemorations and Vespers antiphons, hurried through the psalm
recitations (likely performed, as previously mentioned, in falsobordone), and
prolonged certain responses unnecessarily “with noisy and confused sounds.”
Tumler’s very partial remarks certainly imply a lack of consistency with
Roman, post-Tridentine norms of decorum and suggest a certain cavalier
attitude on the part of the singers, but beyond this it is difficult to reach con-
clusions about what he heard in the chapel. The rector of the German College,
Michele Lauretano, is said to have asked Tumler, “What more indeed [ . . . ]
did you expect from singers chosen from rabble? They are more interested in
eating and drinking than in the liturgy; and they sell their services to whom-
ever offers more.” Indeed, Lasso and his singers were said to have “conspired
in anger against Walram,” although in the end “their anger was in vain and
impotent.”149
Whatever resistance from the musicians Tumler is said to have faced,
Lasso embraced Wilhelm’s demand for musical reform earnestly. The princi-
pal task was to expand the repertory for various parts of the Mass and Offices,
making for a more comprehensive experience of polyphony throughout the
liturgy. The initial projects were a new hymnary for the Offices composed at
Wilhelm’s command (1580–1581), followed by a series of Offertories for the
Mass in Advent and Lent (1581–1583).150 As the 1580s wore on, Lasso fur-
ther devoted himself to various liturgical genres, including Passions and Holy
Week Responsories, settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, settings of the
Nunc dimittis, and other music for the Proper. A common thread in much of
this music is a conservative idiom with the chant melodies retained as can-
tus firmus. A relatively archaic style may have invoked the church’s ancient
Century and of their Activities in Northern Europe, Sources and Studies for the History of
the Jesuits 2 (Rome: Jesuit Historical Institute, 1970), 90–92; Hell and Leuchtmann,
Orlando di Lasso, 1:189–90; and Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats, 35–38.
No specific contribution to musical reform on Tumler’s part is known apart from his
written request to Rome in January 1582 for tones for the psalms, responsories, and
Passions.
149
See Culley, Jesuits and Music, 90–1, and Extended Reference 2.56.
150
For further commentary on the hymns and Offertories, see Franz Körndle, “Das
Münchner Proprienrepertoire und das Konzil von Trient,” in Göllner and Schmid,
eds., Die Münchner Hofkapelle, 364–76, and Daniel Zager, “Post-Tridentine Liturgical
Change and Functional Music: Lasso’s Cycle of Polyphonic Latin Hymns,” in Peter
Bergquist, ed., Orlando di Lasso Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999), 62–63. See also Extended Reference 2.57 for further discussion.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 82 10/28/2013 10:35:55 PM

authority for listeners in the St. George chapel, but it also would have been
more consistent stylistically with the older, existing repertory that contin-
ued to be performed into the late sixteenth century. Lasso’s post-Tridentine
music, then, was largely intended to complement the existing repertory
where necessary, not to replace it entirely.151
A crucial element of Lasso’s activity after 1580 was focused on the
Magnificat, the Canticle of Mary that features prominently in the celebra-
tion of Vespers. Vespers polyphony at court had been in place as early as the
1520s, during the time of Ludwig Senfl, and the repertory was expanded
under his successors Ludwig Daser and Matthaus Le Maistre. By the time of
Lasso’s ascension to head of the chapel (1563), the music of the older Liber
vesperarum was apparently still in use for First Vespers, and new music for the
Office was seldom composed, perhaps in anticipation of coming liturgical
reforms.152 It is entirely possible, of course, that the twenty-four Magnificats
by Lasso printed at Nuremberg in 1567 were available for Vespers services
at the Munich court, but this imprint was more likely intended for com-
mercial rather than parochial use.153 By contrast, Lasso’s remarkable produc-
tion of Magnificat settings after 1580 (66 of a total of 102 compositions)
seems to have been motivated in the first place by Wilhelm V’s devotion to
the Virgin and by the move to celebrate Sunday Vespers (Second Vespers)
with music as well.154 Unlike his earlier settings, this late repertory appears
151
On the stylistic conservatism of Lasso’s post-Tridentine liturgical music, see Körndle,
“Das Münchner Proprienrepertoire und das Konzil von Trient,” 374, and Extended
Reference 2.58.
152
Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats, 41–49, 56–63. BSB Mus. ms. 52, con-
taining polyphonic antiphons, hymns, and responsories, mostly likely by Senfl him-
self, shows textual readings from the Freising Breviary of 1520 and thus was likely
copied at Munich in the early 1520s. This Liber vesperarum was incomplete at Senfl ’s
death; Mus. ms. 43, copied in the 1550s during the time of Daser and Le Maistre, con-
tains further settings of antiphons, hymns, and responsories, together with falsobordone
settings of the Vesper psalms and Magnificats by Johann Walter and Stephan Mahu.
See also Bente’s discussion in KbM 5/1, 14–16.
153
This set of Magnificat octo tonorum (Nuremberg, 1567; RISM L805) are scored for
four to six voices, and are arranged according to the psalm tones. On the com-
mercial nature of the print see James Erb, “Orlando di Lasso’s First Magnificat
Publication: A Contribution to the Complete Edition, with Commentary” (PhD diss.,
Harvard University, 1978), 195–200.
154
Crook notes in Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats, 52, that the appearance of falsobor-
done settings of In exitu Israel (Ps. 113) in BSB Mus. mss. 55 and 2748 by 1581 suggests
that Second Vespers was now to be celebrated with music. On the greater prominence
of the Magnificat and the Vespers service under Wilhelm V, see also 63–64.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 83 10/28/2013 10:35:55 PM

to have been reserved for the private use of the Munich chapel.155 A major-
ity (roughly forty) of the later settings now imitate a wide variety of sacred
motets, not to mention secular madrigals and chansons by himself and oth-
ers. The prestige of the Canticle’s text may have seemed to purify the worldly
associations implied by secular models, but a considerable number of the cul-
tivated listeners in the chapel of St. George may have recognized the original
compositions and enjoyed Lasso’s manipulations of them.156 Together with
the new hymn cycle and his nearly two dozen falsobordone settings for Psalm
recitations, Lasso’s emphasis on Magnificat composition after 1580 suggests a
concerted effort to make Vespers a crucial site for musical embellishment.157
The period after 1580 also saw Lasso devoting himself to the litany, the
distinctive type of lengthy, supplicatory prayer that reflected most immedi-
ately the Catholic dogma of sanctoral intercession. Indeed, it was Wilhelm
V and his immediate family circle, above all, who were responsible for the
intense official interest in the litany beginning in the final third of the six-
teenth century.158 By the 1570s, the crown-prince Wilhelm was already com-
missioning litany settings from his father’s chapelmaster Lasso, who wrote to
the prince in September 1575 that “I am doing everything Your Excellency
155
Exceptions to this may be seen in the Magnificats of the 1587 Patrocinium musices print
dedicated to Wilhelm’s brother, Archbishop Ernst von Wittelsbach of Cologne and
Freising (RISM L974), as well as in individual works copied into manuscripts belong-
ing to the Munich Jesuits, the basilica of SS. Ulrich & Afra in Augsburg, and the
Habsburg archducal court at Graz. However, as Erb argues in “Orlando di Lasso’s First
Magnificat Publication,” 208–9, these works represent gifts drawn from a prized and
private repertory, and were never intended for wider dissemination.
156
Crook in Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats, 80–82, argues for the purifying effect
of the Magnificat text.
157
Lasso is known also to have composed numerous falsobordone settings for the recitation
of Office psalmody, performed in alternatim fashion with chant recitation (mostly in
BSB, 2 Mus. pr. 12/2). For discussion see Extended Reference 2.59.
158
As we shall see in chapter 3, Wilhelm’s consort Renate von Lothringen made a dona-
tion to the parish of Unsere Liebe Frau in 1575 calling for polyphonic litanies on
every Sunday evening at Compline. The duke’s sister Maria Anna, who had mar-
ried Archduke Karl of Austria in 1571, wrote to Wilhelm from Graz in December
1572 requesting a copy of a four-voice “Ledaney von unser Frauen” that was sung at
Landshut (Wilhelm’s residence before his accession in 1579) and at Altötting. She
thanked him in February 1573 for sending these work(s), and wrote in July 1576 that
she “was happy in her heart about the litany.” Letters from Maria Anna of Bavaria to
Wilhelm V, December 27, 1572, February 22, 1573, and July 22, 1576, discussed in
Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats, 74–75.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 84 10/28/2013 10:35:55 PM

commanded [ . . . ] with the litanies.”159 Lasso composed a remarkable number
of new litany settings (at least sixteen) in the years that followed, some of
which were copied into chapel manuscripts and thus designated for perfor-
mance there.160 In his litanies, Lasso typically preferred monophonic into-
nations for the varied invocations of the divine object (usually the Virgin
Mary), followed by simple contrapuntal cadential responses by the choir for
the collective refrains. It is possible that his litanies were sung on Saturdays
and vigils of major feasts, perhaps at the conclusion of Vespers or Compline,
but they would have been available for paraliturgical purposes as well.
The New Court Chapel of Mary of the

Immaculate Conception and Liturgical Music
under Maximilian I
With the accession of Duke Maximilian I (r. 1597–1651), the court chapel’s
musical activity unfolded in a new architectural space. The initial construc-
tion of his new court chapel was completed in 1601, and in 1603 Maximilian
had the space dedicated to Mary of the Immaculate Conception, whose fig-
ure, enthroned amid clouds and surrounded by angels, appeared on an altar-
piece executed by Hans Werl. The chapel closely resembled—in both form
and decoration—the unified space of the Jesuit church of St. Michael, albeit
in a much smaller format. A high barrel vault nearly 13 meters high was
added in 1616, replacing what was likely originally a flat roof, and in 1630
the nave was slightly lengthened and the choir added.161 The dimensions of
the chapel itself were not large; it had a fairly narrow width of about 8 meters
and a total length from the rear of the nave to the choir of about 14 meters.
Above the nave were second- and third-floor galleries that would have been
occupied by the court during services—the princes on the east side, the ladies
of the court on the west side, and various court officials at the rear of the nave
(see Figure 2.3).162 Maximilian’s small, private oratorio, the so-called Reiche
159
Letter from Orlando di Lasso to Wilhelm V, September 3, 1575, qtd. in Crook, Orlando
di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats, 75.
160
For detailed notes on Lasso’s litanies and their sources, see Extended Reference 2.60.
161
On the building stages of this space, see Busch, “Die Residenz der Wittelsbacher in
München,” 273–74.
162
I have calculated these approximate dimensions from early twentieth-century architec-
tural drawings that have been generously provided to me by Dr. Hermann Neumann
of the Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung (personal communication, June 18, 2012). On
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 85 10/28/2013 10:35:56 PM

Figure 2.3 Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, Munich Residence (1601–1603).
Reproduced by permission of the Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser,
Gärten und Seen.
Kapelle, housing his impressive collection of relics, directly adjoined this

space on the third level to the east side. Unlike the chapel of St. George (as
depicted by Hans Mielich), the shallow choir of the new chapel was not sepa-
rated by a screen, but it resembled the older space in that its modest overall
dimensions would have provided a degree of acoustic clarity; furthermore,
the walls and vaults, articulated by windows and detailed stucco decorations,
would have provided an appropriate diffusion of sound. From later descrip-
tions, we learn that at least one of the two galleries at the rear of the nave was
the disposition of the persons of the court during services see Busch, “Die Residenz der
Wittelsbacher in München,” 273, note 48.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 86 10/28/2013 10:35:56 PM

evidently intended for musicians, and that two organs, very likely smaller
positives, were stationed there.163 Given the shallow depth of the gallery and
the modest size of the chapel, there would have been relatively little space
for larger ensembles, implying that large-scale, polychoral music may have
been heard here less frequently than in the larger parish and Jesuit churches
of the time. The choral repertoire of the previous century, along with the
small-scale concertos for few voices and organ bass that were composed in
large quantities by court composers in the early seventeenth century, could
more easily have been accommodated.
Again, we need to turn to the extant archival and musical sources in order
to understand the nature of the music heard in Maximilian’s new court cha-
pel. Unfortunately, by around 1590 the production of new choirbooks con-
taining the chapel’s liturgical music all but ceased. It is possible that this
lacuna in the chapel manuscript tradition can be explained not by the loss of
choirbooks, but rather by the fact that the vast existing repertory of liturgical
music was deemed sufficient for ordinary use.164 In any case, the atmosphere
immediately following Orlando’s death in 1594 was hardly favorable for
the composition of new music.165 Now charged with remedying the disas-
trous state of court finances, the crown-prince Maximilian ordered drastic
cuts in chapel expenditures, leading to a much smaller ensemble that (from
1599) was no longer required to perform daily at Mass and Vespers. In these
163
On the musicians’ gallery see the “Descrittione compendiosa del Palagio sede de’
Serenissimi di Baviera” by Baldassare Pistorini, who was a bassist in the court chapel
(BSB, Cod. Ital. mon. 409, here 10v). See Wackernagel, Musikinstrumentenverzeichnis
der Bayerischen Hofkapelle von 1655, 56–59. The two positive organs listed in the 1655
inventory of the court chapel instruments, likely the same described by Pistorini, were
of seven registers and three registers, respectively. The latter instrument, possibly con-
structed by Urban Heusler and Leonhard Kurz for the court in 1601, may in fact be
the same as that which was found during a 1968–1969 restoration of the organ in
the Schleißheim court chapel, and is preserved today in the lowermost gallery in the
Munich court chapel. See ibid., 59, as well as Brenninger, Orgeln in Altbayern, 42 and
194, and Horst Leuchtmann, “Organisten und Orgelbauer in ihrer Beziehung zum
bayerischen Herzogshof 1550–1600,” Acta organologica 6 (1972): 108.
164
As argued by Martin Bente in KbM 5/1, 20. For notes on the small number of surviv-
ing chapel manuscripts from 1590 onward, see Extended Reference 2.61.
165
The court pay records (Hofzahlamtsrechnungen, BayHStA, HZR) provide some useful
data on salaries for the singers (called Cantoreij Personen, and later Musicisten, including
chapelmaster, vice chapelmaster, singers, and choirboys), instrumentalists, and trum-
pet corps (from 1642 onward the trumpeters’ salaries were figured together with those
of the instrumentalists). See table 2.2 for a summary of chapel expenses.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 87 10/28/2013 10:35:57 PM

years, Lasso’s former deputy and successor Johannes à Fossa could hardly have
been more than a “crisis manager.”166
It is likely that Orlando’s reputation, together with the very severe cutbacks
that Maximilian imposed on the chapel after the master’s death, have conspired
to obscure our understanding of the musical culture that did begin to flourish
there again in the early seventeenth century. Expenditures on chapel music
recovered quickly after reaching a nadir in 1598, surpassing the level of Lasso’s
last years by 1601, and reaching the impressive height of over 14,000 Gulden
by 1629, a year in which over sixty musicians received some form of compen-
sation.167 The war years 1632–1635 saw some reductions, but expenses and
personnel soon blossomed again during Maximilian’s late reign.168 Pay records
can only tell us so much, however, and we need to focus our attention more
closely on the musicians who carried forward Orlando’s legacy and struck out
in new directions. After Fossa’s death in 1603, the position of chapelmaster
fell to Lasso’s elder son Ferdinand (c. 1560–1609), who did not particularly
distinguish himself as a composer during his six-year tenure.169 Nevertheless,
in 1609 Maximilian agreed to send Ferdinand’s two sons to Italy for musi-
cal instruction. The post of Kapellmeister was to be reserved for the younger
son, also named Ferdinand, and remained vacant until his return from Rome
in September 1614.170 During his absence, two Italians were engaged to
166
On Fossa see Christian Thomas Leitmeir, “Vom Adlatus Lassos zum bayerischen
Hofkapellmeister. Die Verdienste Johannes de Fossas um die Münchner Hofmusik,” in
Göllner and Schmid, Die Münchner Hofkapelle, 47–101. On the discontinuation of the
musicians’ täglicher Dienst see Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des
Bayerischen Kapellaltisten Johannes Hellgemayr,” 158. It is unclear, though, whether
this was just a temporary measure.
167
For details see table 2.2.
168
Horst Leuchtmann, in “Die maximilianische Hofkapelle,” in Glaser, Um Glauben
und Reich, 370–71, cautions, however, that a comparison of musicians’ compensation
before and after Lasso’s death is made difficult by frequent currency devaluations; as a
total percentage of court expenditures, furthermore, musicians’ salaries account for a
quite small percentage of the total during the later years of Maximilian’s reign.
169
Orlando di Lasso and his wife Regina Wäckinger are known to have had at least seven
children, of whom six are known by name: Ferdinand and Rudolph (who would distin-
guish themselves as court musicians), Anna, Regina, Ernst, and Wilhelm. Relatively
few biographical details are known of Lasso’s offspring apart from Ferdinand and
Rudolph; see Leuchtmann, Orlando di Lasso, 1:113–16.
170
In 1609, 125 Gulden was paid to “Ferdinandts de Laßo, Cappellmaisters zwaÿen
Sohnen, so Er geen Rom verschickht, vnd ir dtl: einen beim studieren verlegen, aus
gl: zur zerung [ . . . ]” BayHStA, HZR 58, 306v. On the younger Ferdinand’s Italian
sojourn and compositions, see Extended Reference 2.62.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 88 10/28/2013 10:35:57 PM

lead the chapel as vice chapelmasters (Vizekapellmeister): from 1609 to 1612,
the Veronese priest Giacomo Perlazio (d. 1612), whose connections with
the Munich chapel went back at least to 1592; and from 1612, the Genoese
musician Bernardino Borlasca (c. 1580–after 1638).171 Upon his return from
Rome, Ferdinand II di Lasso assumed the leadership of the chapel, holding
this post until his abrupt dismissal in 1629; Borlasca, meanwhile, would
serve as Konzertmeister until 1625, obliged to provide instrumental and secular
music in the chamber and at table. Ferdinand II produced only one collection
of published music—the Apparatus musicus of 1622—and it may have been
this lack of productivity that led Maximilian to begin searching for a replace-
ment as early as 1627, when he dispatched court singer Pietro Antonio Pietra
to Italy to seek a new candidate for the position. As a composer the younger
Ferdinand was far outclassed by his uncle Rudolph di Lasso (c. 1563–1625),
who had served as court organist since 1589 and was appointed court composer
in 1609.172 As we shall see, Rudolph was quite active in writing new music
for commerical publications, much of it in the modern fashion of the Italianate
sacred concerto for few voices and organ bass. Rudolph never trained in Italy
despite his enthusiasm for this genre, but his successor as organist, the former
choirboy Anton Holzner (c. 1598–1635), was sent to Italy for instruction in
organ and composition after his voice broke in 1614.173 Beginning his stud-
ies in Parma, Holzner went to Rome in 1618 with the duke’s permission, and
finally returned to Munich in spring 1619 to occupy the post of co-organist,
subsequently publishing a range of music for both liturgy and devotion.174 The
171
On Borlasca’s biography, see Extended Reference 2.63.
172
On Rudolph di Lasso’s appointment and earlier published compositions, see Extended
Reference 2.64.
173
As of October 1, 1614, Holzner was granted a salary of 200 Gulden annually, in return
for which “he shall continue to be used in the [court] music, and additionally practice
and perfect himself in composition and organ-playing, and not go into service with
any other lord”: see BayHStA, HZR 63, 593r–597r; see also the decree of September
23, 1614 in BayHStA, HR I, Fasz. 468, Nr. 580. He appears to have departed for Italy
the following year, when forty-five Gulden were paid to “Anthoni Holtzner, Music[us]
zu Zehrung, alß Er in Italia v[er]raist”. BayHStA, HZR 64, 441r.
174
Several documents from May and June 1619 in BayHstA, HR I, Fasz. 468, Nr. 580
(nos. 9, 26, 27, 28, 29) detail the settlement of Holzner’s travel expenses on his return.
Sadly, we do not know the identity of Holzner’s teachers in Italy, although a possible
candidate in Parma would have been Vincenzo Bonizzi, a student of Claudio Merulo
and composer-organist at the Farnese court. After Borlasca’s departure in October
1624, Holzner took over the duties of Konzertmeister, and in 1625 he became the prin-
cipal organist upon the death of Rudolph di Lasso. Holzner died of pestilence in 1635.
On his biography, see esp. Siegfried Gmeinwieser, “Anton Holzner, Organist und
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 89 10/28/2013 10:35:58 PM

trio of Holzner, Rudolph di Lasso, and Borlasca were the leading creative fig-
ures at the Munich court in the years leading up to the Thirty Years War.
With Ferdinand II di Lasso’s dismissal in 1629, a new period in the life of the
court chapel began, one for which evidence of musical creativity is maddeningly
inconsistent. The new chapelmaster was Giovanni Battista Crivelli (d. 1652),
formerly maestro at the Accademia dello Spirito Santo in Ferrara and the author
of collections of concertato motets and concertato madrigals.175 Sadly, nothing
is known of his compositions during his brief tenure as Kapellmeister (1629–
1635), and otherwise we know little about new court compositions in these
troubled years when the religious wars finally made their way to Bavaria. The
final chapelmaster to serve under Maximilian I was Giovanni Giacomo Porro (c.
1590–1656), who had recently served as substitute and assistant organist at St.
Peter in Rome (Frescobaldi being his senior) and was in Vienna at the time of
his appointment at Munich. As we shall see, Porro appears to have been quite
prodigious, especially in the field of liturgical music, but practically nothing
of his œuvre survives today. The court organists that followed Holzner, Georg
Piscator (Fischer?) (1636–1643) and Georg Lupperger (1643–at least 1656) are
not known to have been especially active as composers, although Piscator did
publish a collection of sacred concertos that is no longer extant.176
These men held the principal musical posts under Maximilian, but their
rather spotty musical production and the sources themselves raise serious
questions about the state of liturgical music in the chapel of the Immaculate
Conception. Did the earlier work of Orlando di Lasso and his contemporaries
continue to sound in this space for decades to come? Or did the modern,
Italianate concerto for few voices displace the older repertory? One extant
archival document from the court chapel does indeed suggest a prominent
Komponist am Hofe des Kurfürsten Maximilian in München,” Kirchenmusikalisches

Jahrbuch 53 (1969): 133–44.
175
Il primo libro delli motetti concertati a due, tre, quattro, e cinque voci (Venice: Alessandro
Vincenti, 1626; RISM C4421), with further editions in 1628 (C4422) and 1635
(C4423); Il primo libro delli madrigali concertati a due, tre, e quattro voci (Venice: Alessandro
Vincenti, 1626; RISM 4424), with a further edition in 1633 (C4424).
176
Piscator had served as organist for Archduke Leopold V of Austria-Tyrol before joining
the Munich court chapel as organist in 1636. Only a single cantus partbook without
front matter survives from his “Concer: Georgij Piscatoris. à 1. 2. 3. & 4.” (BSB, 4
Mus. pr. 561; this abbreviated title appears on some pages of the partbook). The col-
lection contains twenty-two settings of largely devotional and Marian texts for one to
four voices.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 90 10/28/2013 10:35:58 PM

role for the sacred concerto in the chapel liturgy.177 This draft of “Articles
concerning the princely court music, on how [matters] shall be organized
in various [aspects] between the chapelmaster and the master of chamber
music and concerti” seems designed to clarify the roles of the Kapellmeister
and Konzertmeister so that they might work together more harmoniously, and
any unpleasantries might be avoided. We need not review the entire docu-
ment here, but it is important to point out that both men were expected to
compose “concerti” and that these works were meant to be deployed both in
the chamber and in the chapel. We read, for example, that “the chapelmaster
shall direct the choir, and, according to his judgment, direct those concertos
that he has composed, or that are already available, in the church.” However,
if the Konzertmeister has composed a “grand work that is sacred and belongs in
the church,” he shall be able to direct it himself with the approval of the court
Hofmeister—the Kapellmeister would enjoy the same privilege with respect to
chamber music at court. More interesting is the following provision:
First, with respect to music for church or chapel, both of them [the
Kapellmeister and Konzertmeister] shall alternate their concertos when
there is a feast or feast day when each time Vespers on the preceding
evening shall be observed, so that the one directs and gives the beat for
those that he composed, and then the other [shall do so] the next time.
And it shall be understood that when an entire Mass or Vespers has been
composed entirely of concertos, that man, to whom the week or, better,
the feast [has been entrusted] as specified above, shall direct them.178
The meaning of this hastily drafted instruction is not completely clear, but it
seems to suggest that the Kapellmeister and Konzertmeister were both expected
to compose concertos for use in the court chapel liturgy, and that this music
could be heard both at Mass and at Vespers on feast days. “Entire” services,
moreover, could be composed in this style. Since the term Konzertmeister is
not often encountered before Borlasca’s assumption of that post in 1614,
and since the document omits the electoral title conferred on Maximilian in
1623, it seems likely that these rules were drawn up to clarify the relation-
ship between Borlasca and Ferdinand II di Lasso, who had displaced his col-
league as chapelmaster upon his return from Italy in the fall of 1614.
177
BayHStA, HR I, Fasz. 458/15, no. 2, “Articl, wie es d[er] F[ürstlichen] Hof Music
halben, zwischen dem Capell Maister vnd dem Maestro di Musica di Camera vnd
Concerti sollen in ainem vnd and[er]n gehalten werde[n].” For transcription see
178
BayHStA, HR I, Fasz. 458/15, no. 2, 4r.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 91 10/28/2013 10:35:58 PM

This evidence for the performance of sacred concertos in the liturgy is con-
sistent with the musical production of composers like Borlasca, Rudolph di
Lasso, and Ferdinand II di Lasso, all of whom were enthusiastically embrac-
ing modern Italianate forms that departed significantly from Orlando’s leg-
acy. At the same time, the personnel of the chapel came to be dominated
by either native Italians or musicians trained in Italy, which could not have
failed to have musical consequences for liturgical as well as other varieties of
music performed at court.179 Ferdinand II di Lasso and Holzner both trained
in Italy, and indeed, a much larger number of German musicians were sent
to Italy for musical instruction at various times; in the 1640s, moreover, the
elector frequently inquired after good German singers in the region who
were capable of singing in the stile moderno.180 And apart from the chapelmas-
ters Perlazio, Borlasca, Crivelli, and Porro, numerous Italian musicians were
recruited for the chapel under Maximilian, many of whom were either singers
(including several castrati) or specialists in the plucked string instruments
that commonly accompanied concerted music in this era.181 The relentless
Italianization of the Munich court chapel speaks to the strong possibility
that church music, along with music for chamber and table, likely took on a
modern and fashionable cast during Maximilian’s reign.
We can glean some impression of this from the extant printed collec-
tions of music by composers in Maximilian’s chapel. These are naturally of
limited help to us, for they have rather tenuous connections to liturgical
practice, even if their authors sometimes set liturgical texts such as anti-
phons or hymns. In fact, we reserve our discussion of the sacred concerto for
the next chapter principally for the reason that the printed collections tend
to show clear signs of devotional, rather than liturgical, intent, as seen in
their paratexts, textual selection, and organization. Texts from the liturgy
also figure in court composers’ printed collections for larger forces, but here
179
On the long history of musical and cultural exchange between Italy and the Bavarian
court, see esp. Noel O’Regan, “Orlando di Lasso and Rome,” in Bergquist, Orlando di
Lasso Studies, 132–57, and Klaus Pietschmann in “Römische Spuren im Repertoire
der Münchner Hofkapelle zur Zeit des Trienter Konzils,” in Göllner and Schmid, Die
Münchner Hofkapelle, 105–17. See Extended Reference 2.66 for further discussion.
180
181
The Italians recruited before the war years included the lutenist and theorbist
Michelangelo Galilei (1607), the son of the renowned theorist Vincenzo Galilei and
brother of the great astronomer. On Galilei and other Italian musicians see Extended
Reference 2.68. On the purchase of plucked string instruments, including theorbos,
harps, and lutes, see Extended Reference 2.69.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 92 10/28/2013 10:35:58 PM

we must be cautious as well. The new court chapel had modest dimensions,
as we have seen, but prints such as Rudolph di Lasso’s Circus Symphoniacus
(1607), Bernardino Borlasca’s Scala Iacob (1616), or Ferdinand II di Lasso’s
Apparatus musicus (1622) have a strongly representational cast that flattered
the religious sensibilities of their dedicatees rather than offering a coherent
arrangement of music for practical use in the liturgy.182 From archival refer-
ences we do know that court instrumentalist Fileno Cornazzano composed
polychoral music on a number of occasions, although the works themselves
are lost and their performance venue remains unclear.183
In Maximilian’s era, the Office of Vespers, with the Magnificat at its cen-
ter, likely remained a prominent site for elaborate polyphony on Sundays
and feast days with their vigils. Orlando di Lasso’s unparalleled production
of Magnificats could certainly have served when needed, but new settings
appeared regularly during Maximilian’s reign as well, some of which reflected
new stylistic currents.184 Both Ferdinand di Lasso (in 1602) and Giacomo
Perlazio (in 1612) would be compensated for dedicating Magnificat settings
in manuscript to Maximilian, and a total of nine Magnificats are distributed
through the aforementioned published collections Circus Symphoniacus, Scala
Iacob, and Apparatus musicus.185 More striking, however, is the printing of two
large-scale Magnificat collections by the court musicians Bernardino Borlasca
182
Cited here are Rudolph di Lasso, Circus Symphoniacus (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich,
1607; RISM L1038), dedicated to Maximilian I; Bernardino Borlasca, Scala Iacob
(Venice: Giacomo Vincenti, 1616; RISM B3757), dedicated to Wolfgang Wilhelm
of Pfalz-Neuburg; and Ferdinand II di Lasso, Apparatus musicus (Munich: Nikolaus
Heinrich, 1622; RISM L754), dedicated to Maximilian I. See Extended Reference 2.70
for further details on all three prints.
183
These included a Mass and Offertory for three choirs for the dedication of the new
court chapel, a work for four choirs and trumpets for the feast of the Dedication at the
Jesuit church in the previous year, and a large-scale work for the arrival of Charles III,
Duke of Lorraine, in September 1603, which required the coordination of instrumen-
talists, swordsmen, and musketeers. BayHStA, HR I, Fasz. 464, no. 313. For details
and references see Extended Reference 2.71.
184
Orlando’s Magnificats continued to enjoy great prestige locally: five of them would
be published by his son Ferdinand in the Cantiones sacrae Magnificat vocant V. et
VI. vocum (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1602; RISM 16021), and one hundred (!) by
his son Rudolph in the Iubilus B. Virginis, hoc est centum Magnificat ab Orlando de Lasso
(Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1619; RISM L1031), a print that may be seen as a pen-
dant to the great posthumous collection of Orlando’s motets, the Magnum opus musicum
of 1604.
185
On payments to Ferdinand di Lasso and Perlazio for Magnificats, see Extended
Reference 2.72.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 93 10/28/2013 10:35:59 PM

and Anton Holzner. Especially remarkable about Borlasca’s Magnificat collec-
tion for eight, nine, and sixteen voices, the Cantica divae Mariae Virginis (1615),
is his printer’s prescription to vary the timbre of the music by mixing vocal
and instrumental forces in distinctive ways.186 For the first choir, Vincentino
suggests a soprano, castrato, or falsettist, accompanied by a body of various
instruments, including viole da braccia, gambas, harps, lyres, “and other similar
instruments as are common today, and especially at the court of Bavaria, where
his Serene Highness has examples of every kind of instrument of this sort, as
well as [musicians] of exquisite excellence.” The second choir could be arranged
in a similar fashion but with different types of instruments, ensuring a great
variety in color. The Magnificats include occasional sinfonias for instruments
alone, but the partbooks also include indications above the staff for voices to
sing alone (the letter V) and for voices and instruments to perform together (the
letter T). The excerpt of Borlasca’s Magnificat in the first tone for eight voices
shown in Example 2.3 illustrates not only the alternation and mixture of vocal
and instrumental colors, but also the impressive virtuosity of the solo vocal writ-
ing with its debt to gorgia ornamentation. Truly, these works departed in radical
ways from the powerful model of Orlando.
Much more traditional was the Canticum Virginis seu Magnificat by Anton
Holzner, who provides seven settings for five and six voices, dedicating the
whole to the Benedictines of Salzburg in 1625.187 These are likely the same
works Holzner dedicated to Maximilian in manuscript the previous year, writing
that “it has been now some years since anything has been written for full choir
[pleno choro] for Your Serene Electoral Chapel.”188 A sign, then, of the predominance
186
Cantica divae Mariae Virginis octonis vocibus, & varijs instrumentis concinenda [ . . . ] opus
quintum (Venice: Giacomo Vincentino, 1615; RISM B3756). Borlasca dedicates the
print to his patron Maximilian, whom Borlasca thanks for counting him, an “out-
sider,” among his vassals. This timbral differentiation is also displayed in Borlasca’s
Scala Iacob (1616); see Extended Reference 2.70.
187
Canticum Virginis seu Magnificat et antiphonae de eadem Virgine, quinis, senisque vocibus et
cum et sine basso ad organum canenda (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1625; RISM H6395).
Three of these Magnificats imitate madrigals by Marenzio and Andrea Gabrieli.
Despite the presence of a continuo part, the collection, which was printed in folio
size—thus inviting choral performance in the traditional manner—has a somewhat
retrospective feel and forms a pendant to his Missae quinis, senis et octonis vocibus, cum
basso ad organum (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1622; RISM H6394), a collection of
Mass Ordinary settings for five, six, and eight voices that he had published a few years
previously.
188
“Es seint nunmehr etliche Jar, dz nichts für E: Churfrl drl Cappellen, pleno Choro zus-
ingen, gemacht worden.” Supplication by Holzner to the electoral court, September
28, 1624, BayHStA, HR I, Fasz. 468, Nr. 580, Hofkammer.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 94 10/28/2013 10:35:59 PM

E x a m p l e 2 . 3 Bernardino Borlasca, Magnificat primi toni from Cantica divae
Mariae Virginis (1615), mm. 27–44
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 95 10/28/2013 10:35:59 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 96 10/28/2013 10:36:00 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 97 10/28/2013 10:36:00 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 98 10/28/2013 10:36:01 PM

of the modern sacred concerto for few voices in recent years, as well as an entreaty
for the performance of these more traditional works in the chapel. Together with
the existing repertory by Orlando di Lasso, then, we are faced with a large and
ever-increasing number of Magnificat settings in traditional and newer styles that
were potentially available for use in the chapel and testify to the continuing rel-
evance of the Canticle in an atmosphere of intense Marian veneration.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 99 10/28/2013 10:36:01 PM

Court composers continued to set new litanies as well, although their pre-
cise liturgical placement is unclear. It is certain that litanies were performed
there in times of public supplication, as was the case in 1620 before the deci-
sive Battle of White Mountain that ended the Bohemian phase of the Thirty
Years’ War. Johannes Hellgemayr wrote in his diary that “in August and
from that time forward we have been singing the Litany of All Saints daily in
His Highness’ chapel”; he adds in another entry that “in this time prayers are
held daily, and God invoked due to this dangerous time.”189 Quite possibly,
such litanies were accompanied by the organ: a surviving score-book from the
ducal chapel bearing the date 1618 opens with a simple homophonic litany in
four parts.190 New, large-scale litany settings for double choir and organ bass
appeared at the conclusion of both Rudolph di Lasso’s Virginalia Eucharistica
(1615) and Ferdinand II di Lasso’s Apparatus musicus (1622), while Giovanni
Giacomo Porro would compose a great many litanies in manuscript, all of
which have been lost.
Some indirect testimony, however, on the prominence of litanies in the
Bavarian court chapel comes not from a musical source but from an archi-
tectural detail. Jeffrey Chipps Smith has drawn our attention to the artistic
program of the church of Unsere Liebe Frau in Neuburg an der Donau, begun
as a Lutheran church in 1607 but completed as a Jesuit church in 1618 follow-
ing the conversion of Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg.191 We find in this
church an elaborate stucco cycle completed by Antonio, Michele, and Pietro
Castelli between 1616 and 1618 and designed by Anton Welser, superior and
rector of the Jesuit college: covering the walls and the vaults are stucco emblems
of the Virgin Mary drawn from the titles of the Litany of Loreto. Less well known
is the fact that a similar program of Marian titles graced the vault of the new
Bavarian court chapel in Munich, which displayed a rich program of emblems
189
“Im Aug[ust] vnd dise Zeith heer haben mir ihn ihr Dht: Cappelln Däglich die
Letanay von Allen heiligen gesungen” [ . . . ] “in diser Zeith hat Man alle Däg gebet,
vnd Gott ahn gerueffen wegen diser gefäh[r]ligen Zeith.” Diary entries of Johannes
Hellgemayr, 1620, qtd. in Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des
Bayerischen Kapellaltisten Johannes Hellgemayr,” 174.
190
BSB, Mus. ms. 262. The composer of this rudimentary litany so far remains uniden-
tified; it is not concordant with any of Lasso’s litanies, nor with the four-voice lita-
nies of the Thesaurus litaniarum. The score-book is otherwise a curious miscellany of
sacred and secualr works. For description see Marie Louise Göllner, ed., Katalog der
Musikhandschriften. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. 2. Tabulaturen und Stimmbücher bis zur
Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts, KbM 5/2, 6–7.
191
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, “The Art of Salvation in Bavaria,” 582–88.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 100 10/28/2013 10:36:01 PM

and accompanying inscriptions drawn mainly from several Marian litanies.192
Smith argues that the emblems in the Neuburg church allowed worshippers to
follow the stucco program visually while reciting the litany—the art serving as a
form of “visual prompt, a mnemonic aid.”193 Although the Munich court chapel
emblems do not present the titles of specific Marian litanies in their prescribed
order, their appearance implies a similar emphasis on the praying or singing of
the litany in devotional or liturgical services, the visual dimension reinforcing
the aural. More broadly, the thickly encrusted decorations would have confirmed
the chapel as a space for Marian veneration above all.
For further evidence of the music sounding in Maximilian’s chapel, we
should look to the time of chapelmaster Giovanni Giacomo Porro, who upon
his appointment in 1635 immediately set about composing new music for
the chapel. Not only do we have numerous pay records showing purchases of
lined paper for his use, but we also have an extensive inventory of music from
his estate, catalogued after his death in 1656. Tragically, little, if any, of this
music has survived; nor did he ever endeavor to bring his music into print.194
The inventory, whose contents are transcribed in this book’s companion web-
site as table 2.3, is divided into compositions by Porro himself and those by
other composers, in both manuscript and in print. The inventory lists no
fewer than 640 sacred works by Porro, mainly, it would seem, for liturgi-
cal use: we find Masses, canzonas (likely for organ), Offertories, Sequences,
Psalms, Magnificats, Marian antiphons, and litanies. The inventory gives no
192
Around two dozen emblems are consistent with various Marian titles in the Litany
of Loreto and in the Marian litany ex sacra scriptura. A thorough examination of
this stucco decoration can be found in Erwin Schalkhaußer, “Die Münchner Schule
in der Stuckdecoration des 17. Jahrhunderts. Die Stukkaturen der Michaelskirche
und des maximilianischen Residenzbaues in München und ihre Auswirkungen auf
die Entwicklung der Stuckdekoration in Altbayern, Schwaben und Tirol im 17.
Jahrhundert,” Oberbayerisches Archiv für vaterländische Geschichte 81/82 (1957): esp. 28–
32. Based on archival evidence Schalkhaußer identifies Hans Krumper as the likely
designer of the stucco program, which was executed by a number of artists, first in
1600, and then again in 1614, when Michele Castelli was among those paid for his
work. Jeffrey Chipps Smith, in Sensuous Worship, 148, notes that the Munich court
chapel served as a model for Neuburg.
193
Smith, “The Art of Salvation in Bavaria,” 582–84.
194
Entries showing payments for lined paper appear, for example, in BayHStA, HZR
87 (1637), 392r; 88 (1638), 506v; many entries in later years as well. The inven-
tory is in BayHStA, HR I, Fasz. 463, Nr. 202, entitled “Designatio Compositionum
à D[omin]ō Capellæ Magistro Joanne Jacobo Porro ~ hic relictarum.” Leuchtmann
discusses some of the broader contours of this inventory in “Die Maximilianeische
Hofkapelle,” in Glaser, Um Glauben und Reich, 368.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 101 10/28/2013 10:36:01 PM

indication whatsoever of scoring, leaving us unable to characterize the style
of this impressive production, which was presumably destined for the court
liturgy. The list continues with sacred music in manuscript by other compos-
ers, who are unnamed apart from the former imperial chapelmaster Giovanni
Valentini and Georg Piscator.195 The plurality of these works is formed by “62
various motets by different authors for few voices,” showing that small-scale
sacred concerti were certainly available to Porro, but we find here a diverse
range of compositions for both smaller and larger ensembles, including
Masses, motets, hymns, Miserere settings, Marian antiphons, Magnificats, and
Responsories. Especially striking is a separate category given over to “works
with trumpets” (opera cum tubis), which include Masses, motets, Te Deum set-
tings, Marian antiphons, and Magnificats.196 All of this music, in manuscript
alone, amounts to 848 sacred compositions that are now entirely lost to us.
The inventory continues with a considerable number of secular compositions
for performance at the electoral table, and then concludes with a lengthy
inventory of printed music that is dominated by madrigal collections. But
here, too, we find some liturgical music that may have found use in chapel
worship: Offertories and Masses by Palestrina, Masses by the Austrian com-
poser Georg Poss, concertato Masses and Psalms by the Innsbruck archducal
Kapellmeister Johann Stadlmayr, concertato Masses by Alessandro Grandi, and
eight-voice Psalms by a certain “Chizzolo” (likely the Venetian composer
Giovanni Croce).197 We cannot know precisely how this music was deployed
in the liturgy, but its presence testifies to a repertory of impressive scope,
combining sounds both traditional and modern.
195
“33. Missæ, Cantiones, miserere, motecta, Magnificat, partim de D[omi]no Valentino,
partim de Piscatore.” From the “Designatio Compositionum à D[omin]ō Capellæ
Magistro Joanne Jacobo Porro ~ hic relictarum,” BayHStA, HR I, Fasz. 463, Nr. 202,
1v. The list also gives three Miserere settings by Piscator as well as a Marian litany with
trumpets by Valentini (1v–2r).
196
Wackernagel, in Musikinstrumentenverzeichnis der Bayerischen Hofkapelle von 1655, 139–
40, suggests that the emphasis on music with trumpets may reflect the influence of the
imperial court at Vienna, where Giovanni Valentini in particular cultivated polychoral
works involving trumpets together with singers and other instrumentalists.
197
The latter entry reads, “Salmi del Chizzolo. lib: 9. à otto uoci.” According to Robert
Eitner in his Biographisch-Bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten
(Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1900), 2:429, a certain “Giovanni Chizzotti” iden-
tifed by François Fétis was likely to be Giovanni Croce, the surname stemming from
Chioggia, the city of his birth. Croce did publish a set of eight-voice Psalms in 1596,
the Salmi che si cantano a terza, con l’inno Te Deum, e i salmi Benedictus e Miserere (Venice,
1596; RISM C4448), which may be the item referenced in Porro’s inventory.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 102 10/28/2013 10:36:01 PM

It is evident, moreover, that Maximilian’s court chapel enjoyed an impres-
sive array of musical instruments that could have been deployed for both
secular and sacred use. Bettina Wackernagel has recently brought to light an
inventory of the chapel’s instrument collection, copied in 1655 by Leonhard
Kremponer, the just-appointed administrator of the Instrumentstube or instru-
ment room.198 The inventory is a faithful representation of the range of
instruments available at the end of Maximilian’s reign, a collection that was
assembled over the course of nearly one hundred years. We need not describe
the entire inventory of 289 instruments here, but we do find a few useful details
concerning the keyboard instruments. I have already mentioned the two posi-
tive organs that were stationed in one of the galleries at the rear of the chapel.
We learn also that by this time an ebony-wood regal was used frequently in
the court chapel, as well as two plucked keyboard instruments: a large and
possibly double-manual harpsichord that was “particularly used during Holy
Week in the court chapel,” and a smaller spinet.199 Singly or in combination,
these instruments would have been well suited for the accompaniment of solo
voices or small vocal ensembles in concerted settings. Wackernagel, further-
more, cites a piece of archival evidence that suggests that Maximilian prized
a softer and sweeter tone from his keyboard instruments, one that would have
suited smaller-scale music well. In 1629, the organ builder Hans Lechner
complained to the city council that a commission to build a new organ for the
church of Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich was delayed due to some dissatisfac-
tion with the organ he had previously built for the parish of St. Peter. Lechner
insisted that “the fault lay not with the organ builder, but with the organist,
who could draw the sweeter [lieblichen] registers pleasing to the princely folk,
rather than the powerful ones [rauschenten] that please the the citizenry and
the common man the best.” Lechner continues that he was currently making a
198
“Inventarium über die Curftl. Instrumentstuben, so beschriben worden Anno 1655,”
in the Museum Section of the Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten
und Seen, Munich. See Wackernagel, Musikinstrumentenverzeichnis der Bayerischen
Hofkapelle von 1655. Wackernagel states that Kremponer was responsible also for draw-
ing up the inventory of music in Porro’s estate mentioned previously (pp. 125–26).
199
Ibid., 39–40, 67–68, 80, 83. The harpsichord, whose designation as “alla quarta”
indicates a larger instrument at a pitch lower by a fourth than other instruments of the
same kind, was also used “for the litany” in the small church of Unsere Liebe Frau in
der Gruft (also called the Gruftkirche or Neustiftkirche) that was built on the site of a
former synagogue in 1442. See BayHStA, HZR 78 (1628), 586r, and commentary in
Wackernagel, Musikinstrumentenverzeichnis der Bayerischen Hofkapelle von 1655, 80.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 103 10/28/2013 10:36:01 PM

new positive organ for the elector’s court chapel “which only has sweeter pipes
and registers, and need not have a single powerful one.”200
The sumptuous court chapels of the Bavarian dukes and electors were espe-
cially private examples of broader trends in liturgical sound that took on new
hues in the age of Tridentine reform in Bavaria. Music increasingly embellished
both the Mass as a the site of the Eucharistic sacrifice and the Offices of Vespers
and Compline, with their prominent Marian elements in the Magnificat and
the Marian antiphons. Composers in the Bavarian milieu also lavished atten-
tion on the litany, a genre that reflected Catholic ideas of sanctoral intercession
and was frequently appended to liturgical celebrations. Many of the laity now
attended church in spaces that had been configured or reconfigured to allow
them to observe the ceremonies without hindrance, and they sang a carefully
limited repertory of vernacular song. In the larger churches, their experience
was increasingly augmented by an enveloping, sumptuous music for both
voices and instruments that underscored the role of the liturgy as a salvific
vehicle. In the next chapter we turn to the wider variety of “devotional” sound-
scapes in Counter-Reformation Bavaria, from private dwellings to corporate
gatherings, in which sound and music played a critical role in expressing spiri-
tual identity and drawing boundaries of faith and belief.
200
From AEM, Archiv des Stifts Unser Lieben Frau, Orgel-Akte, qtd. in Wackernagel,
Musikinstrumentenverzeichnis der Bayerischen Hofkapelle von 1655, 59–60. This instru-
ment is possibly identical to the instrument of seven registers located in the court
chapel that was listed in the 1655 inventory.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 104 10/28/2013 10:36:01 PM

Chapter Three Sound and the Spaces of Devotion
T he experience of space is inflected in profound ways by the nature of

the actions and rituals that take place within it. As we have seen, the cel-
ebration of the Mass and Offices had transformative effects on space. The sac-
rifice of the Eucharist and the mediating role of the clergy, central doctrinal
ideas that were reinforced by the Council of Trent, were a powerful experien-
tial focus for the laity, one that elevated the physical spaces of churches and
chapels into vehicles for salvation. Devotional spaces quite naturally included
private quarters within homes and the residential complexes of monasteries
and convents, but the public, consecrated spaces of parish churches could take
on this character as well when the divine liturgy was not being celebrated: it
seems appropriate here, then, to consider the regular gatherings of confra-
ternities in churches, as well as several types of paraliturgical activities that
took place within church walls: privately organized funeral services, Salve
services, seasonal rituals for Christmas and Lent, and special supplications
and celebrations called in times of collective tribulation or triumph. Rituals
like processions routinely blurred the boundaries between the enclosed space
of the church and the public space of the street and square. When they did
so, they appropriated public space in forceful ways, and while they were often
visually striking, the sounds associated with them—singing, instrumental
music, bell ringing, gunfire—signficantly expanded the radius of this appro-
priation. Time and again we find that devotional space was hardly fixed but
was produced in a variety of circumstances by human actions and cues of both
sight and sound.
The available sources for “devotional music”—by which I mean reli-
gious music not intended for the liturgy proper—are largely printed books
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 105 10/28/2013 10:36:02 PM

of various sorts. While we often view these materials today as mute objects
for analysis, Bruce Smith argues that in the early modern era, graphic marks
like texts and musical notation were less abstract symbols than they were
cues or indices for actual sound.1 Put differently, as we think about actual
soundscapes documented by archival or literary evidence, we need also to
recognize the potential soundscapes embedded in and compelled by those
printed sources. The contents of commercial publications were intended to
flow easily between different spaces: the Latin sacred concerto, for example,
could find a home in churches, chapels, and wealthier households in which
a smaller organ or plucked string instrument was available. Monophonic
devotional song, too, could travel quite easily from the home to the street,
from workshops to taverns. Regardless of the venue in which this devotional
music was heard, it represented the potential for what Barry Truax has called
“acoustic communication”—the aural conveyance of ideas that were by turns
spiritual, edifying, and propagandistic.2 By insistently embracing confes-
sional symbols like the Virgin Mary or the Eucharist, this music helped to
define the spaces of Counter-Reformation Catholicism and shape the confes-
sional identities of its audience.
Devotional Polyphony for Cultivated Spaces

In Counter-Reformation Bavaria, a remarkable amount of sophisticated
religious polyphony was composed that was not primarily intended for
liturgical use. The term “motet,” denoting a polyphonic, Latin-texted
work on a religious or serious topic, embraces a very large amount of such
repertoire, which includes hundreds of compositions by Orlando di Lasso;
we also find a very great number of sacred concertos for small groups of
singers and instrumental accompaniment, as well as genres that appeared
more sporadically, such as the spiritual madrigal in Italian or vernacular
settings of the Psalter. Determining where this polyphony was performed
is no easy task, for musical practice tends to be far less well documented
in devotional circumstances than in institutional, liturgical contexts. Most
devotional polyphony, furthermore, appears in commercial publications
1
On this point see Bruce Smith, “Listening to the Wild Blue Yonder: The Challenges
of Acoustic Ecology,” in Veit Erlmann, ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening
and Modernity (London: Berg, 2004), 32–33.
2
See Barry Truax, Acoustic Communication, 2nd ed. (Westport, CT: Ablex
Publishing, 2001).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 106 10/28/2013 10:36:02 PM

that composers and printers hoped would find the broadest possible audi-
ence, both inside and outside Bavaria. Rather than limiting these works to
a single type of space, then, we should assess their inherent potential for
shaping the aural experience of a variety of spaces in which they might have
been performed. We must give due attention to their compositional pro-
cedures, texts, and paratexts, all of which suggest plausible environments
for their cultivation.
The technical demands and Latinity of this music limited the range of
spaces in which it was commonly heard. To make its proper effect, devotional
polyphony by leading composers required skilled singers and instrumentalists
and, above all, listeners who were literate in Latin. In Counter-Reformation
Bavaria the primary spaces we must reckon with, then, are princely cha-
pels and chambers, monasteries, devotional spaces occupied by confraterni-
ties and congregations, and wealthier private households. Indeed, it was in
this higher socioeconomic stratum that the increasingly Italianate charac-
ter of devotional music could fall on receptive ears attuned to international
musical fashions. As we move into the seventeenth century, furthermore, we
find that much of the devotional polyphony produced in the Bavarian orbit
increasingly embraced the Catholic, confessionalist imagery promoted by the
Wittelsbach house and the Jesuits—Marian devotion above all, but also the
cults of the Eucharist and the saints. As the elites pursuing confessionalist
aims were largely concentrated in the groups I have mentioned, this music
was less a vehicle of persuasion than an expression and confirmation of the
spiritual sensibilities of its audiences.
Undoubtedly, the largest body of Bavarian religious music not specifi-
cally designated for the liturgy is found in the over 500 motets by Orlando
di Lasso, works typically scored for between four and six voice parts and
famed for their sensitive interpretation of the Latin, mostly sacred texts.
Originally published in commercial prints issued mostly from Munich,
Nuremberg, Venice, and Paris, they were multifarious in their function
and reached an international and, indeed, cross-confessional audience.
They could be performed as supplements to the liturgy, their texts gloss-
ing the Epistles, Gospels, or the general theme of a given feast day.3 Some
of Lasso’s motets, furthermore, have been shown to have been conceived
3
As argued recently by David Crook in “Bible Reading, Lectionaries, and the
Function of the Sixteenth-Century Motet,” paper presented at “Devotion, Discipline,
Reform: Sources for the Study of Religion, 1450–1650,” Newberry Library, Chicago,
IL, September 16, 2011.
s o u n d a n d t h e s p a c e s o f d e v o t i o n | 107
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 107 10/28/2013 10:36:02 PM

as choruses for the dramatic productions of the Jesuits, thus taking a role
in the shaping of public confessional space.4 Otherwise, this music could
fluidly travel to the different spaces where skilled singers were to be found.
Lasso’s dedications in his collections published in Munich by Adam Berg
give us a sense of the audiences that he hoped would consume and appreci-
ate his motets most readily: he dedicated several volumes to his immedi-
ate patrons in the Wittelsbach house; others to members of the wealthy
Fugger dynasty in nearby Augsburg; and still others to prelates, bishops,
and minor nobility in the Bavarian orbit. Although patronage does not
necessarily imply performance, Lasso’s dedicatees certainly would have had
the resources to realize Lasso’s motets in sound (Lasso frequently dedicated
collections of his liturgical music to persons of similar status). Flexibility
also characterizes the posthumous Magnum opus musicum of 1604, his sons’
edition of nearly the entire motet corpus of their late father.5 Practicality
was the primary concern: the motets are organized first by number of voice
parts, allowing the user to quickly locate motets suitable for the perform-
ers on hand. Within these groupings we find that the motets are divided
into several distinct categories based on texts: those honoring important
personages, liturgical texts, Psalms or Psalm verses, and religious and secu-
lar poetry: distinct collections of pieces, then, to be deployed in nearly any
context one saw fit.6
We have seen that Lasso worked quite hard to fulfill the liturgical dic-
tates of the newly introduced Roman Rite in the court chapel after 1580.
Two late efforts, though, addressed more strictly devotional needs. A rel-
atively little-known collection is the Teutsche Psalmen: Geistliche Psalmen
4
See Franz Körndle, “ ‘Ad te perenne gaudium.’ Lassos Musik zum ‘Vltimum
Judicium,’ ” Die Musikforschung 53 (2000): 68–71.
5
Magnum opus musicum [. . .] complectens omnes cantiones quas motetas vulgo vocant, tam antea
editas quam hactenus nondum publicatas II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. IIX. IX. X. XII. vocum, a
Ferdinando [. . .] et Rudolpho [. . .] authoris filijs [. . .] impensis eorundem typis mandatum
(Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1604; RISM L1019).
6
On the ordering of the Magnum opus musicum, see esp. Horst Leuchtmann, “Zum
Ordnungsprinzip in Lassos Magnum Opus Musicum,” Musik in Bayern 40 (1990): 46–
72. Ordering by modal representation, which was common in Lasso’s printed editions
during his lifetime, was not the governing principle here, but Peter Bergquist has
demonstrated evidence of modal ordering within subsets of the Psalms and Psalm
verses; see his “Modal Ordering within Orlando di Lasso’s Publications,” in Orlando di
Lasso Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 220–2.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 108 10/28/2013 10:36:02 PM

(1588), containing fifty settings of the Psalter in German translations by
Kaspar Ulenberg, a theologian and priest in the Cologne orbit and a con-
vert to Catholicism.7 Ulenberg hoped to counter the widespread Psalm para-
phrases of the Lutherans which, in his view, were inaccurate and theologically
unsound. Here Orlando and his younger son Rudolph alternated in their set-
tings of Ulenberg’s “orthodox” translations, each providing twenty-five com-
positions that deploy the melody (moving in sober semibreves and minims)
as a cantus firmus that can move among the three voices. While Orlando tends
toward succinctness, Rudolph often indulges in broader, more madrigalistic
writing. His setting of Psalm 32, Exsultate iusti in Domino, places a loosely
paraphrased melody from Ulenberg in the bottom voice, but its motives per-
vade the texture; the psalm’s reference to instrumental music leads to highly
melismatic flourishes (Example 3.1).8 The Teutsche Psalmen was a collection of
confessional significance that may have been well suited for the recreation of
the Marian Congregations, Catholic confraternities, or domestic gatherings
of musically literate amateurs.9 Despite the anodyne dedication praising the
abbot Gallus of Ottobeuern’s love of music, its existence was in fact a riposte
to the tenacious singing of “deceptive” and “falsely translated” Psalms like
Luther’s Aus tiefer Not in many Bavarian parishes of the mid- to late sixteenth
century.
Lasso’s final effort before his death in 1594 was intimately linked with
post-Tridentine devotional culture. In his Lagrime di San Pietro (1595), Lasso
provided a set of twenty spiritual madrigals setting Luigi Tansillo’s poetic
exploration of St. Peter’s remorse at his threefold denial of Christ. In a striking
gesture, Lasso dedicated the Lagrime to none other than Pope Clement VIII,
and spoke of the “personal devotion” that had inspired him to compose these
works in his advanced age. Printed in the unusually large and representative
7
Kaspar Ulenberg, Die Psalmen Dauids in allerlei Teutsche gesangreimen bracht (Cologne: G.
Calenius & J. Quentels Erben, 1582; RISM B/VIII, 158209). For discussion see
Johannes Overath, Untersuchungen über die Melodien des Liedpsalters von Kaspar Ulenberg
(Köln 1582). Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Kirchenliedes im 16. Jahrhundert, Beiträge
zur rheinischen Musikgeschichte 33 (Cologne: A. Volk, 1960); and Härting, “Das
deutsche Kirchenlied der Gegenreformation,” in Karl Gustav Fellerer, ed., Geschichte
der katholischen Kirchenmusik (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1976), 2:63.
8
This transcription is adapted from that of Walther Lipphardt, ed., Orlandus und
Rudolphus Lassus. Geistliche Psalmen mit dreyen stimmen (Kassel, Basel: Bärenreiter,
1928), 40.
9
On the use of folksong and the Ulenberg Psalter in the Marian Congregations see
Dietz-Rudiger Moser, Verkündigung durch Volksgesang: Studien zur Liedpropaganda und
-katechese der Gegenreformation (Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1981), 80–4.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 109 10/28/2013 10:36:02 PM

E x a m p l e 3 . 1 Rudolph di Lasso, Ihr frommen, freuet euch im Herzen, from Teutsche
Psalmen (1588)
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 110 10/28/2013 10:36:02 PM

You righteous, rejoice in your hearts with highest honor. It is for the upright to
praise him without cease. Honor him with the harp, our dear Lord, praise him with
instruments pure, take up the ten-stringed psaltery.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 111 10/28/2013 10:36:02 PM

folio format, the partbooks include a woodcut portrait of Lasso on the title
page, helping to cement the idea of this collection as a personal expression of
penitence. Nevertheless, the narrative of Peter’s remorse, Lasso’s ordering of
the individual madrigals by ascending mode, and his inclusion of a capstone
Latin motet in which the crucified Christ rebukes sinners from the cross all
suggest parallels with the Spiritual Exercises of the Jesuits, whose activities
did so much to shape devotional culture in Munich and Bavaria.10 Perhaps
these spiritual madrigals sounded in the college of the Munich Jesuits and
in the chambers of their Wittelsbach patrons as well; regardless, it was likely
a rather exclusive audience that could follow the meaning of the primarily
Italian texts.
After Lasso’s death we find that the sacred music produced in the
Munich milieu takes on a rather different cast that narrowed the range of
spaces in which it might have sounded. This was an effect largely of the
texts chosen by composers. Instead of the earlier motet collections with
anodyne titles like Liber mottetarum or Cantiones sacrae, which contained
compositions on wide range of religious texts, we now find prints that
are highly specific to post-Tridentine devotional culture and were likely
limited to the Catholic geographic orbit. A key figure here is Rudolph di
Lasso, who embraced the Marian cult in his Virginalia Eucharistica (1615)
and Alphabetum Marianum (1621), and honored the Eucharist in his Ad
sacrum convivium (1617).11 While Rudolph and other contemporaries did
select texts drawn from the vast repertory of liturgical antiphons, hymns,
and responsories, the paratexts, thematic coherence, and organization of
their collections made them, above all, vehicles for spiritual edification
and recreation in the spirit of Catholic reform. It is likely no accident that
this confessionally tinged music, so expressive of the spiritual priorities of
the Wittelsbach house, emerged in a geographical region closely situated
to the religious frontier.
Also remarkable about this repertory is its sound, which contrasted mark-
edly with the music of the venerable Orlando. Together with the nearby
imperial city of Augsburg, Munich was one of the earliest entry points in
10
For an exploration of the parallels between the course of the Lagrime and Jesuitical
meditation, see my essay “ ‘Per mia particolare devotione’: Orlando di Lasso’s Lagrime
di San Pietro and Catholic Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Munich,” Journal of the
Royal Musical Association 132 (2007): 167–220.
11
See Extended Reference 3.1 for details on other local composers known to have adopted
this style.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 112 10/28/2013 10:36:03 PM

Germany for the sacred concerto, a form requiring a small number of solo
singers matched with the sensitive accompaniment of a chord-producing
instrument. That these cities became centers for the the sacred concerto’s
cultivation was due in part to their favorable geographical position along
major routes of trade and cultural exchange with Italy. A number of musi-
cians in these places also saw the genre as a powerful vehicle for communi-
cating the spiritual values of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, embracing
Marian, Eucharistic, and sanctoral texts that could find little quarter with
Protestant audiences.12 More insistently than before, the polyphony of the
leading Munich composers created not simply religious or devotional space
but, indeed, confessional space.
The new currents first come to flower in Rudolph di Lasso’s Virginalia
Eucharistica, a collection that can be considered representative of the broader
production of sacred concertos at Maximilian’s court.13 The Virginalia not
only demonstrates Lasso’s engagement with the possibilities of the new con-
certed style but also vividly expresses the Marian ideology of his employer,
Maximilian I. Scored for one to eight voices and organ bass, the collection
features forty-three settings of texts in honor of the Virgin and the newly
born Christ child. Although Lasso frequently sets texts having possible
liturgical assignments (we find eight settings of the Marian antiphons, for
example), he also conflates texts that are otherwise unrelated liturgically, and
includes others that are more strictly devotional in nature. Overall, his aim
is to provide music for the widest range of possible ensembles, ranging from
the six monodies for just a single voice that open the volume to the imposing
eight-voice compositions that conclude it, capped by a majestic setting of the
Litany of Loreto lasting for 147 breves.
12
On the sacred concertos of Gregor Aichinger in Augsburg, see my Music and
Religious Identity in Counter-Reformation Augsburg, 1580–1630 (Aldershot: Ashgate,
2004), 173–225. For editions of Aichinger’s concertos see the editions by William
E. Hettrick: Cantiones ecclesiasticae, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era
13 (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1972); and The Vocal Concertos, Recent Researches in
the Music of the Baroque Era 54–55 (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1986).
13
Virginalia Eucharistica, quae magnae Virgini, Virginisque filio vocibus singulis II. III. IV.
V. VI. VII. octonis, cum basi continua memor gratusque concinuit (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich,
1615; RISM L1040). I have edited this collection in Rudolph di Lasso: Virginalia
Eucharistica (1615), Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque 114 (Madison,
WI: A-R Editions, 2002). For further detail on the print’s dedication and contents, see
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 113 10/28/2013 10:36:03 PM

E x a m p l e 3 . 2 Rudolph di Lasso, Sancta et immaculata, from Virginalia
Eucharistica (1615)
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 114 10/28/2013 10:36:03 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 115 10/28/2013 10:36:03 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 116 10/28/2013 10:36:04 PM

Holy and unstained virginity, by which praises I should extol you, I know not: For
you brought him forth from your womb, whom the heavens could not contain. You
gave birth to him that made you, and forever you remain a virgin.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 117 10/28/2013 10:36:04 PM

A fine example at the more intimate end of the scale is Lasso’s opening
essay, Sancta et immaculata for solo cantus and organ bass (Example 3.2).
Immediately, we find the implication of devotional space, for Lasso draws
his text from the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, a medieval set of texts
for lay devotion constructed in imitation of the liturgical hours.14 For the
opening assertion of Mary’s “holy and unstained virginity,” Lasso provides
a sober and dignified melody reaching to the top of the voice’s range,
before continuing with quicker sequential passages for the following text.
Striking is his treatment of “nescio” (I know not): striving to understand
the praises appropriate for such a woman, the cantus repeats the word three
times, with a chromatic line rising to the highest point in its range, reach-
ing a very sharp harmonic area (E) that is quite removed from the work’s
central tonality of [flat]-G. The remainder of the setting is characteristic
of the genre in its use of textual and motivic repetition and sequences; the
final phrase, “and forever you remain a virgin,” is granted no less than five
statements, concluding with a remarkable melodic ascent of a ninth for the
final “Virgo.” Sancta et immaculata is not the most virtuosic of the concertos
that appear in the Virginalia, but it does effectively project the sense of its
ecstatic words.
Works for solo voice like this one are relative outliers in the genre;
much more common generally and within the Virginalia are pieces for
equal pairs of cantus or tenors. In O Maria clausus ortus (Example 3.3),
whose text is excerpted from a hymn found in the medieval Office of
the Conception of the Virgin, Lasso alternates between duple and triple
meter, the latter reserved for passages of imperative address to the Virgin
(“placate him who made you [. . .] be present now for your supplicants”).
Fundamentally, the piece is conceived imitatively between the two voices,
which indulge in long chains of melismatic fusae that increase in density
toward the end of the work. The overall tone of supplication is enhanced
not by a granular approach to text painting—few of Lasso’s concertos are
madrigalistic in this sense—but rather by a more intimate dialogue and
interweaving between the two voices.
That the Virginalia is above all a work for Catholic devotional space is
confirmed by its paratexts, which strongly confirm the Marian ideology so
highly prized at Maximilian’s court. Lasso writes a fervent dedication not to an
14
This text joins the Matins responsory Sancta et immaculata with the text “Genuisti qui
te fecit, et in aeternum permanes Virgo,” which is found at several points as a response
later in the same office.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 118 10/28/2013 10:36:04 PM

E x a m p l e 3 . 3 Rudolph di Lasso, O Maria clausus ortus, from Virginalia
Eucharistica (1615)
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 119 10/28/2013 10:36:04 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 120 10/28/2013 10:36:05 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 121 10/28/2013 10:36:05 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 122 10/28/2013 10:36:06 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 123 10/28/2013 10:36:06 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 124 10/28/2013 10:36:06 PM

O Mary, enclosed garden, harbour of the shipwrecked world, placate him who
made you, mother whom he chose for himself, be present now for your supplicants,
favouring them with your prayers, proffer your kind hand, and direct our life.
earthly patron, but to the Virgin of the Holy House of Loreto, to whom he had
vowed a pilgrimage upon his recovery from a grave illness.15 Furthermore, the
Virginalia’s title page is graced by an emblem depicting the Virgin with the Christ
child, surrounded by text from chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation: “And on
her head a crown of twelve stars” (Et in capite eius corona stellarum duodecim). This
is none other than the Virgin of the Apocalypse, the crowned Queen of Heaven,
clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet, that was the favored depiction
of Mary in Counter-Reformation Bavaria. The Virginalia would become an aural
counterpoint to Hans Krumper’s sculpture of the Apocalyptic Virgin with the
Christ child, bearing the inscription “Patrona Boioriæ” (Patroness of Bavaria) at
her feet. Erected in 1616 on the façade of the ducal residence, which lacked any
15
See Extended Reference 3.2.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 125 10/28/2013 10:36:06 PM

other specifically religious symbol, the sculpture made plain the spiritual priori-
ties of the Wittelsbach house (see Figure 3.1).
Lasso soon followed his Virginalia with the Ad sacrum convivium and the
Alphabetum Marianum.16 Since these bear some relationship to Munich’s con-
fraternities and congregations, I reserve discussion of them for later, but it is
worth mentioning here that Lasso’s contemporaries in the Bavarian chapel, the
vice-chapelmaster and Konzertmeister Bernardino Borlasca and the organist Anton
Holzner, also brought out printed collections of sacred concertos that exhibit
the compositional approaches and religious fervor seen previously in Lasso’s
Virginalia. As Lasso did in his Virginalia, Borlasca dedicated his Ardori spiritu-
ali, “Spiritual Ardors” (1617), to the Queen of Heaven rather than to an earthly
patron. Holzner, in dedicating his Viretum pierium, “Pierian Meadow” (1621), to
Maximilian’s consort Elisabeth, explicitly praises his employer’s military prowess
against the forces of heresy. Both collections, furthermore, strongly emphasize
the Marian imagery so prized by the court at this time as a confessional symbol.17
As commercial prints these collections were naturally intended for broad
consumption, but they also invite us to speculate about their performance at the
Bavarian court. We saw in chapter 2 that the chapelmaster and the concertmas-
ter were expected to compose “concertos” for the chapel liturgy; it is plausible
that these highly flexible works, requiring no more than a few skilled singers
and an accompanying instrumentalist, found their way into devotional spaces
at court as well, among them the private oratorios of the princely family. It is
unknown whether the duchess Elisabeth enjoyed a private oratorio of her own,
but her consort Maximilian had a particularly splendid example in the so-called
Reiche Kapelle (1607) immediately adjoining the court chapel of the Immaculate
Conception. The presence of a small, richly decorated organ on the east wall
is deceptive, for this so-called Prunkorgel—originally from a private chapel of
Wilhelm V in the Neuveste—appears not to have functioned as a playable instru-
ment; rather, it may have enclosed a mechanism that sounded music when a
16
Georg Victorinus, the former music director of the Jesuit church of St. Michael,
edited and published one additional posthumous collection by Rudolph in 1626, the
Cygnaeum melos, which unfortunately has been lost. Extended Reference 3.3.
17
Borlasca, Ardori spirituali a due, tre, e quattro voci [. . .] libro primo, opera settima
(Munich: Anna Berg, 1617; RISM B3758); and Holzner, Viretum pierium cuius flosculi et
moduli una, II. III. & V. vocibus Dei Optimi Maximi & Caelicorum laudes spirant & sonant; in
Neomusorum [sic] huius temporis gratiam, & usum inter sacra, consitum, fecundâ & ubere venâ
irriguum (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1621; RISM H6393), which I have edited as
Anton Holzner, Viretum pierium (1621), Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque
Era 156 (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 2009). For further discussion of both prints, see
Extended References 3.4 and 3.5, as well as Musical Examples 3.1 and 3.2.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 126 10/28/2013 10:36:07 PM

F i g u r e 3 . 1 Hans Krumper, Patrona Boioriae (1616), Munich Residence
key or lever was depressed.18 More relevant is the fact that the Reiche Kapelle
appears also to have housed a small positive organ that was periodically main-
tained, an instrument that could easily have been put to use, together with a
very small number of singers, to perform sacred concertos of the kind cultivated
by Maximilian’s court composers.19 Indeed, this very intimate space, at most ten
meters square, could hardly have accommodated larger ensembles.
18
For further discussion of this Prunkorgel, see Extended Reference 3.6.
19
See Bettina Wackernagel, Musikinstrumentenverzeichnis der Bayerischen Hofkapelle von
1655. Faksimile, Transkription und Kommentar (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2003), 61.
Repairs to the organ were made in 1636, when Johann Kurz was paid 10 Gulden, 30
Kreuzer for maintenance on the “Positiff in der schönen Capellen”. See BayHStA, HR
I, Fasz. 465, no. 336, January 30, 1636.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 127 10/28/2013 10:36:07 PM

The connection of the sacred concerto to Wittelsbach devotion is further
strengthened if we consider the first of two anthologies of sacred concertos
brought out by Georg Victorinus. Issued during his tenure as music director
of the Jesuit church of St. Michael, the Siren coelestis of 1616 is a remarkable
collection of one hundred sacred concertos, mainly of Italian origin, that rep-
resents one of the earliest efforts to disseminate this repertory north of the
Alps.20 Quite likely the transalpine network of Jesuit colleges provided a
conduit for this music to flow into Victorinus’s hands, but the support and
advocacy of the retired head of state Wilhelm V may have played a role here
as well.21 Victorinus dedicated the collection to the elderly duke and identi-
fied himself not only as music director at St. Michael, but also at St. Nicholas
(musicae ad D. Michaelis & S. Nicolai praefectus): the chapel of St. Nicholas had
been constructed by Wilhelm in 1607, and it was one part of the so-called
Wilhelminische Veste, a palace directly adjoining the Jesuit church that he had
built for himself and his consort Renate following his abdication.22 While
sacred concertos would have been well suited as recreational music for the
halls of the adjacent Jesuit college, where Victorinus found his principal
employment, it is tempting to suppose that Wilhelm and his retinue may
also have heard these works in the St. Nicholas chapel, which was equipped
with a small positive organ of four registers that might well have suited this
brand of music.23
20
Siren coelestis duarum, trium et quatuor vocum, quam novavit e principibus, etiam nec dum
Vulgatis auctoribus legit, pro temporum dierumque, festorum diversitate concinnavit, organis
item accomodavit, et in lucem dedit Georgius Victorinus musicae ad D. Michaelis & S. Nicolai
praefectus (Munich: Adam Berg, 1616; RISM B/I, 16162). A second edition, with
minor changes, would be issued in 1622. I have examined the Siren coelestis along
with Victorinus’ other anthologies in “Celestial Sirens and Nightingales: Change
and Assimilation in the Munich Anthologies of Georg Victorinus,” Journal of
Seventeenth-Century Music 14, no. 1 (2008), http://www.sscm-jscm.org.
21
On the musical significance of the German College in Rome and its influence on devel-
opments in the north, see esp. Thomas D. Culley, S.J., Jesuits and Music: I. A Study of
the Musicians connected with the German College in Rome during the 17th Century and of
their Activities in Northern Europe, Sources and Studies for the History of the Jesuits 2
(Rome: Jesuit Historical Institute, 1970).
22
See Helga Marie Andres, Rekonstruktion der Herzog-Maxburg in München, Schriften aus
dem Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität München 18 (Munich: tuduv-Verlag,
1987), and Extended Reference 3.7.
23
See Wackernagel, Musikinstrumentenverzeichnis der Bayerischen Hofkapelle von 1655,
38–39, 64–65. There is considerable evidence for recreational music among the stu-
dents of the Jesuit college, though carefully controlled and delimited. See David
Crook, “A Sixteenth-Century Catalog of Prohibited Music,” Journal of the American
Musicological Society 62 (2009): 1–78, and Extended Reference 3.8.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 128 10/28/2013 10:36:08 PM

The paratexts of the Siren coelestis suggest that Victorinus expected
Wilhelm to welcome the novelty of these concertos. The title itself speaks
of something new and unencountered, even ravishing; moreover, Victorinus
asserts in his dedication to Wilhelm that the “rude and storied age” of
ancient music has now been surpassed by the moderns, among which one
may hear “so many Arions, Orpheuses, and Sirens.”24 The organization of
the music itself within the volume, first by ascending numbers of voices, and
then alphabetically by title, suggests an array of new and fashionable music
to be mined for a variety of uses. Certainly, no liturgical scheme can be dis-
cerned in the miscellany of one hundred liturgical texts (mainly individual
antiphons and responsories), scriptural passages, and devotional texts set in
this volume, distributed among forty-eight different composers.25
A similar profile may be seen in Victorinus’s second anthology of
sacred concertos, the Philomela coelestis of 1624, dedicated to abbot Michael
Kirchberger of the Aldersbach Cistercians.26 If Victorinus had intended the
Siren coelestis to showcase a fundamentally new and foreign repertory in the
north, he now hoped to demonstrate the abilities of northern composers in
the same genre, who account for all the volume’s music. Victorinus intended
to provide not only previously unpublished works, but also works “never
before heard”; the Philomela, then, emerges as a treasury for new, local music
unavailable in any other place.27 As we saw in the previous chapter, a degree
of liturgical intent is implied by the presence of complexes of falsobordone
formulas for psalmody, Magnificats, and Marian antiphons; as in the Siren
coelestis, however, the selection of texts is otherwise rather loose and lends
the volume the flexibility to travel into a variety of musical spaces, both of
liturgy and devotion.
The intense interest in the composition and collection of sacred concertos
in early seventeenth-century Munich suggests that musicians saw the idiom
24
For original text, see Extended Reference 3.9.
25
For a survey of the volume’s contents see my essay “Celestial Sirens and Nightingales.”
An inventory appears here as well as in table 3.1.
26
Philomela coelestis. Sive suavissime, lectissimaque cantiones sacrae cum falsabordonis, magnifi-
cat, canzonis, et basso ad organum, duarum, trium, et quatuor vocum antè hac nec auditae, nec
divulgatae. Quas ex praecipuorum saeculi nostri musicorum recentissimis symbolis concinnavit,
bonoque publico edidit Georgius Victorinus (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1624; RISM B/I,
16241). For discussion see my essay “Celestial Sirens and Nightingales”; an inventory
appears here as well as in table 3.2.
27
Nearly half of the volume’s concertos are written by local composers, in fact, led by
Victorinus himself (15 works), followed by Rudolph di Lasso (5), Giacomo Perlazio (5),
Christoph Perckhover (5), Ferdinand II di Lasso (4), and Giovanni Martino Cesare (3).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 129 10/28/2013 10:36:09 PM

as a fashionable and flexible vehicle of expression, one that could be deployed
inside and outside strictly liturgical contexts. These environments were
varied, but this music’s Latinity and its requirement for a chord-producing
instrument, such as a small organ, theorbo, or harp, certainly limited these
works to more cultivated spaces, including princely chambers, smaller
churches and chapels, monasteries, places of confraternal meetings, and the
private homes of wealthier individuals. Given that most of the relevant com-
posers were directly or indirectly associated with the Bavarian court chapel, it
stands to reason than the residence of Maximilian I may initially have been a
primary performance site for their work. The textual emphases of this music,
moreover, meant that its performance shaped space in ways that were expres-
sive of a distinctly confessionalist Catholic identity.
Monastic Devotion
We saw in the previous chapter that the wealthier, established orders like
the Benedictines and Augustinians were most likely to cultivate elaborate
polyphony in their liturgies. It was here, too, that recreational music for
devotion likely found a welcoming audience. We know that Rudolph di Lasso
delivered exemplars of his prints to monasteries on several occasions, includ-
ing those of Petershausen, Salem, and Ochsenhausen; certainly he hoped for
honoraria from these institutions, but he likely felt them to be suitable per-
formance venues as well.28 Likewise, Georg Victorinus may have felt that the
concertos of his Philomela coelestis could find entry into the recreational spaces
of the Aldersbach Cistercians, an order that by this time tended to avoid poly-
phonic music in their liturgy.29 As we move later into the seventeenth cen-
tury, we find a growing number of composers connected to monasteries in the
southern German orbit, whether monks or laymen, who devoted themselves
to the affective resources of the sacred concerto. The Benedictine monaster-
ies seem to have been especially active in this regard, with published music
28
In 1608, 1611, and 1619 the Benedictines of Petershausen received music from
Lasso: his Circus Symphoniacus (1607) and two collections of his late father’s music that
he edited, the Missae posthumae (1610) and the Magnificats of the Iubilus B. Virginis
(1619). Exemplars of his Virginalia Eucharistica, furthermore, went to the Cistercians
of Salem and to the Benedictines of Ochsenhausen in 1615. See Axel Beer, Die Annahme
des ‘stile nuovo’ in der katholischen Kirchenmusik Süddeutschlands, Frankfurter Beiträge zur
Musikwissenschaft 22 (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1989), 89–94.
29
On the Cistercians’ move to limit polyphonic liturgical music, which was seen as con-
trary to the simplicity of St. Benedict’s Rule, see ibid., 143–44.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 130 10/28/2013 10:36:09 PM

appearing from the likes of Michael Kraf at Weingarten, Johann Brandstetter
at Zwiefalten, and Rufinus Sigelius at Seeon.30
We have other concrete evidence that religious men and women valued a
related vernacular genre, the spiritual thoroughbass lied, as devotional music.
Thoroughbass lieder (sometimes called “continuo lieder,” or Generalbasslieder)
emerge in Bavarian sources beginning in the mid-1630s: the most com-
mon of these the are strophic settings of newly composed German religious
poems for a single voice, with a rudimentary, untexted bass part that often
included simple figures, suggesting accompaniment by a chord-producing
instrument, such as a lute or harpsichord. The melodies are invariably sim-
pler than those in the sacred concerto repertory and fall into binary, repeated
forms. Thoroughbass lieder were often written by known composers: the
most famous collection of such songs was the Trutznachtigall (1649), with
poetry by the Rhenish Jesuit priest Friedrich von Spee and melodies likely
by Jakob Gippenbusch.31 Bavaria, however, was the principal area of cultiva-
tion, with the leading role taken by the Munich chaplain Johannes Khuen
(1606–1675), who served Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg (1593–1661), a
grandson of Duke Albrecht V and the occupant of several German bishop-
rics over the course of his career, including Osnabrück, Verden and Minden,
and Regensburg.32 Over a period of some forty years Khuen brought out at
least sixteen distinct songbooks, not including reprints. His strophic poetry
is separated from the notated melodies, which appear either on a separate
engraved page or typeset in an appendix, with rubrics indicating the cor-
responding page numbers of the appropriate poems (see Figure 3.2); typi-
cally a single tune will serve for two different poems. The simple and direct
30
31
Friedrich Spee, Trutz Nachtigal, Oder Geistlichs-Poetisch Lust-Waldlein, Deßgleichen noch
nie zuvor in Teutscher sprach gesehen (Cologne: Wilhelm Friessem, 1649; RISM B/VIII,
164909). This Cologne product, however, was influenced greatly by the example of
Conrad Vetter’s Paradeißvogel, a Jesuit songbook published at Ingolstadt in 1613
which will be subject of further discussion below. See Karl-Jürgen Miesen, Friedrich
Spee: Pater, Dichter, Hexen-Anwalt (Düsseldorf: Droste, 1987), 245.
32
An extensive study of Khuen’s life and work may be found in Bernd Genz, “Johannes
Kuen. Eine Untersuchung zur süddeutschen geistlichen Lieddichtung im 17.
Jahrhundert” (PhD diss., University of Cologne, 1957). For more literature and
commentary see Extended Reference 3.11. A biographical study of Franz Wilhelm
von Wartenberg may be found in Bernhard A. Goldschmidt, Lebensgeschichte des
Kardinal-Priesters Franz Wilhelm, Grafen von Wartenberg, Fürstbischofs von Osnabrück und
Regensburg, Minden und Verden (Osnabrück, 1866). There is no evidence that Khuen
accompanied Wartenberg on his travels to his various dioceses.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 131 10/28/2013 10:36:09 PM

F i g u r e 3 . 2 Melodies from Johannes Khuen, Florilegium Marianum (1638).
BSB, Res. p.o. germ. 314#Beibd. 2. Reproduced with permission.
melodies could easily have been committed to memory and then sung to
repeated stanzas of the poetry.33 Khuen gives no indication of the appropriate
instrument to perform the bass line (which is lightly figured, if at all), and we
can imagine these songs being sung accompanied by a keyboard instrument
or a string instrument, or even omitting the bass part entirely since the
latter is rarely, if ever, given independent material.
Some impressive testimony to the vitality of the thoroughbass lied in
monastic contexts comes from the Benedictine abbey of Seeon, poised on a
33
Another curious feature of Khuen’s songbooks after 1639 is their relentless organiza-
tion into sets of twelve songs; for commentary see Extended Reference 3.12.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 132 10/28/2013 10:36:10 PM

small lake in eastern Bavaria. Between 1646 and 1652, the prior Johannes
Werlin wrote a series of folio volumes bearing the title Rhitmorum varietas,
containing a vast compendium of nearly three thousand German Catholic
songs from both sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources. A large num-
ber of these songs were drawn from contemporary prints of thoroughbass
lieder, including those of Khuen.34 Crucially, Werlin added simple instrumental
bass parts to all the monophonic songs in his compendium, transforming the
older layer of Catholic songs into thoroughbass lieder suited to monastic and
other contexts where instruments were available. Apart from the Seeon reper-
tory, we find over forty vernacular religious songs, including some thoroughbass
lieder by Khuen, preserved in a manuscript copied by 1656 by father Marianus
Lehner from the Augustinian monastery in Munich.35 The manuscript omits
musical notation entirely, suggesting that Lehner and his colleagues knew the
songs by heart.
Khuen’s songs also have some intriguing connections to Munich’s three
convents of Franciscan tertiary nuns. In the previous chapter we saw that the
Pütrich and Ridler houses in particular were fully enclosed in the 1620s by male
Reformed Franciscans under the leadership of Antonio Galbiato, who imposed
upon them the Roman Breviary in Latin. Claustration led to far-reaching
changes in nuns’ devotional practices as well, as their formerly public, carita-
tive activities were now supplanted by systematic prayer for souls in purgatory
and, when possible, by the acquisition of holy relics that could be venerated in
their convent churches.36 No longer able to participate in public processions or
pilgrimages, the nuns of the Ridler house, in fact, embarked on internal “pil-
grimages,” ascending a copy of Rome’s Holy Stairs that had been built inside
their convent.37 In these and other ways, religious women, who were ever more
likely to come from wealthier backgrounds and may have been more open to
ascetic and intense forms of spirituality, adapted to the new realities of enclosure.
34
The Rhitmorum varietas appears in BSB, Cgm 3636–3642. For notes on its structure
and sources, see Dorothea Hofmann, Die “Rhitmorum Varietas” des Johannes Werlin
aus Kloster Seeon, Collectanea musicologica 7 (Augsburg: Bernd Wißner, 1994) and
35
BSB, Cgm 1001. For commentary see Extended Reference 3.14.
36
The foundational study of Munich’s convents in this period, and of the station of
women more generally in Counter-Reformation Bavaria, is Ulrike Strasser’s State
of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern Catholic State (Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004). For further comment on the notion of
virginity and its relationship to the welfare of the state, see Extended Reference 3.15.
37
See Strasser, State of Virginity, 135.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 133 10/28/2013 10:36:11 PM

Numerous studies of enclosed convents—in Italy, especially—have demon-
strated how music making, often conducted at a high artistic level, became a
vital creative outlet for claustrated women and a means of asserting an agency
that was circumscribed in so many other ways.38
Direct evidence that recreational music was used in Bavarian convents is
scarce, reflecting the poor preservation of convent records after these houses
were secularized.39 A set of statutes governing the Franciscan Third Orders,
republished at Munich in 1622—thus during the process of enclosure—
suggests that in the evenings recreational music could be a useful means of
avoiding idle chat:
But so as not to burden pure consciences, after the evening meal or
on feast days after eating the sisters, since they must still work for
several hours and stave off sleepiness, are permitted to speak in the
following manner, but the Mothers shall diligently protect against
any idle chatting. To prevent this, they should first have a religious
book read [aloud], and then begin a religious dialogue, taking some-
thing useful from the reading and asking questions of each other. And
third, to dispel any worry the sisters can sing a fine spiritual song or a
litany, or something else to raise the spirit to God, with modesty and
without screeching. And this can also be done at other times to avoid
any useless chatter. When, however, the above ordinance is violated
by a [sister], the Mother shall be obligated to punish her according to
her fault. But a Mother may also relax the rule of silence with good
reason.40
Music here emerges as a form of discipline above all, a means of preserving
the sacral nature of convent space. The statutes also require the nuns to sing
the Salve Regina after a sister has been corporally punished for an infraction.
After the flogging—which is said to last as long as a recitation of the Psalms
Miserere or De profundis—the sisters pray together, then sing the antiphon
38
The cultivation of convent music, particularly in Italy, has been a lively object of
recent scholarship; for literature and commentary see Extended Reference 3.16.
39
I have discussed some possible exceptions in my essay “Themes of Exile and (Re-)
Enclosure in Music for the Franciscan Convents of Counter-Reformation Munich
During the Thirty Years’ War,” in Lynne Tatlock, ed., Enduring Loss in Early Modern
Germany: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 287–94. See Extended
Reference 3.17.
40
From Regel vnd Leben Der büssern, oder deß dritten Ordens, deß Seraphischen Vatters
S. Francisci (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1622), 76–77. See Extended Reference 3.18
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 134 10/28/2013 10:36:12 PM

Salve Regina, mater misericordiae, collectively entreating the Virgin Mary for
her mercy and intercession.41 The singing of Psalms, together with other
prayers and observances, came to be seen as a form of spiritual discipline that
helped rescue afflicted souls from purgatory: the mystic Clara Hortulana of
the Poor Clares (d. 1689) would assign to each of her fellow nuns a rigorous
program of Communion, Mass attendance, prayer, fasting, and silence, as
well as singing the entire Psalter fifteen times.42
The fine balance between devotion, edification, and discipline in nuns’
religious song is reflected in several collections of Khuen’s thoroughbass lie-
der published in the late 1630s.43 All four sisters of Khuen’s patron, Franz
Wilhelm von Wartenberg, took the veil, including Maria Maximiliana, a
zealous reformer whom the Reformed Franciscans installed as mother supe-
rior in 1626 and, as we saw in the previous chapter, taught the Latin Breviary
to her charges after full claustration had been achieved. It is not unlikely
that Khuen knew these women personally; that he dedicated his songbooks
to several other religious women suggests that he enjoyed close connections
with the Munich convents as well.
Five of Khuen’s songbooks, printed between 1636 and 1640, can be
connected directly or indirectly with Munich’s communities of female reli-
gious: the Epithalamium Marianum, first published in 1636 with a dedica-
tion to Electress Maria Anna; the Convivium Marianum (1637), dedicated to
Maria Anna’s court mistress Renate of Törring auf Seefeld; the Florilegium
Marianum (1638), dedicated to mother superior Anna Maria Gerold of the
Pütrich convent; Die Geistlich Turteltaub (1639), dedicated to abbess Susanna
Blanck of the Poor Clares; and the Cor contritum et humiliatum (1640), ded-
icated to mother superior Anna Regina Schrenk of the Ridler convent.44
With the exception of the Cor contritum, a collection of songs about peni-
tent biblical males, this repertory focuses almost exclusively on holy women
drawn from scripture and the ranks of the saints as models for emulation.
Chief among them, naturally, was the Virgin Mary, and it is the fact of her
sacred virginity and the ideology of spiritual marriage to Christ that emerge
time and time again as prominent themes. A further tendency is seen in
41
Ibid., 68–73.
42
Wilhelm Liebhart, “ ‘Die Seelen haben einen großen Trost verloren. . . .’
Die ‘gottselige’ Klara Hortulana Empacher im Münchner Angerkloster,” Amperland
31 (1995): 38.
43
For a more detailed study of this repertory and its connection with Munich’s Franciscan
nuns, see my essay “Themes of Exile and (Re-)Enclosure in Music for the Franciscan
Convents of Counter-Reformation Munich During the Thirty Years’ War,” 281–305.
44
For contents, see table 3.3.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 135 10/28/2013 10:36:12 PM

Khuen’s portrayal of these holy women as taking their appropriate places
in the heavenly Frauenzimmer, a term that denoted the rooms at court in
which the princess and her entourage held sway.45 It is not unlikely that
this image of social hierarchy was designed to appeal to the sensibilities
of the women who joined these communities after claustration was imple-
mented: as Ulrike Strasser has shown, claustration gradually changed the
nature of these communities; whereas they had once reflected a diversity
of social backgrounds, they now became socially exclusive and hierarchi-
cal, with increasing distinctions not only among the nuns but also between
the fully professed nuns and the so-called lay sisters who performed menial
and routine tasks.46 The wealthier women now making professions brought
with them musical instruments: the women of the Ridler convent, as we saw
in the previous chapter, introduced wind and string instruments into the
liturgy, some of which would have been suitable to accompany devotional
lieder as well.
Khuen’s songs expressed characteristic forms of ascetic spiritual devo-
tion, but they also served as an elaborate, musical apologia for claustra-
tion, celebrating the virtues of virginity and symbolically sundering the
cloistered space from the corrupt world outside. A representative example
is the Florilegium Marianum, or “Marian Flower Garden” of 1638, bearing
the subtitle “the Burning Thornbush, with Twelve Sacred Songs Made in
Print for the Good of All, and Particularly for the Comfort of Persons in
Religious Orders.”47 As is typical of Khuen’s production, the Florilegium
contains twelve song texts of between ten and nineteen stanzas each; the
individual stanzas consist of anywhere from six to twelve poetic lines—
usually of between six and eight syllables—and fall into relatively simple
end-rhyme schemes such as abab cdcd. The seven notated melodies (see
Figure 3.2) are provided on a separate engraved page, and consist of a high
voice in either the C1 or G2 clef and a bass part in the F4 clef, moving
45
On the term “Frauenzimmer” and its development see Werner Paravicini, “Das
Frauenzimmer. Die Frau bei Hofe in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit,” in Jan
Hirschbiegel and Werner Paravicini, eds., Das Frauenzimmer: die Frau bei Hofe in
Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit (Stuttgart: Jan Thorbecke, 2000), 13–25, and Michail
A. Bojcov, “ ‘Das Frauenzimmer’ oder ‘die Frau bei Hofe,’ ” in ibid., 327–37.
46
Strasser, State of Virginity, esp. 119–20.
47
Khuen, Florilegium Marianum, Der brinnendt Dornbusch. Mit zwölff Geistlichen
Gesänglein, meniglich zu gutem, sonderlich den Ordenspersonen zu trost in Truck verfertigt
(Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1638; RISM B/VIII, 163803). Exemplar in BSB, Res/P.o.
germ. 314#Beibd. 2.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 136 10/28/2013 10:36:12 PM

together in identical rhythms. The sharing of tunes by multiple poems
obviates any attempt at text painting through musical gestures. Indeed,
the melodies, moving mostly conjunctly in semiminims (in duple meter)
or in minims and semibreves (in triple meter), have a fresh simplicity and
entirely avoid chromaticism or ornamentation, while the bass part provides
mainly root-position harmonies, with occasional inversions signaled by fig-
ures. Needless to say, the book’s format and the separation of the melodies
from their assigned texts would have demanded that the tunes first be com-
mitted to memory.
The texts and paratexts of the Florilegium Marianum repeatedly return
to the theme of Mary’s sacred virginity, a model to be embraced by convent
women and the most profound sign of their physical removal from the public
sphere. Virginity is symbolized here as the burning thornbush from which
God speaks to Moses in the third chapter of Exodus: this burning, but uncon-
sumed, bush had long been considered a prefiguration of Mary’s virginity and
was a fixture in medieval theology, visual art, and music as well. But Khuen
writes to Anna Maria Gerold that the thornbush also anticipates Christ’s
crown of thorns, the very same crown that a nun willingly accepts on the day
of her profession.48 According to legend, Catherine of Siena, seeing Christ in
a vision, accepts a crown of thorns over a proffered crown of gold, the former
symbolizing both the trials of the enclosed life and its spiritual rewards.
Catherine is represented in one of the songs in the Florilegium, accompanied
by songs honoring the Virgin Mary; Anne, the widow and prophetess in
the Temple (Luke 2:36–37); Martha, the sister of Lazarus; Teresa of Avila;
Clare; Monica; Scholastica; Walburga; Elizabeth of Hungary; Bridget; and
Genovesa—women, then, who rejected worldly things and joined or founded
religious communities.
A typical example may be found in Fangt an zu singen, the fifth song in
honor of St. Clare, founder of the eponymous religious order. In this song
Khuen draws parallels between Moses leading his people across the Red Sea
and Clare’s role as a leader of holy virgins who escape the temptations and
dangers of temporal existence and arrive safely in the arms of Christ the
Bridegroom (Example 3.4).49 The melody, each half of which is repeated,
is the height of simplicity and unfolds in an easy alternation of breves and
semibreves in triple meter:
48
For more detailed discussion of Khuen’s dedication see Extended Reference 3.19.
49
A transcription of all ten stanzas may be found in Musical Example 3.3.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 137 10/28/2013 10:36:12 PM

E x a m p l e 3 . 4 Johannes Khuen, Fangt an zu singen, from Florilegium
Marianum (1638)
The text begins with a song of rejoicing that resembles the song of victory
sung by Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, as the Hebrews are delivered
from Pharaoh’s army (Exodus 15:20–21):
1. FAngt an zu singen/ Let us begin our song,
Die Trummel rühret/ Strike the drums,
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 138 10/28/2013 10:36:13 PM

Zertrent ist Pharaonis Heer/ As Pharaoh’s army is split
asunder.
Last Saiten klingen/ Let strings sound,
Vnd Jubilieret/ And rejoice,
Verschont hat vns das wilde Meer The wild sea has spared us
Hat nach gelassen/ And has calmed itself
So starck zu fliessen/ From its raging torrent,
Gestanden wie die Mauren fest. Standing like solid walls.
Durch gute Strassen/ On a good path,
Mit trucknen Füssen/ And with dry feet,
Gehn wir hindurch wir sein erlöst. We pass through and are saved.
Since Moses was the leader of men, St. Clare exclaims, “Come to me, you
virgins, and adorn my host.” These virgins are now instructed to accept the
Franciscan rule and take the veil:
3. Was Moyses geben/ What Moses gave

Für krafft vnd zaichen/ With power and signs
Dem Volck in schwerer dienstbarkeit. To his people in devoted
service,
Francisci Leben/ The life of [Saint] Francis
Thut auch deßgleichen/ Does the same [for us].
Jhr Seelen nur getröstet seyt/ You Souls, be comforted:
Jn wilden Wellen In wild waves
Vnd ohne Segel/ And without a sail
Fahrt man bald irr/ vnd geht zu grund/ One soon goes astray, and
sinks.
Jhr keusche Seelen/ You chaste Souls,
Nembt hin die Regel/ Accept the rule,
Selbst approbirt durch Gottes Mundt. Approved by God’s mouth
itself.
The rhetoric of enclosure and the embrace of Christ the Bridegroom per-
meates the remainder of the poem. Clare sings, “Very strong walls / Were
formed in the Red Sea, / We have been enclosed / As we have desired” (stanza
5); and again, “Abide with me / In the enclosed garden, / You noble roses”
(stanza 7). These are the roses “that remain fruitful, / Intact to their final end,
/ Which reject the pleasures of the world, / And turn themselves alone to
Jesus” (stanza 8). It is the metaphor of the walled garden in particular that
gives the song special relevance to the station of claustrated nuns, who find
their victory and refuge in this enclosed space. Khuen’s supertitle preceding
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 139 10/28/2013 10:36:13 PM

the song leaves little doubt as to its intention: “Verschloßne Paradeyßbluem.
HORTVS CONCLVSVS soror mea sponsa” (Enclosed flower of Paradise, a walled
garden is my Sister, my Bride), directly referencing a passage from the Song
of Songs (4:12).
Whether or not Khuen’s songs sounded in the enclosed spaces of Munich’s
convents is a difficult question to answer. The songbooks’ dedications to the
heads and members of these houses—not to mention the music’s frequent
reference to the cloistered life—make it reasonably certain that the physi-
cal books found entry into these spaces. However, the songs cannot be seen
as unalloyed devotional expressions. The repertory did not rise organically
from the houses themselves but was authored by a male priest, and one who
served Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg, a man with clear Catholic reformist
sympathies.50 One recalls that it was one of Franz Wilhelm’s sisters, Maria
Maximiliana von Wartenberg, who was installed in 1626 as mother supe-
rior of the Ridler house without the input or consent of its members. Apart
from imposing the Latin Breviary, she established a demanding regime of
early-morning spiritual exercises and confiscated all the nuns’ private prop-
erty. Rumors circulated, in fact, that opponents of enclosure within the con-
vents desired her assassination, and in 1634 she would be deposed by her
male Franciscan superiors.51 In the late 1630s, the older nuns of Munich’s
convents could still remember the trials of their sudden claustration in the
previous decade, and it is reasonable to suppose that Khuen’s songbooks,
whatever their appeal to the true devotional sensibilities of these women,
served to some extent as musical apologiae for the fact and necessity of full
enclosure.
Confraternities and Congregations

At the opposite pole from Munich’s enclosed convents we find a variety of
lay religious groups whose devotional activities were characterized more by
mobility than fixity. Confraternities and congregations (the latter referring
50
The reform and enclosure of female cloisters was in fact a particular concern of Franz
Wilhelm von Wartenberg while bishop of Regensburg; see Georg Schwaiger, Kardinal
Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg als Bischof von Regensburg (Munich: K. Zink, 1954),
176–77.
51
Strasser, State of Virginity, 129–30. Although the nuns’ resistance to her rigid ascetic
regime may have been a contributing factor, her critiques of the male clergy’s laxity
probably led to her dismissal by the male Reformed Franciscans.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 140 10/28/2013 10:36:13 PM

principally to the Jesuit-organized Marian Congregations, also known as
“sodalities”) held regular gatherings in the consecrated spaces of churches and
chapels, but they also spilled out of these spaces into the public sphere, con-
ducting urban processions and embarking on pilgrimages to regional shrines.
Although the devotional spaces they created were dynamic and mobile, we
will dwell here principally on confraternal gatherings that created temporary
devotional or paraliturgical spaces within churches, reserving their proces-
sions and pilgrimages for later discussion. Reconstructing the sounds of con-
fraternal devotions is no simple matter, but scattered evidence points to the
performance of vernacular songs, polyphony, and especially litanies, giving
the meetings a varied aural character that reflected the diverse membership
of these groups.
The Marian Congregations

Devotion to the Virgin in Bavaria was greatly intensified by the Marian
Congregations, originally founded by Jesuits in Rome in 1563 as means
of regulating the moral life of their students. Father Jakob Rem founded
the first Marian Congregation in Germany in 1574 in the university town
of Dillingen, and by the century’s end foundations had quickly followed
in Cologne, Ingolstadt, Munich, Augsburg, Altötting, Regensburg, and
Landsberg; many other Catholic German towns and cities would follow suit
in the early seventeenth century.52 By this time, the Marian Congregations
had developed into large devotional groups embracing students, laypersons,
nobility and even princes—in Munich Wilhelm V and his sons were mem-
bers, and Maximilian I would become prefect of all Marian Congregations in
Germany—and different sodalities were organized for older students, younger
students, tradesmen, and so forth.53 In contrast to traditional late-medieval
confraternities, these new sodalities were principally oriented toward living a
52
On the founding and spread of the Marian Congregations in Germany see Otto
Krammer, Bildungswesen und Gegenreformation: die Hohen Schulen der Jesuiten im
katholischen Teil Deutschlands vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert (Würzburg: Gesellschaft
für deutsche Studentengeschichte; Archivverein der Markomannia, 1988), esp. 168–
95; for further literature see Extended Reference 3.20.
53
Krammer, Bildungswesen und Gegenreformation, 172. On Maximilian’s involvement with
the Marian Congregations see also Karl Batz, “Die Marianischen Kongregationen in
Ingolstadt,” in Die Jesuiten in Ingolstadt, 1549–1773: Ausstellung des Stadtarchivs, der
Wissenschaftlichen Stadtbibliothek und des Stadtmuseums Ingolstadt (Ingolstadt: Stadtarchiv
Ingolstadt, 1991), 204–5. For further discussion see Extended Reference 3.21.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 141 10/28/2013 10:36:13 PM

holy life and furthering the aims of the post-Tridentine church through litur-
gical observance, spiritual discipline, and the conspicious expression of reli-
gious identity by means of processions, pilgrimages, and public devotions.
The music heard in the formal gatherings of the Marian Congregations
was likely diverse and varied from place to place, but their statutes provide
a general framework.54 Meetings were to begin with recitation or singing
of the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, symbolically consecrating the gathering
with the blessings of the Holy Spirit. Among other versicles, responses, and
prayers, the Congregation was to recite or sing one of the four Marian anti-
phons appropriate to the season, and the meeting was to conclude with a
Kyrie. Within this framework there was probably much variation, although
we can posit that sermons, exhortations, prayers, and songs were heard,
perhaps including settings of the “Catholic” Psalm translations by Kaspar
Ulenberg.55 The litany may have found its most congenial home in the
Marian Congregations, whose statutes invariably provided litany texts. One
index for their performance of polyphonic settings is a double-choir Marian
litany published in Munich in 1583 which, according to its subtitle, “is
habitually sung in the chapel of the Marian sodality in the ducal Gymnasium
of the Society of Jesus.” Falsely attributed here to Costanzo Festa, this litany,
sung in a relatively elaborate contrapuntal style suited to trained singers, is
in fact the work of Costanzo Porta, the music director at the Holy House of
Loreto between 1574 and 1580.56 But the greatest testament to the Marian
sodalities’ adoption of the litany is the largest collection of printed litanies in
the history of the genre, the Thesaurus litaniarum (1596) of Georg Victorinus,
who dedicated the volume to the various Marian Congregations of the Jesuits’
Upper German Province. In his dedication Victorinus, a member himself,
invoked the litany’s long history of use in supplication to the Virgin and to
the Saints, and stressed its usefulness for pilgrimage in particular (a phenom-
enon that we will pursue in chapter 6). The Munich congregation responded
with an encomium to Victorinus in verse, assuring him that his industry in
54
Here I quote from the Statuta et preces Congregationis Beatissimae Virginis Mariae, quae in
collegiis Societatis Iesu instituta (Dillingen: Formis Academicis, apud Uladricum Rem,
1621), 83ff.
55
See Moser, Verkündigung durch Volksgesang, 80–84. It is reasonable to speculate that the
polyphonic settings of the Ulenberg psalms by Orlando di Lasso and his son Rudolph
(RISM B/I, 158812), or those by Konrad Hagius (RISM B/I, 158904) may have been
useful among the sodalists.
56
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 142 10/28/2013 10:36:14 PM

constructing this treasure chest (thesaurus) on earth shall be rewarded with
even greater treasure in heaven.57
Still more elaborate polyphony sometimes graced the gatherings of the
Marian Congregations. We know, for example, that the Munich Lesser
Congregation for Gymnasium students and the lay public, founded in 1597,
had engaged a musical director by 1629; moreover, the first prefect of the
Congregation for male laity (1610) was none other than Georg Victorinus,
and singers from the court chapel were also among its founding members.58
As for the parent Greater Congregation in Munich (consisting of persons
of higher social standing and students of the Jesuit lyceum), we know that
shortly after its founding in 1578 it observed the death of papal nuncio
Bartolomeo Portia—who had facilitated the confirmation of its statutes by
Gregory XIII—with a Requiem Mass involving music by the ducal chapel
under Orlando di Lasso’s direction.59 As we shall see below, the congrega-
tion, which assembled in the great hall of the Jesuit Gymnasium, also hosted
elaborate Holy Week observances in 1580 involving the performance of
Lasso’s Penitential Psalms. Later they might have heard some of the Marian
sacred concertos by Rudolph di Lasso, who served as their prefect on three
separate occasions between 1613 and 1620.60 While Rudolph dedicated his
Alphabetum Marianum (1621) to Bishop Veit Adam of Freising, he explicitly
identified himself—on the title page as well as in the preface—as a sodalist
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, taking care to mention Veit Adam’s embrace of
the oath to the Virgin that marked the entry of a devotee into the Jesuits’
Marian Congregation.61 Here Lasso omits the Magnificat and Marian anti-
phons in favor of an assemblage of Marian texts drawn from the Canticles,
the antiphoner, and the like, organizing the whole in a didactic manner redo-
lent of Jesuitical meditation. Indeed, Lasso may have found direct inspiration
for his “Marian Alphabet” in at least two contemporary devotional manu-
als printed in Munich that were associated with the Marian Congregations.
Attributed to the Jesuit priest Johann Niess, the Alphabetum Sodalitatis
57
For text see Extended Reference 3.23.
58
As yet little is known about musical repertory performed in these groups. For further
discussion see Extended Reference 3.24.
59
See description in Sattler, Geschichte der Marianischen Kongregationen in Bayern
(Munich: Verlag der J. J. Lentner’schen Buchhandlung [E. Stahl], 1869), 38.
60
On Lasso’s posts in this group see Sattler, Geschichte der Marianischen Kongregationen in
Bayern, 248–49. Lasso was prefect from November 3, 1613, to April 20, 1614; from
May 6 to November 18, 1618; and from November 17, 1619, to May 10, 1620.
61
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 143 10/28/2013 10:36:14 PM

B. Virginis (Munich, 1616) and the Alphabetum Christi (Munich, 1618) pres-
ent sets of virtues in alphabetical order—Amor Dei, Bona voluntas, Castitas,
Disciplina, and so forth, each of which is followed by a lengthy Latin exege-
sis.62 Given the relatively high degree of Latin literacy, wealth, and social
standing within the Greater Congregation, it is plausible that its meetings
in the Jesuit college would have been embellished by Lasso’s fashionable and
expressive concertos in honor of the Virgin.
In the Jesuit stronghold of Ingolstadt, the Congregation of Mary
Victorious, founded in 1612, championed the Litany of Loreto and performed
representational music for important political and military events.63 A key
moment in the congregation’s history was the construction of a new oratorio
with the financial assistance of Maximilian I, dedicated on July 14, 1619,
with musical accompaniment by three choirs.64 As the military conflicts of
the Thirty Years’ War drew closer to the Bavarian theater in the follow-
ing decades, the confraternity—whose name, Mary Victorious, recalled the
Christian naval victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571—
observed reports of military victories over the Protestants with, as the docu-
ments state, “Eucharistic celebrations, the Ambrosian hymn [Te Deum], and
warlike sounds,” all of which aurally projected the idea of Catholic triumph.65
For example, on September 10, 1634, a few days after the Catholic victory at
the Battle of Nördlingen and also in observance of the ending of a period of
pestilence, the congregation, together with the Confraternity of St. Sebastian
and some 1,000 laypersons, processed through Ingolstadt making stations at
62
Alphabetum Sodalitatis B. Virginis, Quod sanctissima, antiquissima, sapientissima SS.
PP. schola composuit, exposuit, proposuit (Munich: Anna Berg, 1616); Alphabetum Christi
seu virtutes præcipuæ quæ adolescentes ornant (Munich: Raphael Sadeler, Anna Berg,
1618). The virtues listed in both manuals are nearly identical with one another, and
both volumes are framed as gifts to the Marian Congregation by its titular prefect,
Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Cieszyn (Těšín, or Teschen, in Silesia), who resided in
Munich at this time.
63
Extensive documentation on this group may be found in StA Ingolstadt, A V 19. For
her kind assistance I thank Doris Wittmann, who has written of the group’s founding
and activities in “Die Bürger-Kongregation Maria vom Sieg Ingolstadt—Erbe und
Auftrag,” in Rita Haub and Isidor Vollnhals, eds., Pater Jakob Rem SJ. 400 Jahre Dreimal
Wunderbare Mutter in Ingolstadt (Munich: Deutsche Jesuiten; Ingolstadt: Katholisches
Münsterpfarramt, 2004), 49–76.
64
StA Ingolstadt, A V 19, 14v. See also Batz, “Die Marianischen Kongregationen in
Ingolstadt,” 210–11, and Extended Reference 3.26.
65
“Celebritates Eucharisticæ, Hymni Ambrosiani et applausus militares ob reportatas
victorias, subactos hostes.” StA Ingolstadt, A V 19, 21r–v.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 144 10/28/2013 10:36:14 PM

its four principal churches. At the oratorio the Te Deum “was sung with great-
est solemnity,” during which “larger and smaller cannons were fired three
times, augmented by musket fire, to general applause.”66
The Congregation of Mary Victorious frequently deployed litanies,
and especially the Litany of Loreto, in its many devotions. As a supplica-
tory prayer, the litany was well suited for times of communal tribula-
tion and perceived military threat. Beginning on October 1, 1646, for
example, as Swedish troops captured nearby Donauwörth and Rain, the
congregation prayed the Rosary daily in their oratorio, and on October 6,
as the litany was performed at Vespers in the Jesuit church of the Holy
Cross, a crowd of penitents from the congregation processed into the
church bearing crosses, as was typical in the Good Friday procession.67
Whether these litanies were conducted in Latin or German is unclear, but
two years later, in response to the persistent military threat, the congre-
gation promoted vernacular litanies that would be certain to appeal to a
broad audience:
On 24 June at noon the sermon was attended by many, and the Rosary
was recited in turns with our singing of the litanies of holiest Name
of Jesus in German, with two boys leading [the singing]. At noon on
29 June the same devotion was held in the company of much of the
populace, with the exhortation, Rosary, and the singing of the litanies
in the aforementioned manner. On 13 July, Tuesday in the Octave of
the Dedication, and on Thursday and Saturday as well, at four o’clock
in the afternoon, a [bell] signal having been given, the litanies of the
holiest Name of Jesus were recited in German, led by the [congrega-
tion’s] president, as well as the Rosary for the needs of those present
and for the aversion of war.68
The Ingolstadt congregation’s litanies were likely far more elaborate than
simple prayers, and they appear to have attracted large numbers of onlookers.
In 1648 the clergy of the parish church of Unsere Liebe Frau would complain
that “with the introduction of devotions by the brotherhood the parishioners
have been drawn away from services in the parish church, as may be seen on
Marian feasts, when practically no one appears during Vespers at the parish
66
StA Ingolstadt, A V 19, 11r. For further examples see Extended Reference 3.27.
67
StA Ingolstadt, A V 19, 9v, 10r. See Extended Reference 3.28.
68
StA Ingolstadt, A V 19, 10r. See Extended Reference 3.29.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 145 10/28/2013 10:36:14 PM

church because beforehand the Litany of Loreto and other [music] has been
sung in the oratorio of the congregation.”69
Whatever the concerns of the Ingolstadt clergy, the prayer or musi-
cal performance of the Litany of Loreto had deep roots among the
German Jesuits and became a signature sound of devotion for the Marian
Congregations at Ingolstadt and elsewhere. A principal influence in
Ingolstadt may have been the experiences of the aforementioned Jakob
Rem, the Jesuit priest who founded the first Marian Congregation at
Dillingen in 1574. In 1595 Rem founded an exclusive Marian Colloquy
(Colloquium Marianum) at Ingolstadt on the occasion of a new altar’s dedi-
cation in the Jesuit college: above the altar was placed a copy of the paint-
ing of Mary of the Snows (Maria-Schnee) from S. Maria Maggiore in Rome,
donated by Jesuit general Francis Borgia some two decades previously.
Every Saturday evening and on the afternoons of feast days, the group
gathered around the image to hear sermons, pray, hold religious discus-
sions, and sing pious songs and litanies. A Jesuit chronicle records the
events of April 6, 1604:
It was the 6th of April when, as the Marian Colloquists were gathered
together as customary, the musicians sang passages from the Litany of
Loreto. Father Jakob occupied his customary place in a corner of the
oratory, meditating on the titles of the great Queen of Heaven, seeking
to understand which of these would be most pleasing to the Divine
Mother. And behold! As the musicians enunciated those words: Mater
admirabilis [Wondrous Mother], the Virgin appeared in a vision sur-
rounded by celestial light, instructing [him] that she was best pleased
by that praise. His most ardent spirit could not contain his joy at
Mary’s glory. Suddenly he sprang up from his corner into the middle
[of the chapel], exclaiming to the rest—who wondered at such inso-
lence—that they should all redouble their voices [and sing] Mater
admirablis three times, seeing how pleasing this appellation was to the
Mother. Without delay they obeyed: thrice did they repeat this phrase,
and from that time forward it was always said three times in the litany
69
The Bishop of Eichstätt, likewise, criticized the congregation for “too much expense for
music and singing” at the funeral services of its members. See Batz, “Die Marianischen
Kongregationen in Ingolstadt,” 210 and 215, citing in part Bernhard Duhr, Geschichte
der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge in der ersten Hälfte des XVII. Jahrhunderts
(Freiburg im Breisgau, St. Louis, MO: Herder, 1913), 2/2:95f.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 146 10/28/2013 10:36:15 PM

by the Colloquists, and the name Mater ter admirabilis was attached to
the whole assembly.70
Here, as elsewhere, we see evidence that the litany was not only a prominent
devotional vehicle, but also invested with thaumaturgical power.
Members of the Ingolstadt Congregation of Mary Victorious also sang
vernacular songs in their oratorio. In their first years of existence they issued a
pair of song collections, a modest trio of Christmas songs (1614) followed by
set of six under the title Hertzenmuth Der andächtigen Seel (A Heart’s Courage
for the Pious Soul) (1616).71 Unlike the confessional-political character of the
congregation’s musical activity that we saw earlier, these collections orient
themselves toward the virtues of humility and penitence. Musical notation
is provided for all the songs in both prints, but this may be explained by
the fact that most of them appear to have been of relatively recent vintage.72
One of the new songs, Ach Gott wie vil seynd meine Sünd (O Lord, how many
are my sins), a lament of the penitent sinner, is given the melody shown
in Example 3.5. Ach Gott typifies the collection in its sober character, pro-
ceeding in regular phrases of semibreves and minims, reflecting a manner of
composition aimed above all toward memorable simplicity. More broadly,
the songs of the Hertzenmuth reveal the members of the Congregation of Mary
Victorious, not simply as consumers of composed polyphony, but as singers
themselves.
Marian, Eucharistic, and Other Confraternities

While the Marian Congregations were a relatively novel phenomenon, a
broader array of lay confraternities enjoyed lengthy histories rooted in older
notions of late medieval devotion and social charity.73 The Reformation
70
Adam Flotto, Historia Provinciae Societatis Jesu Germaniae Superioris. Ab Anno 1601 ad
1610 (Augsburg: Happach & Gruber, 1734; hereafter HPSJGS III), 190. See Extended
Reference 3.30.
71
Drey Andächtige Außerlesne WeyhnächtGesäng (Ingolstadt: Elisabeth Angermayer
[Witwe], 1614; RISM B/VIII, 161408); and Hertzenmuth Der andächtigen Seel
(Ingolstadt: Elisabeth Angermayer [Witwe], 1616; RISM B/VIII, 161611). For full
titles and detailed commentary see Extended Reference 3.31.
72
73
For an overview of confraternities and confraternal culture in early modern
Europe, stressing their position on the boundary of elite and popular religion, see
Bernhard Schneider, “Wandel und Beharrung. Bruderschaften und Frömmigkeit in
Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit,” in Hansgeorg Molitor and Herbert Smolinsky,
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 147 10/28/2013 10:36:15 PM

E x a m p l e 3 . 5 Ach Gott wie vil seynd meine Sünd, from Hertzenmuth Der
andächtigen Seel (1616)
threatened the more directly spiritual elements of confraternal devotion, but

Luther did not seek to ban the groups, which carried out many useful social
functions. The Council of Trent encouraged the formation of confraternites,
but also insisted on close clerical oversight.74 Despite this hierarchical control,
post-Tridentine confraternities attracted a large and enthusiastic following in
eds., Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit (Münster: Aschendorff, 1994), 65–87. On

the relationship of post-Tridentine confraternities to “popular” religion see also Keith
P. Luria, “ ‘Popular Catholicism’ and the Catholic Reformation,” in Kathleen M.
Comerford and Hilmar M. Pabel, eds., Early Modern Catholicism: Essays in Honour of
John W. O’Malley, S.J. (Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 2001),
esp. 121–25.
74
See discussion in Schneider, “Wandel und Beharrung,” 67–74, and Extended Reference
3.33.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 148 10/28/2013 10:36:15 PM

the decades around 1600, even if the true popular explosion of confraternal
culture would have to wait until roughly a century later.75 And although men
assumed leadership roles in these groups without exception, women formed
a considerable portion of their membership.76 Tridentine confraternities
performed for their members specific spiritual and ritual functions, some of
which were quite traditional: for example, the corporate veneration of a given
patron saint or devotional object, and the proper burial of deceased members,
an act symbolizing the continuity of social and spiritual bonds between the
living and the dead. Confraternities, furthermore, remained deeply involved
in the cultures of processions and pilgrimages. But their strongly hierarchi-
cal nature and firm clerical oversight also meant that confraternal devotions
could serve as a kind of “substitute” liturgy for the laity, one that transmit-
ted “elite” spiritual concerns and practices while acknowledging the specific
devotional needs of members.77 In Bavaria confraternites emerged as conve-
nient tools for transmittimg dogma and expressing Catholic identity, and
served as powerful vehicles for promoting spiritual and social discipline: nat-
urally confraternal statutes, approved in all cases by the local bishop, imposed
moral and behavioral standards in exchange for the indulgences and other
benefits enjoyed by the membership, but committed brothers and sisters in
turn policed the behavior of members and nonmembers alike.78
75
By the eighteenth century, membership in some confraternities was remarkably large,
numbering in the tens of thousands, and the groups were no longer exclusively an
urban phenomenon; see Walter Pötzl, “Volksfrömmigkeit,” in Walter Brandmüller,
ed., Handbuch der bayerischen Kirchengeschichte. Band II: Von der Glaubensspaltung bis
zur Säkularisation (St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1993), 930–31. On the careful balance
between “elite” control and popular initiative in these groups, see also Schneider,
“Wandel und Beharrung,” 68–71.
76
Whether this mixed-gender profile of Tridentine confraternities had substantial con-
sequences for their spiritual or caritative character—Bernhard Schneider, for exam-
ple, has seen this phenomenon as a prelude to a more general “feminization of the
Church”—is a question that deserves further research. See Schneider, “Wandel und
Beharrung,” 71–73.
77
Ibid., 74–77.
78
The displacement of the older and looser Medieval organizations by clear hierarchies of
authority is discussed in Hansgeorg Molitor, “Mehr mit den Augen als mit den Ohren
glauben. Frühneuzeitliche Volksfrömmigkeit in Köln und Jülich-Berg,” in Molitor
and Smolinsky, eds., Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit (Münster: Aschendorff,
1994), 97–99. See also Pötzl, “Volksfrömmigkeit,” 933–34, on “self-policing” of
behavior within confraternities.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 149 10/28/2013 10:36:16 PM

Although the forces of time and secularization have conspired to scat-
ter much of their original documentation, Baroque confraternities were so
widespread and well attended in the Bavarian orbit that it is difficult to
avoid their traces in the archives.79 Most prominent among the newer confra-
ternities were the Marian confraternity of Altötting at the parish church of
Unsere Liebe Frau and the Archconfraternity of Corpus Christi at the parish
church of St. Peter, both of which were promoted intensely by secular and
religious officials. However, these groups were joined by numerous others in
Munich, some of which had been in existence for much longer: the confra-
ternities of SS. Isidore and Notburga (or Tagwerkerbruderschaft) (ca. 1426), St.
George (founded in 1496), SS. Nicholas of Tolentino and Sebastian (1502),
St. Benno (1603), the Franciscan Cordeliers (by 1606), and the Faithful Souls in
Christ (1615).80 To date the most extensive studies of confraternal music in this
period have focused on Italy, where in some cities powerful interests guaranteed
musical cultures of great depth and sophistication.81 Relatively little scholarship
exists, however, on the musical cultures of German confraternities, few of which
are known to have cultivated music lavishly; due to the legacy of secularization,
furthermore, account books showing payments to musicians are rarely found.82
While the Latin sacred concerto for for view voices may have been suitable for
some confraternities, their large and diverse membership suggests that vernacu-
lar religious song—such as that found in the Hertzenmuth for the Ingolstadt
79
For overviews of confraternal culture in Bavaria see Pötzl, “Volksfrömmigkeit,”
928–35, and Gerhard P. Woeckel, Pietas Bavarica: Wallfahrt, Prozession und Ex
voto-Gabe im Hause Wittelsbach in Ettal, Wessobrunn, Altötting und der Landeshauptstadt
München von der Gegenreformation bis zur Säkularisation und der ‘Renovatio Ecclesiae’
(Weißenhorn: Anton H. Konrad, 1992), 138–50. A catalogue of known confraterni-
ties in Bavaria has been compiled by Josef Krettner, Erster Katalog von Bruderschaften
in Bayern (Munich: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum; Würzburg: Bayerische Blätter für
Volkskunde, 1980). Confraternities at the cathedral of Regensburg have been studied
by Paul Mai in “Bruderschaften und Benefizien am Regensburger Dom,” Beiträge zur
Geschichte des Bistums Regensburg 10 (1976): 399–418.
80
For commentary on these and other confraternities, see Extended Reference 3.34.
81
See especially Noel O’Regan, Institutional Patronage in Post-Tridentine Rome: Music at
SS. Trinità dei Pellegrini 1559–1650 (London: Royal Musical Association, 1995), and
Jonathan Glixon, in Honoring God and the City: Music at the Venetian Confraternities,
1260–1807 (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). For commentary see
82
An exception is the Confraternity of St. Wolfgang in Regensburg, for which account
books survive from as early as 1523. However, payments for musicians only begin to
be recorded from 1652, the year that “die Mußicanten” were paid for quarterly services
(2 Gulden for each service). See BZaR, BDK 48–543.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 150 10/28/2013 10:36:16 PM

Congregation of Mary Victorious—may have been more typical of confraternal
devotional life.83
In 1579, Duke Wilhelm V founded the Marian confraternity of Altötting,
referring to the favored Wittelsbach pilgrimage shrine, at the church of Unsere
Liebe Frau in Munich. Declared an archconfraternity in 1581, the membership
was said to have exceeded 6,000 at an early stage, and a members’ register held
by the ducal family gave a number approaching 10,000 members.84 Whether
the Marian litanies they regularly cultivated were performed monophonically or
polyphonically is not clear, but all three of the extant prayer and statute books
for the group contain two vernacular Marian litany texts, the first a litany ex
sacra scriptura said to be sung at the Loreto shrine itself, and the second the
Litany of Loreto proper.85 In the 1612 edition, the ex sacra scriptura litany is
called the “Loretanisch Letaney,” while the true Litany of Loreto is identified,
significantly, as the “Münchnerisch Letaney,” underscoring the priority of this
version in Munich by this time. A 1628 prayer book, notably, adds a third
“Römisch” litany mandated by Gregory XIII “against the heretics and all ene-
mies of church, and for aversion of all dangers to the church.” As confreres called
to God to “extirpate all heresy, zealots, and sects,” the litany became a vehicle
83
On the possible use of the sacred concerto in confraternal devotions see Beer, Die Annahme
des ‘stile nuovo’ in der katholischen Kirchenmusik Süddeutschlands, 132–5. See Irmgard
Scheitler, Das Geistliche Lied im deutschen Barock, Schriften zur Literaturwissenschaft
3 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1982), 106–7; and Moser, Verkündigung durch
Volksgesang, 80–84, on the use of vernacular song.
84
Woeckel, Pietas Bavarica, 139.
85
See the Der würdigsten Mutter Gottes, vnnd aller heiligsten Jungkfrawen und Himel Königin
Mariae, Ertzbruderschafft in Bayern (Munich, 1581), 103v–109r; Bettbüchel Für die löblich
Ertzbruderschafft, der allerheiligisten Jungkfrawen vnd Mutter Gottes Mariæ mit allerley aus-
serleßnen andächtigen betrachtungen, von newem vbersehen vnd gemehret (Munich: Nikolaus
Heinrich, 1612), 322–33; and the Statuta vnd Bettbüchel Für die löbliche Ertzbruderschafft
der allerheiligisten Jungfrawen vnd Mutter Gottes Mariæ von Altenötting, mit allerley außer-
leßnen andächtigen Gebett vnd Betrachtungen in Truck verfertigt (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich,
1628), 266–79. The ex sacra scriptura litany is the same used by Costanzo Porta for his
eight-voice Litaniae deiparae Virginis Mariae (1575), discussed above in connection with
the Marian Congregations. On the confraternity’s devotions more generally see Peter
Bernhard Steiner, “Der gottselige Fürst und die Konfessionalisierung Altbayerns,”
in Hubert Glaser, ed., Um Glauben und Reich: Kurfürst Maximilian I. Beiträge zur
Bayerischen Geschichte und Kunst, 1573–1657 (Munich: Hirmer, 1980), 260; see also
Peter Pfister, “Die Kathedrale der Erzdiözese: Die Münchener Frauenkirche,” in Peter
Pfister and Hans Ramisch, eds., Marienwallfahrten im Erzbistum München und Freising
(Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1989), 27.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 151 10/28/2013 10:36:16 PM

both for Mary’s praise and for direct confessional assault as military conflict
unfolded in the German theater.86
In Munich, devotion to the Eucharist was spearheaded by the
Archconfraternity of Corpus Christi at the parish church of St. Peter. Once
again, Wittelsbach patronage was key: Wilhelm V and Maximilian I helped to
establish the group and facilitated its confirmation by Pope Paul V in February
1609. However, a butchers’ guild devoted to the Eucharist and named for the
nearby shrine of Andechs seems to have existed at St. Peter no later than 1586,
as suggested by the publication that year of a Catholic songbook containing a
song for the pilgrimage that referenced a local brotherhood. It seems that the
Capuchins, who occupied the pulpit at St. Peter and were active promoters
of Eucharistic devotion more generally, subsumed the existing group into a
new, hierarchical archconfraternity.87 The Andechs pilgrimage remained cen-
tral to the group’s culture but joined a number of other characteristic devo-
tional practices, including the regular taking of communion, veneration of
the exposed Sacrament, the Forty-Hour Prayer, Eucharistic processions on
Thursdays and on Good Friday evening, and pilgrimages to a wider array of
local shrines, including Augsburg and Altenerding.88
86
Statuta vnd Bettbüchel Für die löbliche Ertzbruderschafft (1628), 330–41. The Roman
litany is the Litaniae et preces ad opem aduersus haereticos et omnes S. Ecclesiae inimicos
implorandam, & pro aliis imminentibus periculis aduertendis. Iussu s.d.n. Gregorij papae XIII
in omnibus ecclesijs dicendae (Rome: apud haeredes Antonij Bladij impressores camerales,
1578). My thanks to Robert Kendrick for pointing out the existence of this litany. This
type of “confessional” litany was not unique among confraternities during this time
of confessional conflict: the 1629 statutes for the Confraternity of St. George, which
long had enjoyed a close association with the Wittelsbach court, include a “Litany
for the Holy Princes of War” (Letaney zu den Heyligen Kriegs Fürsten) that implore the
armies of heavenly saints for aid against the heretics, and God that “he shall grant to
the Catholic princes triumph over their enemies.” Statuta vnd Bettbüchel Für die löbliche
Ertzbruderschafft (1628), 56ff.
87
The pilgrimage song, Gelobt sey Gott der Vater, appears in the Gesang und Psalmenbuch
(Munich, 1586; RISM B/VIII, 158610); see Bertha Antonia Wallner, “Ein
Wallfahrtsgesang aus dem Münchener Gesang- und Psalmenbuch von 1586,”
Peterskalender München (1919): 45. General information on the confraternity’s founding
may be found in Max Josef Hufnagel, “Zeugen eucharisticher Frömmigkeit in St. Peter,
Münchens ältester Pfarrei,” in Adolf Wilhelm Ziegler, ed., Eucharistische Frömmigkeit in
Bayern (Munich: Seitz, 1963), 15–25, and Woeckel, Pietas Bavarica, 148–49. On the
relationship of Corpus Christi confraternities to the Capuchins see Alfons Sprinkart,
“Kapuziner,” in Brandmüller, ed., Handbuch der bayerischen Kirchengeschichte, 2:820.
88
Hufnagel, “Zeugen eucharisticher Frömmigkeit in St. Peter,” 23–25. On the Forty
Hour Prayer, see Extended Reference 3.36.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 152 10/28/2013 10:36:16 PM

As with the Altötting Archconfraternity, we know relatively little about
the group’s other musical activities, although sacramental motets and the Te
Deum or a litany were commonly heard when new members were registered
or new officers elected.89 But here again we can associate the group with a
specific collection of sacred concertos by Rudolph di Lasso, the Ad sacrum con-
vivium of 1617.90 Dedicating the print to the archconfraternity’s officers and
members, Lasso signed his preface by calling himself “the least client of your
venerable sodality” (venerandae sodalitatis minimus cliens). Whether he was a
member of the group is unclear, but he does suggest that these works would
be suitable for performance, not only on the Feast of Corpus Christi and dur-
ing its octave, but also in any divine service in honor of the Eucharist.91 In
fact, the texts set by Lasso are devotional in the main, for they form a loose
collection of Christological and Eucharistic passages taken from the hymnary,
the Gospels, and the writings of the Church Fathers. Although definitive
proof is lacking, it is tempting to think that Lasso’s concerti could have been
among the sacramental motets heard by the confraternity as spiritual refresh-
ment during its meetings at St. Peter.92
The evidence for the cultivation of music among Munich’s smaller confra-
ternities is quite uneven, but the extant sources allow for some observations.
Rudolph and his older brother Ferdinand di Lasso were among the earli-
est known members of the Franciscan Cordeliers (Strickgürtelbruderschaft or
Confraternitas chordigerorum S. Francisci—a reference to the cord or rope that St.
Francis preferred to gird his robe with, instead of a leather belt), a group that
held a public procession involving the singing of hymns on the first Sunday
of each month. We also find other members of the extended Lasso family
here (Orlando’s widow Regina and grandson Wilhelm, and Ferdinand’s wife
Judith) as well as several other local musicians: court singers Heinrich de
89
From the group’s 1645 statutes recorded in “Das Wohl Ehrwürdigen Herrn Decani,
und Pfarrherrns bei St. Peter Verrichtung beÿ der Ertzbruderschafft,” StAM, KKs
959, 8r–8v. See Extended Reference 3.37.
90
Ad sacrum convivium modi sacri, novi et selecti, primum senis, mox binis, ternis, quaternis,
quinis ac demum iterum senis vocibus (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1617; RISM L1041).
91
According to Lasso’s preface, these pieces could be performed “ut non tantum ad ipsius
venerandi diei, & octodialis celebritatis venerationem, sed totius anni cursum & usum,
vbi res diuina de SS. Eucharistia fieri solet, adhiberi possint.”
92
Lasso makes special mention of the confraternity’s prestige, furthermore, in a letter of
supplication to Maximilian I dated November 6, 1617, in which he gently requests
financial considerations for presenting to the court exemplars of his Ad sacrum con-
vivium and other music. See BayHStA, Personalselekt Cart. 198, no. 6, and Extended
Reference 3.38.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 153 10/28/2013 10:36:17 PM

Plau, Anton Widmann, and Antonio Belasco; court instrumentalists Egidius
Moet and Alberto Cesare Galilei; court trumpeter Bernhard Sachs; and
Abraham Wisreutter, organist at Unsere Liebe Frau.93 It remains unclear why
so many members of the ducal cantorate belonged to this lay Franciscan con-
fraternity in particular. The group’s meeting place at the Franciscan church of
St. Anthony—directly adjacent to the ducal residence—can only explain so
much, and there is little evidence of its musical activities apart from a set of
processional hymns and antiphons in German translation published in 1604
(see chapter 5). According to a 1631 set of statutes, the Cordeliers’ gatherings
were to begin “with the pious hymn Veni Creator Spiritus in such a manner,
that the men sing one verse in Latin, and the others who do not know this
language sing the next verse in German.” The confreres, seating themselves,
heard an exhortation, which was then followed by the singing or recitation of
litanies of St. Francis, of other sainted Franciscans, or the Litany of Loreto—
helpfully, these litanies are provided at the end of the book.94
Privately, the members of the Franciscan Cordeliers were obliged to recite
the daily Offices of St. Francis, from Matins through Compline, including
specific antiphons and hymns in German translation.95 Indeed, we often find
in confraternal statutes the observation of quasi-liturgical “Offices” (Tagzeiten)
during the various hours of the day, augmented by vernacular hymns or songs
that were commonly translations of Latin liturgical texts. Another example
may be seen in the 1623 statutes for Forstenried’s “Brotherhood of the Holy
Cross for a Good Death,” one of many so-called Baroque Totenbruderschaften
devoted to aiding souls in purgatory.96 Each Office (from Matins through
Compline) consists of a set of versicles and responses together with a
“Lobgesang” and a short antiphon, representing quasi-liturgical complexes
to be read, sung, or meditated upon by individuals or groups. The songs of
praise found here are mainly German translations of medieval hymn texts,
some of which appear to have been taken from the Jesuit Conrad Vetter’s
93
BayHStA, KL Bayerische Franziskanerprovinz 329. See Extended Reference 3.39.
94
Henricus Sifrid, Heilig Seraphisch Lieb brinnendes Hertz (Innsbruck: In Verlegung Daniel
Maÿr Kunstfüerer wonhafft zu München in der Aw, Johann Gäch, 1631), 484–85. See
95
These are specified in the Bäpstliche Bulla, Vber die grosse Jndulgentz vnd Ablaß
(Ingolstadt, [1604]), 96–108.
96
Regel, Auch Bäpstliche Gnad vnd Ablaß der löblichen deß Heiligen Creutzs vmb ein seliges
Lebens endt Bruderschafft zu Forstenriedt (Munich: Anna Berg, Johann Hertsroy, 1623),
esp. 140–92 and 275–78. See Extended Reference 3.41.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 154 10/28/2013 10:36:17 PM

E x a m p l e 3 . 6 Conrad Vetter, Die Mutter stundt hertzlich verwundt, from
Paradeißvogel (1613)
Paradeißvogel (1613).97 From that songbook we can offer the melody shown
in Example 3.6, a translation of the Passion hymn Stabat mater, as an example
of what the Forstenried confreres may have sung in their homes. We can see
in these collections a possible Catholic parallel, then, to the reading, prayer,
and psalmody of Protestant conventicles, and an opportunity to aurally shape
devotional space within private homes.
The success of the Forstenried confraternity and the death of Wilhelm
V in 1626 compelled the Jesuits of St. Michael to found a similar group
at the church, and in 1642 the two confraternities would finally be joined
into a single assembly. At that time, the original Forstenried community
agreed to conditions imposed by the Jesuit college that “the Congregation
shall provide singers for the singing of the services at its own cost, as well as
bell ringers”: thus, the regular engagement of professional singers seems to
have been expected.98 Lipowsky reported that the members of the Munich
group met once a month at St. Michael and “sang edificatory German songs
with accompaniment of the organ,” although neither the precise time period
nor his own source for this information is clear.99 If indeed it were the case
that confraternities heard or performed simple vernacular songs with organ
97
Among these songs are Passion hymns by Venantius Fortunatus in German trans-
lations that also are found in Vetter’s Paradeißvogel (80–86, 108–11). See Extended
Reference 3.42.
98
“Cantores quoq[ue] pro Cantandis officijs constituet Congregatio suis sumptibus, que-
madmodum et pulsatores Campanarum; Sed tam in his, quàm in alijs Personis con-
ducendis nihil fiet à Congregatione contra intentionem, aut voluntatem Superiorum
huius Collegij.” BSB, Cgm 6194a, September 10, 1642. On the joining of the two
confraternities see also Woeckel, Pietas Bavarica, 147–48.
99
Lipowsky, Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern, 2:170. See Extended Reference 3.43.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 155 10/28/2013 10:36:17 PM

accompaniment, there was no lack of available repertory by the middle of
the seventeenth century. The many collections of thoroughbass lieder by
Johannes Khuen, for example, would have been well suited to individual
amateur singers and, in some cases, to larger groups as well.100
Corporate Devotional Services and Gatherings

Laity inside and outside the confraternal network had access to a series of cor-
porate devotions that took place on both a regular and irregular basis, mainly
in the parish churches and the churches of the various religious orders, espe-
cially the Jesuits. These often had characteristic musical and sonic expres-
sions that we shall explore in the contexts of funeral and burial services, Salve
services, seasonal devotions for Christmas and Lent, and occasions for public
supplication and celebration in the city’s parish churches. While some of
these phenomena were quite traditional and stemmed from pre-Reformation
ritual practices, others were relatively new, their form and practice carefully
prescribed by official elites.
Funerals and Burials

Among the most traditional practices were funeral or burial services for
loved ones that took place in small gatherings of family and friends. The
social significance of these rites of passage was, of course, cross-confessional.
As Susan Karant-Nunn has pointed out, Lutherans and Calvinists initially
stressed the radical separation of the living from the dead, whereas among
Catholics the concept of purgatory meant that the presence of the dead was
more keenly felt. By the late sixteenth century the individual believer’s prep-
aration for a good death in Christ—the ars moriendi—was widely observed
in Lutheran practice in particular, and funeral services served not only as
moments of spiritual instruction but also as opportunities to comfort those
left behind, often effected by prosopopoetic sermons or music in which the
100
In the case of the Confraternity of St. Christophorus, founded as early as 1659 at the clois-
ter church of the Pütrich nuns of the Franciscan Third Orders, we do have a thorough-
bass song apparently intended for confraternal use that is preserved in a 1673 published
vita of that saint. It appears in the Leben vnd Marter Deß heiligen Christophori, Sambt einem
Lob=Ruef vnnd Gebett. Zu Trost aller deren, so den Namen deß gemelten heiligen Martyrers mit
Andacht tragen (Munich: Lucas Straub, 1673). The melody is lively and quite disjunct,
but may have been performable by amateur devotees depending on the tempo taken.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 156 10/28/2013 10:36:18 PM

voice of the deceased admonished or consoled believers.101 A feature common
to all confessions was the recitation or singing of the Psalter over the body
of the deceased. Most commonly in Catholic practice, these were the seven
Penitential Psalms (Vulgate nos. 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142), which
project a tone of intense supplication, a plea on behalf of the deceased for
deliverance from sin and for God’s favor.102
In 1616 the various elements of Bavarian funeral services, including
psalmody, were carefully regulated by a comprehensive ordinance. On the
day of death and during the following night relatives would engage a cantor
and student singers from one of the parish schools to sing psalms continu-
ally over the corpse: “He who wishes to have the Psalter sung over the corpse
(which is permitted to all),” the ordinance states, “shall pay the cantor 20
Kreuzer for each day and night, not including food and drink, and 10 Kreuzer
each to the students who sing the Psalter for the day and night, along with
warm food and a measure of beer.”103 The procession to the graveyard could
be more or less elaborate depending on the financial means of the deceased.
At a minimum the body had to be accompanied by a priest, a sexton, and
a boy who would carry the cross; however, families of means could engage
musicians from the parish church as well, including the schoolmaster, cantor,
adult choralists, and choirboys. Polyphonic music could be had at twice the
cost of plainchant alone.104
The death-bell, or Totenglocke, was indispensable in funeral processions,
and appears to have been a common sound across the confessional divide.
While Protestant theology discounted the traditional understanding of bells’
power to drive away evil spirits, Lutherans, at least, continued to insist on
101
Lutherans generally retained only Psalm 129 in the well-known translation Aus tiefer
Not. For an extended discussion of how Protestants retained, modified, or rejected
Catholic ritual practices surrounding death see Susan Karant-Nunn, The Reformation of
Ritual: An Interpretation of Early Modern Germany (London: Routledge, 1997), 138–89.
See also Extended Reference 3.44.
102
On the Lutheran use of Aus tiefer Not see Karant-Nunn, The Reformation of Ritual, 161.
However, Bernard Vogler adds that this chorale could be joined by the non-psalmic
chorales Nun mitten wir im Leben sind or Nun laßt uns den Leib begraben; see Vogler,
“Volksfrömmigkeit im Luthertum deutschsprachiger Länder,” in Molitor and
Smolisnky, Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit, 42.
103
Landrecht Policey, Gerichts- Malefitz- und andere Ordnungen, 577–78. See Extended
Reference 3.45.
104
Ibid., 578–79. See Extended Reference 3.46.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 157 10/28/2013 10:36:18 PM

their role in solemnizing funeral processions.105 The thaumaturgy of bell
sounds certainly had been a part of medieval thought, and was still evident
to Catholic writers like Angelo Rocca (1612), who insisted that consecrated
bells did indeed drive away the demons that shadowed funeral processions.106
Less controversial may have been Antonio de Guevara’s view that “church
bells are rung at burials not for the dead, but rather for the living, for they
remind us that we are all equals, and no less than others must die and be
buried. The sound of the bell also brings us to account, calls us to hear our
sentence, and reminds us of our last hour, when we shall wish not that we had
been emperors, but rather poor shepherds.”107 One bell in the parish church
tower usually served the function of Totenglocke; in the case of the church of
Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich, whose bell ensemble is well documented in
this period (see chapter 4), either the so-called Winklerin bell or the larger
Susanna bell, both of whose inscriptions refer to the dispersal of bad weather
as well as the commemoration of the dead, may have served as a Totenglocke.
As is the case with funeral psalmody, the 1616 Bavarian ordinances specify a
range of appropriate payments to the sexton (Mesner or Custor) charged with
ringing the death-bell: these payments are differentiated according to the
stateliness of the funeral procession, or whether a formal procession took
place at all.108
The death of prominent persons, and especially members of the
Wittelsbach house, attracted a broader public audience for funeral pro-
cessions and psalmody. The Jesuit church of St. Michael, whose crypt was
and remains the final resting place for many of the princes and princesses
of the Wittelsbach dynasty, was often the site of conspicuous funerary ritu-
als. Typically the corpse of a deceased prince or princess lay in state for sev-
eral days before the funeral procession took place; during this period, the
schoolboys of the Domus Gregoriana sang psalms continuously throughout
105
In the recatholicized Upper Palatinate, Bavarian electoral officials conceded to
Lutherans the use of funeral bells in 1626, but withdrew this privilege with their man-
date for conversion to Catholicism in 1628. See Trevor Johnson, Magistrates, Madonnas
and Miracles: The Counter Reformation in the Upper Palatinate (Farnham: Ashgate,
2009), 51–52. On the Lutheran attitude toward bells see Heinrich Otte, Glockenkunde
(Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1884), 41–42, and Karant-Nunn, The Reformation of Ritual, 155.
106
Angelo Rocca, De campanis commentarius (Rome: Apud Guillelmim Facciottum, 1612),
135. See Extended Reference 3.47.
107
Antonio de Guevara, Erster Theil der guldenen Sendtschreiben, trans. Aegidius Albertinus
(Munich: Adam Berg, 1600), 135–36. See Extended Reference 3.48.
108
Landrecht Policey, Gerichts- Malefitz- und andere Ordnungen, 579. See Extended Reference
3.49.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 158 10/28/2013 10:36:19 PM

the day and night, likely in falsobordone.109 During these rather lengthy peri-
ods of public mourning, the normal soundscape of the city would be stilled.
Court altist Johannes Hellgemayr’s report following Wilhelm V’s death in
1626 is typical: “Due to his death all profane celebrations, including tower
music, strings, winds, drums, and dancing, indeed all recreation, has been
suspended for an entire year and more, and this princely death was lamented
with sincerity and sorrow.”110
S A LV E Services
Another prominent type of devotion in Counter-Reformation Bavaria was
the Salve service, a quasi-liturgical Marian devotion involving the singing of
the Salve Regina, ordinarily held in a church on Saturday evenings or on the
vigils of major feast days, typically at the end of the Office of Compline. This
devotion had clear medieval antecedents, but the advent of the Reformation
made the Salve Regina a fierce object of debate between confessional camps,
for its text clearly praises Mary for her intercession on behalf of sinners and
identifies her as the gateway through which believers may come to her Son.111
The antiphon was a target of a sermon by Luther in 1522, and came under
attack in numerous Lutheran polemics. For example, Johannes Freysleben
offered the following uncomplimentary account of Salve services in the Upper
Palatinate:
And even if one rings the bells, it is not enough to bring [the laity] to
the sermon; but if one rings the Salve bell, then people flock there like
hens, pushing before them girls and boys, wives and children. There is
piping, running around, singing, screeching; people bellow like an ox,
109
For the wake of Wilhelm V in 1626 we read that “[. . .] modulantib[us] psalmos die
noctuq[ue] pauperib[us] scholasticis,” the verb modulor suggesting some manner of
polyphonic, rather than monophonic performance. See BayHStA, Jesuitica 2268,
80. For further texts recording the funerary rites for Renate von Lothringen (1602),
Wilhelm V (1626), and Maximilian I (1651) see Extended Reference 3.50.
110
Johannes Hellgemayr,” 179. See Extended Reference 3.51.
111
The crucial text here is “Eia, ergo, advocata nostra [. . .] et Jesum, benedictum fruc-
tum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.” Salve services had been introduced
at the parish of St. Peter in Munich between 1278 and 1289; see Joseph Staber,
“Volksfrömmigkeit und Wallfahrtswesen des Spätmittelalters im Bistum Freising”
(Inaugural-Dissertation, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, 1955), 16–17.
For further commentary, see Extended Reference 3.52.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 159 10/28/2013 10:36:19 PM

howl like wolves, light fires like St. John’s Fire; thus do they perform
this most Christian work. Who does not do this is a heretic, even if he
is otherwise the most godly of them.112
The Salve Regina, however, had no lack of Catholic advocates: as early as
1523 Georg Hauer, theologian and parish priest of Unsere Liebe Frau in
Ingolstadt, defended the Salve Regina against textual alterations favored by
the reformers, and after the Council of Trent—which fixed its position at the
end of the Office of Compline—the Jesuits spearheaded a vigorous defense of
the antiphon and its theological implications.113
Although numerous settings of the Salve Regina by Orlando di Lasso were
copied into court choirbooks, it remains unclear whether formal Salve ser-
vices were observed in the ducal chapel of St. George.114 By the mid- to late
sixteenth century Saturday-evening Salve services appear to have been wide-
spread in Bavaria, at least in the larger towns and cities.115 At the Munich
parish of St. Peter, for example, a daily Salve was donated as early as 1464,
and at Unsere Liebe Frau, Duke Albrecht IV donated a polyphonic service
(Salve in mensuris) in 1486, to be held at Compline on Saturdays and on the
vigils of Marian feasts. The latter service would be augmented in 1570 by a
further donation requiring a polyphonic Litany of Loreto.116 Five years later
112
Qtd. from Staber, “Volksfrömmigkeit und Wallfahrtswesen,” 16–17. For further com-
mentary on Lutheran objections to the Salve Regina, see Extended Reference 3.53.
113
See Bridget Heal, The Cult of The Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 263. On Catholic defenses of the
Salve Regina see Extended Reference 3.54.
114
For commentary on the extant Salve settings in the Munich choirbooks, see Extended
Reference 3.55.
115
A comprehensive survey of such services is not possible here, but examples are known
in Ingolstadt, Altötting, Straubing, and elsewhere. For commentary see Extended
Reference 3.56.
116
On the origins of the devotions at St. Peter and Unsere Liebe Frau see Heinzel,
“Orlando di Lasso und die Münchner Salve Regina-Tradition,” Musik in Bayern 55
(1998): 143–58. Albrecht IV’s original donation called for the participation of the can-
tor, schoolmaster, and four choirboys. The 1570 foundation was by Simon Thaddäus
Eck, the ducal privy councillor, chancellor, and younger stepbrother of Luther’s famous
opponent Johannes Eck. On the vigils of the seven Marian feasts, Christmas, Easter,
and Pentecost, as well as on the four quarterly Ember Days (Quatembersamstagen) and
Saturdays during Lent, the Litany of Loreto was to be sung in four-part polyphony, with
two choirboys intoning and the choir responding with the “ora pro nobis” responses;
this litany was performed at the same time as the Salve Regina from Albrecht IV’s dona-
tion. See Leo Söhner, Die Musik im Münchner Dom unserer lieben Frau in Vergangenheit und
Gegenwart (Munich: Verlag Lentnersche Buchhandlung, 1934), 19–20.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 160 10/28/2013 10:36:20 PM

came another major foundation at Unsere Liebe Frau by Duchess Renate von
Lothringen, calling for a polyphonic Mass of the Virgin Mary on all Saturday
mornings, as well as a polyphonic Litany of Loreto and Salve Regina—per-
formed by the schoolmaster, cantor, five choralists, and four choirboys in
alternatim fashion, with the organ—on Sunday evenings during Compline.
The extant choirbooks contain several settings by Lasso that may have served
on these occasions.117 Following the 1605 introduction of the Roman Rite
at Unsere Liebe Frau, the canons of the chapter apparently desired new set-
tings of the Salve Regina and commissioned choralist Christoph Martin to
copy several of them in manuscript (apparently no longer extant).118 Possibly
the chapter was also responding to popular demand for polyphony: since the
common people found the plainchant versions of the Salve Regina and Media
vita performed during Lent to be “somewhat too short,” the chapter and
Duke Wilhelm V resolved in 1607 to have them performed polyphonically
henceforth.119
Seasonal Devotions for Christmas and Lent

In addition to the regular Salve services in the parish churches were seasonal
devotions, particularly at Christmas and during the Lenten season. The tra-
dition of Krippenandachten—church devotions before a constructed model of
Christ’s cradle, often surrounded by Mary, Joseph, and pastoral animals—was
already a venerable one by the sixteenth century; the cradle itself was often
physically rocked, hence the common alternative designation Kindlwiegen.
Interrupted to a degree by the Reformation, the building of physical represen-
tations of biblical scenes was strongly revived in post-Tridentine Catholicism,
which promoted the visual, tactile experience of the divine mysteries; thus the
Krippe joins other types of scenic representations, including that of the Mount
117
See description and transcription of the foundation’s charter in ibid., 20–22. For its
original text see Extended Reference 3.57. AEM, ULF Mf Chb. 4 contains an anony-
mous Salve Regina “in Dominicis per annum” for four voices, a six-voice setting by
Lasso (signed by Perckhofer in 1600), and another four-voice setting by the same com-
poser. See Helmut Hell, Die Musikhandschriften aus dem Dom zu Unserer Lieben Frau
in München: thematischer Katalog: mit einem Anhang, Ein Chorbuch aus St. Andreas in
Freising, Kataloge bayerischer Musiksammlungen 8 (Munich: G. Henle, 1987), 42,
and Extended Reference 3.58.
118
BayHStA, KL München, Collegiatstift Unsere Liebe Frau 29, 3r (July 19, 1605).
119
Protocol of the Unsere Liebe Frau chapter, March 13, 1607, BayHStA, KL München,
Collegiatstift ULF, 29, 21v. In compensation the choralists were to be spared singing
Vespers and Compline on ferial days during Lent. See Extended Reference 3.59.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 161 10/28/2013 10:36:20 PM

of Olives during Lent as well as the theatrical performance of biblical scenes
by guildsmen and townspeople in the great Corpus Christi processions (see
chapter 5). Although the visual aspect of cradle devotions was paramount,
music was never absent. By the early sixteenth century, parishioners at Unsere
Liebe Frau in Ingolstadt sang the traditional Christmas song Der Tag der ist so
freudenreich (The day which is so joyous) before the cradle during the Christmas
service, immediately before the sermon.120 By the later part of the century, the
city pipers performed instrumental music at these cradle devotions.121 The
Jesuit general Claudio Aquaviva approved the erection of cradles in Jesuit
churches in 1592, and the practice soon spread widely: in 1607, for example,
such a cradle was built for the church of St. Michael in Munich, and during
the Christmas season quasi-theatrical presentations were held before it that
included a daily “musical litany of the Name of Jesus” performed by the stu-
dents of the Domus Gregoriana.122 The sources are silent on whether vernacular
songs like Der Tag der ist so freudenreich were sung by the populace.
The Jesuits and Capuchins, in particular, intensely promoted and culti-
vated various forms of devotions during Lent and Holy Week, many of which
were striking, multimedia exhibitions of penitence.123 By the late sixteenth
century, these devotions were focused on elaborate reconstructions of the
Holy Sepulchre (Heiliges Grab), erected in the choir of the church and serv-
ing, as the Krippe did for Christ’s Nativity, as an immediate visual reminder
of Christ’s sacrifice and his absolution of sin; from the mid-seventeenth cen-
tury some churches also built representations of the Mount of Olives, before
which quasi-theatrical “plays” on Christ’s Passion were enacted.124 Groups
120
Hofmann, Geschichte der Stadt Ingolstadt 1506–1600, 474–76.
121
The ordinance specifies the payment of “24 d” “wan man zue Wehenächtt[en] das
Kindle wögtt, vnnd sÿ Thurner plasen, gleichsfals am tag der Auffart Christi, vnd dan
am pfingstag.” StA Ingolstadt, A II 36a, 12r.
122
Lipowsky, Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern, 2:85. This practice extended to the octave
of Epiphany; see Adalbert Schulz, Die St. Michaels-Hofkirche in München (Munich: J.
J. Lentner, 1897), 83–84, and Hannelore Putz, Die Domus Gregoriana zu München.
Erziehung und Ausbildung im Umkreis des Jesuitenkollegs St. Michael bis 1773, Schriftenreihe
zur Bayerischen Landesgeschichte 141 (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2003), 140–41.
123
These spectacles embodied a public theatricality that was dissonant in some respects
with the growing emphasis on private confession and the internalization of remorse that
characterized Counter-Reformation Catholicism; see W. David Myers, “Poor, Sinning
Folk”: Confession and Conscience in Counter-Reformation Germany (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1996).
124
On the so-called Ölbergandachten, the earliest of which are documented in Munich at
the parish of St. Peter from 1646, see esp. Edgar Harvolk, “Szenische Ölbergandachten
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 162 10/28/2013 10:36:21 PM

of flagellants routinely scourged themselves before the Sepulchre. From the
beginning, the organizers had a special fondness for musical performances of
the seven Penitential Psalms, and for Psalm 50, Miserere mei Deus, in particu-
lar. The Jesuit polemicist Conrad Vetter, for example, states that Miserere mei
Deus was routinely performed during self-flagellation exercises during Lent
and that its musical garb could—in certain institutions—be quite elabo-
rate.125 Mocking the attacks on self-flagellation published by the Lutheran
theologian Jakob Heilbrunner, Vetter asks, “What can one say of all of the
instruments, organs, viols, cornetts, flutes, trombones, music for choirs in
two, or even three or four parts, that the Papists use throughout the entire
season of Lent for this Psalm Miserere, and for their disciplining and scourg-
ing?” The response is a passage from a letter by Luther, taken wildly out
of context: “What shall I say to this? The roar of the bagpipe is the finest
sound.”126 Vetter portrays a crude Luther, hardly capable of understanding
the profundity of Catholic music.
Whether such lavish instrumental accompaniment of the Miserere was
common at Lenten gatherings of flagellants is unclear, but we can follow the
rise of Lenten devotions involving musical settings of this Psalm in various
Bavarian towns. The Munich Jesuits appear to have been pioneers in this
respect. On Good Friday in 1577, a Holy Sepulchre was erected in the col-
lege’s great hall, whose windows were draped in black cloth, the only light
provided by candles. “There was a sorrowful silence,” we read in a Jesuit
chronicle, “except that a sad lamentation was heard at intervals in modal [i.e.,
polyphonic] music. Soon they instilled in those present a holy awe, stirring
the spirit to pity for the mortal life of this world, and exciting other pious
affects that are appropriate to this pity.” This musical lamentation was said
to have been performed by “eight boys dressed as angels.”127
Perhaps one of the seven Penitential Psalms was sung on this occasion,
for three years later, in 1580, we are told of a striking public devotion held
in Altbayern,” Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde (1978), 69–87. See also Pötzl,
“Volksfrömmigkeit,” 954–55.
125
Vetter, Lutherisch Disciplin Büchel. Zur Bekrefftigung, vnnd Handhabung deß treffeli-
chen Buchs D. Jacobi Heilbronners, wider das Papistische Geißlen und Disciplinieren &c.
([Ingolstadt]: [Andreas Angermeyer], 1607). See Extended Reference 3.60.
126
The passage is taken from Luther’s letter to the city council of Frankfurt am Main
(1532) attacking Zwinglian ideas. See Extended Reference 3.61.
127
Ignatius Agricola, Historia Provinciae Societatis Jesu Germaniae Superioris, quinque primas
annorum complex decades (Augsburg: Georgii Schlüter, Martini Happach, 1727; hereaf-
ter HPSJGS I), 180. For original text and further commentary see Extended Reference
3.62.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 163 10/28/2013 10:36:21 PM

on Maundy Thursday that included a performance of Lasso’s settings of
these psalms, which were previously reserved for the private delectation of
the dukes. Following a ritual in which Duke Wilhelm and Duchess Renata
washed the feet of twelve poor men and twelve poor virgins, respectively, we
read that
the [Marian] Congregation’s hall in the Gymnasium was hung dusk-
ily with dark cloth, and illuminated in such a way that a hallowed
darkness prevailed. In front on the altar was a painting of Christ
on the Mount of Olives, at that moment when the Angels offered
him the cup of suffering to drink. In the evening at five o’ clock the
Penitential Psalms, set by the chapelmaster Orlando di Lasso in music,
were performed by the ducal court chapel, following which the Jesuit
Ferdinand Alber closed the ceremony with a sermon.128
“Funeral music” (Trauer-Musiken) was heard in the hall on the following
day, Good Friday, as well, alternating with spiritual discussions conducted
by Alber and Paulus Hoffäus. The whole took place before a representation
of Christ in the Holy Sepulchre, above whom was the exposed Eucharist
set in clouds; all were surrounded by images displaying the sufferings of
Jesus. Similar devotions were organized in the same year by the Marian
Congregations of Munich, Ingolstadt, Innsbruck, and Dillingen.129
It is worth noting that for the Jesuits the performance of the Penitential
Psalms had a strong edificatory flavor. Lipowsky, who informed us about the
performance of Lasso’s settings in 1580, also reports on the nature of Jesuit
missionary preaching, conducted in churches in the larger towns, but out of
doors in the countryside. Upon a table hung with black or blue cloth stood a
lamp, an hourglass, and sometimes a human skull. A large missionary cross
was erected in front of the table as well. If possible, the windows were dark-
ened (if the devotion was being conducted inside a church), and the Eucharist
was displayed on the altar. Following a blessing and the reading of a Mass,
128
Lipowsky, Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern, 1:199. Lipowsky’s source for this epi-
sode is not clear. See also David Crook’s discussion in “A Performance of Lasso’s
Penitential Psalms on Maundy Thursday 1580,” in Bernhold Schmid, ed., Orlando
di Lasso in der Musikgeschichte: Bericht über das Symposion der Bayerischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften München, 4.–6. Juli 1994 (Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, 1996), 69–77.
129
Lipowsky, Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern, 1:199–200. For discussion of these obser-
vances see Crook, “A Performance of Lasso’s Penitential Psalms on Maundy Thursday
1580.” See also Sattler, in Geschichte der Marianischen Kongregationen in Bayern, 41, who
relies largely on Lipowsky’s account.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 164 10/28/2013 10:36:21 PM

the priest ascended to the table and preached for a whole hour, “after which
one of the seven Penitential Psalms was sung, either by the choir or by the
people, and for the entire day sermons alternated with the singing of the
Penitential Psalms.”130 The act of missionary preaching itself, then, may have
been an extension of the visual and aural impression cultivated by the Marian
Congregations in their Holy Week devotions.
Of the seven Penitential Psalms, it Miserere mei Deus that would quickly
emerge as the principal musical focus of Lenten devotions. It assumes a
prominent position in the Roman Rite of Tenebrae, performed at the open-
ing of Lauds for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Holy Week. Its text, a
sinner’s plea for mercy and purification, paralleled the strongly ascetic and
purgative nature of the Lenten exercises that unfolded before representations
of the Holy Sepulchre. By 1584, the latter were being constructed in the
parish churches of the Jesuit university town of Ingolstadt, at which Marian
sodalists, Jesuit students, and other devotees would appear, scourging them-
selves to the sound of the Miserere. By the mid-1590s, this devotion was
joined by a public procession, also involving self-flagellation.131 In 1603, the
Jesuits of Munich, if not those of the Upper German Province more gener-
ally, began to have the Miserere sung at Vespers every day during Lent by
the boys of the Domus Gregoriana, performances at which large numbers of
devotees would appear.132 It is difficult to reconstruct the precise character
of these performances, although we do know that the accompaniment of the
organ was omitted in favor of regals and harpsichords, which would have
lent the performance a more pungent, sharp-edged tone; on Good Friday the
performance was embellished by echo effects as well.133 As for the Marian
130
Lipowsky, Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern, 1:214. As is frequently the case, Lipowsky’s
sources are unclear.
131
See Hofmann, Geschichte der Stadt Ingolstadt 1506–1600, 474. Gerhard Wilczek in
“Die Jesuiten in Ingolstadt (1589–1594),” Ingolstädter Heimatblätter 39 (1976): 28, 32,
notes the presence of flagellants during these devotions in 1590 and 1591.
132
A set of ordinances governing the Jesuit churches of the Upper German Province,
“Consuetudines S. J. prouinciae Germaniae superioris,” BSB, Clm 9238, indicate
(p. 13) that “Psalm[us] Miserere canitur quotidie in n[ost]ris templis à feriâ 4ta
Cineru[m], usq[ue] ad feria[m] [tertiam] hebdomadæ sanctæ inclusiuè, cantu figu-
rato, eaq[ue] submissione atq[ue] ad luctu[m] et compunctione[m].” The date of these
ordinances, however, is unclear.
133
“Miserere. Psalm[us] quinquagesim[us] canitur quotidie Vesperi horâ quintâ sine
Organo, ad regalia & Clauicymbala cantu figurato accom[m]odatè ad luctum &
compunctionem.” BayHStA, Jesuitica 39, 112–13. On the 1603 introduction of
the daily Miserere by the Munich Jesuits, see also Lipowsky, Geschichte der Jesuiten in
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 165 10/28/2013 10:36:21 PM

Congregations, which may have pioneered these devotions some decades
earlier, they continued to conduct their own Holy Week devotions, includ-
ing processions with self-flagellation and the singing of the Miserere. On
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday of 1602, for example, the Ingolstadt
Marian Congregation reported that “four hundred, six hundred, eight hun-
dred and more were counted, most of whom scourged themselves during the
performance of numerous Psalms.”134 It is fascinating to imagine these dusky
spaces, filled by the combined sounds of mournful polyphony, repeated blows
on exposed flesh, and cries of penitence.
The Jesuits’ Lenten Miserere quickly inspired similar efforts elsewhere. It
was used to great effect, for example, in mixed-faith areas or in towns with
a history of Protestant leanings, such as the imperial city of Regensburg
and the town of Wasserburg am Inn, where an active reform movement had
been actively suppressed by Bavarian officials in the 1560s and 1570s.135 In
Munich, Maximilian I ordered the court musicians to begin the practice in
his court chapel in 1603, and by 1609 at the latest they were also being regu-
larly dispatched to the parish of Unsere Liebe Frau. There, a large ensemble
of over twenty boy and adult singers, instrumentalists, and regal or organ
under the direction of court musicians Fileno Cornazzano and Rudolph di
Lasso presented the fiftieth Psalm, likely in front of the constructed Holy
Sepulchre.136 At St. Peter, members of the Capuchin order, who occupied the
pulpit in that church, took a leading role in promoting Lenten devotions,
Baiern, 2:71–72, and Schulz, Die St. Michaels-Hofkirche in München, 60. The presence
of echo effects is Noted by Ursprung in Münchens musikalische Vergangenheit, 71–72;
see also Siegfried Gmeinwieser, “Die altklassische Vokalpolyphonie Roms in ihrer
Bedeutung für den kirchenmusikalischen Stil in München,” Analecta Musicologica 12
(1973): 120–21.
134
Gerhard Wilczek, Die Jesuiten in Ingolstadt von 1601–1635. 1. Teil. Übersetzung des
‘Summarium de variis rebus Collegii Ingolstadiensis’ (Ordinariatsarchiv Eichstätt/Bayern)
(unpublished typescript, 1981), 5–6. For details on the Ingolstadt devotion and on
the Congregations’ pursuit of Holy Week devotions more generally see Extended
Reference 3.63.
135
The Jesuits introduced the Lenten Miserere in Regensburg in 1590, and in 1624 the
Capuchins did the same in Wasserburg, where the performance was accompanied with
self-flagellation. For discussion of the practice in these locations and elsewhere, see
136
On the introduction of the Lenten Miserere in the court chapel, see HPSJGS IV, 145,
and Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen Kapellaltisten
Johannes Hellgemayr,” 159. Evidence for the practice at Unsere Liebe Frau can be
documented as early as 1607: see BayHStA, KL München, Collegiatstift ULF, 29,
February 12, 1608, 37v. For further discussion see Extended Reference 3.65.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 166 10/28/2013 10:36:21 PM

although these “novelties” were not entirely welcomed by the parish’s own
clergy. In 1646 the latter complained in writing to the Roman Inquisition,
prompting a response from the Capuchins that offers us a rather detailed
view of how such devotions were conducted. Addressing concerns about their
holding of “theatrical” exhibitions before a constructed representation of the
Mount of Olives on Maundy Thursday, the Capuchins’ response gives us a
sense of the arresting visual and aural character of the devotion:
I respond that it is quite true that beginning ten years ago at the
church of St. Peter in Munich, on Fridays during Lent at Vespers,
there has been presented a theatrical work representing the three ora-
tions and three falls137 of Christ praying and agonizing in the garden,
comforted by the Apostles and an angel, with torches and lanterns,
and angels appropriately depicted. At the proper hour the people
are called together by the sound of the bells, the Holy Sacrament is
exposed, and Psalm 50 of David, Miserere, is solemnly sung by the
chapel musicians of the Serene Elector; then the preacher, ascending
to the pulpit, reads the Gospel of St. Luke concerning the agony and
prayer of Christ the Lord in the garden, and gives an exhortation on
the same. As the sermon is finished the agony of Christ is sung three
times in a mournful manner,138 during which is heard the ringing of
all the bells. Three times the falling of Christ to the earth was met
with great remorse by the onlookers, and the pouring out of tears,
indeed with their arms extended in memory of the Holiest Passion,
and both princes and people recited the Pater [noster] and Ave [Maria]
three times. And already three years ago with the approaching danger
of war, and due to the singular devotion of the people to the Virgin
and Mother of God, the Litany of Loreto was added, and read or recited
in a high voice by our preacher, and responded to by all of the people.
137
Likely a reference to Jesus’s three prayers uttered in the Garden of Gethsemane
(Matthew 26:39–44), and to the three times that Christ was widely believed to have
stumbled during his procession with the Cross to Calvary (the Via dolorosa), episodes
not recorded in the Gospels. In the fourteen Stations of the Cross, the falls are assigned
to Stations 3, 7, and 9. See George Cyprian Alston, “Way of the Cross,” The Catholic
Encyclopedia, www.newadvent.org/cathen/15569a.htm (accessed December 21, 2011).
138
Seeming to refer to Luke 22:43–44, which directly follows Jesus’s prayer in the
Garden: here an angel appears to comfort him, “and being in agony, he prayed the lon-
ger” (“Et factus in agonia, prolixus orabat”—Vulg.). However, it is not clear precisely
what text would have been sung here.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 167 10/28/2013 10:36:22 PM

All of this having been completed the benediction with the Venerable
[Sacrament] was given.139
This vivid ritual, the letter continues, had been common in south Germany
for some thirty years; its popularity was symbolized not only by the ubiquity
of statues representing Christ in agony but also by the laity’s widely observed
custom of kneeling and praying on Thursday evenings at the sounding of a
distinct bell, in memory of this holy mystery.
The Capuchin defense of Lenten devotions at St. Peter raises numerous
questions that are not easily answered: what was the nature of the poly-
phonic Miserere sung by the electoral musicians? And what of the “agony of
Christ,” presumably sung by the electoral musicians as well and mingling
with bell sounds emanating from the church tower? We cannot be entirely
certain of the nature of these sounds; but there was certainly a richness of
expressive means.
Supplications and Celebrations

More irregular were the special devotional services mandated for times of
tribulation—pestilence, poor weather, or military threat, whether real or
imagined—and for the celebration of military victories. In chapter 5, we
shall see that public processions were often held in Bavaria for both types
of occasions, and since processions always departed from and concluded at
churches, where additional ceremonies and services were held, one cannot
draw a radical distinction between the two phenomena. As we have seen, lita-
nies of various sorts were central to supplicatory prayer and existed on a con-
tinuum that included the spoken word, heightened recitation, plainchant,
falsobordone, and the full-blown polyphonic, contrapuntal settings that were
increasingly common by the end of the sixteenth century. Most ordinances
demanding supplicatory litanies are silent on the question of how they were
to be performed, simply requiring them in conjunction with processions and,
in the case of mandates issued in response to the Turkish threat, with manda-
tory universal prayer at the sounding of the so-called Turk bell.140 However,
139
BayHStA, KL München, Kapuziner 1, 6v–7r. For original text, see Extended Reference
3.66.
140
Prayer at the sound of the Turk bell was mandated, for example, by Wilhelm V in
1592; see Extended Reference 3.67. Supplicatory litanies were also mandated in the
diocese of Freising in 1570 (AEM, Generalien, December 1, 1570); in Bavaria in 1593
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 168 10/28/2013 10:36:22 PM

particular institutions are known to have deployed their musical ensembles
to perform litanies in these circumstances. In 1592, for example, the Jesuits
of Ingolstadt agreed with the city council that “on individual Sundays and
other feasts[,] litanies with musical accompaniment shall be sung by the
sodalists [of the Marian Congregation], and that on other days there shall be
specific, fixed divine services in order to ward off pestilence from the city.”141
In 1610, responding to an increase in confessional tensions, the Bishop of
Freising and Duke Maximilian I mandated that “the litanies shall be sung
or read by the officiant or ministers in front of the high altar, and responded
to by the choir” every day in the churches of his diocese; furthermore there
should be a procession every Friday until further notice.142 One imagines here
an alternatim performance of the litany with the priest reciting or singing
the invocations and the choir providing the regular responses of ora pro nobis,
perhaps in plainchant, falsobordone, or polyphony.
In times of celebration, the performance of the Ambrosian hymn Te Deum
laudamus required a far more imposing sonic complement. The representa-
tional use of the Te Deum was by no means unique to Bavaria or even to the
Catholic lands in this age; the hymn’s proclamation of God’s might and, by
extension, his favor toward his people was all but essential when early mod-
ern princes publicly acknowledged favorable outcomes on the battlefield. We
will see in chapter 5 that an elaborate performance of the Te Deum concluded
the traditional “Prague Procession” commemorating Maximilian I’s victory
over the Bohemian Protestants at White Mountain in 1620. The diary of
Johannes Hellgemayr shows that it was performed on numerous other favor-
able occasions as well.143 One performance of the Te Deum at Unsere Liebe
Frau in 1626, on the occasion of Tilly’s victory at Lutter, involved cannon
fire from the towers of that church as well as musket salvos from the nearby
market square; although the sources are unspecific on this matter, we can eas-
ily imagine that the singing of the Te Deum was augmented by the church’s
(BSB, Kloeckeliana 21/19, November 12, 1593); and in the diocese of Freising in
1595 (AEM, Generalien, June 23, 1595).
141
Wilczek, “Die Jesuiten in Ingolstadt (1589–1594),” 34. Translation mine.
142
AEM, Generalien, June 15, 1610, p. 262. See Extended Reference 3.68.
143
Court musicians performed the Te Deum for the Bavarian occupation of Donauwörth
in December 1607; for the victory over the Danes at Heiligenhafen in September
1627; for Tilly’s conquest of Magdeburg in May 1631; and again for Tilly’s victory at
Bamberg in March 1632. See Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des
Bayerischen Kapellaltisten Johannes Hellgemayr,” 164, 186–87, 200–201, 204.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 169 10/28/2013 10:36:22 PM

organ and instrumental musicians, and by the pealing of bells in the city as
well.144
Festivities and supplications like the ones described here naturally blur
distinctions between devotional spaces, liturgical spaces, and the public, civic
environments that are the subject of the next chapter. Space is a highly mal-
leable phenomenon whose character depends only in part on the physical envi-
ronment: much more central are the actions of individuals and corporations
that occupy it and give it meaning. In the case of celebrations involving the Te
Deum, the “devotional” space can be said to be anchored in the church in which it
was performed, but the imposing sound of this boisterous service—augmented,
as we have seen, by gunfire and perhaps bell ringing as well—temporarily trans-
formed the character of surrounding spaces as well, both public and private. And
when these observances began or ended with processions, we must reckon with
a mobile transformation of public space, often one in which aural media such as
bells and gunfire enveloped the entire city in a web of significant sounds.
Song and the Soundscape

The most ubiquitous form of musical sound in early modern cities is the one
that is most inaccessible to us today. Song in private homes, taverns, and public
spaces, vernacular songs defined the musical soundscape for most people, and in
terms of significant sound were rivaled only by the dense network of bell signals
that articulated time and space. Having previously examined the role of vernacu-
lar songs in Bavarian worship services, we turn here to vernacular song in “devo-
tional” spaces outside of the liturgy. Private dwellings could become devotional
space, of course, but we must broaden the definition to embrace public areas
as well, including the workshops, taverns, streets, and squares in which people
congregated. Devotional space, then, was a delimited product of human action, a
flexible, changeable area that was sometimes public and sometimes private, inter-
acting in complex ways with the more fixed and formal spaces of official culture.
A number of factors complicate any simple notions of devotional space as
created by song. However much Counter-Reformation elites constructed reli-
gious space as distinct from secular space, the two spheres frequently overlapped
in practice, especially in the aural dimension. Moreover, sacred songs com-
monly drew on secular imagery, and vice-versa, and so songs of a moralistic
144
Helmuth Stahleder, Belastungen und Bedrückungen, Die Jahre 1506–1705, Chronik
der Stadt München 2 (Ebenhausen, Hamburg, Munich: Dölling und Galitz Verlag;
Stadtarchiv München, 2005), 414.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 170 10/28/2013 10:36:23 PM

quality cannot be easily categorized as either sacred or secular. Contrafacture,
furthermore, operated in both directions: secular lieder were given sacred texts,
and well-known religious songs and chorales gained political potency when
their texts were altered with polemical intent.145 There are also finer distinc-
tions within the repertory of religious song that imply different types of spaces.
The “church songs” (Kirchenlieder) for divine worship tend—for obvious rea-
sons—toward simpler, easily memorizable language and forms, while “spiritual
songs” (geistliche Lieder), including the thoroughbass lieder discussed previously,
presented more elevated, edificatory themes for literate devotees who met in
monastic or wealthier domestic contexts.146 More difficult to place are the sim-
pler songs for edification and devotion that were sometimes used as propaganda
(largely a Jesuit enterprise) that often resort to contrafacture as a means of reach-
ing an audience of uncertain literacy. Devotional space, then, cannot be taken to
denote a unified field of practice, even if religious imagery was broadly shared
across different types of songs.
Extant sources, furthermore, do not offer an unmediated view of popu-
lar culture.147 Songbooks were the products of literate elites, whose success
in reaching commoners with their music was variable and difficult for us
to judge. Accounts of people singing found in books and manuscripts, fur-
thermore, can hardly to be taken to be “objective” descriptions of cultural
phenomena. Rather, they express programmatic biases: either censure of the
immoral or praise of the exemplary. These sources, then, can only hint at
what must have been a much broader culture of religious song, operating
primarily as an oral tradition. Extant contrafacta do suggest orality to some
extent: a person who could read words but not mensural notation could sing
a given text aloud to a certain well-known tune, and expect that those within
earshot could learn to repeat the song’s text using that melody as a mnemonic
145
The centrality of contrafacture in song culture is discussed by Rebecca Wagner Oettinger
at length in her Music as Propaganda in the German Reformation (Aldershot: Ashgate,
2001), esp. in ch. 4, 89–136; I have discussed some specific episodes of polemical
contrafacta in biconfessional Augsburg in “Song, Confession, and Criminality: Trial
Records as Sources for Popular Musical Culture in Early Modern Europe,” Journal of
Musicology 18 (2001): 616–57.
146
On the distinctiveness of the geistliches Lied see Scheitler, Das Geistliche Lied im deutschen
Barock, esp. 1–59.
147
Some of the challenges in studying early modern popular culture—particularly
with respect to the mediating role of sources—are discussed in Robert W. Scribner,
“Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Europe,” in R. Po-Chia Hsia and Robert
W. Scribner, eds., Problems in the Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Europe
(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), 11–34, esp. 23–34.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 171 10/28/2013 10:36:23 PM

aid. While the interplay of oral and written song culture is difficult to follow
in the Catholic context, evidence from official visitations, criminal prosecu-
tions, and recatholicization, all of which involved the suppression of “hereti-
cal” practices, left behind written artifacts that testify to popular Protestant
practices of singing in public and in private.
Protestant Song, Censorship, and Suppression

We have previously seen the persistence of Protestant singing in divine wor-
ship, although this culture of song becomes less visible as Protestant culture
was gradually driven underground by the efforts of Catholic officials and
clergy in the second half of the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, singing per-
sisted, especially in the neighboring territories of Pfalz-Neuburg and the
Upper Palatinate after their early seventeenth-century recatholicization. In
the case of the Upper Palatinate, which fell to Maximilian I in 1621 as a
consequence of the Catholic military victory at White Mountain the previous
year, copious records survive of “heretical” literature—including a great deal
of music—confiscated from Protestants by Bavarian officials and their Jesuit
allies during the course of thorough, house-to-house inspections. As we shall
see, these records allow both qualitative and quantitative insights into the
scope and nature of Protestant song in private households.
Singing was well rooted in Protestant culture and indeed was one of its
defining features, a consequence partly of the Lutheran embrace of lay partici-
pation in the liturgy through vernacular song, and partly of Luther’s personal
enthusiasm for music as a gift from God that both edified and refreshed the
spirit. Song was, in fact, a key means of articulating Protestant devotional
space, creating opportunities for what Andrew Pettegree has called a “cul-
ture of belonging” that could persist in the face of official suppression.148 As
devotees retreated to private conventicles that were hidden from the eyes of
officials, their communal readings of scripture, psalms, and songs etched the
boundaries of difference separating them from their confessional antagonists,
148
Andrew Pettegree, Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005), 41. On the significance and function of vernacular song
within Protestantism, see Patrice Veit, “Kirchenlied und konfessionelle Identität im
deutschen 16. Jahrhundert,” in Hören, Sagen, Lesen, Lernen: Bausteine zu einer Geschichte
der kommunikativen Kultur. Festschrift für Rudolf Schenda zum 65. Geburtstag (Bern: Lang,
1995), 750–53; and Robert Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in
Reformation Germany (London, Ronceverte: Hambledon Press, 1987), 60–2. For further
discussion see Extended Reference 3.69.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 172 10/28/2013 10:36:23 PM

tied them together, and gave them a structured and powerful outlet for the
expression of their religious identity.149 In Counter-Reformation Bavaria
these spaces were by nature mutable and temporary, and singing brought
with it the constant risk of discovery by eavesdroppers.
In suppressing Protestant song and offering an alternate repertory,
Catholic officials evinced an understanding of music’s power to aurally shape
space in ways both desired and undesired. They knew, for example, that cer-
tain songs could create an environment that would be hostile to the clergy’s
pastoral and missionary work. Jacob Rosolenz, provost of the Augustinian
Canonry at Stainz, in the Steiermark, catalogued a large number of inflamma-
tory songs, including Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort and Aus tiefer Not, schlag
Pfaffen zu Todt, which the Lutherans “howl, bellow, and grunt barbarically”
in “baths, taverns, and everywhere else.” They had learned these songs, “not
from their devoted parents, but rather from those sons of jesters, the preach-
ers.”150 As we shall see in the next chapter, the song Erhalt uns Herr would
become a blunt weapon, used publicly by Protestants against the Catholic
priesthood in Regensburg.
Behind closed doors, devotees in Protestant conventicles read scripture
and sermons, discussed religious matters, and sang songs, tactically produc-
ing spaces that were transitory yet powerful venues for confessional iden-
tity building.151 Protestant conventicles already concerned Bavarian Catholic
authorities by 1558, the year that a Salzburg archdiocesan synod singled
out the spread of Lutheran song and secret gatherings as a particular prob-
lem.152 Responding to the conclusions of the Salzburg synod, Bavarian offi-
cials acknowledged that “if one reads alone in his house, this is difficult to
149
In this respect see especially Christopher B. Brown, Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns
and the Success of the Reformation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), on
the remarkable success of Lutheran song in Joachimstal (today Jáchymov in the Czech
Republic) and its resilience in the face of the Habsburg-led Counter-Reformation in
that region.
150
Jacob Rosolenz, Gründlicher GegenBericht, Auff Den falschen Bericht vnnd vermainte
Erinnerung Dauidis Rungij, Wittenbergischen Professors, Von der Tyrannischen Bäpstischen
Verfolgung deß H. Evangelij, in Steyermarckt, Kärndten, vnd Crayn (Graz: Georg
Widmanstetter, 1607), 10. Quoted also in part in Moser, Verkündigung durch Volksgesang,
15–16. See Extended Reference 3.70.
151
On strategies and tactics as modes of power, see Michel de Certeau, The Practice of
Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1984), 36.
152
For discussion see Gerhard B. Winkler, Die nachtridentinischen Synoden im Reich: Salzburger
Provinzialkonzilien 1569, 1573, 1576 (Vienna: Bohlau, 1988), esp. 102–13.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 173 10/28/2013 10:36:23 PM

abolish. But if such reading turns into secret preaching or secret schools,
then these, together with other secret preaching and secret schools [. . .] shall
be eradicated.”153 They distinguished, then, between private, silent reading
and the gatherings of adults and children, which would certainly have been
more difficult to conceal, especially if songs or psalmody were involved. In
April of the same year, the ducal government complained to the Munich
city council that several women, including some from the patriciate, were
organizing secret conventicles with sermons (mit winckhelpredigen haimblichen
Conuenticuln), in which Catholic practices were being criticized; furthermore,
the women were encouraging children to sing “deceitful German songs”
(deutschen verführerischen Gesänge) in the streets. The court demanded the arrest
of these unnamed women, but having done so the city council was forced
to release them when they refused to admit any guilt.154 Further reports of
conventicles in Munich are rare in the archival sources, suggesting that they
were either becoming uncommon or were well concealed. In any case, in
1597 the city council increased its surveillance, for there were still those in
the city who owned and distributed Lutheran writings, held secret meetings
with Lutheran preachers, sang psalms on feast days, and had not confessed or
taken Catholic communion.155
Since Bavarian officials could not hope to wipe out the conventicles, they
tried to limit their access to written material that transmitted Protestant
ideas and songs. As early as 1565, local officials were commanded to prevent
the import of any items that had not been printed in one of the places appear-
ing on a carefully delimited list of Catholic cities and territories.156 Four years
later, Albrecht V’s wide-ranging religious mandate singled out the spread of
printed books, tracts, and songs as a chief culprit in the persistence of heresy,
for the layman “does not know right from wrong, [and] cannot recognize poi-
son, but rather takes it and believes it to be the pure, clear word of God.”157
It was perhaps unrealistic to expect that Protestant devotional spaces could
be eliminated by censorship alone, but few other options were available to
153
BayHStA, KÄA 1752, 278v–279r. See Extended Reference 3.71.
154
BayHStA, Kurbayern Geistlicher Rat 1, 197r–v, also discussed in Rößler, Geschichte
und Strukturen der evangelischen Bewegung im Bistum Freising, 53–59.
155
See Stahleder, Belastungen und Bedrückungen, 226, citing StAM, RP 212, 243r–245r.
156
See Walter Ziegler, Altbayern von 1550–1651, Dokumente zur Geschichte von Staat
und Gesellschaft in Bayern, Abteilung I, Band 3, Teil 2 (Munich: C. H. Beck’sche
Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1992), 354, and Extended Reference 3.72.
157
Albrecht V, religious mandate of September 30, 1569, qtd. here from BayHStA,
Staatsverwaltung 2797, 294v–295r. See Extended Reference 3.73.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 174 10/28/2013 10:36:23 PM

Bavarian authorities. Spies or informants could potentially uncover noisy
gatherings, of course, but the archival sources are remarkably free of reports
of such incidents. Somewhat more frequent are reports of individuals who
were caught owning heretical literature, although it is difficult to tell how
they might have used these materials.158
More compelling evidence of defiant Protestant singing comes from the
territories that underwent campaigns of recatholicization in the early sev-
enteenth century: the duchy of Pfalz-Neuburg after 1613 and the Upper
Palatinate after 1621. Count-Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm’s sudden conver-
sion to Catholicism in 1613 led to a gradual campaign to recatholicize his
mainly Protestant subjects in his small territory of Pfalz-Neuburg, but some
sources suggest that it was met with considerable resistance. For example,
the duke’s move to banish bell-ringing and song from Protestant burials
incited considerable anger.159 In 1619, a pessimistic report arrived at court
from Lauingen, a small parish upriver on the Danube. Among other concerns
relating to mixed confessional marriages and the city councillors’ propensity
to travel to Lutheran towns to attend services, the author notes the persis-
tence of secret conventicles in the town: “The old gentleman Dr. Mundbrecht
reads, or has read, passages from [Lutheran] sermons in his house on every
Sunday and feast day, which is attended by as many as 40 persons, and they
even sing Psalms.”160 The count himself became skeptical that the eradica-
tion of Protestant literature and songs was a possible, or even a desirable goal,
for confiscation would likely be met with firm opposition from those accus-
tomed to creating devotional spaces in public and private.161
No such restraint was evident on the part of Bavarian officials in the
Upper Palatinate. Recatholicization there proceeded in gradual stages dur-
ing the 1620s, as the Jesuits gradually took over churches and schools and
158
Adam Berg, who later would achieve fame as Orlando di Lasso’s principal music printer
in Munich, would in fact be imprisoned briefly in 1569 for printing a Calvinist confes-
sion in his shop. For further commentary and other examples see Extended Reference
3.74.
159
BZaR, OA-Gen 2548, “Deß Hochstiffts Regenspurg angehörigen Pfarrer dis[en]
weiln insinuiert gravamina Wider die Fürstl: Pfaltz: Neuburgische Landsassen, Pfleger,
Richter vnd andere beampte, auch Schuelmaister Mößner vnd Pfarrkhinder,” no. 48,
April 2, 1618. See Extended Reference 3.75.
160
BayHStA, Pfalz-Neuburg Akten, NA 1989, 2669, 3v. See Extended Reference 3.76.
161
Letter of Wolfgang Wilhelm to the bishops of Eichstätt, Regensburg, and Augsburg,
July 14, 1623, BZaR, OA-Gen 2548. See Extended Reference 3.77.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 175 10/28/2013 10:36:24 PM

Lutheran services became ever scarcer.162 In 1628, the electoral govern-
ment finally ordered Protestant subjects to convert to Catholicism or leave
the territory, and secret conventicles were to be suppressed through the
visitation of all homes and the confiscation and burning of any heretical
literature that was found. The number of books collected in the capital
of Amberg in April of that year was so great that local electoral officials
insisted to Maximilian that keeping catalogues of them was simply too
time consuming; in May, Maximilian agreed, calling for the books to be
burned forthwith. The first major book-burning in public in Amberg took
place on January 29, 1630, outside the city gates; for the occasion students
of the Jesuit school were given the day off so they could witness the confla-
gration personally.163
This extensive body of literature and music points to the persistence of
Protestant conventicles in the face of Bavarian recatholicization, and sug-
gests that singing was a common way of shaping these spaces.164 Despite the
electoral officials’ plea, extensive catalogues do in fact survive for Amberg
and other towns in the Upper Palatinate, and they record in detail over
10,000 books taken from private homes. Officials confiscated 763 songbooks,
many identified with generic titles such as “Psalmen vnd Geistliche Lieder,”
“Buech allerlei gesäng[er],” and so forth; to the extent that they can be iden-
tified, many appear to have been printed in Nuremberg, some sixty kilome-
ters to the west of Amberg and the single most prolific printing center in
Germany at the time. Less frequent were simple polyphonic arrangements of
Lutheran chorales and psalms that might be performed by small gatherings
162
On the recatholicization of the Upper Palatinate see especially Trevor Johnson,
Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles, which supersedes Friedrich Lippert, Geschichte der
Gegenreformation in Staat, Kirche und Sitte der Oberpfalz-Kurpfalz zur Zeit des dreißigjäh-
rigen Krieges (Freiburg im Breisgau: Paul Waetzel, 1901). Lippert’s earlier study of
the Reformation in the Upper Palatinate is Die Reformation in Kirche, Sitte und Schule
der Oberpfalz (Kurpfalz) 1520–1620 (Rothenburg ob der Tauber: J. P. Peter’sche
Buchdruckerei, 1897).
163
Johnson, Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles, 162–63; and Friedrich Lippert,
“Bücherverbrennung und Bücherverbreitung in der Oberpfalz 1628,” Beiträge zur bay-
rischen Kirchengeschichte 6 (1900): 176.
164
These survive in BayStA Amberg, OpRRA 553, 563, and 564. Friedrich Lippert
surveyed these materials in his “Bücherverbrennung und Bücherverbreitung in der
Oberpfalz 1628,” 178–89. For an overview of their contents see Extended Reference
3.78. On the vibrant culture of reading and singing in the territory before recatholici-
zation see also Johnson, Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles, 31–39.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 176 10/28/2013 10:36:24 PM

of musically literate amateurs.165 Psalmody must have been central to the
devotional practices of the conventicles, for we find over a thousand Psalters,
including over 500 Genevan Psalters in German translation by Ambrosius
Lobwasser (1515–1585), which had been adopted widely by Calvinists and
Lutherans alike. Not uncommon in the catalogues is the indication that
books were missing first and last pages, suggesting either that they had been
heavily used or that their owners, anticipating the arrival of electoral officials
in their homes, tried to strip them of paratexts—titles, authors, publication
information, colophons—that might have given unambiguous evidence of
their confessional contents.
With Bavarian recatholicization, the devotional spaces created by this
speaking and singing necessarily became both small in physical size and
ephemeral, but they were persistent. The Jesuits and electoral officials who
took control of the local printing presses had relatively little success in
convincing the elector’s new subjects to purchase alternative Catholic lit-
erature.166 Protestant literature and songbooks, moreover, continued to fil-
ter into the Upper Palatinate; for example, a 1629 Nuremberg print titled
Trostreiche Gebete und Lieder für beträngte Christen (Comforting prayers and songs
for beleaguered Christians) circulated widely in the territory.167 At times, the
Protestants dared to extend their spaces beyond their private homes. In 1627,
for example, a parish priest in Neunburg vorm Wald complained to a local
official that the landed nobility were not observing the Gregorian calendar,
were having their subjects work on feast days, and that Christmas was cel-
ebrated according to older traditions: “the evening before there is gunfire
and the usual caroling [gewöhnlichen Umgesängen], and the whole day after
in almost all of the houses here sermons are read and Psalms are sung, in an
open and festal manner.”168 As late as 1654, some years after the conclusion
165
The best-represented is the Regenspurgischer Kirchen Contrapunct (Regensburg:
Bartholomäus Graf, 1599; RISM P264) by Andreas Raselius, former cantor of the
Gymnasium Poeticum in Regensburg.
166
See Philipp Schertl, “Die Amberger Jesuiten im ersten Dezennium ihres Wirkens
(1621–1632),” Verhandlungen des historischen Vereins von Oberpfalz und Regensburg 102
(1962): 136–7, and Extended Reference 3.79.
167
See Lippert, Geschichte der Gegenreformation in Staat, Kirche und Sitte der Oberpfalz-Kurpfalz,
169. This may refer to the Etliche schöne trostreiche Gebet vnnd Andachten für alle fromme
Christen vnnd sonderlich für diejenigen, welche wegen dess H. Evangelii angefochten vnnd
betränget werden (Nuremberg: Simon Halbmeyer, 1629).
168
BayStA Amberg, Subd. Reg. 1865, qtd. in Josef Hanauer, Die bayerischen Kurfürsten
Maximilian I. und Ferdinand Maria und die katholische Restauration in der Oberpfalz
(Regensburg: Verlag des Vereins für Regensburger Bistumsgeschichte, 1993), 109.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 177 10/28/2013 10:36:24 PM

of the Thirty Years’ War, reports of heretical songs were still reaching the
electoral government. The Pfleger of Bruck, for example, reported that many
songs “from the time of heresy” were still being sung, particularly in work-
shops and taverns, but even in the churches.169 These examples show that
the Catholic discipline of space in the Upper Palatinate remained tentative
and unfulfilled, even if the recatholicization of the territory was ultimately
successful.
Catholic Song in Bavaria

The situation in the Upper Palatinate provided yet one more example to
Catholic elites of Protestant song’s resiliency and the need to counter it with
an orthodox alternative. In the decades around 1600 the Bavarian theater
saw a remarkable number of efforts to create such a repertory, which was
printed in songbooks both large and small, circulated in manuscript, and dis-
seminated in ways reflecting both oral and literate modes of communication.
A full survey of Catholic song produced in the Bavarian orbit is far beyond the
scope of this book, but several aspects of the repertory are significant to our
understanding of the Bavarian soundscape and how it was shaped to encour-
age a specifically Catholic identity in the age of the Counter-Reformation.170
We should not underestimate the extent to which the creation of a
Catholic song repertory was fundamentally a top-down endeavor. Song
formed part of a broad program that was perhaps best exemplified by the
Guldene Almosen (Golden Alms) program begun in Munich in 1614, through
which the Jesuits sponsored the printing and free dissemination of a wide
variety of vernacular materials having both didactic and devotional aims.171
169
Report in BayStA Amberg, GS 73, pp. 1–5, cited in Hanauer, Die bayerischen Kurfürsten
Maximilian I. und Ferdinand Maria, 82.
170
The study of Catholic song in the Counter-Reformation was spurred by Michael
Härting; see his “Das deutsche Kirchenlied der Gegenreformation,” in Fellerer, ed.,
Geschichte der katholischen Kirchenmusik, 2:59–63; and his “Das deutsche Kirchenlied
der Barockzeit,” in ibid., 2:108–18. See also Theo Hamacher, in Beiträge zur Geschichte
des Katholischen Deutschen Kirchenliedes (Paderborn: im Selbstverlag, 1985), who exam-
ines mainly sixteenth-century songbooks, and especially Moser, Verkündigung durch
Volksgesang, who provides a broad survey of Catholic song from the literary perspective
of propaganda and catechism. For a survey of Catholic songbooks and their repertory
see Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied in seinen Singweisen.
171
On the Gulden Almosen program see Wolfgang Brückner, “Zum Literaturangebot des
güldenen Almosens,” Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte 47 (1984): 121–39. See
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 178 10/28/2013 10:36:25 PM

The Jesuits also came to see singing as a crucial part of their missionary work,
and they were abetted by many others belonging to the religious orders, the
ecclesiastical hierarchy, and the ducal/electoral government. The program-
matic quality of Catholic song production is enhanced when we consider
that the greatest concentrations of Catholic song would be produced in those
confessional borderlands—the valleys of the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers
and their neighboring territories, including Bavaria—that were most con-
tested.172 Here, we think of such collections as Johannes Leisentrit’s great
Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen, first published at Bautzen in Upper Lusatia in
1567; the many editions of the Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengeseng for the
bishopric of Speyer, published at Cologne beginning in 1599; the Catholisch
Manual oder Handbuch, known as the “Mainzer Cantuale,” first appearing at
Mainz in 1605; or David Gregor Corner’s Groß Catholisch Gesangbuch, which
beginning in 1625 would be printed just outside Nuremberg at Fürth, in
territory belonging to the bishop of Bamberg.173 In Bavarian territory proper
a pioneering role was taken by Adam Walasser (d. 1581), who had been
associated with the Jesuit-owned Mayer printing operation in Dillingen; his
Catholische Teutsche und Lateinische Gesang first appeared in 1574 from the
printing shop of the Benedictines of Tegernsee.174 The Tegernsee repertory
in turn would form the core of what was largest and most “comprehensive”
Catholic songbook produced in Bavaria, the Gesang und Psalmenbuch (1586),
printed at Munich by Adam Berg, whose operation benefited directly from
Wittelsbach patronage.175 Other notable songbooks that appeared in the
Bavarian orbit during this period would include the Catholisch Gesangbüchlein
(1613), printed at Munich by Berg’s widow Anna, and two Jesuit prod-
ucts that we shall explore in more detail later, the Paradeißvogel of Conrad
Vetter, first printed in Ingolstadt in 1613, and the Himmelglöcklein of Jakob
Bidermann, first printed in Dillingen around 1621.176 Rather than being
172
Moser notes the concentration of Catholic songbooks in confessional border areas in his
Verkündigung durch Volksgesang, 55.
173
174
Catholische Teutsche vnd Lateinische Gesang (Tegernsee: Adam Walasser, 1574). For
details see Extended Reference 3.82.
175
Gesang und Psalmenbuch (Munich: Adam Berg, 1586; RISM B/VIII, 158610). For details
176
Catholisch Gesangbüchlein (Munich: Anna Berg Witwe, 1613); Conrad Vetter,
Paradeißvogel, Das ist, Himmelische Lobgesang (Ingolstadt: Andreas Angermayer, 1613;
RISM B/VIII, 161319); and Jakob Bidermann, Himmelglöcklein (Dillingen: Jacob
Sermodi, 3/1627). For full titles and details of other editions, see Extended Reference
3.84.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 179 10/28/2013 10:36:25 PM

“organic” products of Catholic devotional culture, they do represent a pro-
grammatic effort on the part of religious and secular elites to reshape the
popular soundscape in ways that would promote the building and mainte-
nance of Catholic identity.
Success in this project required sensitivity to the highly variable levels
of literacy found among the general population. Whether Lionel Rothkrug
was right to claim that there was “Bavarian-south German aversion to liter-
ate expression” and a “massively nonverbal culture” in Catholic Germany
that prevented the rise of a vernacular literary culture, cannot be adjudicated
here.177 Nevertheless, the authors and editors of Catholic song literature did
take pains to ensure that their songs reached the widest possible audience,
increasing the chances that this music could shape a variety of spaces, of wor-
ship as well as devotion. One way of doing this was to provide a range of dif-
ferent songs and promote their use in as many contexts as possible. Typical is
the title of the 1574 Tegernsee songbook, “to be used throughout the entire
year, not only in the churches, but also inside and outside the home.” Or
in the Munich songbooks of 1586 and 1613, “to be used for the principal
feasts of entire year, in churches, and also in processions and pilgrimages.”
Bidermann, moreover, writes of his Himmelglöcklein that his “Psalms [. . .] and
other Catholic, approved, church songs” may be sung “inside and outside
the church at various times of the entire year.”178 In books like these we find
the songs organized into groups suitable for worship (arranged according
to the liturgical calendar), processions and pilgrimages, general devotion,
and so forth. Still other songbooks stress the purely devotional nature of
their contents. Conrad Vetter’s Paradeißvogel, consisting mainly of German
translations of medieval devotional texts by such authors as Petrus Damiani,
Johann Freiherr von Schwarzenberg, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Dominic the
Carthusian is described as containing “heavenly songs of praise and consid-
erations, by which the heart of man is powerfully charmed, and is drawn
from earth to Paradise and heavenly joy, quickened, inflamed, and rapt.”
These methods of framing and marketing song collections are not exclusive
to Catholicism, of course, but they do demonstrate a desire to reach a wide
variety of potential audiences.
177
See Lionel Rothkrug, “Popular Religion and Holy Shrines: Their Influence on the
Origins of the German Reformation and Their Role in German Cultural Development,”
in James Obelkevich, ed., Religion and the People, 800–1700 (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1979), 65.
178
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 180 10/28/2013 10:36:25 PM

More concretely, the provision of musical notation in songbooks was often
unnecessary or unwanted. The Tegernsee songbooks, which largely rely on
well-known German songs of pre-Reformation origin, such as Der Tag der
ist so freudenreich and the Latin hymns and antiphons Patris sapientia and In
dulci jubilo, lack musical notation entirely and rely instead on the memory
of their readers. Some authors and editors, the Jesuits Vetter and Bidermann
for example, seem to have realized that providing musical notation could
be a hindrance to wider dissemination. Vetter provides only three notated
melodies and in fact makes their use optional, allowing his readers to sing
the texts to specified tunes or, indeed, to invent their own: “I wished not
to provide the notes here,” he writes, “for it should be free to all to choose
better, and the best [melodies] according to his wish and whim; for it is
good to honor and praise God not just with one, but with many tunes and
melodies.”179
When Vetter does provide melodies, they are quite simple. For his
fifty-two-stanza lament, or planctus, of the Virgin Mary, Maria rein, dein Klag
allein, Vetter allows for the well-known and venerable tune Maria zart, von
edler Art; but he provides an alternate notated melody as well that is just as
artless, and even begins with melodic phrases reminiscent of the older tune
(Example 3.7).180
Maria rein/ dein Klag allein/ Pure Mary, your weeping alone
Ist vber alles Klagen: Is over all other weeping:
Dann diese Klag/ von der ich sag/ For this weeping, of which I speak,
Hastu allein getragen. You have borne alone.
O Salomon/ O Simeon/ O Solomon, O Simeon,
Euch beyde soll man hören/ Both of you should be heard
Was ihr geredt/ vnd gschriben steht/ In what you have said and written.
Zwey Stuck thut vns lehren/ You teach us two things
Die dise Sach erklären. That explain this matter.
Running to over 400 pages, Bidermann’s Himmelglöcklein presents a wide

selection of song texts keyed to the events of the liturgical year, beginning with
179
180
It should be noted that the tune and original text of Maria zart is longer than that of
Maria rein, so some truncation of the Maria zart melody would have been necessary in
performance of Vetter’s song.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 181 10/28/2013 10:36:26 PM

E x a m p l e 3 . 7 Conrad Vetter, Maria rein, dein Klag allein from
Paradeißvogel (1613)
the major feasts of the Temporale and concluding with songs for the Sanctorale
and “andere Gottseelige Gesang.” Bidermann provides no notated melodies,
however, counting on his audience to remember them, especially in cases of
popular and venerable songs (Freu dich du Himmelkönigin, Gelobet seist du Jesu
Christ, and Jesus ist ein süsser Nam, just to name a few). For many other songs, he
provides indications for contrafacture—the singing of a given text to a presum-
ably well-known melody.181 Because they had allowed numerous alternatives or
omitted notation altogether, both Vetter and Bidermann may have felt that their
songs could travel more easily among audiences with limited musical literacy.
Contrafacture, moreover, was sometimes deployed for plainly propagan-
distic purposes. The Lutheran song Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort was a natu-
ral target given its invidious comparison of the papacy to the Turks and its
181
Sey Gegrüst Christi Mutter rein to the melody of Da Jesus an dem Creutze stund, and Ewiger
Gott wir bitten dich to the melody of Frew dich du werthe Christenheit, to name two
examples.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 182 10/28/2013 10:36:26 PM

status as a “children’s song,” a title it bore in print as early as 1543.182 From
the many Catholic parodies of Erhalt uns Herr I will single out one that appears
in a set of Sechs schöne Catholische Lieder, published at Ingolstadt in 1586.
This octavo chapbook provides Catholic parodies of Ach Gott von Himmel sieh
darein, Wer in der Hülff deß Höchsten ist, Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, O
Herre Gott dein göttlich Wort, and finally, Erhalt uns Herr in the concluding
position. All of them contain highly inflammatory language; the final con-
trafactum is given the prolix surtitle “a prayer song against the arch-heretic
Luther’s scream of lies, which, like the others with the above-named incipits
and the like, is noisily sung by his successors and heretical comrades in their
prophaned, desacralized churches or unconsecrated preaching houses.”183
Erhalt vns Herr bey deine[m] Wort/ Lord, preserve us in Your Word,

Den Ketzern wehr/ die Türcken mordt/ Avert the murderous heretic
and Turk,
Die Christum vnd die Kirchen schon Who wish to throw down
Wöllen stürtzen von jhrem Thron. Christ and the Church from
their throne.
Most songs like these were printed by Jesuit-controlled presses in

Ingolstadt; although they were published anonymously or pseudonymously,
they carry more than a whiff of Jesuit propagandizing.184 Using contrafacture
as a ready vehicle of transmission, these songs transpose some of the more
virulent anti-Catholic songs into blistering confessional attacks, in which
Catholics are now a persecuted community that shall receive God’s vindica-
tion in the end. Whether songs of this nature penetrated into popular culture
is difficult to assess. To the extent that these contrafacta were performed in
Catholic Bavaria, it may have been striking indeed to hear the melodies—so
bound up with Protestant propaganda—joined to such provocative words.
The flexibility to travel to a wide variety of spaces, then, is a common
feature in the Catholic song repertory—even the more elevated thoroughbass
lieder, as we shall see in the next chapter, could be stripped of their instru-
mental basses and be circulated as monophonic tunes. But above all, we find
182
The song had appeared previously in broadside form, but was first printed in the Klug
songbook of 1543. See Dollinger, “Erhalt uns Herr, bei deinem Wort!”, 33–34.
183
For further commentary see Extended Reference 3.87; the full five stanzas of text are
transcribed in Extended Musical Example 3.4.
184
For examples by Johannes Nas, Conrad Vetter, and others, see Extended Reference 3.88.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 183 10/28/2013 10:36:26 PM

in this music an explicit effort to redefine the soundscape of religious song
in the spirit of Catholic reform. Not all such music, of course, needed to
be blatantly propagandistic; devotion and edification were by far the domi-
nant trends. We see this clearly in a distinctive space for the cultivation of
Catholic song: the catechism instruction (Kinderlehr) that often took place in
churches on Sunday afternoons. Catechism song had been a special interest
of the Jesuits since at least 1586, the year that the Jesuit general Claudio
Aquaviva received a promising report from the Jesuit college at Fulda on how
song aided in the memorization of religious precepts.185 In Bavaria, a glow-
ing account for the year 1608 appears in the chronicle of the Jesuits’ Upper
German Province:
So that the seeds of piety might take firmer root and be received with
a more willing spirit, the fathers made available a selection of pious
songs, and introduced the use of this music, appropriately easy [to
sing] and devout, in the schools and churches. This was found to be
welcome and useful by all, in that the youth to be instructed were
removed from their frivolities and persevered in this until four o’ clock
in the afternoon, and the parents would bring to them a great quan-
tity of milk and a meal for the children and the teacher to consume.
Meanwhile the adults, loving the new singing, remained outside
listening in the cold. Thus in a short time it was that not only the
churches, but also homes and public streets, were filled with the pious
singing of voices, and among the peasantry it was said that wherever
the fathers went, hardly anyone was left unhappy.186
This story may be hyperbolic, but it is clear that by the early seventeenth
century, songs specifically designated for catechism instruction began
appearing regularly in Catholic songbooks.187 The most famous and com-
prehensive example, however, is a Jesuit product, Catechismüs in aüsserlesenen
Exempeln, kürtzen Fragen, schönen Gesängern, Reÿmen und Reÿen für Kirchen und
Schülen by the Würzburg Jesuit preacher Georg Vogler, issued in 1625.188
185
Duhr, Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge, 1:459–60. See Extended
Reference 3.89.
186
HPSJGS III, 357. See Extended Reference 3.90.
187
Among the earliest are the series of songbooks published by the Quentel firm in
Cologne beginning in 1599, as well as the 1605 Mainz “Cantual”; see Michael Härting,
“Das deutsche Kirchenlied der Barockzeit,” in Fellerer, Geschichte der katholischen
Kirchenmusik, 2:108.
188
Georg Vogler, Catechismüs Jn aüsserlesenen Exempeln, kürtzen Fragen, schönen
Gesängern, Reÿmen vnd Reÿen für Kirchen vnd Schülen (Würzburg: Johann Volmar,
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 184 10/28/2013 10:36:27 PM

Vogler carefully prescribes how song might shape the experience of cate-
chism instruction. Upon arriving, the children were to be separated by sex
and told to sit on separate benches, the boys led by a Verhörmeister and the
girls by a Lehrmeisterin. After some instruction and questioning, the children
were to sing—from Vogler’s songs, appropriate seasonal or other catecheti-
cal songs, or material provided by the choir. The catechist then instructed
the children in the proper mode of praying, questioned them on their recall
of the lessons of the previous week, selected some to recite the catechism of
Peter Canisius to each other in verse, and provided them further instruc-
tion in question-and-answer form. The session concluded with prayer and a
chorus of all the children, who had rehearsed the work—containing points
of the catechism—during the preceding week in school. Vogler’s Kinderjubel
(Children’s Rejoicing) contains most of his 152 songs, which include six set-
tings for four voices; however, he is careful to assure his readers that they
may substitute their own melodies, and in fact, he provides a number of
so-called Intercalar-Vers for the illiterate, short verse passages that could be
easily memorized and spoken or sung between the strophes of other songs.189
Vogler’s manual would be one of several books recommended for use by the
elector and regional bishops in Bavaria, where regular catechism instruction
had been made mandatory in the first decade of the seventeenth century.190
Like catechism song, most newly composed Catholic songs hewed to the
values of devotion and edification, avoiding outright propaganda. Despite
Vetter’s reputation as an arch-polemicist, for example, his Paradeißvogel
strikes a tone of deep religious ecstasy in its poetic translations of medieval
mystical writings. Soon there was a flowering of the “spiritual” song, or
geistliches Lied, which unlike the rougher-hewn Kirchenlied assumed an ele-
vated poetic manner that aimed to instruct and inflame the spirit.191 Most
of the thoroughbass lieder of Johannes Khuen and contemporaries like
Friedrich Spee and Prokop von Templin may be brought under the heading
1625; RISM B/VIII, 162524). See Wolfram Metzger’s study in Beispielkatechese der
Gegenreformation: Georg Voglers ‘Catechismus in ausserlesenen Exempeln’, Würzburg 1625,
Veröffentlichungen zur Volkskunde und Kulturgeschichte 8 (Würzburg: Bayerische
Blätter für Volkskunde, 1982).
189
Metzger, Beispielkatechese der Gegenreformation, 80–81.
190
Vogler’s manual is suggested, for example, in the Fürstl: Bischoffliches Mandatum, die
ChristenLehr betreffend (Munich: Cornelius Leysser, 1642), and Johnson notes its use
in the Upper Palatinate in his Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles, 156–62. See also
191
See Scheitler, Das Geistliche Lied im deutschen Barock, esp. 29–59.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 185 10/28/2013 10:36:27 PM

of this genre, which subtly created space for confessional identity building
not by attacking Protestantism directly, but by stressing themes of Marian,
Eucharistic, and sanctoral piety. A telling example can be seen in Khuen’s
Maria Himmelkönigin, the first of three songs in his earliest extant collec-
tion from 1637 (Example 3.8).192 The title page of the book presents it as
“a song for Our Dear Lady, called, ‘the Munich Song for Our Dear Lady,’ ”
a moniker that suggests the melody may already have been known in some
form.193 By singing these litany-like praises in honor of the Virgin—note
the regular call-and-response format, which would have enabled people
who had memorized only the refrains to sing along—devotees would have
shaped a specifically confessional space; but especially striking is Khuen’s
attempt also to delineate the spiritual geography of the city of Munich. The
first five stanzas of Maria Himmelkönigin dwell on the Patroness of Bavaria,
Hans Krumper’s sculpture of Mary that graced the façade of the ducal resi-
dence (Figure 3.1).
1. MARIA Himmel Königin/ Mary, Queen of Heaven
Der gantzen Welt ein Herrscherin: A mistress of the whole world.
Maria bitt für vns. Mary, pray for us.
Du Hertzogin in Bayern bist/ You are the Duchess in Bavaria,
Das Hertzogthum[m] dein eygen ist. The duchy is entirely yours.
Darumb liebreiche Mutter/ Therefore, dear Mother,
reich vns dein milde Handt Grant us your tender hand.
Halt dein Schutz Mantl außgespant/ Hold your protective cloak
Vber das gantze Bayerlandt. Over all of Bavaria.
2. Zu München du dein Wohnung hast/ You have your dwelling in

Munich,
Das zeiget an der schön Palast/ We see this at the fine palace.
Maria bitt für vns: Mary, pray for us.
192
Johannes Khuen, Drey schöne newe Geistliche Lieder, Zu vor noch nie in Druck außgangen,
Das Erste Von vnser lieben Frawen, das Münchnerisch vnser lieben Frawen Gesang genandt.
Das Ander Von dem Leyden Christi, die geistliche Farb genandt. Das dritt Von dem Willen
Gottes, vber den Lob- vnd Trostspruch; Sols seyn so seys,wie mein Gott will (Munich: Cornelius
Leysser, 1637; RISM B/VIII, 163709). For full transcription see Extended Musical
Example 3.5.
193
August Hartmann, in his compilation Historische Volkslieder und Zeitgedichte vom
sechzehnten bis neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Munich: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung,
1907), 1:111, naturally suggests a terminus post quem of 1616 given the reference to the
sculpture of the Patrona Boioriae, but the melody, or at least a version of it, could be
older, as mentioned by Genz in “Johannes Kuen,” 27.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 186 10/28/2013 10:36:27 PM

E x a m p l e 3 . 8 Johannes Khuen, Maria Himmelkönigin from Drey schöne
newe Geistliche Lieder (1637)
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 187 10/28/2013 10:36:27 PM

Die newe Vest hat für ihr Schildt/ The new residence has for its
shield
Ein wunderschöns MariaBildt. A wondrous image of Mary.
Darumb liebreiche Mutter [. . .] Therefore, dear Mother [. . .]
3. Das Bildt hats Kindlein auff dem Arm/ You hold the Christ child in
your arms,
Es gibt den Segen Reich vnd Arm. Who blesses rich and poor alike.
All Sambstag dir vnd deinem Kindt/ Every Saturday, for you and your
Child,
Bey disem Bildt ein Ampel brindt. A lantern burns by this
sculpture.
4. Zwölff Stern vmbs Haupt Twelve stars around her head

stehn wie ein Cron/ Stand like a crown,
Vnter den Füssen ligt der Mon/ Under her feet lies the moon.
Patronin vbers Bayerlandt/ “Patroness of Bavaria”
Steht vnden gschriben an der Wandt/ Is inscribed below on the wall.
5.Gleich ob dem Bildt man lesen thuet: Above the sculpture one may
read,
Wir flihen all vnder dein Huet. “We flee to your protection.”
Vnder dein Schutz wir vns begebn/ We place ourselves under your
shield,
Sicher vnd frölich drunder lebn. Living safely and happily under
it.
Khuen continues by emphasizing the ubiquity of Mary’s image, which graced

both the insides and outsides of private homes; people prayed to her at the
ringing of the Ave Maria or Angelus bell, venerated miraculous images of her,
prayed the rosary, attended services, joined confraternities and sodalities, and
sang litanies in her honor. This version of the song (it would be revised a few
years later, as we shall see in the next chapter) concludes with praise for the
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 188 10/28/2013 10:36:28 PM

twin towers of the Unsere Liebe Frau, which dominated the cityscape visually
and, with their numerous bells, aurally as well:
28. Dich München gar im Hertzen hat/ Munich has you in its heart,
Dein Kirch steht mitten in der Stadt. Your church stands amidst the city.
Sie ist erbawet starck vnd fest. It is built strong and stout,
Zu deiner Ehr auffs allerbest. To honor you the best.
29. Zwen starcke Thürn Two strong towers,

schön groß vnd rund/ Fine, large, and round,
Seind dir erbawen auß dem grund. Are built for you from the ground.
Jn alle höh seind sie geführt/ They extend to great heights,
Dein Kirch darmit ist wolgeziert. And adorn your church well.
In this work, whose melody seems to have achieved some popularity (it
became known as the “Schutzmantel” tune, denoting the protection Mary’s
cloak gave to the Bavarian state; see chapter 4), Marian devotion becomes an
interpretive frame for understanding the religious space of the city itself. Put
differently, Khuen wrote his song as an aural counterpoint to the visual land-
marks that defined Munich’s urban, confessionalized environment. We will
likely never know the true extent to which songs like Maria Himmelkönigin
were heard in the public and private spheres, but this expansive body of song,
together with the fervently Catholic polyphony cultivated by Bavarian com-
posers in these years, testifies to a powerful impetus to reshape the sound-
scapes of devotion in the spirit of Catholic reform.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 189 10/28/2013 10:36:28 PM

Chapter Four Sound and Confession in the
Civic Sphere
S ecular and religious authorities found that shaping the experience

of public space in Bavaria’s cities and towns was a mighty challenge, yet
they believed it to be critical to the advancement of their religious aims.
Like many other regions in early sixteenth-century Germany, Bavaria saw
strong reformed currents emerge in urban areas, particularly among the
merchant and artisan classes. Lutheran ideas also made headway among
the duchy’s landed nobility, whose demands for the lay chalice were finally
ended in 1564 when Duke Albrecht V withdrew his previous concession of
it and began to take stronger measures against heresy. This Kelchbewegung led
Albrecht to draw a line leading from Protestant ideas to political subver-
sion, but his successors Wilhelm V and, especially, Maximilian I had rela-
tively little to fear domestically. They concentrated their energies instead
on reinforcing Catholic identity through surveillance, religious education,
and massive religious spectacles. Despite the seeming success of the Bavarian
Counter-Reformation, the example of the urban Reformation remained close
at hand: imperial cities like Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Regensburg were
ready models for Lutheran civic culture, and indeed Bavarian Protestants
secretly traveled to these cities to take Lutheran communion in both kinds or
sent their children to Lutheran schools there.
Containing confessional tensions was naturally important in
mixed-confessional cities like Augsburg, where a Protestant majority faced a
smaller, yet well-supported Catholic community. Religious tolerance in bi- or
multiconfessional communities could be maintained only when such things as
security guarantees, detailed regulations, political parity, religious autonomy
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 190 10/28/2013 10:36:28 PM

for each faith community, and legal mechanisms to resolve disputes were in
place.1 But even in religiously “homogeneous” cities like Munich the public
sphere was contested space, as religious authorities attempted to control the
urban environment and impose a climate of confessional discipline. This cli-
maxed under Maximilian I, whose general ordinance of 1616 set the tone for
what Felix Stieve called the “religious police state” of Counter-Reformation
Bavaria.2 Disciplining inner convictions was a difficult and gradual task,
but Maximilian’s officials could try to control the nature and organization of
space in which people conducted their daily lives. Visual markers were one
component of this: the programmatic façade of the St. Michael church, the
imposing Mariensäule, erected in 1638 in the center of the market square, and
the sculpture of the Virgin Mary as Patroness of Bavaria on the façade of the
ducal residence dramatized Wittelsbach spirituality in obvious ways.3
Auditory cues also shaped the experience of public space, and arguably
were more pervasive in character. A spectacular Corpus Christi procession
could make a visual impression only along direct sightlines; the relatively
constricted streets of early modern cities limited this impression consider-
ably. Obstreperous instruments like trumpets and drums—not to mention
the salvos of gunfire and the mass ringing of church bells that typically
accompanied such processions—made the experience of this spectacle imme-
diate and unavoidable throughout the city. In a mixed-confessional city like
Augsburg or Regensburg, this appropriation of the entire urban soundscape
1
As Benjamin J. Kaplan has argued in his Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the
Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of the
Harvard University Press, 2007), 198–234. On religious boundaries in Augsburg see
also Duane Corpis, “Mapping the Boundaries of Confession: Space and Urban Religious
Life in the Diocese of Augsburg, 1648–1750,” in Will Coster and Andrew Spicer,
eds., Sacred Space in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2005): 302–25; Emily Fisher Gray, “Good Neighbors: Architecture and Confession
in Augsburg’s Lutheran Church of Holy Cross, 1525–1661” (PhD diss., University
of Pennsylvania, 2004); and my Music and Religious Identity in Counter-Reformation
Augsburg, 1580–1630 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).
2
Landrecht Policey, Gerichts- Malefitz- und andere Ordnungen der Fürstenthumben Obern und
Nidern Bayrn (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1616), 564–65. See also Felix Stieve, Das
kirchliche Polizeiregiment in Baiern unter Maximilian I., 1595–1651 (Munich: Verlag der
M. Rieger’schen Universitäts-Buchhandlung [G. Himmer]), 1876.
3
On the triumphalism of Catholic architecture and ritual see also Heinz Schilling, “Urban
Architecture and Ritual in Confessional Europe,” in Schilling and István György Tóth,
eds., Religion and Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005), 122–37.
s o u n d a n d c o n f e s s i o n i n t h e c i v i c s p h e r e | 191
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 191 10/28/2013 10:36:28 PM

was of great consequence (see chapter 5). Sound assumed an even greater
importance after nightfall. In the absence of public illumination, the dark-
ened streets of early modern cities became the province of bands of umarried
male youths, patrons going to and fro from taverns, and the night watchmen
who struggled to maintain order and quiet. As the keynote sounds of the
daytime bustle receded after dark, any public commotion, shouting, or sing-
ing was set in high relief.4 In Bavaria, the torchlit processions on Good Friday
evening organized by the Capuchins and Jesuits were a limited attempt to
“colonize” the urban night, but even here the cover of darkness always carried
the risk of public misbehavior and immorality.5
In this chapter, we turn to the ways in which Bavarian secular and reli-
gious authorities sought to shape and control the urban soundscape. These
efforts included the marking of sacral time and space through bell ringing;
the increasingly strict regulation of the sounds of “profane” life; the suppres-
sion of Protestant songs and the promotion of Catholic alternatives; and the
cultivation of public spectacle. As Blesser and Salter have recently argued, the
injection of sound into the acoustic arena, and, conversely, the active suppres-
sion of sound, are critical assertions of both power and dissent.6 Authorities
struggled to discipline sound, which was pervasive, yet emphemeral and
often difficult to localize.
Bells and the Urban Soundscape

Today it is difficult to grasp the pervasiveness and symbolic richness of bells
in the early modern city. The culture of bells would change profoundly in the
nineteenth century with the extension of secular authority and ideas, as Alain
Corbin has eloquently argued in the case of France.7 While a similar zeal to
erase all traces of sacral culture was never present in Bavaria, bells there were
4
On the variety of sounds heard at night see especially Norbert Schindler, “Nocturnal
Disturbances: On the Social History of the Night in the Early Modern Period,” in
Schilling, et al., Rebellion, Community and Custom in Early Modern Germany, 201–25.
See also A. Roger Ekirch, At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past (New York: Norton,
2005), 133.
5
Schindler, “Nocturnal Disturbances,” 197.
6
Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter, Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? (Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 2006), 31–35.
7
See Alain Corbin, Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the Nineteenth-Century French
Countryside, trans. Martin Thom (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998),
3, 12–23.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 192 10/28/2013 10:36:28 PM

nonetheless subject to a fate common to all war-ravaged parts of Europe: they
were melted down for the production of cannon. Only a small fraction of
medieval and early modern bells survive today, and in many cases they are
no longer used in traditional ways. But the effort to reclaim the culture of
bells seems crucial, for their peals had a remarkably intimate relationship with
notions of time and space. Ringing at morning, noon, and night, they indeed
marked the hours—becoming associated with mechanical clocks from the
fourteenth century onward— but to this we must add a panoply of functions
both mundane and spiritually profound.8 Murray Schafer has described bells as
an “acoustic calendar”: they warned of imminent danger, called communities
to public gatherings, accompanied weddings and funerals, and festally greeted
processions, pilgrimages, and the arrivals of important persons. Bells had “cen-
tripetal” force, drawing together the community and linking the individual
with God, but they also had a “centrifugal” character as well.9 Their obligatory
consecration in Catholic liturgy points to the long-held belief that bells had the
power to drive away storms and evil spirits, a function commonly represented
in their inscriptions. If the pervasive sound of bells symbolized the unity of the
Christian community, it also symbolized spiritual authority: hung from the
highest towers of the city, bells enveloped the entire community in a web of
significant sounds, projecting ecclesiastical authority to the maximum radius
of their audibility. As we shall see, in Counter-Reformation Bavaria bells were
not least important as calls to obligatory prayer in public and private.
In thinking about bells as markers of time, it is well to distinguish
between notions of “qualitative” and “quantitative” time that overlapped in
complicated ways. By qualitative time, Corbin refers partly to the uneven and
intricate cycles of the Christian liturgical year, and partly to the natural cycle
of the seasons with its inevitable shifts in the length of the diurnal hours.10
In the Christian Middle Ages, regular bell ringing was in essence a call to
8
On the density and significance of bell sounds in late medieval Bruges see Strohm’s
comments in Music in Late Medieval Bruges, 2–4. A comprehensive study of village bell
traditions may be found in Hans-Peter Boer, “Das Glockenläuten im Dorf. Historische
Läuteformen und Läutebrauchtum am Beispiel der Stifts- und Pfarrkirche St. Martinus
zu Nottuln,” Rheinisch-westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 41 (1996): 101–42. Further
recent explorations of bells and civic culture may be found in Niall Atkinson, “Sonic
Armatures: Constructing an Acoustic Regime in Renaissance Florence,” Senses &
Society 7 (2012): 39–52; and Michelle E. Garceau, “ ‘I Call the People.’ Church Bells in
Fourteenth-Century Catalunya,” Journal of Medieval History 37 (2011): 197–214.
9
R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World (New York: Knopf, 1977), 54–55.
10
For this discussion I draw heavily on Corbin, Village Bells, 110–40.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 193 10/28/2013 10:36:28 PM

prayer, regularized in monastic communities to mark the canonical hours.
The later rhythm of ringing the so-called Angelus bell at morning, noon, and
night was not only a mode of marking the “quantitative” hours, but also a
directive for prayer: officials in Counter-Reformation Bavaria would take this
mandate extremely seriously. These bell signals varied seasonally, of course,
according to the changing length of the day. More generally, the peals of
bells, differentiated by number, location, and timbre, were well coordinated
with the uneven cycles of the liturgical calendar. The bells of mechanical
clocks attached to church and civic towers, by contrast, reflected a far more
uniform conception of “quantitative” time, one that by the beginning of the
seventeenth century at the latest was being widely observed.11 Residents of
Bavarian towns, as elsewhere, needed to attune their ears to the different
pitches and timbres of clock bells as distinct from the bells that rang accord-
ing to the motions of the sun and of the liturgical calendar. As residents
decoded their various meanings, bell sounds became more than mere signals
that commanded attention; they became soundmarks, habitual sounds that
people listened to and invested with specific cultural meanings.12
Within their audible radius bells were a potent symbol of authority,
both worldly and spiritual. For Angelo Rocca, whose comprehensive treatise
on bells was published in Rome in 1612, the outward likeness of bells to
trumpets was no coincidence, but reflected a profound, inherent connection
between these objects. Rocca cites the 1536 Provincial Council of Cologne,
which resolved that “bells are indeed blessed, for they are the trumpets of the
Church militant by which the people are called together to the church and
to hear the word of God.”13 Rocca further relies on chapter 10 of the Book
of Numbers, in which we read of God’s command to Moses to make silver
trumpets to call together the people, signal the breaking of camp, and herald
God’s assistance against Israel’s enemies.14 Situated at or near the center of
the city, bells sent their sound outward in concentric circles of decreasing
intensity. Traditionally, the point at which the church bell could no longer
be heard marked the boundary of the parish’s spiritual authority.15 If church
11
For general discussion of bells and mechanical clocks, see Schafer, The Tuning of the
World, 55–56.
12
On “soundmarks” see ibid., 9–10.
13
“Benedicuntur quoque Campanæ, ut sint Tubæ Ecclesiæ militantis, quibus vocetur
Populus ad conueniendum in Templum, & audiendum verbum Dei.” Angelo Rocca,
De campanis commentarius (Rome: Apud Guillelmim Facciottum, 1612), 42–43.
14
Ibid., 71–72.
15
Schafer, The Tuning of the World, 53–55.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 194 10/28/2013 10:36:28 PM

towers were by far the tallest and most conspicuous structures in the early
modern city, their bells, which were capable of making one of the loudest
artificial sounds possible (rivaled only by the explosion of gunpowder), pro-
jected ecclesiastical authority even into workshops and homes. Bell ringing
was not merely sound, however: as Corbin has written, bells were consecrated
objects that helped in the “sacral recharging of the surrounding space,” and
the careful disposition and schedule of ringing in a city’s churches made the
Catholic hierarchy of cathedral, collegiate, and parish church audible to all.16
Controlling the use of bells was so critical because they could also be rung
to foment disruption and rebellion. Corbin gives several examples of French
authorities confiscating bells from rebellious towns in the sixteenth century,
for example.17 Bells could be the object of iconoclastic destruction. In 1563,
for example, Huguenots in the Principality of Orange in southern France
climbed into the cathedral’s bell tower and sent its bells crashing down into
the nave; with this act they “silenced the carillon that marked the boundaries
of Catholic community and laid claim to the acoustic landscape.”18 Bell ring-
ing could be especially controversial in mixed confessional communities. In
the Swabian town of Biberach, for example, a Catholic disrupted a Lutheran
wedding in 1639 by ringing a great alarm bell in the church tower, causing
a large crowd to assemble. While the Catholics insisted that the ringing had
been a mistake, the Lutherans saw it as a naked attempt to provoke a reli-
gious riot.19
Bells were accorded great significance across the confessional divide,
and notions of their sacramental character could not easily be dispelled, as
Trevor Johnson has shown in the case of the Upper Palatinate during its
16
Corbin, Village Bells, 98.
17
Ibid., 195. The link between bells and civil unrest did not go unnoted by critics;
in his epigrams Jacques Auguste de Thou, a pacifist and opponent of the Catholic
League, entreated bells to “cease your assault on this undeserving head. You are bet-
ter suited to sound the signal for civil war: I am a lover of peace: what use to me are
war-trumpets?” From De Thou, Iacobi Augusti Thuani Epigrammata, preserved in Paris,
Bibliothèque nationale, ms. Dupuy 460, quoted here from Ingrid A. R. de Smet,
“Contre les cloches: pour une lecture de neuf épigrammes inédites de Jacques-Auguste
de Thou (1553–1617),” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 66 (2004): 101. My
thanks to Carla Zecher of the Newberry Library in Chicago for drawing my attention
to this source. See Extended Reference 4.1.
18
Amanda Eurich, “Sacralising Space: Reclaiming Civic Culture in Early Modern
France,” in Coster and Spicer, eds., Sacred Space in Early Modern Europe, 265.
19
Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 207–17, esp. 214.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 195 10/28/2013 10:36:28 PM

sixteenth-century Reformation.20 Certainly among Catholics traditional
notions of bells’ evil-banishing or apotropaic properties—Schafer’s idea of
centrifugal power—persisted.21 Rocca argued this quite clearly: “For just as
the ringing of bells stirs the mind of those faithful in Christ, and moves
[them] to do [good] things, conversely demons flying through the air, and
particularly those who are wont to be vexed by such bell ringing, flee and
abhor that wondrous sound which is dedicated to the divine cult and the
honor of the Saints.”22 Indeed, Rocca echoed a much older, medieval under-
standing that demons were horrified by the sound of a bell, and that bell
sounds could break the clouds or repel threatening storms; so-called storm
bells, or Sturmglocken, were ubiquitous in church towers.23 The sacramental,
indeed magical quality of bell sounds was due in no small part to the fact of
their consecration by ordained clergy—in the Bavarian dioceses, normally
suffragan bishops, who used consecration formulas provided in the Roman
Pontifical.24 Bell inscriptions from the Middle Ages and later periods often
make reference to apotropaic magic. The names of the four Evangelists were
thought to drive away bad weather, with Luke usually coming in the initial
position: an example is the fourteenth-century Klingl bell of Unsere Liebe
Frau in Munich, bearing the inscription “LVCAS MARCVS MATTAVS
JOHANNES.”25
Here it may be useful to illustrate the potential complexity of bell sounds
by examining the bell disposition of Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich, which was
20
Johnson, Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles: The Counter Reformation in the Upper
Palatinate (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 220–21.
21
On the apotropaic power of bells see Corbin, Village Bells, 101–10, and Schafer, The
Tuning of the World, 54.
22
Rocca, De campanis commentarius, 132. See Extended Reference 4.2.
23
A medieval treatise arguing for the apotropaic properties of bells, for example,
was Guillaume Durand’s Rationale divinorum officiorum, reprinted at Lyon in 1592
(Lyon: sumptibus Ioannis Baptistae Buysson, 1592); see esp. 131–33. See Extended
Reference 4.3.
24
BZaR, OA-Gen 3119 contains numerous formulas and texts for consecrating altars
and bells in the diocese of Regensburg. For a general discussion of bell consecra-
tion, see Hartwig Niemann, “Das Liturgische Läuten,” in the Beratungsausschuss
für das Deutsche Glockenwesen, ed., Glocken in Geschichte und Gegenwart
(Karlsruhe: Badenia-Verlag, 1997), 2:24.
25
See Karl Ludwig Nies, Die Glocken des Münchner Frauendoms (Munich: Verlag Sankt
Michaelsbund, 2004), 75. On the weather ringing of bells bearing the names of
the Evangelists more generally see Sigrid Thurm’s introduction to Franz Dambeck
and Günther Grundmann, eds., Bayerisch-Schwaben, vol. 2 of Deutscher Glockenatlas
(Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1967), 7, 83.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 196 10/28/2013 10:36:28 PM

well documented by the early seventeenth century.26 By 1617, the two tow-
ers of Munich’s largest parish church contained eleven bells, some of which
predated the church’s construction between 1468 and 1488. The following
list of bells is arranged in order of date of casting (if known), with the names
by which they were traditionally known:
Herrenglocke. Not extant, date unknown, ca. 100 kg. Inscription: “ANNA
MATER MARIE” (Anne, Mother of Mary).
Wandelglocke. Not extant, date unknown, ca. 300 kg. No inscription.
Mittagglocke or Aveglocke. Not extant, date unknown, ca. 1000 kg.
Inscription: “PIA LAUDETUR VIRGO MARIA LXM TRIA ME
RESONANTE, VIRGINIS ASSUMPTÆ DIES SEPTENNOS HIS
SUPER ADDE”.
Klingl or Primglocke. Extant, 14th c., ca. 350 kg. Inscription: “LVCAS
MARCVS MATTAVS JOHANNES”.27
Frühmess. Extant, 1442, 800 kg. Inscription: “O REX GLORIE XSTE /
VENI CUM PACE + / MAISTER PAVLVS / ANNO DM M CCCC
XLII / VND ICH HAIS”.28
Winklerin. Extant, 1451, 2000 kg. Inscription: “ANNO DNI M CCCC
LI / O REX GLORIE / VENI CUM PACE / LVCAS MARCUS
JOHANNES MATEUS / BIST DAS DER HER SELBST GOT /
AVE MARIA / GRACIA / IST ER / HAT VNS GESCHAFFEN /
VND NIT BIR VNS SELBS / O FILI DEI / MISERERE MEI / DEO
GRACIAS AMEN. / LIS MICH / HAT MAISTER PAVLS GOSEN
MICH / ICH RVEFF / DEN LEBENDIGEN / DIE DOTEN CLAG
ICH / VND GIB STURMES DON / GOT GEB DEM MAISTER
/ DEN EBIGEN LON / IHS / CHSTS V R I / AVE MARIA /
GRACIA PLENA / DOMINVS TECVM / BENEDICTA TV / IN
MVLERIBVS / AMEN”.
26
The following information is drawn from Nies, Die Glocken des Münchner Frauendoms,
as well as from BayHStA, KL München, Collegiatstift Unsere Liebe Frau 246, a source
not cited by Nies (hereafter ULF 246).
27
Nies, in Die Glocken des Münchner Frauendoms, 75, indicates that this bell was once
called the Chorglocke or Herrenglocke and originally called the church’s canons to prayer.
However, according to ULF 246 the only bell with a similar inscription was the
so-called Primglocke, bearing the names of the Evangelists in the order Luke, Mark,
John, and Matthew. The Herrenglocke, by contrast, carried the inscription “ANNA
MATER MARIE.”
28
ULF 246 gives the following reading, which syntactically seems superior: “O Rex
gloriæ veni cum pace, pace. a[nn]o d[omi]ni MCCCCXLVI. und ich haiß Maister
Paulus.”
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 197 10/28/2013 10:36:29 PM

Pfarrglocke, Sperrglocke, Guldein Kron, or Rosenkranzglocke. Extant in Munich
City Museum, 1452, ca. 2000 kg. Inscription: “O REX GLORIE
VENI CUM PACE. / ANNO DM M CCCC LII / UND IST VOL
PRACHT PEI HER KASPERN AINDORFFERN. / ICH LOB
JESUS MARIA JOHANNES UND SAND KASPERN. / ICH HAIS
DIE GULDEIN KRON / GOT GEB MAISTER PAVLSSEN DER
MICH GOS DEN EBIGEN LON”.
Susanna. Extant, 1490, 8000 kg. Inscription: “SVSANNA HAISS
ICH / IN IHESUS MARIA VND LVKAS MARKVS MATHEVS
JOHANNES IN DER NAMEN GOS MAN MICH / DER
DVRCHLEUCHTIG HOCHGEBORN FVRST VND HERR /
HERR ALBRECHT PFALTZ GRAVE PEI REIN HERZOG IN
OBERN VND NIDERN PAIRN WAS STIFTET MICH / VON
REGENSPVRG HER PRACHT ER MICH / DIE POSEN WETER
VERTREIB ICH / DEN TODEN PEERE ICH / HANNS ERNST
DER GOS MICH ALS MAN ZALT VON GOTTES GEPVRT
TAUSEND VIER HVNDERT VND IN DEM NEWNTZIGISTEN
IAR / TETRAGRAMATAN”.
Praesenzglocke. Extant, 1492, 1600 kg. Inscription: “AVE MARIA
GRACIA PLENA / DMS TECV + / BENEDICTA TV / ANNO DM
1492 JAR / GOS MICH ULRICH V ROSE / GLOCKGISER ZV
MVNCHN”.
Frauenglocke. Extant, 1617, 3000 kg. Inscription: “ZU GOTTES ER
HAT MICH GEGOSSEN MEISTER BARTHOLOMAE WENGLE
ZU MINCHEN ONFEDROSSEN IM J M:DC:XVII”.
Bennoglocke. Extant, 1617, 2100 kg. Inscription: “BARTHOLOMAE
WENGLE HAT MICH GOSSEN IM MDCXVII / VOX EGO
BENNONIS / CREPERUM JOVIS ARCEO FULMEN / ET PLACO
COELUM / NE SATA GRANDO NECET / PELLO STRIGES
/ COGO POPULOS / AD NUMINIS ARAS / QUAS COLEREM
/ SI NON VOX SINE MENTE FOREM. / HIC EST FRATRUM
AMATOR / HIC EST QUI MULTUM ORAT / PRO POPULO /
MACHABAEOR II”.
A detailed campanological survey of the ensemble is beyond the scope
of this study; the bells’ names and inscriptions, however, do suggest certain
functions for each. The small Wandelglocke would have been rung at during
the transubstantiation of the Eucharist, marking this all-important climax of
the Mass for the city’s populace. The larger Mittagerin or Aveglocke was heard
at the noon hour, its sound calling for public—and, in Counter-Reformation
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 198 10/28/2013 10:36:29 PM

Bavaria, mandatory—prayer of the Ave Maria. The names of the Frühmesserin
and Praesenzglocke point to tasks of ringing in the first Mass of the day and
the regular prayer of the collegiate canons, respectively. The Guldein Kron,
later called the Rosenkranzglocke, was in fact owned by the city of Munich and
was rung at the nightly closing of the city gates (hence its alternate name
Sperrglocke), at which point residents were called upon to pray the Rosary. The
functions of the Winklerin, Susanna, Frauen, and Benno bells are less clear, but
their inscriptions are intriguing. The Winklerin, whose name likely goes back
to an original donor, bears an inscription (including the four Evangelists)
suggesting that it was used as a weather bell and also as a bell rung to com-
memorate the dead: “I call the living / I lament the dead / and I give storm’s
sound.” The largest bell in the ensemble, the Susanna, has a very similar
inscription—“I drive off the bad weather / I honor the dead”—that acknowl-
edges Duke Albrecht IV (d. 1508) as its donor.29 Cast in 1617, the Benno
bell was one of the two last additions to the ensemble, its inscription being
among the longest of the group:
Bartholomäus Wengle
Cast me in 1617
I am the voice of Benno
I ward off the darkness and bolts of Jove
And I placate the heavens
That the fields be spared from the hail
I drive away evil spirits
I call together the people
To the altars of God
At which I would worship
Were I not a voice without a mind.
This is the lover of his brethren
This is he who prays much
For his people
Maccabees 2
It is not known whether the Benno bell was intended explicitly as a
Sturmglocke when it was cast, but Nies cites the mid-nineteenth-century tes-
timony of Anton Mayer, who claimed that it was traditionally rung during
the annual prayer for a successful harvest that took place sometime around
29
As Nies points out in Die Glocken des Münchner Frauendoms, 50, the name “Susanna” was
a common rendering of “Osanna” or “Hosanna,” and does not refer to a proper name.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 199 10/28/2013 10:36:29 PM

the feast of the Assumption (August 15).30 The inscription concludes with
a passage from Maccabees 2:14: “Here is a lover of his brethren. Here is one
who prays much for the people,” a passage of some confessional significance.
The “lover of men” who “prays much for the people” is none other than Judas
Maccabaeus, who in chapter 12 of that book offered prayers for the Jews
killed in battle against the Seleucid Empire of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.31
These Jews had fallen in part because of their sinfulness, though Maccabees
makes clear that Judas’s prayer, and his monetary offerings to the Temple
in Jerusalem, atoned for their sins and ensured their passage into Paradise.
The second book of Maccabees thus became an important proof text for the
Catholic doctrine of purgatory, and it is no accident that Luther singled out
this deuterocanonical book for particular scorn.32 From a Catholic perspec-
tive, the Benno bell takes on the identity of Judas Maccabaeus, both figures
easing the passage of others to heaven through their actions.
We cannot be certain about how each bell was used, but it is well to
remember that they represented only one of many different (and smaller)
ensembles distributed among the city’s parish churches and monasteries. At
least a dozen religious institutions were located within the medieval city
walls, including three major parish churches, a half dozen monasteries and
convents, and some smaller chapels. At least four churches with bell ensem-
bles were located within 400 meters of the market square: Unsere Liebe Frau,
St. Peter, Heiliger Geist, and the Jesuit church of St. Michael. On every day
of the week, a typical resident of Munich would have heard, and presumably
distinguished among, a complex, interlocking series of bell signals differ-
entiated by location, pitch, and timbre, these qualities affected in turn by
atmospheric conditions like wind and humidity.
Bell sounds were meant to spur people to prayer both in public and in
private, reflecting the great premium placed by Bavarian officials on public
displays of Catholic fidelity and devotion. The thrice-daily ringing of the Ave
Maria or Angelus bell (or, at Unsere Liebe Frau, the Aveglocke or Mittagerin)
at morning, noon, and nightfall was a legacy going back at least to the sev-
enth century; by the fourteenth century it was a call to pray the Marian
30
Nies, Die Glocken des Münchner Frauendoms, 58, citing Anton Mayer, Die Domkirche
U. L. Frau in München (Munich, 1868).
31
2 Maccabees 12:39–45 (NRSV). For this insight I am grateful to Walter Melion, who
commented on a previous version of this material.
32
2 Maccabees would be omitted from the Protestant canon, quite possibly on this basis.
For discussion of Luther’s views on purgatory see Richard Marius, Martin Luther: The
Christian Between God and Death (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press), 181.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 200 10/28/2013 10:36:29 PM

salutation.33 Corbin has emphasized the role of the Angelus bell in inculcat-
ing religious discipline in the Catholic Reformation: the morning Angelus
evoked the creation of a new day, the Annunication, Incarnation, and Easter,
while the evening Angelus dispelled the night’s evils and temptations and
reminded listeners of the pain and tears of the Passion.34 In Bavaria the ring-
ing of the Angelus is documented from the late fourteenth century onward
and was certainly an everyday sound in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies.35 Protestant regions, by contrast, saw a de-emphasis of the Angelus’s
Marian associations: Michael Praetorius, for example, writes in his Syntagma
musicum that “since the highly-praised Virgin Mary refuses such an honor
[that is, her salutation] that is fit for God alone, and since it is against God’s
Word, the people shall be instructed to reject it.”36 He acknowledges that the
threefold sounding of the bell can be used to spur public and private prayer
to God and for good government, and even suggests that at its sound one
should encourage one’s children to sing songs like Verleih uns Frieden and the
notorious Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort (Lord, preserve us in your Word, and
turn away the murderous Pope and Turk).
The Tridentine church naturally reinforced the Marian connection of
the Angelus bell. The catechism of the great German Jesuit Peter Canisius
acknowledged the practice of reciting the Ave Maria at each sounding of
the Angelus, further specifying prayers commemorating the Resurrection, the
Passion, and the Virgin Mary at morning, noon, and night, respectively.37
The 1569 synod of the Salzburg church province enjoined secular officials
to attend Mass daily and to kneel at the sound of the Angelus; later diocesan
mandates reinforced this command.38 The requirement that all drop to their
knees and pray at the sound of the Angelus was in place as early as 1566, but
33
Niemann, “Das Liturgische Läuten,” 23; see also Thurm, Bayerisch-Schwaben, 10, 83.
34
Corbin, Village Bells, 129–31.
35
Siegfried Hofmann, Geschichte der Stadt Ingolstadt 1506–1600 (Ingolstadt: Donaukurier
Verlagsgesellschaft, 2006), 472.
36
Michael Praetorius, Syntagmatis musici tomus primus: Musicae artis analecta
(Wittenberg: Johannes Richter, 1615), 132. Bells cast in Protestant areas often bear
inscriptions referencing the Holy Spirit instead; for various examples, see Thurm,
Bayerisch-Schwaben, 26, 35, 42, 43, 49–50.
37
Peter Canisius, Institutiones christianae pietatis seu catechismus (Dillingen: Sebald Mayer,
1572), 72r–74r. See Extended Reference 4.5.
38
On the 1569 synod, see Gerhard B. Winkler, Die nachtridentinischen Synoden im
Reich: Salzburger Provinzialkonzilien 1569, 1573, 1576 (Vienna: Bohlau, 1988), 226,
citing Constitution 58 of the synod. Later mandates include that of the Bishop of
Freising in 1597; see Extended Reference 4.6.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 201 10/28/2013 10:36:29 PM

Maximilian I took a special interest in its enforcement. In 1615 the duke
appears to have witnessed widespread neglect of public prayer at the sound
of the Angelus in Landshut, which resulted in an angry letter to the town
council in 1615:
We have seen and determined during our presence [in Landshut], that
in the evening when the prayer, or Ave Maria, is rung, almost no one
kneels and shows his devotion, as would be fitting. Rather when it is
heard, some only remove their hats, and continue in their conversa-
tion or business. In fact it was your own official, or officer who during
prayer-time remained seated and talking, such that better devo-
tion could be seen in the countryside among the common peasantry.
Indeed during their times of prayer the heretics are more zealous and
exemplary, which leads to the special dishonor of God and his blessed
Mother, and to general annoyance.
We command you with all gravity, therefore, that you end this
abuse and immoral behavior among the citizenry immediately, and
hold everyone to this, that each person, according to old Catholic
usage and commandment, shall kneel and make his prayer as soon as
he hears the Ave Maria, whether he be in the streets or in his house.39
Since Landshut lay squarely within Catholic Bavaria’s core territory, the
duke’s interventions there may not seem surprising. But mandatory public
prayer at the sound of bells was introduced in newly recatholicized regions
as well as a means of instilling religious discipline. Correspondence between
the new Catholic convert Duke Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg and
the bishops of Eichstätt, Augsburg, and Regensburg in 1615 shows that in
addition to processions, pilgrimages, and abstinence from eating meat on
specified days, local officials “should introduce ringing at morning, noon,
and evening according to Catholic usage, so that [the people] be moved to
remember the Incarnation, Passion, and death of Christ our Savior, as well
as the need of all Christians.”40 In the Upper Palatinate, which underwent
recatholicization at the hands of Bavaria after 1621, a bell-ringing ordinance
for the capital of Amberg states that the Ave Maria bell should be rung thrice
daily at morning, noon, and nightfall; on Thursdays, residents should hear
the Angst bell commemorating Christ’s Passion; and on Fridays, the ringing
39
Maximilian I to the Landshut town council, May 28, 1615. BayHStA, GR 1254/1/19.
40
Letter from Wolfgang Wilhelm to the bishops of Eichstätt, Augsburg, and Regensburg,
April 15, 1615. BZaR, OA-Gen 2548. See Extended Reference 4.8.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 202 10/28/2013 10:36:29 PM

of all the bells together commemorating Christ’s death.41 If public obser-
vance of prayer at these bell sounds was lacking even in Landshut, a core
Bavarian town, it is not surprising that officials had great difficulty enforcing
the mandate in newly recatholicized areas. This 1637 command from the
Bavarian electoral government to the city council of Amberg suggests that
even a decade and a half of Catholic rule could not produce the desired devo-
tion, especially among those artisans most well disposed to Protestant ideas:
You will well remember the manner in which, during the previous ref-
ormation, the Ave Maria, Parting-, and Passion bells were introduced
and mandated. But now for some time we have seen and noticed with
displeasure that this salutary practice is observed poorly by the com-
mon man, neither with doffing of hats nor otherwise, but rather that
the craftsmen without exception, and particularly the washer-women
in the Vils [river], the locksmiths, blacksmiths, and coopers, and oth-
ers of the same, continue with their noise, rapping, and hammering
without stopping [. . .]; and in general at this time the signs of being
a good, Catholic Christian are to be seen neither in homes nor on the
streets. As we are not willing to tolerate such abuse and are respon-
sible to your Serene Elector’s officials, we thereby command you firmly
that you make the appropriate prohibition, especially to the aforemen-
tioned washer-women and craftsmen; and further, according to the
rank of the person, hats may be confiscated or other mocking punish-
ments be made in the open, so that during this bell ringing the people
will at least appear with uncovered heads, even if one or the other
wishes not to pray.42
As the mandate shows, the weekly cycle of bell ringing included not only
the Angelus, but also special bells to commemorate the Passion on Thursday
(the so-called Angstläuten) and the death or “parting” of Christ on Friday
(Scheidungsläuten). The Scheidungsläuten or “passing bell” also frequently tolled
the death of a member of the community.43 More pressing to Bavarian offi-
cials, however, was a special series of bell sounds introduced to respond to a
41
Philipp Schertl, “Die Amberger Jesuiten im ersten Dezennium ihres Wirkens
(1621–1632),” Verhandlungen des historischen Vereins von Oberpfalz und Regensburg 102
(1962): 148, citing StA Amberg, OpRRA 560.
42
Electoral government to Amberg city council, December 11, 1637. BayStA Amberg,
GS 822. See Extended Reference 4.9.
43
According to Hofmann, in Geschichte der Stadt Ingolstadt 1506–1600, 472, the ringing
of the Angst bell was introduced in Ingolstadt in 1525 and reinforced in 1579 in the
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 203 10/28/2013 10:36:30 PM

threat from the Turks. The sounding of the Turk bell as a call to prayer goes
back to 1456, when pope Calixtus III introduced it in response to the loss of
Morea and a Turkish attack on Austria, but its use intensified in the late six-
teenth century on both sides of the Empire’s confessional divide. This period,
as Şenol Özyurt has shown, saw not only a revival of the Turk bell but also
an explosion of anti-Turkish songs disseminated in manuscript and print.44
Bavarian mandates to sound the Turk bell can be found as early as 1566,
when Albrecht V specified that in addition to Friday processions against the
Turks, “the Turk bell shall be rung everywhere in the land at midday, as
happened some years ago, and the people moved and admonished to peni-
tence and heartfelt prayer.”45 Under Wilhelm V the Turk bell received special
emphasis, beginning with a 1592 mandate that the clergy encourage public
penitence in the face of the Turkish threat. In addition to special prayers
and litanies, the clergy was to “see to it that daily after the midday bell,
another bell shall be rung, and all who hear the bell shall be admonished to
pray for the needs of Christendom, [against] the trials of war and especially
[against] the tyranny of the Turks.”46 Public observance of the Turk bell
may have been lax initially, for in September of the following year Wilhelm
commanded the Munich city council to ensure compliance, since “such
prayer and ringing are completely neglected in many places.”47 In November
1593, Wilhelm repeated his previous mandate, but now those hearing the
Turk bell are directed “to kneel with uncovered heads” before offering their
prayer, with punishment to follow for the unobservant.48 The situation had
not improved by 1594: in October, Wilhelm wrote to the Geistlicher Rat
(Spiritual Council) lamenting public neglect of the Turk and other bells. The
wake of a donation: in January of this year it was announced that every Thursday after
the closing of the city gates, the large bell was to be rung for a quarter-hour, during
which each person should meditate on the Passion and death of Christ, saying five Our
Fathers, five Ave Marias, and the Creed.
44
Şenol Özyurt, Die Türkenlieder und das Türkenbild in der deutschen Volksüberlieferung vom
16. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (Munich: Fink, 1972). On the background of the Turk bell,
see esp. 31–33.
45
Mandate of Albrecht V, April 17, 1566, BayHStA, SV 3221, 52. See Extended
Reference 4.10.
46
Mandate of Wilhelm V, August 12, 1592, BSB, Kloeckeliana 21/18. See Extended
Reference 4.11 for original text and further commentary.
47
Wilhelm V to Munich city council, September 2, 1593, StAM, KKs 1036, no. 1.
48
Mandate of Wilhelm V, November 12, 1593, exemplar in BSB, Kloeckeliana 21/19.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 204 10/28/2013 10:36:30 PM

habitual “noise” of popular culture was now to be displaced by a disciplined
silence:
[It is to be forbidden] that when the Turk bell is rung, that [the peo-
ple] go out with drums and pipes, or go shooting, as they can easily do
this afterwards. The people are also to be held [to this] and compelled,
that whether they are on the streets or at home, when they hear the
Turk prayer [bell] or the Ave Maria [bell] they shall kneel, and not
shame themselves before God. For this purpose special persons are to
be engaged and ordered (as is the case in Innsbruck and elsewhere)
to pay attention, and admonish people who are walking around, and
spare no one; [further] all celebrations and dancing are to be entirely
forbidden.49
These various bell sounds formed part of a broad program of bell ringing
that marked Catholic time, space, and authority. City officials patrolled the
streets of Munich and other towns, forcing people to kneel and pray when
the bells sounded, but the frequency and specificity of ducal mandates in
Bavaria suggest that this kind of religious discipline was enforced only with
great difficulty.50 One must distinguish, however, between the new regime
of disciplinary bells and those bells which people had been accustomed to
hearing for centuries. For example, pilgrims traditionally expected to hear
the ringing of bells when transiting through a town or village, arriving at
the destination itself, or returning to their home parish. As we will see in
chapter 6, to omit this ringing was to risk popular revolt.
Regulating the Sounds of Profane Life

The daily and weekly cycles of bell sounds were but one aspect of a complex
urban soundscape. Bruce Smith has captured this soundscape in his study of
early modern England, describing the mesh of sounds from industry, conver-
sation (in various dialects), horses, rowdy youths, street criers, beggars, and
49
Wilhelm V to the Geistlicher Rat, October 22, 1594, BayHStA, SV 2812, 4v. See
50
See, for example, repeated ducal mandates of 1596 (BSB, Kloeckeliana 21/23), 1598
(BayHStA, SV 3223), as well as mandates by the bishop of Freising in 1595 (AEM,
Generalien, June 23, 1595) and 1597 (BSB, Cgm 4972). See also BayStA Amberg, GS
837, a 1646 mandate to the city council of Amberg on the observance of the Turk and
Angelus bells.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 205 10/28/2013 10:36:30 PM

so forth.51 Wind direction, climate, and the disposition of buildings all had
their influences on this aural miasma. The fact that it is difficult to convey
this aural environment in written texts serves to illustrate Smith’s distinc-
tion between the “inscribed” bodies recorded in documents and the “sound-
ing” bodies that resist such representation; more generally, the inadequacies
of written accounts dramatize the gap between official strategy and popu-
lar tactics.52 If bell ringing was deployed strategically to impose religious
and moral discipline from above, the sounds of weddings, taverns, and street
singers are better seen as tactics from below, as modes of self-representation
that resisted such discipline. Popular festivities were—and perhaps still
are—sounding phenomena above all; the drumming, piping, gunfire, and
noise connected with them were not only disturbing to elite critics but also
resistant to description in written texts. Just as a letter from an early modern
cleric denouncing the “rough music” of rowdy men failed to appreciate its
essence, our modern attempts to represent popular noise in writing are also
exercises in domination and domestication.53
As a keynote sound in the environment, the sounds of popular life did
not typically attract the scrutiny of literate observers or critics; neverthe-
less, Bavarian officials increasingly took an interest in regulating what they
perceived as the noise of secular merrymaking, whether emanating from tav-
erns, weddings, or popular festivities. Official mandates sometimes addressed
music or sound directly, but more often they regulated popular behaviors
deemed likely to disturb the soundscape. Some mandates attempt to ban
popular festivities in a such a wide-ranging manner that it is difficult to
imagine how, as a practical matter, they could have been enforced. Wilhelm
V’s mandate in response to the Turkish threat of November 1593, which
includes, as we have seen, a directive to ring the Turk bell, states that “all
string playing, drumming, piping, dancing, and all profane festivities shall
be immediately and wholly banned everywhere in our land, on the streets as
51
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 52–70.
52
Ibid., 56, 167. Smith derives his discussion of strategies and tactics from Michel de
Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1984).
53
On “rough music,” see esp. E. P. Thompson, “Rough Music,” in Customs in Common
(London: Merlin Press, 1991), 467–538, and Smith’s discussion in The Acoustic World
of Early Modern England, 154–56. For a recent and encyclopedic history of noise as
“unwanted sound” see also Hillel Schwartz, Making Noise: From Babel to the Big Bang &
Beyond (Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books, 2011).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 206 10/28/2013 10:36:31 PM

well as in homes, whether in weddings, on church days, or in other gather-
ings.”54 In part, the official concern was economic—merriment was a waste
of time and money. More to the point, God’s wrath was said to be aroused by
immoral and immoderate behavior; by continuing to engage in it, the com-
munity risked collective punishment that could assume the forms of military
invasion, plague, drought, and famine.
Early modern strictures against popular “noise,” common from the six-
teenth century forward, were nearly always aimed against the less powerful.
Bavaria was hardly exceptional in this.55 Bavarian mandates do imply that
the distinction between music and noise correlated closely with divides of
social class:
From now on shall be strictly suspended and forbidden on public
streets, day or night, all masquerades and mummery, sledding, noisy
peasant- and bagpipes, shawms, hurdy-gurdies, shrieking and cheer-
ing in general, and, as for string playing, all instruments, lutes, vio-
lins, and the like. However, by the authority of this [mandate], there
shall be permitted without objection that [music] used in homes, in
honorable gatherings, and with modesty, as well as in public proces-
sions and weddings.56
Mandates such as this draw clear boundaries between public “noise” on the
one hand (Sackhpfeiffen, Schalmeÿen, Leÿrn, Schreÿen, Juchzen) and the modest
and honorable music heard behind closed doors and during an officially sanc-
tioned spectacle (bei offentlich[en] khirchgangen). That such directives had to be
continually reinforced suggests that the soundscape of cities like Munich was
characterized by a fine and changing balance between official strategies—
suppression of popular noise, imposition of religious discipline through bell
ringing, and so forth—and popular tactics of self-expression through speech,
song, and music.
54
From mandate of Wilhelm V, November 12, 1593, exemplar in BSB, Kloeckeliana
21/19. See Extended Reference 4.14.
55
Schafer, The Tuning of the World, 65–67, 181–202. On definitions of noise see also
Barry Truax, Acoustic Communication, 2nd ed. (Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing, 2001),
93–98. Richard Leppert has drawn attention to the physicality of popular noise as
distinct from the relative passivity of aristocratic art; see his ”Desire, Power, and the
Sonoric Landscape,” in Andrew Leyshon, David Matless, and George Revill, eds., The
Place of Music (New York: Guilford Press, 1998), 308–11.
56
Ducal governor of Landshut to Wilhelm Lunghamber, Pflegverwalter of Erding,
February 24, 1612, BSB, Kloeckeliana 36/16. See Extended Reference 4.15.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 207 10/28/2013 10:36:31 PM

These tactics, not surprisingly, were the most troublesome on Sundays
and feast days, when official sacralization clashed with popular festivities.
Reserving what Schafer has termed “sacred noise”—bell ringing and organ
playing, for example—to themselves, Bavarian officials aimed to impose its
obverse, secular silence, in the public sphere.57 In doing this, they mani-
fested their strategic power, of course, but these measures also reflected
an ideal of communal solidarity and submission to God’s will: ultimately
silence was coterminous with spiritual and social discipline.58 But imposing
silence, especially on feast days, was a tall order, as this 1577 ordinance from
Ingolstadt suggests:
As it has been the case that evening- and round dances have been held
in every nook and alley on feast days, on which it is commanded that
God be praised and served, and at which there is much mischief and
wantonness among the young people, giving rise more to blasphemy
and immorality than to good habits and respectability: therefore the
same shall be entirely forbidden with all severity. Whoever is caught
[in violation] shall be seriously punished, as appropriate.59
Sometimes it was the noise of children that compelled official measures,
such as Maximilian I’s complaint to the Munich city council in 1627: “On
Sundays and feast days one sees and hears, in greatest annoyance, nothing
but joking, singing, gambling, milling about, and similar impropriety from
these children.”60 But Maximilian complained about adults as well, who rou-
tinely violated the city’s soundscape with their noise:
Your Serene Electoral Highness has seen [. . .] the way in which the
defiance of officials has been tolerated here in particular, so that people
have been working on Sundays and feast days as much as on normal
workdays, young and old walk about during the Mass, sermon, Vespers,
and catechism, or sit together in wine-, beer-, and mead-taverns; they
participate in gambling, diversions, and other misbehavior. On no
57
On “sacred noise,” see Schafer, The Tuning of the World, 51–52.
58
On the ritual function of silence see Bohdan Szuchewycz, “Silence in Ritual
Communication,” in Adam Jaworski, ed., Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Studies
in Anthropological Linguistics 10 (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997), 239–60.
59
1577 Refetbuch of the city of Ingolstadt, qtd. in Hofmann, Geschichte der Stadt Ingolstadt
1506–1600, 978. See Extended Reference 4.16.
60
“An Sonn- vnd Feÿrtägen sihet, vnd höret man zu grosser Ärgernus nichts als scherzen,
Singen, Spillen, herumb schwermen, vnd dergleichen vngebühr von denen Kindern.”
StAM, BR 60B 1, 163v, June 2, 1627.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 208 10/28/2013 10:36:31 PM

other day is more immorality, or more blasphemy toward God to be
found, which is tolerated by the authorities. By contrast the greatest
virtue, order, and edification can be observed in non-Catholic places,
from which the Catholics, who should be well ashamed of their own
laxity and negligence, can well take as an example.61
As a time of penitence and reflection the Lenten season was a focus of
efforts to quiet the urban soundscape, with Shrove Tuesday (Fastnacht), a
traditional occasion of popular merriment and misrule, posing the greatest
challenge. A mandate of Wilhelm V from January 1595 forbade on Shrove
Tuesday all “mummery and other diversions,” as well as “all string-playing,
peasant pipers, drumming, fiddles, and whatever of the same outside of
honorable weddings.” The mandate singles out the practice of Gassengehen
(Gessengeen), the nighttime yelling of rowdy youths, as well as “all merri-
ment, singing, bellowing [. . .] and shrieking, during the day and especially
at night.”62 Maximilian I’s mandate of January 1616 makes similar provi-
sions for the upcoming Lenten season but also refers to the popular win-
tertime diversion of evening sleigh-riding (Schlittenfahren): this practice “is
to last in the evening no longer than 8:00, and with appropriate modesty,
without musicians, jangling, or shouting.” It is noteworthy that much of this
regulation is aimed not simply at noise but at noise at nighttime, when the
reach of authority was at its lowest ebb.63
Particular circumstances and external threats called for even stricter rules.
In 1596, “these difficult times and the great and daunting threat of the
Turks” meant that all “pipes, fiddles, and hurdy-gurdies” were to be forbid-
den in taverns and on the streets.64 The Turkish threat moved Maximilian I to
release a wide-ranging mandate in July 1605 that criticized taverns in particu-
lar, where “one does not simply eat according to one’s need, but rather drinks
to excess, and with similar immodesty shouts, sings, rejoices, gambles, makes
merry, and uselessly wastes so much money, that one would think there were
61
StAM, BR 60 B 2, 523v–524r. See Extended Reference 4.17.
62
Mandate of Wilhelm V, January 23, 1595, qtd. in Hofmann, Geschichte der Stadt
Ingolstadt 1506–1600, 739–40.
63
Mandate of Maximilian I, January 27, 1616, StAM, BR 62, 250r–v. On the fragil-
ity of authority after nightfall, see esp. Ekirch, At Day’s Close, 61–89. See Extended
Reference 4.18.
64
Helmuth Stahleder, Belastungen und Bedrückungen. Die Jahre 1506–1705, Chronik der
Stadt München 2 (Ebenhausen: Dölling und Galitz Verlag; Stadtarchiv München,
2005), 217, citing StAM, RP 211:38v.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 209 10/28/2013 10:36:31 PM

no such concerns, threats of war, or deprivation.” Preventing this immorality
meant banishing “all string-playing, drumming, piping, fiddling and the like,
as well as dancing and profane merriment, except that found at honorable wed-
dings, official shooting [parties], or other exercises useful for the military.”65 The
death of an emperor required an extended period of mourning during which
secular noise was not to be tolerated. Rudolph II’s death in January 1612, for
example, led to the banishment of “all masquerades and mummery, sleighing
with its noise, all peasant- and bagpipes, all shawms, hurdy-gurdies, shouting
and jubilation in general; but [also] all string-playing, including instruments,
lutes, fiddles and the same on public streets, day or night.”66 Such measures were
hardly unique to Bavaria, of course, but they were yet another aspect of Bavaria’s
wide-ranging efforts to discipline the urban soundscape.
Within this complex aural environment the civic musicians, known as
Stadtpfeifer, or more broadly as Spielleute, deserve special attention. As city
employees they mediated between official culture and the venues in which
they often performed, which included civic celebrations, processions, church
services, and weddings.67 It is not entirely clear how many musicians belonged
to the group before the mid-seventeenth century, but an extant 1544 inven-
tory of instruments shows the presence of various types of shawms, recorders,
transverse flutes, and trombones: primarily it was a wind ensemble.68 By the
mid-seventeenth century the instrumentarium had been expanded to include
various strings as well: three “companies” of four musicians each are identi-
fied as playing violins of different sizes (Discantgeiger and Passgeiger), zithers
65
Mandate of Maximilian I, July 15, 1605, qtd. in Walter Ziegler, ed., Altbayern von
1550–1651, Dokumente zur Geschichte von Staat und Gesellschaft in Bayern,
Abteilung I, Band 3 (Munich: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1992), 693–94.
66
Mandate from the ducal government in Landshut to the Pflegverwalter of Erding,
February 24, 1612, BSB, Kloeckeliana 36/16. See Extended Reference 4.19.
67
On the history of the Munich Stadtpfeifer see esp. Maria Hildebrandt and Klaus-Dieter
Engel, Münchner Stadtpfeifer und Stadtmusikanten, Volksmusik in München 17
(Munich: Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, Musikverlag Preissler, 1993).
Statutes of the group from 1630 are preserved in StAM, Gewerbeamt 3493 (“Neue Säz
und Ordnung der Stattpfeiffer alhier zu München”); the previous ordinance is lost.
68
The 1544 inventory (StAM, Gewerbeamt 3497a, qtd. in Hildebrandt and Engel,
Münchner Stadtpfeifer und Stadtmusikanten, 4) includes four “schreyend pfeiffen mit
einem fueter, darunter ist ein Baß”; “3 alt schreient pfeiffen darbey ist kein Baß”; “1
fueter flöten darin 6 flöten mit einem fueteral überzogen und bschlagen”; “1 fueter
zwerch pfeiffen helt 7 pfeiffen, Wentich 2 Bäß, 3 Tenor, 1 alto pfeiffen und 1 dantz
pfeiffen”; and “ein pusaun mit zweyen pögen und 1 Zügl”.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 210 10/28/2013 10:36:32 PM

(Zitterschlager), and keyboards (Instrumentschlager);69 presumably, they contin-
ued to play on wind instruments as appropriate. To govern the ensemble the
city engaged a so-called Spielgraf—usually one of the court trumpeters—who
was to “maintain greater decorum among the musicians” and ensure that
“the land is not overrun with foreign, forbidden musicians and similar idle,
wandering folk, and so that [our] subjects are not bothered.”70
The Spielgraf’s disciplinary role may be explained in part by civic
musicians’ routine informal performances in taverns and at other popular
gatherings, where all manner of Unzucht could be expected. Taverns were
particularly worrisome to the authorities. In October 1613, for example, the
civic musicians protested city officials’ move to ban “Geigen und Pfeiffen”
in the taverns, but the officials reassured them that they were permitted to
play if asked to do so by their audience.71 However, the musicians’ concerns
were justified. Ordinances from May 1627 show that “excessive drinking and
sitting in the beer halls, piping and fiddling, are forbidden on pain of serious
punishment,” and the musicians were permitted to play in taverns only for
wedding festivities. Two years later, they were even threatened with prison
or exile if they continued to violate this ban, suggesting that the financial or
other incentives to play in taverns were simply too great to ignore.72
If taverns were increasingly unavailable to civic musicians, performing
at weddings remained an important source of income for them. But the
Stadtpfeifer had to struggle to preserve this privilege. Wandering musicians—
“pipers, fiddlers, and hurdy-gurdy players,” according to one ordinance—
who would perform for modest gratuities were commonly heard, and apart
from reducing the income of the official Stadtpfeifer were considered nuisances
by the authorities.73 The 1616 general ordinance prohibited “foreign fiddlers
and other musicians” from being invited to wedding celebrations, whether
69
StAM, Gewerbeamt 3498/1, qtd. in Hildebrandt and Engel, Münchner Stadtpfeifer und
Stadtmusikanten, 6.
70
See StAM, BR 60B 11, 170r (April 24, 1626), and Extended Reference 4.20.
71
October 30, 1613, StAM, RP 228:223v–224r, cited in Stahleder, Belastungen und
Bedrückungen, 340.
72
Ordinances of May 19, 1627 (StAM, RP 242:130v); May 21, 1627 (StAM, RP
242:137r); and May 18, 1629 (StAM, RP 244:108v), cited in Stahleder, Belastungen
und Bedrückungen, 418, 432.
73
See, for example, the general mandate of December 10, 1610, StAM, BR 60A 1,
quoted in Extended Reference 4.21. In July 1630 the Munich Stadtpfeifer complained
to the city council concerning unauthorized musicians, “for they poach [their income]
from weddings, because they will take less money.” See Stahleder, Belastungen und
Bedrückungen, 439, citing StAM, RP 245:175r, RP 34: 52v (alt 30v).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 211 10/28/2013 10:36:32 PM

official civic musicians were present or not; furthermore, those musicians
present were to restrain themselves from excessive eating and drinking.74
Despite the Spielgraf’s efforts to control the flood of itinerant musicians, the
Munich Stadtpfeifer often found themselves in a difficult position, having to
earn their keep within a climate of official surveillance, regulation, and for-
eign competition.
In larger towns, civic musicians commonly played at regular hours from
the church towers, supplementing the regular cycle of bell sounds that
ordered urban time and space. Although there is little documentary evidence
of this practice in Munich, ordinances from Ingolstadt describe it in detail.75
The earliest extant Stadtpfeifer ordinance, from 1584, calls for civic musi-
cians performing from the so-called Pfeifturm (piper’s tower) to “play, in all
four directions [of the compass], several motets or other songs, appropriate
to the time,” that is, at noon on every Sunday and feast day. By 1586, it
seems that this music was to be heard every day from the towers of “both
places” in the city—likely the Pfeifturm at the city center and the tower
of the Liebfrauenmünster to the west. One copy of this ordinance insists
that they play “no scandalous songs, but rather honorable and praisewor-
thy songs, and also no Lutheran psalms.”76 It is curious that the authorities
would feel the need to forbid Lutheran music in a town whose Catholicism
was largely unquestioned by the late sixteenth century, but it may reflect a
tendency toward Lutheran sympathies among civic musicians, who belonged
to a broader class of guild-based tradesmen who had proven susceptible to
the new religious ideas. A 1570 ducal visitation of Ingolstadt had already
revealed that one of the Stadtpfeifer, Georg Stigl, had been refusing to take
Catholic communion in one kind only; he was to communicate within one
month or face expulsion.77 Moreover, following a 1569 visitation in the town
of Wasserburg am Inn, a list of containing the names of seventy-seven resi-
dents taking communion in both species included no fewer than three of the
tower musicians (Thurner).78
74
Landrecht Policey, Gerichts- Malefitz- und andere Ordnungen, 564–65.
75
The ordinances of 1584 and 1586 are preserved in StA Ingolstadt, A II 36a.
76
StA Ingolstadt, A II 36a, 4r–v. See Extended Reference 4.23. For reasons unknown the
passage concerning Lutheran songs is struck out in this copy of the document, but is
present in a marginal addition to another copy of the ordinance (StA Ingolstadt, A II
36a, 12r–13r).
77
BayHStA, KÄA 4268, 194r.
78
BayHStA, KÄA 4268, 272a–m.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 212 10/28/2013 10:36:32 PM

Song in the Public Sphere
Song, whether authorized or unauthorized, performed individually or in
groups, must have been a nearly ubiquitous feature of the urban soundscape.
Small student choirs sang regularly in public to earn money that would be
used to help poorer students financially, joining a broad spectrum of street
criers, itinerant beggars, and ordinary individuals entertaining themselves
and others. During the sixteenth century, furthermore, song had proven to be
an effective vehicle for spreading new religious ideas. Protestant pamphlets,
books, and vernacular bibles were accessible only to a fraction of the popu-
lace; couching the new theology in verse and attaching it to easily memo-
rizable tunes allowed it to penetrate the much larger illiterate population.
Again we are reminded of Jesuit Adam Contzen’s comment in his treatise on
statecraft that “the hymns of Luther have killed more souls than his writings
or sayings.”79 Heretical songs were indeed a target of Bavarian censorship,
but as we have seen, regulating their circulation in print and manuscript
proved to be more viable than suppressing the act of singing itself.
Singing in the streets for money had a long tradition; it ranged from
the officially sanctioned Herumsingen of church choirs (also known as
Kurrendengesang or Ansingen—singing in front of private homes) to the sing-
ing of wandering beggars. Some of this singing had roots in popular practices,
such as the tradition of Sternsingen on Three Kings Day, when choirs would
process around the city carrying stars mounted on staves, or the misrule of
St. Nicholas Day, when a boy in bishop’s robes would be escorted around the
town by children who would sing in front of houses.80 In Munich, authorized
street singing for money to support students’ upkeep is documented at least as
early as 1526, the year in which Latin schoolmasters were to teach their younger
charges “the traditional and proper Responsories and Christian songs, sing them
before the houses, and practice them.”81 By the late sixteenth century, parish
79
Contzen, Politicorum libri decem (Mainz: Johannes Kinck, [1621?]), II: c. 19.
80
On both practices see Walter Pötzl, “Volksfrömmigkeit,” in Walter Brandmüller,
ed., Handbuch der bayerischen Kirchengeschichte. Band II: Von der Glaubenspaltung bis zur
Säkularisation (St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1993), 874–75, 880. Note also the popular tra-
dition of singing the Kyrie during festivities for the summer solstice (Sonnenwendfeuer);
the Munich city council resolved to take steps to curb abuses at the Sonnenwendfeuer
in June 1617. See StAM, RP 29: 206r (alt. 26r), cited in Stahleder, Belastungen und
Bedrückungen, 357.
81
“[. . .] Sich gewöndlicher vnd gepürlicher Respons vnd Christenlichs gesanngs/ wie vor
allter/ vor den heüsern zubefleyssen/ vnnd darinn zeyeben [. . .].” Religious mandate of
Wilhelm IV and Ludwig X, 1 December 1526, StAM, BR 60A 1.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 213 10/28/2013 10:36:32 PM

choirs sang in the Munich streets twice weekly. The student choir of St. Peter
sang publicly on the feast of St. Lucia (December 13) and again on Christmas,
for which it received modest gratuities from the ducal court.82 Meanwhile, in
Ingolstadt the student choir of St. Moritz habitually sang polyphony in public
on the eves of high feasts.83
However, these practices were not immune to the discipline of the public
soundscape by officials, who feared public disorder but also were concerned that
the incomes of poorer students not be unduly affected by vagrants and outsid-
ers. As early as 1580, Wilhelm V commanded town councils to ban “useless
German singing” (teutschen unnützen Gesang) in front of homes by “wandering,
masterless boys and trouble-makers” (umlaufende Herrnlose Buben, vnd Stürzer).84
In 1599 Maximilian I banned the practice of street singing outright, whether
in Latin or German, monophonic or polyphonic, hoping that “the citizenry and
others be spared from the daily harassment, shouting, and singing in front of
their homes.”85 After fifteen years the situation had not improved. “Despite the
previous ban,” a 1614 ducal mandate reads, “poor children are singing in front
of houses at nighttime, and chasing after alms.”86 It seems that poor boys not
going to school were impersonating students and singing in front of homes for
money; after 1616 those schoolboys authorized to sing publicly were to have
“a certificate or special token” from their schoolmaster to prove their status.
Furthermore, singing was to be heard in the daytime only; “at nighttime the
same [singing] shall be entirely forbidden not only to them, but also to all other
men and women.”87 Furthermore, children were no longer to sing for alms in
front of churches, for “this happens with such immodesty and with such clumsy,
82
See Otto Ursprung, Münchens musikalische Vergangenheit. Von der Frühzeit bis zu Richard
Wagner (Munich: Bayerland-Verlag, 1927), 56. For a later example, note that on
January 15, 1607 Wilhelm V paid the St. Peter’s choir two Gulden for Ansingen on St.
Lucia and Christmas. See BayHStA, HR II, 192 (Hausmeisteramtsrechnung of Wilhelm
V), 109v.
83
According to testimony in 1596 of schoolmaster Martin Zänckhel, who feared that
a coming ban would severely impact the upkeep of his students; see StA Ingolstadt,
A VI 44, 4v–5r, and Extended Reference 4.24.
84
January 24, 1580, StAM, BR 62, 24r–v.
85
Ordinance of Maximilian I, 1599, StA Ingolstadt, A IV 6a, 9v–10v. For original text
86
“Es findet sich, daß über beschehenns Verbott, die arm[m]e Kinder zu Nachts vor
den Häusern singen, vnd dem Allmosen nachlauffen, welches, wie es euch abzustel-
len gebührt [. . .]” Mandate of Maximilian I, September 17, 1614, StAM, BR 62,
173v–174r.
87
Landrecht Policey, Gerichts- Malefitz- und andere Ordnungen, 584. See Extended Reference
4.26.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 214 10/28/2013 10:36:33 PM

coarse rhymes and songs, that more annoyance and mockery comes out of it,
than honor to God or usefulness to the Church.”88 Even traditional practices like
the Sternsingen on Three Kings Day did not escape scrutiny. In December 1622,
the city council banned the practice outright; after some protest in January of
the following year, Sternsingen was again permitted in December 1623 for the
coming holiday, but only indoors, and in a modest manner. In subsequent years
Sternsingen would have to be approved on an exceptional basis.89
It is difficult to reconstruct the repertory of authorized student choirs,
much less the songs of itinerant beggars and children. However, a 1590 col-
lection of songs printed in Straubing may provide a hint of the music heard
in approved contexts, at least.90 These so-called Ansing Lieder are closely
related to the traditional practice of Sternsingen, as a distinct section of six
songs is devoted entirely to this ritual; a seventh, the first song in the vol-
ume for the New Year (Mit Freyden wöllen wir Singen), primarily recounts
the visit of the Magi.91 We then find a miscellany of other songs on the Ten
Commandments (Nun hör Mensch was dich Gott lehren wil), the Passion of
Christ (Da Jesus in den Garten ging), St. Catherine (Die heilig rein und auch die
fein), St. Barbara (Ich weis mir ein Blümlein das ist fein), St. Dorothea (Es war ein
Gotsförchtiges unnd Christlichs Junckfrewlein), and finally the Seven Last Words
of Christ on the Cross (Da Jesus an dem Creütze stund). Like other extant song-
sheets by this Straubing printer, there is no musical notation, but the lack of
textual indications for melodies does suggest that they were well known.92
From other notated sources we can present the first of the songs honoring the
Three Kings, Ich lag in einer Nacht und schlieff (Example 4.1), which displays
a simple rhythmic profile unfolding within the narrow space of a fifth, easily
memorized and easily performed.
88
Ibid., 682. See Extended Reference 4.27.
89
See references in the Munich Ratsprotokollen, cited in Stahleder, Belastungen und
Bedrückungen, 387, 389, 395, 401, 416.
90
Ansing Lieder. So von alters her, von der Jugent zu vnderschiedlichen Zeiten und Fest Tägen
im Jar, vor den Heusern gesungen worden, und noch zu singen pflegen (Straubing: Andre
Sommer, 1590).
91
The six songs for Three Kings are Ich lag in einer Nacht und schlieff; Mit Gott so lassen wir
unser Gesang erklingen; Mit freydt so wöll wir heben an; Zu Betlehem ein Liecht erschein; In
Gottes Namen hebe[n] wir an, Die heyligen drey König sind wolgethan; and Mit Gott so wöllen
wir loben und ehrn.
92
Sommer was quite active printing similar materials into the early seventeenth century,
including pilgrimage songs to be discussed in chapter 6. For other publications see
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 215 10/28/2013 10:36:33 PM

E x a m p l e 4 . 1 Ich lag in einer Nacht und schlieff, adapted from Bäumker,
Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 1:367
For Bavarian officials public singing carried the potential for disorder and
subversion. Bruce Smith has written eloquently of the expressive power of and
political challenges posed by popular ballads in the English public sphere,
their effect on the body, their role in the soundscape, their interaction with
speech communities and political authorities.93 Popular ballads and songs
were a critical means of expressing personal and collective identity, of defin-
ing the boundaries between “us” and “them”; as Smith writes, “all ballads are
border ballads.”94 Even if some ballads and songs were disseminated through
manuscripts and prints, these were but an epiphenomenon of a much broader
culture of orality in which reading aloud and singing were central modes of
communication. Songs passed on news of recent events, mocked the ortho-
dox clergy, disrupted Catholic services, and witnessed to Evangelical belief.95
93
Smith, The Acoustic World of Early Modern England, 173.
94
Ibid., 186.
95
Robert W. Scribner offers this typology in Popular Culture and Popular Movements in
Reformation Germany (London: Hambledon Press, 1987), 61–62.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 216 10/28/2013 10:36:33 PM

Bavarian censorship ordinances aimed to stop the infiltration of Protestant
ideas through print and manuscript, but little could be done to suppress
heretical or polemical songs once they penetrated the popular consciousness.
The oral culture of popular song was, to cite Certeau again, one of tactics.96 If
the strategies of Bavarian officials were expressed through the appropriation
of public space and the discipline of time through bell sounds, commoners
resisted these norms through singing, speech, and noise.
No one can be certain of how pervasive Protestant song was in
sixteenth-century Bavaria, but episodes of heretical singing have left scat-
tered traces in the archives. In 1540 the new bishop of Passau, Wolfgang
von Salm, complained to the city council that “in homes, on the streets, and
in other places in the city, especially at night, many dishonorable, hateful,
mocking, and other newly composed songs are being sung against our most
dignified Christian faith.”97 In 1557 the town of Landsberg had a German
schoolmaster—originally from the heavily Protestant city of Augsburg—who
was accused of teaching his students “Lutheran psalms” (Lutterisch besalmen),
having them sung in public, and even asking the local pastor to allow his
students to sing them in the divine service, a request which was refused. The
ducal court demanded the schoolmaster’s imprisonment on account of this
insolence.98 The Salzburg archdiocesan synod of 1569 revealed that in the
Pongau, a short distance south from Salzburg, “heretical” songs were not only
being sung by peasants and tradesmen in the alleys, but also by students on
the main streets.99 And as late as 1571, the city council of Ingolstadt, whose
Jesuit-dominated university made it one of the strongest nodes of Catholic
orthodoxy in the duchy, discussed the fact that commoners in that city were
singing “German psalms” and songs like Herr, meinen Geist beuilich ich Dir in Deine
Hendt and Der theure Gottesmann, the latter a song of praise for Martin Luther.100
Such anecdotes can even be found concerning Munich, the center of Catholic
confessionalization and religious surveillance. The 1550s were an especially
challenging period for the authorities, beginning with the temporary expulsion
96
de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, 29–44.
97
Bayerisches Staatsarchiv Landshut, Rep. 112, Fasz, 34, Nr. 10, qtd. in Brigitte Kaff,
Volksreligion und Landeskirche: die evangelische Bewegung im bayerischen Teil der Diözese
Passau (Munich: Kommissionsbuchhandlung R. Wölfle, 1977), 45.
98
BayHStA, KÄA 4263, 224b r–227r. The precise identity of these songs is unclear.
99
Winkler, Die nachtridentinischen Synoden im Reich, 113.
100
Hofmann, Geschichte der Stadt Ingolstadt 1506–1600, 746. The identity of these songs
is unclear. Herr, meinen Geist befehl ich dir, whose text is derived from Luke 23:46, is one
stanza within the sixteenth-century Lutheran chorale In dir hab ich gehoffet.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 217 10/28/2013 10:36:34 PM

in 1556 of a tailor who “sang a song mocking monks, priests, and bishops” in
the street while drunk.101 April 1558 saw the suppression of a secret Protestant
conventicle organized by several women who, in addition to holding pri-
vate devotional meetings, were “instructing the students to sing deceptive
German songs [Teutschen verfüerischen gesanng] on the streets.”102 That summer
featured one of the most dramatic incidents in Munich’s confessional history,
recounted in chapter 1, when a group of young men interrupted Catholic Mass
at the Augustinian church by loudly singing Lutheran chorales with strong
anti-clerical sentiments. Such open defiance could not long continue, though
forbidden song was still heard on occasion in the city. In 1607, the year in which
a particularly vicious anti-Jesuit song was circulating in Munich, Maximilian
I released a mandate complaining that “one hears throughout the city, in the
day and during services, as well as at night, heretical and vexing songs and
lieder being sung, which are not only seen as insulting the Catholics, but also
deceive the young and impressionable.” Munich officials were doing nothing to
stop it, but merely “look[ed] through their fingers” (sech[en] durch die fünger) and
allowed the practice to continue.103
Most offensive to Catholics in the Protestant song repertory was surely
Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort (Lord, preserve us in your Word), Luther’s
“children’s song against the two archenemies of Christ” first circulated in
broadside and appearing in print by 1543.104 It quickly made its way into
Protestant services and by the mid-sixteenth century had developed a reputa-
tion for inciting confessional passions, largely because of its first stanza:
Erhalt uns Herr bey deinem Wort Lord, preserve us in your Word,
Und steur des Bapsts und Türcken Mord, And avert the murderous Pope
and Turk,
101
StAM, Rsp 16, October 7, 1556, also cited in Stahleder, Belastungen und
Bedrückungen, 123.
102
BayHStA, KGR 1, April 8, 1558, 197r–v.
103
BayHStA, SV 1469, 45r–47r, January 4, 1607. Also discussed in Reinhard
Heydenreuter, Kriminalgeschichte Bayerns: von den Anfängen bis ins 20. Jahrhundert
(Regensburg: Pustet, 2003), 193.
104
On the provocativeness of this song in particular, see Robert Dollinger, “Erhalt uns
Herr, bei deinem Wort!”, Zeitschrift für bayerische Kirchengeschichte 29 (1960): 33–42; see
also Ernst Walter Zeeden in “Aspekte der katholischen Frömmigkeit in Deutschland
im 16. Jahrhundert,” in Konfessionsbildung: Studien zur Reformation, Gegenreformation und
katholischen Reform (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1985), 334–35, who discusses the com-
mentary on this song’s efficacy by the Lutheran theologian and hymnodist Cyriakus
Spangenberg (1528–1604).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 218 10/28/2013 10:36:34 PM

Die Jhesum Christum deinen Son Who wish to depose your son
Wolten stürtzen von deinem Thron. Jesus Christ from your throne.
The song’s history in Regensburg, a heavily Protestant imperial city

entirely surrounded by Bavarian territory, is instructive.105 Erhalt uns
Herr had been specified for church services there from the mid-sixteenth
century, and was especially popular for the annual Reformation festi-
val.106 But in the mouths of local residents it was also a blunt weapon.
In 1586 controversy broke out between the Regensburg city council,
local Catholic authorities, and Duke Wilhelm V concerning the ill treat-
ment of Jesuit priests. Wilhelm and the cathedral chapter—a Jesuit
priest, Michael Cardaneus, was the cathedral’s preacher—cited numerous
instances of Jesuits being abused by the populace, incited in part by the
fiery anti-Catholic sermons of the preacher Theodor Rosinus. The charge
of Catholic officials was that the people “sing and shriek impudent and
hateful songs against the Catholics,” and even the children sing “the rebel-
lious and hateful song, Erhalt vns herr bei deine[m] wort, vnd stürtz des Bapsts
vnd Türcken mordt, causing much bitterness toward the clergy.107
Faced with the danger of recatholicization after Emperor Ferdinand
II’s promulgation of the Edict of Restitution in 1629, the city council of
Regensburg debated whether to ban the song—could the brazen singing of
an anti-Catholic song trigger an aggressive imperial response in a city accus-
tomed to hosting the Reichstag? The Protestant consistory, maintaining that
the Pope was indeed the “occidental Antichrist,” insisted on retaining it,
arguing that it was godly, taken from Scripture, and that banning it would
be a violation of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. Although some preachers rec-
ognized the danger that Erhalt uns Herr posed, the majority of the consistory
supported it. Ultimately, a compromise was reached between the consistory
and city council allowing Erhalt uns Herr to be sung only after weekday ser-
mons, not on Sundays or feast days.108
105
Dollinger, “Erhalt uns Herr, bei deinem Wort!”, esp. 35–36, 39–40.
106
Dollinger (ibid., 36) cited a collection of music for the centennial celebrations of the
Lutheran Reformation between October 31 and November 2, 1617, the so-called
Jubelfest, that includes an eight-voice setting of Erhalt uns Herr by Michael Praetorius.
On the music for the this festival see Extended Reference 4.29.
107
Regensburg cathedral chapter to the city council, July 15, 1586, BayHStA, KLReg,
St. Paul 2, 8v. See Extended Reference 4.30.
108
Archiv der unteren Pfarrei Regensburg, E 36, and Stadtarchiv Regensburg, Eccles.
I 12, 14f, cited in Dollinger, “Erhalt uns Herr, bei deinem Wort!”, 39–40. For further
detail see Extended Reference 4.31.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 219 10/28/2013 10:36:34 PM

Even the heavily surveilled Munich was not immune to the scourge of
anti-Catholic song. By early June 1607, printed copies of a song attacking
the Munich Jesuits were circulating around the city, causing so much uproar
that the Jesuits, the Munich city council, and Duke Maximilian himself felt
compelled to intervene. The principal source recounting this controversy is
a small booklet of fifteen folios printed by Nikolaus Heinrich in Munich,
bearing the title Warhafftige Urkund der erschröcklichen zeittung von den Jesuiten
zu München inn Bayrn (Truthful Proclamation Concerning the Horrible News
of the Jesuits of Munich in Bavaria).109 This publication contains three sepa-
rate documents: a decree of Maximilian I (June 11, 1607); a decree of the
Munich city council (June 12, 1607); and a concluding, anonymous address
“to good-hearted readers” (July 1, 1607). The melody and incipit of the song
that touched off this response remain unknown to us, but its contents are laid
bare in the city council decree of June 12:
We declare and announce to all that on the 6th of June, as we were
assembled in the public council, three different printed, false, and
untruthful songs of slander and blasphemy were brought and read
before us. The first was under the name of Johann Lantzenberg of
Nuremberg, the second under Valentin Schönigk of Augsburg, both
printers; the third from Lauingen, and all three printed in this cur-
rent year of 1607. These [songs] are plainly untruthful as they agree
with one another neither in time, place, names, nor otherwise; but
their main content is that some fathers of the praiseworthy Society
of Jesus in their college here were to have deprived several honor-
able virgins of their honor, one of which was the daughter of a bur-
gher and innkeeper named Philipp Stahel (whose name is known to us
neither among our citizenry nor among the innkeepers). And one of
the virgins, who according to one of the slanderous songs was named
Elisabeth, or according to the content of another was named Christina,
became pregnant, and thereafter in January of this year was murdered
109
Warhafftige Urkund der erschröcklichen zeittung von den Jesuiten zu München inn Bayrn,
wegen ihrer schandt- vnd mordstucken, die sie mit eines Burgers Tochter allda sollen begangen
haben, wie solches newlich an drey vnderschidlichen Orten, Reimen vnd Liedweiß in Truck
außgangen, vnd jetzund zu München mit rechtem warem grund, vnd hoch ansehlichen vnwid-
ersprechlichen Zeugknussen beschriben, vnd an das Liecht gebracht wirdt (Munich: Nikolaus
Heinrich, 1607); exemplar in BSB, Res/Jes. 114#Beibd. 5. A version with a slightly
different orthography on the title page is preserved under the signature BSB, Res/4
Jes. 259. For alerting me to this document I am grateful to David Crook, who is pre-
paring a more detailed study of the case.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 220 10/28/2013 10:36:34 PM

at nighttime in [the Jesuit] church and buried behind the altar. When
we were said to have been told of this murderous deed by a messen-
ger who had fallen asleep in the church and seen the grave himself,
we were said to have imprisoned five fathers of the aforementioned
Society, publicly torn their skin from their bodies with red-hot tongs,
and finally executed them on the wheel. All of this according to these
blasphemous rhymes and slanderous songs.110
As the decree states, these deliberations took place on June 6; the next day
the council heard a formal complaint from the Jesuit fathers and resolved
“to make all possible efforts to proclaim their innocence.”111 Maximilian I’s
lengthy decree of June 11 defended the Munich Jesuits passionately against
the song’s author(s), “who doubtless are the enemies of our Catholic faith,
and hateful and envious of the Society.”112 The Munich Jesuits prepared their
own response, and on June 20, the city council received a ducal command
that this “proclamation of the fathers of the Society of Jesus” be printed.113
This may well refer to the anonymous and extended address “to good-hearted
readers” (An guthertzigen Leser) printed at the end of the Warhafftige Urkund.
Beginning with an essay on the gravity of lies and how the Jesuits have
so often been blamed for murder, conspiracy, and other crimes, the address
amounts to an extended didactic essay comparing the inconsistencies in the
three versions of the song: “And even though this fable has been goodly and
more than sufficiently disproven and renounced, no less can commoners rec-
ognize and understand such lies when they see the great differences between
the three songs, and how they entirely contradict one another.”114 There is no
need here to recount the differences between these versions, which were evi-
dently great; more striking is the exquisite detail of the Munich city council’s
description of the scurrilous story in their decree, and the thoroughness of
the rebuttal found in the address “to good-hearted readers.” These efforts to
denounce the song so quickly and exhaustively suggest that its contents were
so widely known that it could no longer be safely ignored. Point by point,
its lies and inconsistencies had to be exposed. Furthermore, the decrees and
110
Warhafftige Urkund, 5v–6r. For original text see Extended Reference 4.32.
111
StAM, Rsp 26, 138r–v, June 7, 1607. For original text of the protocol see Extended
Reference 4.33.
112
Warhafftige Urkund, 2r–5r.
113
“Ihr Dht beuelch abgelesen worden das man die vrkhund der h. Patru[m] Societatis
JESV möge In offenlichen Truckh gehen lassen.” StAM, Rsp 26, 145r.
114
Warhafftige Urkund, 13r. For original text see Extended Reference 4.34.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 221 10/28/2013 10:36:34 PM

later correspondence between the city councils of Munich and Nuremberg
illustrate the means by which such rumors could spread so quickly. Typically
polemical songs of this kind originated in nearby Protestant cities—
Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Ulm were all common sources—but the print-
ers took pains to conceal their identities, likely fearing punishment from
local officials anxious to avoid any confrontations with the powerful Bavarian
duke. The songs omitted evidence of their origin, or falsified it in such a way
that innocent printers found themselves accused of setting out to disturb the
religious peace.115
Once songs like this one were smuggled into Munich, it proved difficult to
prevent their spread and performance, which explains why much greater effort
was expended on interdiction and censorship than on prosecuting individual
singers.116 Local printers, booksellers, and markets were particular targets of
the authorities, who hoped to interdict illicit songs and other materials before
they could find their away into popular oral culture. Periodically local officials
would arrive unannounced and search booksellers’ inventories. Court altist
Johannes Hellgemayr, whose extant diary provides a fascinating window on
music and life in early seventeenth-century Munich, reported in 1607 that
“this year His Princely Highness [Maximilian I] most graciously commanded
that all books be visited and [those] confiscated, which are not right, tainted,
or contain heresy.”117 Among further guidelines released by Maximilian in
July 1616, each town in the duchy was to appoint two reliable persons to visit
the yearly markets and the local booksellers, “and take away whatever mis-
leading and heretical books, songs, images, and the same that they find.”118
115
On accusations against the Nuremberg printer Johann Lantzenberger for printing the
song, see BayHStA, Jesuitica 2329/1 and 2422. For a similar case from Augsburg, see
116
We cannot pursue the history of Bavarian censorship here, but wide-ranging stud-
ies may be found in Helmut Neumann, Staatliche Bücherzensur und -aufsicht in Bayern
von der Reformation bis zum Ausgang des 17. Jahrhunderts (Heidelberg, Karlsruhe: C.
F. Müller Juristischer Verlag, 1977); and Wolfgang Wüst, Censur als Stütze von Staat
und Kirche in der Frühmoderne: Augsburg, Bayern, Kurmainz und Württemberg im Vergleich
(Munich: Vögel, 1998), 24–38.
117
“dises Jar haben ihr frh: Dht: Genedigist beuolhen alhie alle bicher zu besuechen
vnd Auß zu Mustern, was Nicht gerecht vnd Makhl oder khezerei in sich haben.”
Diary of Johannes Hellgemayr, BSB, Oefeliana 160, qtd. in Horst Leuchtmann,
“Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen Kapellaltisten Johannes
Hellgemayr 1595–1633. Ein Beitrag zur Münchner Stadt- und Musikgeschichte,”
Oberbayerisches Archiv für vaterländische Geschichte 100 (1975): 164.
118
BayHStA, SV 2812, 50v, July 6, 1616.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 222 10/28/2013 10:36:35 PM

Wholly suppressing the importation of forbidden materials into the duchy
was a difficult task indeed. In January 1593, the Spiritual Council informed
the Munich city council that “several times a man from Württemberg has
come here, sometimes as if he were an emissary, other times wearing poor
clothing, and brings in all sorts of heretical tracts, rhymes, and books, sell-
ing them here and there.” The city council was thus ordered to hire “good
spies” to watch him and those to whom he was selling, and report its find-
ings accordingly.119 A section of Maximilian’s 1598 religious mandate was
devoted to the secret importation of heretical books, “of which a great many
are found in our princedom among our subjects still to this day, and more are
being brought in daily by itinerant [sellers].”120 Despite Bavaria’s reputation
as a highly surveilled environment, it is unlikely that the authorities were
able to prevent the arrival of songs like the one attacking the Munich Jesuits
in 1607; printers in nearby Protestant cities, whether or not they identified
themselves in their prints, saw a good business opportunity in having their
wares sold in Munich and other Catholic and mixed-confessional towns.121 As
we have seen previously, one alternative available to the Catholic authorities
was to craft an alternative repertoire of devotional song, a task that Jesuits in
particular would embrace.
Sound in Public Religious Spectacles

The sounds of bells, regulation of public noise, and suppression of heretical song
were all routine methods of controlling the urban soundscape, but secular and
religious elites also staged less frequent spectacles having temporary yet dra-
matic effects. In chapter 5 we will consider the most elaborate of these, the
annual civic processions on the feast of Corpus Christi involving thousands of
participants in collective displays of sacramental devotion and Catholic fidelity.
Here, we shall consider two phenomena that shaped the Bavarian soundscape in
the spirit of Catholic reform: the public dramas and spectacles organized by the
Jesuits, and the devotions surrounding the great Mariensäule erected in Munich’s
market square.
119
BayHStA, SV 3033, 23r, January 16, 1593. For original text see Extended Reference
4.36.
120
Mandate of Maximilian I, March 13, 1598, BayHStA, SV 3223, 8. For original text
121
Here I concur with Wolfgang Wüst in Censur als Stütze von Staat und Kirche, 25, who
emphasizes the piecemeal nature of censorship enforcement in Bavaria.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 223 10/28/2013 10:36:35 PM

In Munich, a tradition of school drama, mainly on religious or moralistic
themes, extends back at least to the mid-sixteenth century.122 Some of these
included music as interludes or integrated it into the action, as was the case with
a play on the beheading of John the Baptist offered in 1618 by Georg Victorinus,
shortly after his appointment as schoolmaster at St. Peter.123 At the end of each
of the five acts of his play “a special music with several instruments” was to be
heard, but during the drama there were multiple opportunities for singing as
well: song and dance at the feast during which Herodias offered her daughter
Salome to the king and his guests, a lament by several Christian boys at the death
of John the Baptist, and “angelic song” to comfort John’s disciples who bury his
body. By this time, however, the field of religious drama in Munich and elsewhere
in Catholic Germany was thoroughly dominated by the Jesuits, who offered pro-
ductions that trained their students in rhetoric and ethics, while religiously edi-
fying the public.124 From the 1550s onward, Jesuit colleges in German towns
typically produced plays during the Lenten season and in the early fall, when the
academic year began anew and prizes for outstanding achievement by students
in the previous year were distributed. In Munich, plays were initially produced
inside the great hall (Aula) of the college but eventually were moved eventually
to open-air venues, where larger audiences could be accommodated.125 Since the
plays were in Latin, audiences had recourse to printed summaries of the action
in German (Periochen), many of which survive today.126 Consequently, for most
122
On early school dramas for Carnival season by the students of Unsere Liebe Frau and
St. Peter in Munich, see Karl Trautmann, “Archivalische Beiträge zur Geschichte der
Schulkomödie in München,” Mitteilungen der Geschichte für deutsche Erziehungs- und
Schulgeschichte 1 (1891): 61–68.
123
The vernacular summary of this drama, Summarischer Inhalt der Aktion Von Enthauptung
deß H. Joannis Tauffers vnnd Vorlauffers Christi vnsers Seligmachers (Munich: Nikolaus
Heinrich, 1618), is preserved in BSB, 4 Bavar. 2197,III-1/113#Cah.27.
124
For a thorough catalogue of these productions in German-speaking lands see
Jean-Marie Valentin, Le Théâtre des Jesuites dans les pays de langue allemande. Repertoire
chronologique des pièces représentées et des documents conservés (1555–1773), 2 vols.
(Stuttgart: A. Hiersemann, 1983). For a study of Jesuit drama in Munich see espe-
cially Karl Pörnbacher, “Jesuitentheater und Jesuitendichtung in München,” in Karl
Wagner and Albert Keller, eds., St. Michael in München: Festschriften zum 400. Jahrestag
der Grundsteinlegung und zum Abschluss des Wiederaufbaus (Munich: Schnell & Steiner,
1983), 200–214.
125
See Otto Ursprung, Münchens musikalische Vergangenheit. Von der Frühzeit bis zu Richard
Wagner (München: Bayerland-Verlag, 1927), 86–87; and Thomas W. Best, Jacob
Bidermann (New York: Twayne, 1975), 18–19.
126
Note for example the extensive collection of such libretti under the signature BSB, 4
Bavar. 2197.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 224 10/28/2013 10:36:35 PM

of the audience the chief effect of the plays may well have resided in the scenery,
staging, and music; for those learned in Latin the Jesuit plays could have more
profound spiritual consequences.127
As we have seen, the Jesuits were fundamentally ambivalent about music,
gradually coming to recognize its contribution to religious persuasion, but
also remaining wary of music’s power to distract and, possibly, to corrupt.128
Generally, musical indications in extant libretti are vague—“fit cantus,” “fit
musica,” or “chorus” are the relatively unhelpful terms one encounters—but
there were exceptions. Most commonly, choruses, likely performed without
instrumental accompaniment by the students, were placed at the ends of
scenes and acts. Following traditional verse forms and similar in style to
humanistic odes, these choruses provided commentary on the action in the
style of the ancient Greek dramas. The research of Franz Körndle has done
much to illuminate Orlando di Lasso’s role in providing choruses for Jesuit
productions. Several choruses found in the drama Ultimum judicium, per-
formed at Graz in May 1589, were in fact compositions by Lasso that other-
wise had been regarded in the literature as motets with unclear function or
as secular occasional works.129 Jakob Gretser’s drama Udo of Magdeburg, per-
formed in Munich in 1598, contains drinking scenes where manuscript annota-
tions call for motets by Lasso, such as Omnis enim homo, Fertur in conviviis, A solis
orto sidere, or Si bene perpendi.130
On occasion Jesuit dramas featured more striking uses of music. The play
Hester, offered in Munich in 1577, called for an extraordinary musical comple-
ment involving trumpets, kettledrums, cornetti, and trombones, as well as bag-
pipers, drummers, and wind players.131 In Munich in 1599, and again in 1603, a
127
For example, a performance of Jakob Bidermann’s Cenodoxus in 1609 was reported
by the ducal privy secretary Joachim Meichel to have moved fourteen highly-placed
courtiers to take the Jesuit Spiritual Exercises; see Pörnbacher, “Jesuitentheater und
Jesuitendichtung in München,” 208.
128
For a discussion of the Jesuit use of music in theater see Franz Körndle, “Between
Stage and Divine Service: Jesuits and Theatrical Music,” in John W. O’Malley, ed., The
Jesuits II: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540–1773 (Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 2006), 479–97.
129
These motets are Flemus extremos hominum labores, Heu quis armorum, Quas tibi laudes
meritas canemus, Ad te perenne gaudium, Tragico tecti, Heu quos dabimus miseranda cohors,
and Tibi progenies unica patris. See Franz Körndle, “ ‘Ad te perenne gaudium.’ Lassos
Musik zum ‘Vltimum Judicium,’ ” Die Musikforschung 53 (2000): 68–71.
130
Körndle, “Between Stage and Divine Service,” 481–82. The manuscript providing
these annotations is Dillingen Studienbibliothek, Cod. XV, 225.
131
Körndle, “Between Stage and Divine Service,” 480.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 225 10/28/2013 10:36:36 PM

drama was performed by the name of Curiositas, whose plot amounts to a princi-
pled rejection of novelty and fashion, symbolized and expressed by the figure of
Diogenes the Cynic. Between the second and third acts there appeared a remark-
able “Episodium cantorum curiosorum,” a peculiar musical interlude in which a
choir of six voices sang what appears to have been a cacophonous simultaneity of
different genres of music: the text refers to madrigals, passamezzi, galliards, and
German songs, and even names the composers Jacobus de Kerle and Clemens
non Papa. The episode concludes with Diogenes’s scorning words: “This is a
curious mob of musicians, who please neither the ancients nor the moderns.”132
Another notable play was Benno Comoedia (Munich, 1598), coinciding with the
intense Wittelsbach promotion of the cult of St. Benno around the turn of the
century. The play included choirs of angels, peasants, pagan Slavs (the objects of
Benno’s missionary work), soldiers, and pilgrims. Trumpets and drums sounded
at the appearance on stage of the war goddess Bellona, who marks the struggle
of Benno against the Saxon princes.133
Surely the most strident of all of these dramas was that celebrating the
final consecration of the Jesuit church of St. Michael in 1597. On the morn-
ing of July 6, at four o’clock in the morning, a great bronze bell was rung,
followed by salvos of gunfire and the discharge of cannons mounted on the
city walls.134 Poor weather had forced the procession preceding the festal
Mass inside the completed church. A large number of musicians, directed by
the court Kapellmeister Ferdinand di Lasso, were divided into five choirs and
positioned throughout the space. As the procession reached the center of the
nave, “suddenly from the odeum [possibly the choir or organ loft] the trum-
peters and drummers began to make a festive clamor, in alternation. At the
other portal waited the serene princes of Austria and Bavaria, who reverently
followed the procession with burning torches. This procession concluded,
132
Fidel Rädle discusses the music of the early Jesuit theater in “Musik und Musiker
auf der Bühne des frühen Jesuitentheaters,” in Ulrich Konrad, ed., Musikalische
Quellen, Quellen zur Musikgeschichte. Festschrift für Martin Staehelin zum 65. Geburtstag
(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002), 187–202; a full transcription of the
text of this passage appears on pp. 199–200.
133
Fidel Rädle, “ ‘Benno Comoedia’. Münchens Stadtpatron auf der Jesuitenbühne,”
Literatur in Bayern 49 (1997): 6–7.
134
Accounts of the ceremony are to be found in the “Historia Collegij Monachiensi[s] ab
anno 1587 ad 1632” and in the “Epitome historica Collegii Monachiensis Ab anno
1586” (both in BayHStA, Jesuitica 2268); the “Litterae annuae Collegij Monacensis”
(Archivum Monacense Societatis Jesu, ms. Abt. 0 I 45); and the printed Annuae litterae,
ad annum 1597 (Naples, 1607). The following discussion is based on the summaries
of these reports found in Barbara Bauer and Jürgen Leonhardt, eds., Triumphus divi
Michaelis Archangeli Bavarici. Triumph des Heiligen Michael, Patron Bayerns. München,
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 226 10/28/2013 10:36:36 PM

the Office immediately began with five distinct choruses using all manner
of instruments.”135 After the service there was a great feast, followed by a
drama entitled Triumphus divi Michaelis Archangeli Bavarici (Triumph of Saint
Michael, Archangel of Bavaria), involving some 900 participants and taking
eight hours to perform.136 Divided into five acts, the Triumphus begins with
the Archangel Michael’s defense of the Church (embodied by the Apocalyptic
Virgin) against the dragon Lucifer, setting in motion the armies of hell; the
middle acts depict the treachery of Satan’s allies, the pagan Roman emperors,
false teachers, and heretics, but in the final act Michael lays the dragon in
chains. Acts I and V featured large choruses of the angels and saints, now lost,
that are thought to have been the work of Georg Victorinus. In addition, a
final chorus of the saints with the text Tibi progenies unica patris may have been
the motet of Orlando di Lasso.137 The performance of the Triumphus capped a
day of sight and sound that could not have failed to make an impression on
the populace, and made plain the Archangel’s victory, not simply over Satan,
but over heresy as well. In effect, the drama was an live enactment of the
new church’s principal iconography: Michael slaying the dragon of heresy,
portrayed in Christoph Schwartz’s 1587 altarpiece and in Hubert Gerhard’s
sculpture on the façade of the church, set just above eye level (Figure 4.1).
A strikingly different kind of Jesuit drama involving music was offered
in 1643 in Munich by the Jesuit priest Johann Paul Silbermann (or Johannes
Paullinus, 1604–1671), a preacher, confessor to the electress Henriette
Adelaide, and music instructor at the Jesuit college.138 His twin dramas
Philothea and Theophilus, which premiered in March and September 1643,
1597. Einleitung, Text und Übersetzung, Kommentar, Jesuitica 2 (Regensburg: Schnell &

Steiner, 2000), 22–4; and Rita Haub, “Georgius Victorinus und der Triumphus Divi
Michaelis Archangeli Bavarici,” Musik in Bayern 51 (1995): 79–80.
135
BayHStA, Jesuitica 2268, 74. For original text see Extended Reference 4.38.
136
See Haub, “Georgius Victorinus und der Triumphus Divi Michaelis Archangeli
Bavarici,” Musik in Bayern 51 (1995): 79–80; and Bauer and Leonhardt, eds., Triumphus
divi Michaelis Archangeli Bavarici, 95–96.
137
On Victorinus’ biography and likely contribution to the Triumphus, see esp. Haub,
“Georgius Victorinus und der Triumphus Divi Michaelis Archangeli Bavarici.” Körndle
suggests the Lasso motet for this final chorus in “ ‘Ad te perenne gaudium,’ ” 70.
138
For biographical details, see Karl Schwämmlein, “ ‘Philothea,’ ” Verhandlungen des
Historischen Vereins für Oberpfalz und Regensburg 131 (1991): 74–75; a more textured
and accurate account of his life is given in Barbara Münch-Kienast, Philothea von
Johannes Paullin: das Jesuitendrama und die Geistlichen Übungen des Ignatius von Loyola
(Aachen: Shaker, 2000), 61–72.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 227 10/28/2013 10:36:36 PM

F i g u r e 4 . 1 Hubert Gerhard, St. Michael (ca. 1597), St. Michael, Munich
respectively, were likely the first attempts at fully sung staged drama in
Bavaria.139 The music assumed a much higher profile in these works than in
previous Jesuit dramas offered in Bavaria: traditional choruses now joined a
wide variety of arias, ariosos, and few-voiced concertato items for voices and
instruments. Only the libretto for Theophilus survives (nevertheless contain-
ing numerous musical indications), but we are fortunate to have full scores
of Philothea, preserved in a manuscript from Regensburg and in a full score
139
A brief discussion of Philothea may be found in Arnold Schering, Geschichte des
Oratoriums (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1911; repr., Hildesheim: Olms, 1966), 137–
38, who allows it as an “oratorio-like” work given Silbermann’s indication “tam in
scena, sive sine scena.”
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 228 10/28/2013 10:36:36 PM

printed at Munich in 1669.140 Consisting entirely of juxtaposed passages of
scripture set to music, these works illustrate the gradual journey to sanctity
of a woman and a man, respectively, who each must overcome numerous
obstacles; the parallels with the Jesuit Spiritual Exercises are quite explicit.141
Philothea, a soul who is searching for the proper way to salvation, is deceived
by the World (Mundus), the Flesh (Caro), and Satan (Orcus), but with the
assistance of Christ, the Guardian Angel, Providence, Divine Love, and other
allegorical figures she rejects the path of Satan and submits herself to God’s
will. The allegorical dialogue of sponsus and sponsa from the Song of Songs is
the primary vehicle by which Philothea realizes her love for Christ, with texts
from the Canticles dominating Parts III, IV, and V.
While it is impossible here to fully assess the musical significance of these
works, the impressive musical complement is worthy of mention: the printed
Perioche for a 1658 production in Munich shows seventeen individual singers,
two violinists, three violas (Violetta), a violone, two cornetti, three trombones,
one dulcian (Fagotto), two plucked keyboard instruments (Clavicembalo and
Arpicordo), and a theorbo, an ensemble that far outstripped those of earlier
Jesuit dramas.142 Silbermann had a fine appreciation of instrumental color,
differentiating characters by timbre: violins for Christ and the angels; the
violetta or viola for Misericordia, Clementia, Amor Divinus, and the weeping
Philothea; cornetti for Mundus and the rejoicing Philothea; and trombones
for Christ as judge and for the character Justitia. In this opulent orches-
tration, Philothea partakes of what Barbara Bauer has called a “poetics of
synaesthesia” that increasingly characterizes Jesuit drama in the later seven-
teenth century, a recognition of the power of multimedia spectacle to move
the affects in desired ways.143 Yet Silbermann insisted that a straightforward
140
The libretto for Theophilius was printed by the estate of Cornelius Leysser in Munich
in 1643 (BSB, 4 Bavar. 2195-1). The music for Philothea was printed in Philothea, id
est Anima Deo Chara (Munich: Johann Jäcklin, 1669), extant in BSB, 4 Mus.pr. 84; an
earlier manuscript source is preserved in BZaR, Proske A.R. 781. For further details
on these and other extant sources see Extended Reference 4.39.
141
See Münch-Kienast, Philothea von Johannes Paullin.
142
The set of 19 partbooks printed in the 1669 edition differs in small respects: we find
here 19 individual vocal parts distributed in 11 partbooks, 4 violins and 4 cornetti
sharing partbooks, 4 violas and 4 trombones sharing partbooks, and a separate part-
book for the organ.
143
See Barbara Bauer, “Multimediales Theater. Ansätze zu einer Poetik der Synästhesie
bei den Jesuiten,” in Heinrich F. Plett, ed., Renaissance-Poetik (Berlin: De Gruyter,
1994), 197–238; see also Münch-Kienast, Philothea von Johannes Paullin, 229–38.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 229 10/28/2013 10:36:37 PM

religious message—the spiritual path of Philothea—not be obscured by
unnecessary novelty. He wrote in 1669 with respect to previous performances
that “because that Philothea was pleasing through her simplicity and sweet-
est piety, she drew tears from the audience.”144 He explicitly rejected the type
of stile recitativo characteristic of the modern Italian stage and “sought by the
finest singers,” preferring instead a stylo mixto that he felt was “more suitable
for his actors”; the vocal writing, then, frequently shows an arioso flavor with
a predominantly syllabic presentation of text.145 A representative sample of
his work can be seen in Part III, scene 1, during which Christ and Divine
Love approach the dwelling of Philothea. Knocking on the door and sing-
ing ornately with the violin pair, Christ urges Philothea to awaken to greet
them, singing from Canticles 2:10, “Arise, my fair one, and come away”
(Example 4.2).146
Whether performed on stage or in the divine service, the aim of such
elaborate music was to affect the senses and the soul. The fact that the opera
was performed so frequently after its premiere testifies to its effectiveness. In
Munich it received six performances during Lent in 1643 and three more in
1646. The Regensburg Reichstag in 1653 featured no less than five perfor-
mances of Philothea, at which even the Protestant princes, according to a Jesuit
chronicle, were seen with moist eyes in spite of themselves.147 A performance
in the Jesuit college in April 1658, attended by the elector Ferdinand Maria,
moved another Jesuit chronicler to write that “the music made a powerful
impression, and many had tears in their eyes.”148 Jesuit accounts like these
cannot help but to be self-serving, of course, but common to them is a genu-
ine enthusiasm for a novel musical vehicle. Although more traditional forms
of Jesuit drama continued to be performed, Silbermann’s works dispensed
with the lengthy spoken monologues and dialogues in Latin, supplanting
144
“Quia verò qualis illa Philothea suâ simplicitate placuit, suavíque pietate lachrymas
Auditoribus excusit.” From preface of the 1669 printed score.
145
“Stylo recitativo, qui præstantes requirit Cantores, non sum usus; sed mixto, mihi
Actoribúsque meis commodiore.” From preface of the 1669 printed score. On
Silbermann’s ideal of simplicity, one that foreshadows the emphasis in later Jesuit
drama on meditative practice, see Münch-Kienast, Philothea von Johannes Paullin,
238–43.
146
For a full transcription of this scene, see Extended Musical Example 4.1.
147
BayHStA, Jesuitica 161, 45v; see also Schwämmlein, “ ‘Philothea,’ ” 110–12, and
148
Schwämmlein, “ ‘Philothea,’ ” 73–74, quoting Bernhard Duhr, Geschichte der Jesuiten
in den Ländern deutscher Zunge in der ersten Hälfte des XVII. Jahrhunderts (Freiburg im
Breisgau: Herder, 1913), 2/2:467, based in turn on BSB, Clm 1554.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 230 10/28/2013 10:36:37 PM

E x a m p l e 4 . 2 Johann Paul Silbermann, Philothea, Part III, scene 1, mm. 1–8
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 231 10/28/2013 10:36:37 PM

them by a kaleidoscopic alteration of tuneful arias, ariosos, choruses, and

instrumental interludes. Whether the spiritual effect of works like Philothea
penetrated beyond the princely castes remains an open question, but these
works do reflect a determination to reshape spaces and identities through
novel musical sounds.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 232 10/28/2013 10:36:38 PM

Dramatic productions like the Triumphus divi Michaelis and Philothea were
aurally impressive but necessarily anchored in the venues in which they were
performed. Could an entire city, though, become a unified theatrical space,
even if only briefly? The Jesuits made such an attempt in May 1622 on the
occasion of the canonization of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, respec-
tively the founder of their order and the man who had spread Catholicism in
his Asian mission. The Jesuit colleges in Germany conducted ceremonies in
an opulent, even militaristic manner, drawing an aural connection between
the missionary efforts of Ignatius and Xavier and the Society’s spiritual com-
bat with Protestantism. This was all to unfold conspicuously in public: “Nor
was there lacking,” reports a Jesuit chronicle, “joyful ceremonies and signs of
public rejoicing: spectacles, games, theatrical works to great applause; works
of the Muses, arts of painting and craft; and ceremonies among the pub-
lic sound and clamor of bells and of war, the thankful acclamations of the
multitudes.”149
For three days, May 8–10, 1622, the Jesuits transformed the entire city
of Ingolstadt, their premiere bastion in the north, into a “theater of religion”
(Religionis theatrum).150 On Saturday the eighth, the festivities began with a
grand triumphal procession in honor of the two new saints, which wound its
way through the streets of Ingolstadt, lasting some two hours. Accompanied
by trumpets, drums, and a large number of banners and mounted soldiers,
the procession advanced in two sections, one representing the empire of the
West, the other depicting the realms of the East, with the figures of Ignatius
and Xavier presiding over each. Massive, elaborately decorated wagons bore
constructed figures representing each man’s virtues: the first, for example,
bore a representation of the globe, to which a hand from heaven above
extended, pouring out the unquenchable fire with which Ignatius sought to
inflame the hearts of men.151 The procession concluded at the Jesuit church
of Heilig Kreuz under the sound of the Te Deum, accompanied by an “endless
multitude” of voices and a great variety of instruments. Inside the church,
149
IV. Ab anno 1611 ad annum 1630 (Munich: Johann Jakob Vötter, 1740; hereafter
HPSJGS IV), 284. For original text see Extended Reference 4.41.
150
On this term and on the festivities generally, see Günter Hess, “Religionis theatrum.
Emblematik und Fest bei der Kanonisationsfeier der Heiligen Ignatius und Franz
Xavier in Ingolstadt 1622,” in Der Tod des Seneca. Studien zur Kunst der Imagination in
Texten und Bildern des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2009),
305–7. For details on Hess’s sources see Extended Reference 4.42.
151
Hess, “Religionis theatrum,” 314.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 233 10/28/2013 10:36:38 PM

the clamor of trumpets and drums penetrated the ears of the listeners, while
military companies stationed outside began to fire their weapons.152 Similarly
grand music was heard for the Office of Vespers in the evening, presided over
by the bishop of Eichstätt. Even more impressive, perhaps, were the litanies
sung that night outside the church, where two great triumphal arches had
been constructed for the occasion, one standing before the Jesuit college, the
other before the portal of the church. Here, a manner of polychorality was
deployed: from one arch sanctoral litanies were sung—evidently with voices
as well as string instruments—while a second group of singers and trumpet-
ers answered.153 The ceremonies that evening concluded with more salvos
from the assembled soldiers as three “machines” bearing the flaming names
of Jesus, Ignatius, and Xavier ascended above the crowd.154 At high Mass the
next day, “a music was heard harmonized from many different galleries, and
indeed from the highest places in the church itself the sound of trumpets and
drums broke through, to wondrous delight and majesty.”155 Another source
reports that the best musicians from Neuburg and Eichstätt were present,
together with “a certain Englishman with his three sons, who played expertly
and wondrously on the lute.” On the steps of the new choir stood a pair of
boys intoning a litany-like song in honor of Ignatius and Xavier, in alterna-
tion with the resounding instrumental music from above. “Some quite expe-
rienced practitioners of this discipline [of music],” the chronicle concludes,
“judged the musical offerings so, that they said they had not often seen or
heard the like before.”156 The public ceremonies were crowned by an elabo-
rate dramatic production on the triumphs of Ignatius and Xavier, presented
over all three days.
At Dillingen, also the home of a Jesuit university, the public ceremonies
in honor of Ignatius and Xavier were hardly less imposing. Here, it was the
bishop of Augsburg, Heinrich V von Knöringen, who led a grand public
procession under the sounds of singing, trumpets and drums, and military
152
From the manuscript “Summarium de variis rebus Collegii Ingolstadiensis” held at
the Diözesanarchiv Eichstätt, qtd. and trans. in Gerhard Wilczek, “Die Jesuiten in
Ingolstadt von 1601–1635. 1. Teil. Übersetzung des ‘Summarium de variis rebus
Collegii Ingolstadiensis’ (Ordinariatsarchiv Eichstätt/Bayern), 1981,” (unpublished
typescript, 1981), 67–68.
153
HPSJGS IV, 290–1. For original text, see Extended Reference 4.43.
154
Wilczek, “Die Jesuiten in Ingolstadt von 1601–1635,” 67–68.
155
HPSJGS IV, 291.
156
From “Summarium de variis rebus Collegii Ingolstadiensis,” qtd. and trans. in
Wilczek, “Die Jesuiten in Ingolstadt von 1601–1635,” 69. Wilczek’s German transla-
tion appears in Extended Reference 4.44.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 234 10/28/2013 10:36:38 PM

gunfire, leading the whole into the Jesuit church for the celebration of solemn
Vespers during which the Te Deum was sung. The following day, Heinrich
celebrated Mass “with the sound of singers and instruments, divided into
four choirs, making a music of wondrous artifice.”157 In Regensburg, where
the Protestant majority often chafed at the Jesuits’ public spectacles, the can-
onization of Ignatius and Xavier occasioned a grand procession that wound
through Protestant neighborhoods on its way to the Jesuit church of St. Paul,
where the Te Deum was heard.158 We do not know what the vocal or instrumen-
tal complement was on this occasion, but the feast day of St. Francis Xavier
the following December was celebrated with the greatest solemnity in the
presence of Emperor Ferdinand II and his chapel. A Jesuit chronicle reports
that before arriving in Regensburg for a meeting with the imperial electors
(one that would ultimately confirm Bavaria’s elevation to an electorate in
February 1623), Ferdinand II had ordered his chapelmaster Giovanni Priuli
to compose something appropriate for the occasion. During the service,
which was attended by the emperor, the empress Eleanora Gonzaga, and a
great many Catholic princes, legates, and nobility, a work of enormous scope
was performed “with all manner of musicians”: one choir included no fewer
than fifteen trumpets, another had twelve instruments identified as “cornua”
(horns).159
These Jesuit-organized ceremonies naturally were highly programmatic,
and it is not easy to determine the degree of popular enthusiasm for or par-
ticipation in them. Other kinds of public spectacles achieved a popular
following to the extent that they could tap into more traditional devotional
currents. A notable example was the veneration of Mariensäule (see Figure 4.2).
Munich had endured a difficult occupation by the Swedish army beginning in
April 1632, but fortunately had been spared outright annihilation. During this
period, Maximilian had vowed “to undertake a work pleasing to God, if the
capital of Munich and also the city of Landshut were spared from the enemy’s
ruin and destruction.”160 In 1635, following the withdrawal of the last Swedish
157
“Proëpiscopus vesperarum solennia, & postridie panegyricum sermonem de loco supe-
riore luculentium habuit. Solenne sacrum Episcopus fecit, cantoribus & symphoniacis,
quadripartito choro, admirando musices artificio, accinentibus.” HPSJGS IV, 301.
158
HPSJGS IV, 284. For original text, see Extended Reference 4.45.
159
HPSJGS IV, 322. For original text and further commentary on Priuli’s composition,
160
“[. . .] ein gottgefälliges Werk anzustellen, wenn die hiesige Hauptstadt München und
auch die Stadt Landshut vor des Feindes endlichem Ruin und Zerstörung erhalten
würden.” BayHStA, GL 2708/568, qtd. in Michael Schattenhofer, Die Mariensäule in
München (Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1970), 6.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 235 10/28/2013 10:36:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 236
236|
m u s i c ,
p i e t y ,
a n d
p r o p a g a n d a
F i g u r e 4 . 2 Pen-and-ink sketch of the consecration of the Mariensäule, November 7, 1638. Munich, Staatliche
10/28/2013 10:36:39 PM
Graphische Sammlung, 29912 D. Reproduced with permission.

soldiers, Maximilian’s Spiritual Council called for an annual procession, the
distribution of alms, and the building of a suitable monumentum publicum.161
Construction of the Mariensäule began at the end of 1637, and on November 7,
1638, the first Sunday after All Saints Day—significantly, the eve of the anni-
versary of Maximilian’s victory at White Mountain in 1620—the great column
was consecrated by Bishop Veit Adam of Freising. Standing twelve meters high,
the column was capped with Hubert Gerhard’s sculpture of the Apocalyptic
Virgin Mary standing upon the crescent moon and bearing the child Jesus in
one arm and raising a scepter in the other. Standing over the precise center of
the Bavarian capital, then, was one of the Counter-Reformation’s most potent
symbols: the imperial, warlike “Queen of Heaven,” the Patroness of Bavaria
defending the electorate from the threat of heresy.162 The Munich Mariensäule,
which was quickly copied in other Catholic cities north of the Alps, publicly
dramatized Wittelsbach devotion to Mary and soon became a focus of intense
popular devotion.163
The Mariensäule marked a fixed node in Munich’s religious geography, but the
sound and music produced in its honor created a richer sense of devotional space.
The consecration ceremonies themselves took on a highly militaristic cast: a
pen-and-ink sketch (Figure 4.2) of the event shows the column surrounded by
tents and a covered stage; on the dais behind the column musicians are visible
(including bowed strings and trumpets or trombones), but note also the many
gun-bearing soldiers whose salvos would have created an enormous din.
161
Stahleder, Belastungen und Bedrückungen, 488. On the construction and history of
the Mariensäule, see esp. Friedrich Wilhelm Bruckbräu, Geschichte der Mariensäule in
München 1638–1855 (Munich: J. G. Weiss, 1855), and Schattenhofer, Die Mariensäule
in München. Some of the original correspondence concerning its planning and construc-
tion may be found in BayHStA, GL 2708/568.
162
On the symbolism of Mary as the Apocalyptic Virgin, see Lionel Rothkrug, “Popular
Religion and Holy Shrines: Their Influence on the Origins of the German Reformation
and Their Role in German Cultural Development,” in James Obelkevich, ed., Religion
and the People, 800–1700 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979),
27–28; Bridget Heal, The Cult of The Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany. Protestant
and Catholic Piety, 1500–1648 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 27–
31; and Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Sensuous Worship: Jesuits and the Art of the Early Catholic
Reformation in Germany (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), 99.
163
Marian columns in imitation of the Munich model were soon constructed in Vienna
(1647), Prague (1652), Freising (1674), and Konstanz (1683). Andrew H. Weaver, in
“Music in the Service of Counter-Reformation Politics: The Immaculate Conception at
the Habsburg Court of Ferdinand III (1637–1657),” Music & Letters 87 (2006): 374–
77, stresses the connection of the Viennese Mariensäule with the doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception promoted by the house of Habsburg.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 237 10/28/2013 10:36:40 PM

Although the Mariensäule was a Wittelsbach initiative, it seems to have
quickly become a popular devotional object. In May 1639, the bishop of
Freising insisted to the dean of Unsere Liebe Frau that in the future only
one litany in honor of the Virgin should be sung on Saturday evenings,
since there were too many litanies being sung at the column late into the
night “by various parties.”164 It is unclear how long this popular enthusi-
asm continued, but by 1639 the performance of musical litanies in front of
the Mariensäule was a formalized practice, with paid singers and musicians,
drawn from Unsere Liebe Frau, St. Peter, and the ducal court.165 The strong
link between Mariensäule devotion and litanies would continue throughout
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: indeed, the principal obligation of
the new “Marianische Compagnie U. L. Frauen Säulen auf dem Platz allhier
zu München,” founded by laypersons in 1680, would be to sing the Litany of
Loreto at the column every Thursday with the assistance of paid singers and
instrumentalists.166
Further evidence of elaborate musical devotions at the Mariensäule can
be seen in a copperplate engraving made around 1660 by the Augsburg art-
ist Bartholomäus Kilian and dedicated to the electress Maria Anna.167 In
this image (Figure 4.3) we see the column surrounded by a large number of
devotees, as a priest kneels directly before it. To the left is a tent filled with
about twenty singers and instrumentalists, led by a director (perhaps Johann
Kaspar Kerll, the electoral chapelmaster?) waving a scroll or baton: among
the instruments that are visible are trumpets, strings, and a keyboard.
Whether this engraving depicts a specific occasion remains unclear or not,
164
BayHStA, GL 2708/568, cited in Schattenhofer, Die Mariensäule in München, 31–36.
See also Gerhard P. Woeckel, Pietas Bavarica: Wallfahrt, Prozession und Ex voto-Gabe im
Hause Wittelsbach in Ettal, Wessobrunn, Altötting und der Landeshauptstadt München von der
Gegenreformation bis zur Säkularisation und der “Renovatio Ecclesiae” (Weißenhorn: Anton
H. Konrad, 1992), 80, and Peter Steiner, Altmünchner Gnadenstätten: Wallfahrt und
Volksfrömmigkeit im kurfürstlichen München (Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1977), 42.
165
Payments for musical litanies are recorded, for example, in BayHStA, GL 2708/568
(August 13, 1639, also cited in Schattenhofer, Die Mariensäule in München, 32, note
35), and in BayHStA, HZR for the years 1639, 1640, 1641, 1643, 1646, 1647, 1648,
and 1649.
166
On this society see Schattenhofer, Die Mariensäule in München, 33–34. This devotion
would be discontinued by electoral mandate in 1803.
167
The dedication, which does not appear in the exemplar provided here for reproduction,
begins by quoting the antiphon Sub tuum praesidium: “To Your protection we flee, Holy
Mother of God.” See Schattenhofer, Die Mariensäule in München, 17.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 238 10/28/2013 10:36:40 PM

but the image resonates with the prophecy of Jesuit author Jakob Balde, who
wrote in 1638 that
Was ich prophetisch ahne, wird geschehen: What I prophesize shall come to pass:
Mit Gaben, Kerzen, Kränzen werden sie With gifts, candles, and crowns
Zu diesem Freialtare künftig gehen. They shall come to this public altar.
Der Bürger beugt mit frommem
Sinn das Knie The burgher bends his knee in piety
Und wird zu ihr hinauf mit Liebe sehen, And will regard her up there with love,
Und mangeln wird ihr die Verehrung nie! And her veneration shall never falter!
Trompeten werden schallen, Chöre singen, Trumpets will sound, choirs will sing,
Und durch die Wolken wird And this devotion
die Andacht dringen. shall penetrate the clouds.168
The Mariensäule left its impression in contemporary songs as well. In

1639 there appeared of a pair of unnotated songs “to be sung humbly and
devotedly for [the Virgin’s] intercession and prayer, especially in these dan-
gerous [times of] war.”169 The first of these, with the incipit Zu dir steht unser
Hoffnung gantz, was to be sung in the so-called Schutzmantel melody, evidently
the same one Johannes Khuen used for his song Maria Himmelkönigin (1637;
see chapter 3).170 The second, Wer Zungen hat und rueffen kan, is to be sung
“in its own melody,” which seems to be lost to us. The texts of both songs are
directly or indirectly connected with the Mariensäule and its veneration. Wer
Zungen hat seems obliquely to reference the column in the refrain, “O Thurn
168
Ode of Jakob Balde, qtd. in Schattenhofer, Die Mariensäule in München, 31–32.
169
Zway schöne andächtige Gesänger. Zu der allzeit gebenedeytesten Jungkfrawen vnd Mutter
Gottes, der Glorwürdigisten Himmelkönigin MARJA. Dieselbige vmb jhr Intercession vnd
Fürbitt, forderst zu disen gefährlichen KriegsEmpörungen, demütig: vnd andächtigklich
anzurueffen: Das Erste: Jn vnser L. Frawen Schutz-Mantel Melodey. Das Ander: Jn seiner
aignen Melodey zusingen ([Munich?], 1639).
170
The “Schutzmantelmadonna” was originally related to Mary as protectress from
plague; see, for example, Neithard Bulst, “Heiligenverehrung in Pestzeiten. Soziale
und religiöse Reaktionen auf die spätmittelalterlichen Pestepidemien,” in Andrea
Löther, et al., eds., Mundus in imagine. Bildersprache und Lebenswelten im Mittelalter
(Munich: W. Fink, 1996), 63–97, esp. 78–85.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 239 10/28/2013 10:36:40 PM

F i g u r e 4 . 3 Bartholomäus Kilian, copperplate engraving of devotions before
the Mariensäule, c. 1660. Historischer Verein von Oberbayern (Stadtarchiv
München). Reproduced with permission.
Dauid Jungkfraw mild/ Mild vnd gütig / Bleib vnser Zuflucht / vnser Schild/
Wir bitten dich demütig” (O tower of David, mild Virgin, kind and good,
be our refuge, our shield, we pray you humbly), a passage that also recalls
the Marian litany title Turris Davidica (Tower of David). The text of Zu dir
steht unser Hoffnung gantz is even more explicit, mentioning the column as
well as Mary’s role in defending Bavarian territory from foreign invasion. In
Example 4.3 I have laid the text under Khuen’s so-called Schutzmantel melody
and provided selected stanzas.
1. Zu dir steht vnser Hoffnung gantz/ In you resides all of our hope,

O Jungkfräwlicher Gnadenglantz/ O virginal light of grace,
Maria Gnadenreich. Mary, full of grace.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 240 10/28/2013 10:36:40 PM

Wir rueffen auß dem Jammerthal We call out of this vale of tears,
O Mutter hör/ vnd hilff vns all/ O Mother hear, and help us all.
O Mutter aller Güter/ O Mother of all things,
O Jungkfraw Tugendreich/ O virtuous Virgin,
Nimb hin die Supplication, Accept this supplication,
Bring vnser Bitt für deinen Sohn. Bring our prayer to your Son.
[. . .] [. . .]
4. Sich was dein anuertrawte Statt/ See what heart and hope

Zu dir für Hertz vnd Hoffnung hat/ Your devoted city has for you,
Sie stellt ihr Zier vnd höchsten Schatz/ It offers adornment and richest
treasure,
Jhr Bildnuß mitten auff den Blatz/ Your image in the middle of the
square.
Sich Mutter aller Güter/ See, Mother of all things,
Hilff Jungkfraw Tugendreich/ Help, virtuous Virgin.
Damit hie Zuflucht suech vnd find/ So that refuge may be sought and
found
Ja Groß/ vnd Klain/ Mann/ By the great and small,
Weib/ vnd Kind. man, woman, and child.
5. Hauß Bayren vnd Hauß Oesterreich/ The houses of Bavaria and Austria
Zu Füssen fallen dir zugleich/ Both fall at your feet,
Diß zaigen an die bayde Schildt/ This is shown by the two shields
Zu Füssen neben deinem Bildt/ That stand at the feet of your
image.171
Sich Mutter aller Güter/ See, Mother of all things,
Hilff Jungkfraw Tugendreich/ Help, virtuous Virgin.
Erhalt mit deiner Gnaden Hand/ Preserve, with your gracious hand,
Mit denen du gethailt dein Land. Those with whom you share
this land.
[. . .] [. . .]
171
Referring to coats-of-arms that are mounted on the north- and south-facing sides of
the platform.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 241 10/28/2013 10:36:41 PM

E x a m p l e 4 . 3 Zu dir steht unser Hoffnung gantz from Zway schöne andächtige
Gesänger (1639), adapted to the melody of Johannes Khuen, Maria Himmelkönigin
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 242 10/28/2013 10:36:41 PM

Both songs in this print would appear—again, without notation—in an
anonymous Munich songbook in 1640.172 As we saw in chapter 3, Khuen’s
Maria Himmelkönigin (1637), the apparent origin of the Schutzmantel tune, was
in essence a Marian travelogue for the city of Munich, and it reappears here,
now with no attribution and stripped of its original instrumental bass—we
see here an example, then, of how thoroughbass lieder could easily be adapted
as monophonic songs. The original thirty stanzas have been extended by five
to accommodate Munich’s newest devotional object. For example:
30. Dich München gar im Hertzen hat/ Munich has you in its heart,
Dein Saul steht mitten in der Statt. Your pillar stands amidst the city.
Maria bitt für vns. Mary, pray for us.
Auß Marmelstain ist sie gemacht/ It was made of marble
Jm Jahr sechs hundert dreissig acht/ In the year sixteen hundred
thirty-eight.
Darumb liebreiche Mutter/ Therefore, loving Mother,
raich vns dein milte Hand/ Give us your mild hand,
Halt dein SchutzMantel außgespannt/ Stretch out your protective cloak
Vber das gantze Bayerland. Over all of Bavaria.
31. Auff deiner Saul dein Bildnuß steht/ Atop this pillar is your image,
Dich grüßt wer da fürüber geht. You are greeted by all that pass by.
Maria [bitt für vns.] Mary, [pray for us.]
Dein Bild steht gleichsamb auff der Wacht/ And your image stands on guard,
Bewahrt die Statt bey Tag vnd Nacht/ Protecting the city by day
and night.
Darumb liebreiche Mutter/ &c. Therefore, loving Mother [. . .]
32. Man Bett bey deiner Saul/ man singt/ One prays at your pillar, one sings,
Daß durch die gantze Statt erklingt. Resounding through the whole
city.
Maria [bitt für vns.] Mary, [pray for us.]
Jn deinem Bild wirstu verehrt/ Through your image you are
honored,
Die andacht sich noch täglich mehrt/ And devotion [to you] grows daily.
Darumb liebreiche Mutter/ &c. Therefore, loving Mother [. . .]
172
Drey schöne Geistliche Lieder Von vnser lieben Frawen, MARIA Der HimmelKönigin, sonder-
barer PAtronin vnd SchutzFraw der Churfürstlichen Hauptstatt München vnd deß gantzen
Bayrlandts ([Munich], 1640; RISM B/VIII, 164017).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 243 10/28/2013 10:36:42 PM

Despite their simple melodic profile and litany-like refrains, songs like Zu
dir steht unser Hoffnung gantz or the extended version of Maria Himmelkönigin
are fairly programmatic in nature and may in the end tell us little about
the actual music sung before the Mariensäule in Munich’s market square. At
the very least these songs, together with the elaborate polyphonic litanies
performed by the combined musical forces of Munich’s churches, reflect an
effort on the part of Catholic elites to take the occasion of the column’s con-
struction to reshape the experience of public space, both visually and aurally.
Eventually the Mariensäule’s spatial significance would be undisputed. To this
day it is considered to be the precise geographical center of Bavaria, from
which all distances are measured.173
173
On the geographical centrality of the monument see Schattenhofer, Die Mariensäule in
München, 16. It should be noted that the songs associated with the Mariensäule bear
some relationship with others composed for the “Mutter der Barmherzigkeit” (Mother
of Charity), a Marian icon displayed at the Jesuit church in Innsbruck from 1639
onward. See Extended Reference 4.47 for discussion.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 244 10/28/2013 10:36:42 PM

Chapter Five Music, Sound, and Processional
Culture
T he medium of sound as an expressive and propagandistic vehicle was

perhaps most effective in the streets and squares of urban environments.
Music, speech, bell ringing, gunfire, and other artificial sounds formed a dense
web of communication conveying both official, strategic visions of space as
well as unofficial, tactical disruptions of it. In the previous chapter we exam-
ined a variety of these sounds and music, including bell ringing, popular
songs, and public devotions, but the vibrant culture of Catholic processions
merits the deeper treatment we give it here. Processions are often consid-
ered as visual phenomena above all, and indeed we cannot underestimate
the cumulative effect of flying banners, colorful vestments, scenic represen-
tations, bloodied flagellants, and—most importantly in Eucharistic proces-
sions—the prominent display of the consecrated host in its monstrance. As
Edward Muir has written, the medieval and early modern understanding
of sight—the eye’s apprehension of irradiated visual “species” of the thing
itself—meant that the visual impact of processions was intimately physical,
not a matter of disengaged perception.1 Like the faculty of sight, hearing
implied a physical connection between source and audience: sound waves
enveloped the body, penetrated it, and as they entered the inner ear directly
1
Edward Muir, “The Eye of the Procession: Ritual Ways of Seeing in the Renaissance,”
in Nicholas Howe, ed., Ceremonial Culture in Pre-Modern Europe (Notre Dame,
IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), 139–40.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 245 10/28/2013 10:36:42 PM

excited its spirits, or anima.2 While processions had a striking visual power, it
was their sound that extended their effect over far wider areas, transforming
entire cities into arenas for acoustic communication.3
For centuries processions had been a key element in shaping urban time
and space. Liturgical processions had long been held on the feast day of St.
Mark on April 25, and during the three Rogation Days preceding the Feast
of the Ascension that took place forty days after Easter Sunday, but these
represented only a fraction of the broader array of processions cultivated by
ordinary parishioners: those held on the name days of saints honored by par-
ticular confraternities, for example, or those that moved through the city
gates and into the fields to placate God’s wrath and ask for fine weather and
fruitful crops. More profoundly, processions were mobile phenomena that
temporarily created sacral spaces as they passed, and that marked the bound-
aries of communal space. They were also a means by which communities
took collective action for their own spiritual welfare. Despite the influence
of Reformation ideas, processional culture persisted in sixteenth-century
Bavaria: in the city of Ingolstadt, for example, we have detailed testimony
from the Pfarrbuch of parish priest and Catholic theologian Johannes Eck
(1486–1543), otherwise famous as Luther’s most prolific opponent in public
and printed disputations. Some of these took place within church walls on
Sundays, feast days, and certain days of the week (such as the Eucharistic
processions on each Thursday), while others traveled out into the city and
beyond, on the feast days of Corpus Christi and St. Mark, and on Rogation
Days, for example.4
The rapid expansion of post-Tridentine confraternities resulted in a cor-
responding increase in the number of public processions in Bavaria, espe-
cially in Munich. One of these groups was the Franciscan Cordeliers, whose
members, as we saw in chapter 3, were obliged to recite daily Offices in
honor of St. Francis. The Cordeliers were required to conduct a public pro-
cession on the first Sunday of every month, which, as we shall see, may have
involved the singing of specific antiphons and hymns. The 1645 statutes for
the massive Archconfraternity of Corpus Christi at the parish of St. Peter
2
Bruce Smith, The Acoustic World of Early Modern England: Attending to the O-Factor
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 101–6.
3
My usage of the ideas of “acoustic communication” and “acoustic arenas” is indebted
to the work of Barry Truax in Acoustic Communication, 2nd ed. (Westport, CT: Ablex
Publishing, 2001), and that of Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter in Spaces Speak, Are
You Listening? (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006).
4
See discussion in Extended Reference 5.1.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 246 10/28/2013 10:36:42 PM

called for a public Eucharistic procession every Thursday; its members were
further obliged to process on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, on
Quinquagesima Sunday, for the Lady Month (the month of May, traditionally
devoted to the Virgin) to the nearby pilgrimage church of Ramersdorf, and to the
great Mariensäule column in Munich’s market square, where a particularly elabo-
rate ceremony including musical litanies was conducted annually. In addition,
the confraternity was obliged to make a yearly pilgrimage to the Eucharistic
shrine of Andechs, some 40 kilometers to the southwest.5 The other major par-
ish church in Munich, Unsere Liebe Frau, hosted the Archconfraternity of Our
Lady of Altötting, established in 1579 and obliged to make regular pilgrimages
to both Andechs and Altötting. This group’s statutes specified a procession to
the “new” cemetery outside the city walls on Pentecost Sunday, and encouraged
regular processions to the local shrines of Ramersdorf and Thalkirchen as well
as longer journeys to regional pilgrimage sites.6 This is only a small sampling
of what must have been a busy schedule of processions held by Munich’s confra-
ternities, of which there were at least fifteen in existence in the first half of the
seventeenth century.7
Although they could not thrive without the active support of their mem-
bers, confraternal processions were directed by elites—the confraternal prefects
and the clergy of the churches to which they were attached. Indeed, Catholic
authorities, including the Wittelsbach ducal house and the higher clergy, appro-
priated the existing energy of processional culture as a means of instilling confes-
sional discipline and projecting the image of a unified Catholic polity to outside
observers. Traditionally, processions were integrative phenomena, spatially pro-
jecting the community’s identity to the outside; they enacted the prevailing
social hierarchy while allowing participants to demonstrate the fundamental
unity of the polity.8 But in Counter-Reformation Europe, the definition of this
5
The confraternity’s statutes, confirmed by Bishop Veit Adam of Freising on December
22, 1645, survives in an 1829 copy in StAM, KKs 959 (here: fols. 8r–9r). Another
manuscript copy from 1723 is preserved in BayHStA, GL 2734/727, fol. 11v ff.
6
See, for example, the group’s statutes as printed in the Bettbüchel Für die löblich
Ertzbruderschafft, der allerheiligisten Jungkfrawen vnd Mutter Gottes Mariæ mit allerley aus-
serleßnen andächtigen betrachtungen, von newem vbersehen vnd gemehret (Munich: Nikolaus
Heinrich, 1612), 456–76.
7
For an overview and catalogue of Bavarian confraternities see Josef Krettner, Erster
Katalog von Bruderschaften in Bayern (Munich: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum;
Würzburg: Bayerische Blätter für Volkskunde, 1980). See also chapter 3 in this book.
8
See Heinz Schilling, “Urban architecture and ritual in confessional Europe,” in Heinz
Schilling and István György Tóth, eds., Religion and Cultural Exchange in Early Modern
Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 128–30. On the role of pro-
cessions as symbols of community and as flashpoints for religious tensions, see also
m u s i c , s o u n d , a n d p r o c e s s i o n a l c u l t u r e | 247
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 247 10/28/2013 10:36:43 PM

unity was carefully controlled, as authorities curbed “abuses” and upbraided
their subjects for any apparent lack of enthusiasm.9 Guildsmen, for example,
had long been accustomed to process with images of saints, accompanied by
pipes and drums; in poor weather they sometimes tossed the images into the
river to placate God. By 1611, this “superstition” would be ended by a ducal
mandate, whose repetition in 1665 suggests that this ritual was never entirely
abandoned).10 For Counter-Reformation elites, the “proper” sounds of proces-
sions included the singing or recitation of litanies, following from a lengthy
tradition of processional litanies championed by such writers as the Jesuit theo-
logian Jakob Gretser.11 Apart from their antiquity, however, litanies’ alterna-
tion of invocations to divine personages and collective responses—ora pro nobis,
or Bitt für uns in vernacular litanies—projected aurally the Catholic dogma of
sanctoral intercession and thus were likely of great value as confessionalist pro-
paganda, particularly in mixed-faith areas.
Direct evidence for other types of vernacular processional song is difficult
to come by, although contemporary Catholic songbooks—the products of
elites, naturally—invariably offer songs for both processions and pilgrim-
ages: the greater part of the Catholisch Gesangbüchlein (Munich, 1613), for
example, is given over to a collection of “fine Catholic songs for processions,
Benjamin J. Kaplan, Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in

Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press,
2007), 72–98.
9
This parallels observations made by Hansgeorg Molitor with respect to processions in
the Archdiocese of Cologne, where officials were simultaneously concerned with reviv-
ing traditional processions, yet tightly controlling public behavior within them; see
Hansgeorg Molitor, “Mehr mit den Augen als mit den Ohren glauben. Frühneuzeitliche
Volksfrömmigkeit in Köln und Jülich-Berg,” in Hansgeorg Molitor and Herbert
Smolinsky, eds., Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit (Münster: Aschendorff, 1994),
93–95. For examples of official concern about popular misbehavior in processions, see
10
On Maximilian’s decree of February 12, 1611 against witchcraft and heresy, see
Walter Ziegler in Altbayern von 1550–1651, Dokumente zur Geschichte von
Staat und Gesellschaft in Bayern, Abteilung I, Band 3 (Munich: C. H. Beck’sche
Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1992), 757. See Extended Reference 5.3 for an extended quote.
11
Jakob Gretser, De sacris et religiosis peregrinationibus libri quatuor. Eiusdem de Catholicae
Ecclesiae processionibus seu supplicationibus libri duo. Quibus adiuncti: de voluntaria flagello-
rum cruce, seu de disciplinarum usu libri tres (Ingolstadt: Adam Sartorius, 1606). Gretser
discusses the early history of the litany at length in chapter 9, pp. 56–64, debating
various points raised by the Calvinist theologian Rudolphus Hospinianus in his De
templis, hoc est, de origine, progressu, usu et abusu templorum (Zürich: Wolf, 1603), 350ff.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 248 10/28/2013 10:36:43 PM

marching with the Cross [Creutzgängen] and pilgrimages.”12 Confreres may
also have sung suitable liturgical texts for the object of their devotion dur-
ing their processions. In 1604, for example, a collection of prayer, antiphon,
and hymn texts derived from the liturgical Offices for St. Francis, in German
translation, was printed for the Franciscan Cordeliers, who were to recite or
sing this repertory during their monthly processions through the city.13 As
we shall see later in the case of the Munich Corpus Christi procession, hymns,
vernacular songs, and litanies mixed liberally with the “official” sounds of
trumpets, drums, gunfire, and trained choirs. Given the careful hierarchical
organization of Catholic processions, a stationary observer would have heard a
distinct succession of sounds that correlated with the passing of social group-
ings and thus aurally reinforced the symbolic hierarchy of the Catholic polity.
Corpus Christi Processions

By the late sixteenth century, the Eucharist was arguably the most powerful
and controversial symbol in the Catholic arsenal. In 1551, the Council of
Trent had confirmed the dogma of the priestly transubstantiation of bread
and wine into the flesh and blood of Christ, drawing a fundamental contrast
with the Lutheran insistence on the simultaneity of bread/wine and flesh/
blood, on the one hand, and Calvinist views on the pure symbolism of the
12
See Otto Holzapfel, ed., ‘Catholisch Gesangbüchlein’. München 1613. Photomechanischer
Nachdruck, mit Kommentar und Nachwort von Otto Holzapfel, Geistlische Literatur
der Barockzeit 1 (Amsterdam: Holland University Press, 1979), 46–134. See also
Valentin Schlindel’s Catholisches Gesangbuch, in Kirchen, zu Hauß, in Processionibus
vnnd Kirchfahrten, gar hailsam: nutzlich, löblich, vnd andächtigklich zugebrauchen
(München: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1631; RISM B/VIII, 163606), which contains a section
of songs “in der Creutzwochen, Processionibus vnd Walfahrten.”
13
These texts are given in the Antiphonæ, HYMNI vnd Gebett: Welche man pfleget in der
Procession, der Bruderschafft der geweychten Gürteln deß heyligen Vatters FRANCISCI, am
ersten Sontag eines jeden Monats zu gebrauchen (Ingolstadt: In der Ederischen Truckerey,
durch Andream Angermayer, 1604). A similar set of hymns would be printed in
Henricus Sifrid’s Heilig Seraphisch Lieb brinnendes Hertz (Innsbruck: Daniel Maÿr, Johann
Gäch, 1631), 668–82. On the medieval origin of the Franciscan hymns see Egid
Börner, Dritter Orden und Bruderschaften der Franziskaner in Kurbayern, Franziskanische
Forschungen 33 (Werl in Westfalen: Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, 1988), 301–302. A list-
ing appears in Extended Reference 5.4.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 249 10/28/2013 10:36:43 PM

bread and wine.14 In Germany, the controversy surrounding the nature of
the Eucharist was heightened by popular demand for the lay chalice, tradi-
tionally reserved for the priesthood. Duke Albrecht V had been prepared to
concede the chalice to his subjects, even winning a papal dispensation for this
in 1564. Emboldened by the decision, Bavaria’s landed nobility pressed for
the free introduction of Protestantism and incurred a swift response from the
duke, who withdrew the lay cup and soon embarked upon a series of reforms
to education and clerical discipline aimed at rooting out Protestant beliefs
and practices.15
It was hardly a coincidence, then, that the procession for Corpus Christi
began to assume massive proportions during the Albrecht V’s late reign and,
especially, during the tenures of his successors, Wilhelm V (1579–1598)
and Maximilian I (1598–1651). Together with their traditional functions,
sacramental processions now foregrounded the dogmas of transubstantia-
tion and priestly mediation in a way that could not but offend the sensi-
bilities of Protestants and Protestant-minded observers. Particularly apt are
the comments of the Catholic theologian and polemicist Martin Eisengrein,
who responded vigorously to a 1561 treatise against the “idolatrous” Corpus
Christi feast penned by Nikolaus Gallus, a Lutheran theologian and preacher
in Regensburg.16 In Eisengrein’s view, processing with the Host was “for
the comfort and strength of true believers, and in defiance of all heretics
who repudiate the truth of the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament.”
He mocked Gallus’s incredulity that Catholics “would make [themselves]
heard so joyfully not only with song, but with all sorts of music.”17 Similar
14
For a thorough survey of the Eucharist and its meanings in the Reformation era, see
particularly Lee Palmer Wandel, The Eucharist in the Reformation: Incarnation and Liturgy
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
15
On the so-called Kelchbewegung see Aloys Knöpfler, Die Kelchbewegung in Bayern unter
Herzog Albrecht V. Ein Beitrag zur Reformationsgeschichte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Munich: E.
Stahl, 1891); and Horst Jesse, “Die Religionsmandate der bayerischen Herzöge und
die Kelchbewegung während der Reformation 1522–1580,” Jahrbuch des Vereins für
Augsburger Bistumsgeschichte 28 (1994): 252–73.
16
Gallus’s treatise is Vom Bäpstlichen Abgöttischen Fest, CORPORIS CHRISTI oder
Fronleichnams Tag genannt, aus den Historien und aus Gottes wort, warer gründtlicher Bericht
(Regensburg: Heinrich Geisler, 1561).
17
Martin Eisengrein, Ein Christenliche predig, Auß was vrsachen, so vil Leut, in vilen landen,
vom Papstum[m] zum Luthertum[m] fallen. Vnd. Wie wir zu disen schweren leuffen, den ver-
suchungen des bösen feinds, in glaubens sachen, widerstand thun sollen (Ingolstadt: Alexander
and Samuel Weissenhorn, 1562), 42r–v, 45v–46r. For original text see Extended
Reference 5.5.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 250 10/28/2013 10:36:43 PM

sentiments poured from the pen of Georg Scherer, an Austrian Jesuit polemicist
who published a sermon on the feast of Corpus Christi and its procession at
Ingolstadt in 1588. For Scherer, the musical veneration of God by the Israelites
was a potent example for the modern conduct of sacramental processions:
The way in which the Day of the Body of Our Lord is observed is a
general, public confession of our faith in the true presence of the flesh
and blood of Christ in the most worthy Sacrament. We Christians
show this faith of our hearts in our churches and streets, not only
with our mouths and with words, but also with outward ceremonies
and gestures, with singing and sounding, with bell-ringing and elu-
cidation, with pipes and organs, with trumpets and trombones; and
in as much as the Apostles and other Israelites publicly declared the
presence and reality of this very Messiah and Son of God not only
with simple words, but also with singing in the streets as well as in
the Temple of Jerusalem, and also with a wondrous procession of the
people, who spread [before Jesus] their cloaks, palm leaves, and olive
branches, [and conducted] other ceremonies.18
Scherer goes on to insist that the visual and aural splendor of the Corpus
Christi procession, including “trumpets and military drums, trumpets and
trombones, singing and bell-ringing, salvos of joy, the noise and rejoicing of
all peoples” was nothing less than “a public triumph against the attackers
of the Sacrament, and deniers of the true presence of the flesh and blood of
Christ.”19 These are only a sampling of contemporary Catholic opinions on
the necessity, and indeed the militancy, of the Corpus Christi procession.20
18
Georg Scherer, Ein Predig vom Fronleichnamsfest vnd Vmbgang. Geschehen zu Wien
in Österreich, durch Georgium Scherer Societatis IESV, am Tag der H. Dreyfaltigkeit
(Ingolstadt: David Sartorius, 1588), 2–3. For original text and further commentary
19
Ibid., 15. For original text see Extended Reference 5.7. Scherer would express similar
sentiments in his later children’s catechism, the Catechismus oder Kinderlehr Jn welcher alle
Artickel vnsers Christlichen Catholischen Glaubens, gründtlich und klärllich außgelegt, vnd
wider aller Ketzereyen bestettiget werden (Passau: inn Ihr Hoch Fürstl: Durchl: Truckerey
in Passaw, 1608). For excerpts relating to the Corpus Christi procession, see Extended
Reference 5.8.
20
Further discussion of this point, with special emphasis on the writings of
Johann Nass (1534–1590), can be found in Philip M. Soergel, Wondrous in His
Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria, Studies in the History of Society and
Culture 17 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 81–95. On the authori-
tarian symbolism of drums in particular, see also Christopher Marsh, “ ‘The Pride of
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 251 10/28/2013 10:36:43 PM

Before we turn to the great Munich procession, it will be instructive to
consider the processions that were held in cities of mixed confession and in
the towns of the Upper Palatinate that were recatholicized following the
Catholic victory at White Mountain in Bohemia in 1620.21 In these places
the introduction of Catholic processions was especially provocative, since it
represented an attempt to forcefully appropriate and redefine confessional
space. At Regensburg, an imperial and Protestant majority city, there is evi-
dence of heated discussions among the newly arrived Jesuits and the city
council as early as 1586 concerning the potential of the Corpus Christi pro-
cession to antagonize the local population.22 Ordinances issued by Bishop
Wolfgang II von Hausen suggest that the Corpus Christi procession was
being held in Regensburg by 1607, involving students performing music,
professional musicians, trumpets and military drummers, boy “angels” bear-
ing cymbals, and a Vorsänger to lead the male and female laity in vernacular
songs or litanies.23 Music was a constant presence, although the procession
omitted gunfire and cannon fire: there was little chance that the Regensburg
city council would have authorized its militia to make such a demonstra-
tion. With respect to the newly recatholicized Upper Palatinate, a Jesuit
chronicle characteristically indulges in details of the pomp and spectacle that
the Jesuits and their Wittelsbach patrons hoped would move the senses and
affects of the largely Lutheran population. In Waldsassen, for example, the
Jesuits organized a sacramental procession that was said to have attracted
some 6,000 participants, marching under the din of soldiers’ gunfire and the
Noise’: Drums and Their Repercussions in Early Modern England,” Early Music 39

(2011): 203–16.
21
For a vivid account of the pompous and controversial Corpus Christi processions in
Prague, also a mixed community of Catholics, Lutherans, and Utraquists, see Erika
Supria Honisch, “Sacred Music in Prague, 1580–1612” (PhD diss., University of
Chicago, 2011), esp. 249–61. I have discussed the provocative nature of the Corpus
Christi procession in the imperial, biconfessional city of Augsburg in my Music and
Religious Identity in Counter-Reformation Augsburg, 1580–1630 (Aldershot: Ashgate,
2004), 245–56. For an overview of the introduction of Catholic processional culture in
the Upper Palatinate, see Johnson, Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles, 174–78.
22
Correspondence on this matter is found in BayHStA, KLReg, St. Paul 2; one point of
contention was the fact that the city’s Stadtpfeifer refused to play in the Corpus Christi
procession, leading the Jesuits to engage “foreign” musicians for the occasion. It is not
entirely clear, however, that the procession was actually held at this time.
23
From BZaR, OA-Gen 1991, 25r–26r. A listing of the participants may be seen in
Extended Reference 5.9. Similar ordinances are extant for the Corpus Christ procession
through the year 1617.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 252 10/28/2013 10:36:44 PM

blaring of trumpets; five choirs of singers would adorn the ceremonies on the
following feast day.24 Similar scenes unfolded in Amberg, Tirschenreuth, and
Weiden. In Weiden, the controversy surrounding the Corpus Christi proces-
sion continued into the late seventeenth century: in 1660 the city council
sent a letter to the Lutheran Elector-Palatine Karl Ludwig complaining bit-
terly of the religious tensions in their city, caused in part by the Corpus
Christi procession, which had been accompanied by Bavarian troops who did
not hesitate to fire their cannon in the town square, resulting in the breaking
of numerous windows due to the repercussion.25 A more provocative aural
assault on the sensibilities of Weiden’s population, still harboring Protestant
views despite their subjection to Catholic Bavaria, can hardly be imagined.
The Corpus Christi Procession in Munich

Elaborate processions with the consecrated Host were a regular feature of
religious life in Counter-Reformation Munich. Beginning in 1580, Wilhelm
V mandated regular Thursday processions in or around the parish church of
Unsere Liebe Frau, requesting that the choralists of that institution sing poly-
phonic music for the occasion.26 No later than 1645, the Archconfraternity of
Corpus Christi at St. Peter was also holding regular Thursday public proces-
sions featuring the display of the Eucharist.27 None of these, however, can be
compared to the annual procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi, a ritual
that had been in existence since the fourteenth century but that reached a
24
IV. Ab anno 1611 ad annum 1630 (Munich: Johann Jakob Vötter, 1740; hereafter
HPSJGS IV), 418–419. For original text, see Extended Reference 5.10. See also Philipp
Schertl, “Die Amberger Jesuiten im ersten Dezennium ihres Wirkens (1621–1632),”
Verhandlungen des historischen Vereins von Oberpfalz und Regensburg 102 (1962): 144, and
103 (1963): 288.
25
Letter of Weiden city council to Elector-Palatine Karl Ludwig, May 27, 1660,
BayHStA, GLOJP, Parkstein-Weiden 22, 35r–40v. For original text see Extended
Reference 5.11.
26
Wilhelm’s directive to the chapter of Unsere Liebe Frau, dated January 2, 1580, indi-
cates that “Deßgleichen sehen Ir Fl. gl. gern, Jm fal er Brobst kein bedennckhen, das
der Chor hinfuran sich der Gesang vnnder berurtem vmbganng, nit, wie bisheer, mit
dem Coral, sonnder figurat gebraucht,” suggesting that the procession had existed in
some form previously, accompanied by chant alone. StAM, KKs 1025.
27
As indicated in a nineteenth-century copy of the 1645 statutes, confirmed by Bishop
Veit Adam of Freising. See StAM, KKs 959.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 253 10/28/2013 10:36:44 PM

height of extravagance during the reign of Wilhelm V.28 The public display
of the Host was, naturally, the focal point and culmination of the procession,
but from an early stage the greatest scope was accorded to the representation
of biblical scenes enacted mainly by the civic guilds, presented in order from
the creation story of Genesis to the Last Judgment. When combined with
the large numbers of city officials, soldiers, confraternities, students, clergy,
princely persons, and musicians, the total number of participants swelled
into the thousands and represented a significant percentage of the city’s pop-
ulation.29 The processions were extravagantly expensive, and could not be
mounted in their fullest form every year.30 Yet when they did occur, there
is little doubt that they were the most spectacular highlight of the religious
calendar and demonstrated a remarkable degree of collaboration between the
court, city, clergy, and laity.
Surviving evidence from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centu-
ries allows us to reconstruct to a degree the range of music and sound that
was heard along the procession’s route. The most comprehensive source is an
extraordinary manuscript codex written by the court official Ludwig Müller,
likely dating from the early 1590s and meant to serve as a comprehensive
directive for the conduct of the procession.31 Running to nearly 600 folios, it
prescribes nearly every detail of the procession, ranging from the proper order
to the provision of costumes and the organization of music. From this and
other sources we learn that the procession consisted of four distinct group-
ings. A ceremonial vanguard of city and state officials and soldiery led the
28
For a general study of the Munich Corpus Christi procession, see particularly Alois
Mitterwieser, Geschichte der Fronleichnamsprozession in Bayern (Munich: Knorr & Hirth,
1930). It should be stressed that Corpus Christi processions were commonly held in
many Catholic towns and cities in Bavaria, including the Jesuit bastion of Ingolstadt,
Landshut, Wasserburg, Deggendorf, and elsewhere; none of these, however, matched
the Munich procession in scope or extravagance.
29
The spectacle attracted a significant number of spectators from outside the city.
Hellgemayr, for example, notes that up to 21,000 “foreigners” attended the procession
in 1612. See Horst Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen
Kapellaltisten Johannes Hellgemayr 1595–1633. Ein Beitrag zur Münchner Stadt- und
Musikgeschichte,” Oberbayerisches Archiv für vaterländische Geschichte 100 (1975): 168.
30
Wilhelm’s successor Maximilian I called for the elimination of theatrical “figures”
from the procession in 1598, the first year of his reign and a time when he strenuously
sought to bring court expenses under control; see his correspondence with the ducal
Hofkammer in BayHStA, GL 2684/383, May 13, 1598. However, this is not to imply
that the “full” procession was to be permanently discontinued.
31
BSB, Cgm 1967.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 254 10/28/2013 10:36:44 PM

procession, accompanied by four trumpeters. The largest group followed
immediately thereafter, consisting of hundreds of guild members enacting
biblical scenes that narrated key stories from the Old Testament and the
Gospels, culminating in a representation of the Last Judgment. Next came
the lesser clergy, religious orders, and confraternities; embedded in this part
of the procession was a representation of the Virgin Mary in the clouds, sur-
rounding by singing “angels” and followed by students dressed as humble
pilgrims. Finally, the procession culminated with the display of the Eucharist
itself, accompanied by the higher clergy, members of the ducal family, and
numerous military companies. It was here that the greatest numbers of court
musicians were deployed, including the trumpet corps, instrumentalists, and
the cantorate led by the Kapellmeister. Music was heard regularly throughout
the procession, the sonic complement remaining quite stable throughout the
period.
The music for the Corpus Christi procession was of sufficient scope to
require several weeks of preparation.32 The director of the procession was
first to make contact with the ducal chapelmaster (at the time of Müller’s
directive, Orlando di Lasso), the leader of the instrumental ensemble (Fileno
Cornazzano), and the leader of the trumpet corps (Cesare Bendinelli).
Moreover, the director was also to approach the Jesuits of St. Michael and
the principal parish churches of Unsere Liebe Frau and St. Peter, which were
to provide a large number of musically adept students who would sing and
play instruments at various points in the procession. Although books with
notated music for the procession were to be copied and kept in a safe location,
the various musical ensembles were expected to memorize their repertoire.33
A certain Herr Doktor Fischer (likely a court appointee), for example, was
directed to visit the Jesuit college on the Wednesday preceding the pro-
cession, and determine whether the student musicians were all present and
healthy, could sing their music properly and in tune, march in correct order,
and had memorized their music.34 At the church of Unsere Liebe Frau, the
schoolmaster and cantor were to ensure that the twelve to fourteen singers
who were to perform the Eucharistic hymn Pange lingua or a suitable motet
rehearsed sufficiently so that their music was committed to memory.
A somewhat fanciful account in verse of the 1604 procession by Johann
Mayer tells us something of the sights and sounds that began to fill the city
32
The following material appears in BSB, Cgm 1967, fols. 109v–115r, 120r, 137v.
33
Ibid., 109v–110v, 120r.
34
Ibid., 137v.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 255 10/28/2013 10:36:44 PM

even before dawn.35 On the morning of the feast, the darkness was rent by
the pealing of bells announcing the beginning of a Mass celebrated at the
parish church of St. Peter in the presence of the ducal family, clergy, city
officials, and many others in attendance. Already the divine service here was
embellished with polyphony and organ music,36 but the beginning of the
procession proper was marked by the beating of drums and the blaring of
trumpets stationed in the choir of the church. As striking as this would have
been, a music of much greater thaumaturgical power was heard immediately
upon the procession’s departure from the church: Orlando di Lasso’s motet
Gustate et videte quam suavis sit Dominus.37 Ludwig Müller tells us how foul
weather threatening the procession of 1584 was dispelled by God as a result
of Lasso’s music. As storm clouds gathered and rain began to fall, the princes
and directors of the procession doubted whether the procession could con-
tinue; however,
as the most worthy Sacrament was carried to the portal of the church,
and Herr Orlando began the song Gustate et videte, the sun began to
shine on St. Peter’s tower, such that I leapt out of the line in joy and
went to His Princely Highness [Duke Wilhelm V], and showed him
how the sun shone on the tower; and I said to His Highness, Gustate
et videte quam suavis sit Dominus timentibus eum et confidentibus ei [Taste
and see how good is the Lord to those who fear him and trust in him],
which His Highness heard with joy, responding “indeed, indeed.”
And the entire procession went under the bright sun, and with a cool
breeze, through the entire city [. . .] and it has been observed that
when Herr Orlando and the princely cantorate begins to sing this
35
Johann Mayer, Gewisse vnd vormals in Truck nie außgangne Beschreibung, Deß gantzen vnd
halben Vmbgangs, oder Procession, Welcher Järlich in der Fürstlichen Hauptstatt München auff
das Hohe Fest Corporis Christi, solenniter vnd stattlich gehalten wirdt (Munich: Nikolaus
Heinrich, 1604). Little is known of Mayer’s biography. In much of his output, con-
sisting largely of versified accounts of contemporary happenings, he identifies himself
merely as “Burger,” “Mitburger,” or “Poeten”.
36
Ibid., fol. B3 r.
37
On Lasso’s Gustate et videte and its effects on the procession see Mitterwieser,
Geschichte der Fronleichnamsprozession in Bayern, 42–43; Horst Leuchtmann, Orlando
di Lasso (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1976–1977), 1:56 and 199; Helmut Hell
and Horst Leuchtmann, eds., Orlando di Lasso: Musik der Renaissance am Münchner
Fürstenhof: Ausstellung zum 450. Geburtstag, 27. Mai–31. Juli 1982 (Wiesbaden: Reichert,
1982), 142–43; and Helmuth Stahleder, Belastungen und Bedrückungen. Die Jahre
1506–1705, Chronik der Stadt München 2 (Ebenhausen: Dölling und Galitz Verlag,
2005), 191.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 256 10/28/2013 10:36:44 PM

song, Gustate et videte, the sun shines greater and stronger than before,
which the princes have themselves noticed; and sometimes they have
sent a chamber-servant or page to me, and say that I should listen for
Gustate et videte, and look to the heavens, which I declare that I shall do
rightly to the honor of God, this worthy procession, and this splendid,
well-composed, and lovely song.38
Müller tells us that this was not an isolated episode: it had happened several
times before, “and it happened miraculously also in this year of 1592.”39 For
cultivated listeners, the literally gustatory opening of Lasso’s motet may have
resonated with the ideology of Eucharistic sacrifice.40
Fair weather having been ensured by Lasso’s music, the Sacrament departed
the church under the sound of trumpets, singing, and the peals of bells, and the
procession began its course through the city, its streets lined with soldiers and
people.41 It is possible that the main body of marchers, including the guilds
and confraternities, were not involved at this point; instead they waited at the
southern Sendlinger gate for the Sacrament to arrive.42 From here, the pro-
cession proceeded northward along the Sendlinger Strasse, crossing through
the central market square (today’s Marienplatz), and continuing northward
along the Diemergasse and vordere Schwabinger Gasse (passing directly by the
ducal palace), before turning in the opposite direction, returning to the mar-
ket square via the untere Schwabinger Gasse and Weinstrasse. From here the
procession turned westward along the Kaufinger Gasse, continuing through
the Neuhauser Gasse (passing the Jesuit church of St. Michael on its right)
until it reached the western city walls. From here the marchers turned to the
northeast, taking the Kreuzgasse and Prangergasse until it reached the north-
ern Schwabinger gate. Exiting the gate, the marchers then circumambulated
the entire city around the city walls, returning through the Schwabinger gate,
and arriving again at the market square via the untere Schwabinger Gasse. The
procession concluded where it had begun, at the nearby parish church of St.
Peter. Although some quarters of the city—the southwestern quarter and the
38
BSB, Cgm 1967, 111r–114v.
39
BSB, Cgm 1967, 112v.
40
On the musical features of Gustate et videte, originally published in the “Antwerp motet
book” of 1556, see James Erb’s introduction to Orlando di Lasso: The Complete Motets 1
(Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1998), xxi.
41
BSB, Cgm 1967, 155r. For original text describing the procession’s opening, see
42
A 1593 document from the city archives specifies that the procession began at this
place: see StAM, KKs 1018.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 257 10/28/2013 10:36:45 PM

eastern quarter near the Isar River—could only witness the procession directly
when it passed along the outside of the walls, the sounds of the procession were
surely audible almost everywhere: as it made stations at the four city gates for
the reading of Gospel passages, the air was rent by the blaring of trumpets, the
beating of drums, and the thunder of cannon and hundreds of harquebusiers or
musketeers.43 As a verse account of the 1604 procession puts it,
Jn solcher guter Ordnung vnd In good order [the procession]
Gieng man vmb die Statt zirckelrund/ circled around the city,
Aber bey jedlichen Hauptthor/ And at each main gate
Sang man ein Evangeli vor/ A Gospel was sung.
Doch ehe man anfienge diß/ But before this was begun
Bliessen die Trommeter gewiß/ The trumpeters blew,
Auch thet die Heerbaucken erklingen/ And the military drums sounded.
Alsdann thut man dasselbig singen/ Then the singing began.
So bald es nun auch hett ein endt/ And as soon as this ended,
Bliessen sie widerumb behendt/ They blew again powerfully.
Dises war ein gewisses Loß/ And then there was a certain roar,
Die grossen Stuck man schnell abschoß/ As the cannons were quickly fired;
Die Mußcathierer mit gelück/ The musketeers with joy
Brenten auch loß im augenblick/ Also fired away in an instant.
Jch glaub nit/ daß jetzt sey ein Statt/ I believe there is no other city
Die so abgrichte Burger hat/ With such well-trained men
Mit schiessen/ vnd wo man ihr darff/ In shooting, and wherever they be,
Seind sie gerüstet gut vnd scharpff.44 They were well and sharply
armed.
The stationing of such heavy weaponry at the four principal city gates—
joined with the sounds of trumpets and military drums—also meant that
these high-amplitude sound waves would be relatively unimpeded along the
main routes into the city center: from the Sendlinger gate northward through
Sendlinger Gasse; from the Neuhauser gate eastward through Neuhauser
Gasse and Kaufinger Gasse; from the Schwabinger gate southward through
the vordere and untere Schwabinger Gasse, Weinstrasse, and Diemergasse;
and from the Isar gate westward through Im Tal. Whether intended or not,
43
BSB, Cgm 1967, 340r ff. For Johann Mayer’s verse description of the same, see
Extended Reference 5.13. My thanks to B. Ann Tlusty for clarification of Müller’s
reference to haggenschützen (“harquebusiers” or “hook gunners”), a hundred of which
were stationed at each of the four city gates.
44
Mayer, Gewisse vnd vormals in Truck nie außgangne Beschreibung, fol. C3 r.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 258 10/28/2013 10:36:45 PM

the spatial organization of the procession maximized the penetration of sig-
nificant sound throughout the city, which became for a time a unitary acous-
tic arena.45
Of course, the sounding of bells, gunfire, and music from fixed loca-
tions was augmented by what was often more subtle and varied music from
the marchers.46 The procession was headed by a ceremonial vanguard that
included city and ducal officials on horseback and on foot, together with four
trumpeters carrying banners bearing the arms of the city of Munich.47 Their
signals were followed by the terrifying figure of a man seated on a moun-
tain, wearing golden armor and bearing a golden sword, the so-called herald
(Verkünder) of the procession, although it is unclear whether he addressed
the assembled masses. After the passing of the vanguard came members of
Munich’s trade guilds and, finally, the lengthy series of biblical represen-
tations they had produced. Around sixty distinct groups, some represent-
ing more than one guild, enacted in costume various episodes from the Old
Testament and New Testament in turn, beginning with the Creation and
concluding with the Last Judgment. At least eleven of these scenes were
accompanied by music; the descriptions that follow are from Müller’s manu-
script, which I have supplemented with other materials when appropriate:48
1. The Creation, presented by the fishermen. Scenes showing the creation of

the heavens and the earth were followed by a great ball representing the
globe, next to which were “four persons with long trombones, whose banners
showed the four main winds.” The court trumpeter Cesare Bendinelli was
directed to have four or eight boys trained in trombone, to be distributed
between this scene and that of the Last Judgment, and Müller’s directive
45
The route is described for the year 1593 in StAM, KKs 1018.
46
The following material references Ludwig Müller’s ordinance, BSB, Cgm 1967.
47
Müller’s directive indicates in one place that the city fathers were to provide these
trumpeters at their own cost, or perhaps to engage their tower musicians for this
purpose, since these would not be needed to play during the procession itself; see
BSB, Cgm 1967, 115r–v. However, a later passage in the document implies that the
court trumpeter Bendinelli was responsible for procuring these trumpeters for the city
(480r).
48
Not included in the following is one additional representation recorded for the 1581
Corpus Christi procession, that of the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) presented
by the glove-makers (Handschuhmacher). Among the extravagant entourage of the
Prodigal Son were “two musicians [Spilleit] [. . .] in robes decorated with red and gold,
with lute and psaltery” (In rot vnd gelb gmosierten Röhkl mit der Lautten vnd Psalltter).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 259 10/28/2013 10:36:45 PM

also calls for the purchase of eight new trombones for this purpose.49 Mayer’s
1604 verse account suggests that these trombonists may not have been play-
ing music, per se, but rather simulating the blowing of the four winds—per-
haps through glissandi:
Ein grosse Kugel man gehn sach/ One saw a great globe

Nach Astronomischen art/ After the astronomical manner,
Alles daran verzeichnet wardt/ On which everything was shown,
Darneben die vier angelwindt And next to it went four angels
Giengen/ die bliessen gar geschwindt/ As the winds, they blew
powerfully
Einen gar erschröcklichen thon/ With a terrifying sound,
Auch so war ihr proportion/ And their proportions were so
Eben geformieret in alln/ Well formed in all things,
Wie man sonst pflegt die Windt zumahln/ Just as one would paint the wind.
2. Moses and the Red Sea, presented by the butchers of the lower bank. Moses and
his company are followed by the great mass of Pharaoh’s army, many of them
costumed in the “Turkish” manner, naturally invoking the great contempo-
rary foe of Western Christendom. Mayer’s 1604 verse account describes the
accompanying musicians:50
Nach ihnen zween Schalmeyer kamen/ After them came two shawmists
Und auch ein Heerpaucker mit namen/ And a military drummer,
Ihre Bündt blab/ sonst grün bekleidt Headdress in blue, otherwise clad
in green
[. . .]
Auff gut Türckisch darauff kam mehr/ And more came in the Turkish
manner,
Ein Trometter geritten her/ A trumpeter rode up, heralding
Türckisch den Auffzug plasen thut/ The procession in the Turkish way.
Müller’s manuscript tells us that for this scene—described as the “Persian

march”—the court was instructed to provide at least one, if not two, trumpet-
ers capable of “playing in the Turkish manner,” as well as two shawmists and
From Wolfgang Ligingers verse description, BSB, Cgm 4408, 56v. This representation
appears to have been omitted in later years.
49
BSB, Cgm 1967, 115r–v, 116v.
50
Mayer, Gewisse vnd vormals in Truck nie außgangne Beschreibung, fol. F2 r–v.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 260 10/28/2013 10:36:45 PM

a drummer.51 One of the shawmists is identified as “the old Fileno” (der alt
Vileno), possibly a reference to Fileno Cornazzano’s father, Baldassare Cornazzano
(ca. 1520–ca. 1601), who, before his retirement to Munich, had distinguished
himself as a trumpeter at the imperial court in Vienna and the archducal court
in Graz.52 The timbres of the shawms, drums, and trumpets may have reflected
a European understanding of the mehter or janissary music, whose instrumentar-
ium did include the trumpet (boru), bass drum (davul), and double-reed aero-
phone (zurna).53
3. The Golden Calf, presented by the butchers of the upper bank. This episode
from Exodus 32 is briefly described by Mayer, who refers to “six Jews danc-
ing around the Golden Calf.”54 Müller’s directive tells us that a number of
students were engaged to represent “Hebraic” music, bearing tambourines,
pipes, Dulein [it is unclear to which instrument this refers], triangles, fid-
dles, drums, lutes, gitterns, citterns, or trombones, and that such a variety of
instruments—which were in use for this scene during the reign of Albrecht
V—might be obtained from the estate of a certain Hans Widenmann. Müller
tells us further that Fileno Cornazzano has composed a “Hebreische gesang”
and that this might be memorized and performed by the students.55
4. The Fall of the Walls of Jericho, presented by the salt dealers. This grand
procession of Joshua’s army involved two distinct instrumental ensembles,
one consisting of of six musicians led by Fileno Cornazzano himself, and
another consisting of seven “priests” (likely students) bearing trombones,
whose blasts level the city’s walls in the biblical account. Müller adds that it
would be desirable to obtain a harp for the figure of King David, who could
play and dance before the Ark of the Covenant, thereby “adding not a little
charm to the figures of the salt dealers.”56
51
BSB, Cgm 1967, 115–v, 480r.
52
Silke Leopold, [Franz Liessem], “Cornazzani, Cornacani, Cornazzano, Cornazano,
Cornezano, Cornetzano, Coronatzano, Carnazzano, Carnazano, Carnazänj
Familie: Baldassare (1), sein Sohn Phileno Agostino (2), dessen Sohn Albrecht (3),”
in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Kassel: Bärenreiter, [1998]), Personenteil 4,
col. 1613.
53
Michael Pirker, “Janissary music” [Turkish music], in Grove Music Online, www.oxford-
musiconline.com (accessed February 15, 2011).
54
“Ein grosse Säulen daher geth/ Darauff das gegossen Kalb steht/ Und darauff sechs
Juden in sumb/ Die Tantzen umb das Kalb herumb.” Mayer, Gewisse vnd vormals in
Truck nie außgangne Beschreibung, fol. F3v.
55
BSB, Cgm 1967, 116v–117r.
56
BSB, Cgm 1967, 117v, 376r, 480r. As late as 1627 this arrangement, and Cornazzano’s
role in procuring the musicians, had not changed: “Darauf volgt die Music mit
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 261 10/28/2013 10:36:45 PM

5. The story of Jephte, presented by the barbers. Jephte, mounted on
horseback and accompanied by soldiers, is followed by seven students
(dressed as women) bearing various musical instruments, then by his
soon-to-be-sacrificed daughter and numerous virgins, some of whom bear
string instruments. Müller’s manuscript indicates that Cornazzano was
to approach the Jesuits of St. Michael to obtain students who were capa-
ble of playing string instruments, lutes, trombones, cornetts, and other
instruments, and provide them with a piece of music that they could
memorize for the procession. It is unclear from this document whether
male students were also to play the parts of the virgins bearing string
instruments.57
6. The procession of Emperor Octavian Augustus, followed by John the Baptist,
presented by the bookbinders, parchment makers, paper makers, and colorists. This
first representation drawn from the New Testament was preceded by the
four city Stadtpfeifer, presumably playing brass or wind instruments. Coming
before the figure of the emperor, furthermore, was a representation of an ele-
phant, bearing a six-year-old boy dressed in Moorish garb and beating a small
drum.58
7. The baby Jesus in his crib borne by angels, presented by the cloth-cutters.
Nine singing angels are followed by four more bearing the Christ child
in his crib, followed in turn by Mary, Joseph, and several shepherds. The
singing angels were students of the Jesuit school, and according to Müller’s
ordinance their Kapellmeister was to be one of the court choirboys. In another
part of the document we learn that this was none other than Orlando di
Lasso’s son Ernst, who is recorded as singing among the court choirboys in
the early 1590s.59 For this group, we read, “a special song on the Nativity
6. Persohnen, so frelich die Claid[er] von den herrn von Minch[en], vnd volgents den
Phileno zuegestelt.” BayHStA, GL 2737/755, 74r.
57
BSB, Cgm 1967, 115v–118v. For Mayer’s 1604 verse description, see Extended
Reference 5.14.
58
BSB, Cgm 1967, 116r. The presence of the Stadtpfeifer here is confirmed for 1581 in
BSB, Cgm 4408, 40r; for 1603, in the Ordnung der gantzen Procession [. . .] Auff das Fest
CORPORIS CHRISTI (Munich: Adam Berg, 1603), 6r; and for 1627 in BayHStA, GL
2737/755, 113v.
59
Adolf Sandberger, in Beiträge zur Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle unter Orlando di
Lasso. Drittes Buch: Dokumente. Erster Theil (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1895), notes
Ernst’s presence in the court chapel in from 1590 to 1594. He died in May 1596,
according to Leuchtmann’s research in “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des
Bayerischen Kapellaltisten Johannes Hellgemayr,” 1:113–14.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 262 10/28/2013 10:36:45 PM

of Christ has been composed by Herr Orlando, which must be copied and
kept safe.”60
8. The wedding at Cana, presented by the fine-cloth weavers. Three or four
string players provided by the city are followed by a bride, bridegroom,
Jesus, Mary, and a wedding party, some of whom bear vessels of water.61
9. Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, presented by the braziers. In this representation
based on Matthew 21, a model of a city gate is followed by boys strewing
palm branches on the ground, and a tree containing the figure of the tax
collector Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1–10), who looks down upon Jesus. Preceding
Jesus, riding an ass, are thirteen singers marching two by two, singing the
Palm Sunday antiphon Pueri Hebraeorum.62
10. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, presented by the glass blowers, painters, silk
embroiderers, and sculptors. A representation of Christ’s tomb is seen with the
stone rolled away and an angel inside. Roman soldiers look on, and the tomb
is followed by the three Marys. Next comes a representation of purgatory in
which Adam and Eve are tormented by the Devil. Preceding the figure of
the transfigured Christ are several instrumental musicians provided by the
court, including a regal (a type of small organ), cornett, trombone, shawm,
and dulcian.63
11. St. George, presented by the Confraternity of St. George. At the head of
this procession was a trumpeter whose instrument bore a banner of red and
white. A large military company was followed by the rescued bride, leading
the humbled dragon. Six more trumpeters and a military drum announced
the approach of a mounted St. George.64
12. The Last Judgment, presented by the goldsmiths. This procession began
with four angels (boys) provided by the court, playing on “long trombones”
heralding Judgment Day; at this sound several souls were to emerge from
60
“Die. 9. Engl welche beim Kriple sing[en] haben alzeit des h[er]n Orlandi Sun
den Ernestum für Iren Kapellmaister od[er] Directore[m] gehabt, vnd ist Inen ein
besonders gesang de Natiuitate Chr[ist]i von h[er]n orlando darzue componirt wor-
den, welches man auch abschreiben vnd behalten mueß.” BSB, Cgm 1967, 120r–v,
481r–v.
61
BSB, Cgm 1967, 116v, 395v, 481r. Similar accounts exist for the years 1604 in Mayer’s
Gewisse Beschreibung and for 1627 in BayHStA, GL 2737/755, 154r.
62
BSB, Cgm 1967, 334r.
63
BSB, Cgm 1967, 144r–v, 480v.
64
BSB, Cgm 1967, 338r–339r, 480v. A similar arrangement for 1627 is confirmed in
BayHStA, GL 2737/755, 206r.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 263 10/28/2013 10:36:45 PM

their graves. This group was followed by the figure of Christ in the clouds as
judge, and finally by representations of Satan, Lucifer, and the pains of hell.65
Thus finished the guildsmen’s representations, but an even greater spec-
tacle immediately followed, the Queen of Heaven seated among the clouds.66
She was introduced by some twenty boy angels from the Jesuit school march-
ing with silken banners that displayed the various titles of the Virgin Mary, in
a manner reminiscent of the invocations of the Litany of Loreto. Cornazzano,
according to Müller’s directive, was to provide a polyphonic work on the
Assumption of the Virgin for these students to sing, and Georg Victorinus
or the Jesuit “Capellmeister” (cantor?) was to rehearse the students until
they had memorized it. Surrounding Mary in the cloud were seven more
“angels” who were to sing the antiphon Regina caeli. The students were not
to sing in polyphony, although, as Müller wrote, “it would not hurt if one
wished to compose for them a few simple and short bicinia [two-part works]
that they could rehearse in the school a few days beforehand.”67 Following
the enthroned Virgin were twenty-four “bearded” students dressed as pil-
grims. As the strains of the Regina caeli dissipated, they were to sing in uni-
son “Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis”— one of the principal invocations of from
the Litany of Loreto—while clutching their breasts and bowing their heads
toward the ground. While there is no suggestion here of a full recitation of
that litany, the combination of the Regina caeli antiphon—which itself has
an invocation-response structure, statements of “alleluia” following imme-
diately upon each phrase of the text—with the “Sancta Maria” tag lent this
part of the procession a litany-like structure, whose impression could only
have been heightened by the titles of Mary represented on the angels’ ban-
ners. Once the pilgrims concluded their brief invocation, the twenty angels
leading the group were to begin their polyphonic work again. The whole was
concluded by figures representing the Twelve Apostles and the higher clergy,
including bishops, cardinals, and the Pope.
Following this visually and musically rich representation of the Virgin
Mary came the city’s principal confraternities and students from the parish
65
BSB, Cgm 1967, 339v, 480v. Similar arrangements are seen for 1574 in BSB, Cgm
2992: 48r; for 1581 in BSB, Cgm 4408, 75v–76v; and for 1627 in BayHStA, GL
2737/755, 229r. Note that another copy of the 1574 description (BSB, Cgm 2992) sur-
vives in StAM, KKs 1018.
66
The following is derived from BSB, Cgm 1967, 84v, 117v–120v, 341r, and 481v.
67
“Man wolte Inen dann etwa ain par rings vnd khurz Biciniu[m] companieren, das Sÿ
ein tag etlich zuuor in der Schuel aussenh lerneten, So khönte es nit schaden.” BSB,
Cgm 1967, 120r.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 264 10/28/2013 10:36:45 PM

schools.68 Müller’s directive lists five confraternities, each provided with
singers drawn from various institutions: the “Elenden Bruderschaft” devoted
to the care of the poor, accompanied by singers from the Jesuit school; the
Confraternity of the Annunication, likewise accompanied by Jesuit students;
the Archconfraternity of Corpus Christi, accompanied by choralists and stu-
dents from the parish church of Unsere Liebe Frau; the Confraternity of SS.
Nicholas of Tolentino and Sebastian, accompanied by unspecified “Choralen
und Stattleüt”; and, finally, the Confraternity of St. George, with “several
ducal singers arranged for by Herr Orlando.”69 While it is not possible to
tell whether the lay members of the confraternities participated in this music
making, it is noteworthy that the procession’s organizers made ample provi-
sion for musicians to accompany each of these brotherhoods.
The procession culminated, naturally, in the display of the Eucharist.
Following upon the members of the city’s various religious orders and the
higher clergy, the approach of the Host was marked first by the warlike
sounds of the ducal trumpet corps, consisting of at least nine trumpeters
accompanied by a military drummer.70 Then came the instrumentalists of
the ducal chapel “with cornetts and trombones,” and finally the singers of the
ducal chapel led by the chapelmaster himself.71 As the Eucharist in its mon-
strance passed beneath its canopy, the sound of “cymbals and pipes” played
by more students costumed as angels was heard as well.72 Concluding the
68
The following is derived from BSB, Cgm 1967, 342r–343v, 345v, 480v, 481v.
69
BSB, Cgm 1967, 480v. The participation of Unsere Liebe Frau’s choirboys is con-
firmed for 1574 in BSB, Cgm 2992, 52v (150 boys); and for 1581 in BSB, Cgm 4408,
77v (50 boys). Extra payments for musicians from Unsere Liebe Frau for the Corpus
Christi procession are recorded for the period 1591–1600 in BayHStA, GL 2675/321.
70
BSB, Cgm 1967, 347r. The use of trumpets to herald the approach of the Host is
recorded as early as 1574; see Soergel, Wondrous in His Saints, 87–88, and Mitterwieser,
Geschichte der Fronleichnamsprozession in Bayern, 34–35, referencing BSB, Cgm 2992,
50v, which names twelve members of the trumpet corps. The trumpeters and cantorate
are also mentioned for the year 1581 in BSB, Cgm 4408, 78v. On the use of trum-
pets in the 1612 procession, see Mitterwieser, Geschichte der Fronleichnamsprozession in
Bayern, 36. BayHStA, GL 2737/755, 234v, indicates that nine members of the trum-
pet corps participated in the 1627 procession.
71
BSB, Cgm 1967, 347r–v, 429v, 480v. Sadly nothing is known of the chapel’s musi-
cal selections. Court altist Johannes Hellgemayr commented on the taxing nature of
his service during the 1603 procession, though: see his diary, qtd. in Leuchtmann,
“Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen Kapellaltisten Johannes
Hellgemayr,” 159–60. For original text, see Extended Reference 5.15.
72
In 1574 the Eucharist was immediately followed by the four city Stadtpfeifer, a practice
which did not long continue; see BSB, Cgm 2992, 52v–53r. In 1603 the Ordnung der
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 265 10/28/2013 10:36:45 PM

procession were members of the ducal family, accompanied by large numbers
of soldiers, and, lastly, the great mass of the laity. The crowd soon dispersed,
but the striking visual and aural impression made by the procession and the
ceremonies at the four Gospel stations likely would not be forgotten easily.
Wolfgang Liginger’s final verses describing the 1574 procession emphasize
the role of music in providing a fitting conclusion to the procession:73
Alda die fürstlichen Genaden Looking out from their windows
Herab zue dem fenster vnd laden And shops, all readily saw
Aller haben gesechen freÿ Their princely graces,
zu handt durch die hoff Canntterej And a fine song was heard
gehalten wurdt Ein schön gesang From the court cantorate
bis fürÿber kham der vmbgang Until the procession came
hin für auf den Platz, alles sander Into the square; then everyone
da hat sich getailt von ein ander Took his leave of the other,
des volckhe schar jeder zue haus Each one in the crowd went home,
damit beschlossen war vnd aus . . . And all was finished.
Good Friday Processions

While the Corpus Christi procession laid claim to a relatively lengthy tra-
dition, one that found its greatest support among the Wittelsbach dukes
themselves, the Good Friday procession was a new phenomenon promoted
especially by the Jesuits and the Capuchin order. Unlike the Corpus Christi
procession, a triumphal, militant march in broad daylight, the Good Friday
procession was generally conducted in the evening under torchlight, and
its central feature was arguably the marching of flagellants—devotees who
marched while striking their backs with whips in recollection of the suffer-
ings of Christ. These processions appear to have been extensions of Jesuitical
Lenten devotions that were discussed in greater detail in chapter 3; one possi-
ble origin may be seen in the university town of Dillingen in 1577, when the
gantzen Procession deß Allerheiligisten vnd Hochwürdigisten Sacraments, 10r–v, refers to the
ducal trumpeters and drummers, the ducal instrumentalists, and the ducal singers,
followed by “angels” bearing the Arms of Christ’s Passion and “cymbals.” For the year
1604, Johann Mayer states in his Gewisse Beschreibung that preceding the Sacrament,
“Voran giengen etlich Engl/ Mit zimmeln vnd mit pfeiffen hell,” with no mention of
the ducal chapel.
73
BSB, Cgm 2992, 54v–55r.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 266 10/28/2013 10:36:46 PM

Jesuits first encouraged their students to mortify their flesh before a repre-
sentation of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1590, a penitential procession was added
in the university church, which by 1595 was extended throughout the city.74
The Good Friday procession soon became widespread in Catholic Germany,
and by the early seventeenth century had been established in Ingolstadt,
Dillingen, Munich, Constance, and Augsburg, among other places.75
The novelty of this spectacle must have been striking to contempo-
rary observers, for the first decade of the seventeenth century saw a flurry of
polemical literature that both attacked and defended the processions. One of
the main catalysts for this debate, it would seem, was the biconfessional city
of Augsburg’s Good Friday procession, which, beginning in 1604 or 1605,
was routed through the entire city—including Protestant neighborhoods—
and attracted throngs of spectators of both confessions. Controversy must have
ensued almost immediately, for Jakob Gretser, in a chapter of his De Catholicae
Ecclesiae sacrae processionibus et supplicationibus (1606) devoted to the phenom-
enon of “processions with disciplining or striking [of the flesh],” singled out
the procession in Augsburg, where religious tensions between its Protestant
majority and Catholic minority were mounting. Gretser noted that the proces-
sion, organized by Augsburg’s Corpus Christi confraternity, featured numerous
representations—like the Corpus Christi procession, involving live actors—of
Christ’s Passion ranging from his arrest on the Mount of Olives to his crucifix-
ion and burial. The images were accompanied by several groups of musicians,
including “a chorus of four boys singing a tearful dirge to Christ,” a “mourn-
ful symphony,” a “doleful funeral song sung by a choir of angels,” and another
group of musicians at the very end of the procession. Conducted under the
cover of darkness and illuminated by torches, the procession included numer-
ous flagellants: it is intriguing to imagine the mournful music accompanied by
shouting, crying, and the grisly sound of whips striking bloody backs.76
74
Walter Pötzl, “Volksfrömmigkeit,” in Walter Brandmüller, ed., Handbuch der bayer-
ischen Kirchengeschichte. Band II: Von der Glaubenspaltung bis zur Säkularisation (St.
Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1993), 955.
75
As reported by the Jesuit theologian and polemicist Jakob Gretser in De Catholicae
Ecclesiae sacris processionibus & supplicationibus, lib. I, ch. 16, pp. 111–13. This treatise
was printed together with Gretser’s De sacris et religiosis peregrinationibus (1606) and
would be translated into German by Conrad Vetter in the DISCIPLINBVCH, Das ist,
Von der Leibscasteyung vnd Mortification, welche nach altem, vnd der Catholischen Kirchen
wolbekanntem Brauch, durch Geißlen oder Disciplinen geschicht, vnd ueblich gehalten wirdt
(Ingolstadt: in der Ederischen Truckerey, durch Andream Angermayr, 1606).
76
See Gretser, De Catholicae Ecclesiae sacris processionibus & supplicationibus, lib. I, ch. 16,
pp. 111–13, who quotes an account found in several other extant manuscript sources;
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 267 10/28/2013 10:36:46 PM

This spectacle unfolded in an imperial city with a Protestant major-
ity, but what of the nominally Catholic cities of the neighboring duchy
of Bavaria? Gretser did report a Good Friday procession in Munich in his
1606 treatise, but further evidence of one appears again only in 1622, when
Duke Maximilian I complained in writing to the city council about certain
“excesses” in the procession that had just taken place:
It is known to you the manner in which those in the Corpus Christi
confraternity, on last Good Friday, led and accompanied the repre-
sented person of Our Lord in his purple cloak, with whipping and
cross-bearing, and created an excessive amount of noise and impropri-
ety with words, deeds, and gestures, to the annoyance and mockery
of many.
Maximilian concludes by citing the previous opinion of Dr. Johann Viktor—
dean of the parish of St. Peter, where the archconfraternity was based—that
such “impropriety” was to have been wholly abolished; therefore, the coun-
cil was to imprison all such guilty persons and report back to the duke.77
Maximilian’s objections to the potential for immoral acts in the Good Friday
evening procession were hardly unique: if the institution of the procession
was an example of the Counter-Reformation church’s attempt, in Norbert
Schindler’s words, “to colonise the night and extend into the evening its
disciplinary grip on the everyday lives of subjects,” it was no easy matter for
elites to stamp out behaviors thought to be uncouth or blasphemous, espe-
cially under the cover of darkness.78
Despite the “noise” or “shrieking” (geschraÿ) decried by Maximilian,
penitential processions on Good Friday persisted. We know that in 1638
such a procession involving flagellants, banners, and torches would enter the
see Extended Reference 5.16. There are several extant accounts of this procession,
identically worded, that give conflicting dates of 1604 and 1605. For further discus-
sion, see my Music and Religious Identity in Counter-Reformation Augsburg, 243–44. In
Regensburg, too, the institution of the Good Friday procession was highly controver-
sial; for a discussion, see Johnson, Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles, 177–78.
77
Maximilian I to the Munich city council, March 30, 1622, StAM, KKs 1028.
78
Norbert Schindler, in “Nocturnal Disturbances: On the Social History of the Night in
the Early Modern Period,” in Rebellion, Community and Custom in Early Modern Germany
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 196–97, cites several examples of
misbehavior in nighttime Good Friday processions, and shows that such processions
were sometimes moved to the daytime hours, or abolished outright: “The Catholic
foray into the night,” he argues, “must be regarded as a failure” (p. 201).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 268 10/28/2013 10:36:46 PM

electoral residence itself, with the participation and financial support of the
Confraternity of St. George.79 And in 1650, an expense record shows that
the court was subsidizing the Good Friday processions of the Confraternity
of SS. Nicholas of Tolentino and Sebastian; a pencil annotation indicates that
this subsidy began much earlier, in 1608.80 Both confraternities had close
connections to the court as Hofbruderschaften, founded in 1496 and 1502,
respectively, during the reign of Duke Albrecht IV. They had long been
in existence, then, by the time Counter-Reformation religious fervor gave
rise to groups like the Corpus Christi Archconfraternity at St. Peter, whose
Capuchin founders had been zealous promoters of the mortification of the
flesh as a form of spiritual discipline as recently as 1609.81 Further research
will need to clarify whether the court relieved the Corpus Christi confrater-
nity of its leadership role in these penitential processions due to the afore-
mentioned “noise and impropriety.”
Processions of Supplication and Triumph

In his manual on Catholic processions, Jakob Gretser drew a fundamental
distinction between those that were “fixed” (statas) in the liturgical calendar
and those that were “mandated” (imperatas) by a prelate or prince.82 “Fixed”
processions were those traditionally held on the feast of St. Mark and during
the three Rogation Days preceding Ascension Sunday; they involved, as we
have seen, the so-called Major and Minor litanies, respectively. “Mandated”
processions, on the other hand, were highly diverse. In Gretser’s mind
they may have included the great processions on Corpus Christi and Good
Friday, both of which merited separate chapters of his manual. In any case,
79
Testimony of one M[ichael?] Fueßhammer, keeper of costumes for processions, March
30, 1638, BayHStA, GL 2737/759, no. 1.
80
12 Gulden, 14 Kreuzer were paid to the confraternity according to this document,
dated March 29, 1650. BayHStA, HR II, 324.
81
On the Archconfraternity of Corpus Christi at St. Peter, see esp. Dieter J. Weiß,
Die Corporis-Christi-Erzbruderschaft bei St. Peter. Ein Beitrag zur altbayerischen
Kirchen- und Frömmigkeitsgeschichte, Aus dem Pfarramt von St. Peter in München 3
(Munich: Stadtpfarramt St. Peter, 1990), who notes (p. 10) that the group received
indulgences for their participation in the Good Friday procession (as well as that
on Corpus Christi), according to Pope Paul V’s confirmation of the confraternity on
February 21, 1609.
82
Gretser, De Catholicae Ecclesiae sacris processionibus & supplicationibus, 1:6. For an excerpt
of the original text, see Extended Reference 5.17.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 269 10/28/2013 10:36:46 PM

a common thread in mandated processions was the element of supplication.
Weather processions, held to avert or end periods of extreme heat, cold, or
precipitation, and processions against the threat of pestilence were among
the most venerable of these, and they continued to be cultivated—with close
official supervision—in Counter-Reformation Bavaria as well.83 Most com-
mon, however, were processions ordered in response to perceived military
threats, particularly those posed by the Turks and Protestant forces in the
years preceding the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War. Such processions were
by no means new, but their frequency seems to have increased during the
reigns of Wilhelm V and Maximilian I.
Quite naturally, Gretser confirms that litanies were central to supplica-
tory processions. He devotes a full chapter of his manual to a defense of the
“Major Litany, and that called the sevenfold litany” (the latter mandated in
590 by Gregory the Great in response to plague) on the grounds of their
antiquity, and historical discussions of the Major, Minor, and Gregorian sev-
enfold litanies are scattered throughout the volume.84 Gretser mainly con-
cerned himself with historical precedent, but contemporary mandates tend to
confirm the close relationship of supplicatory processions and litanies, even
if they do not explicitly prescribe the singing of litanies within processions.
As early as December 1570, Bishop Ernst of Freising, citing the imminent
threat from the Turks as well as widespread “heresy” within his diocese, man-
dated that the litany or other prayers be sung daily before or after Mass in all
cathedral and cloister churches; furthermore, “in addition to the sung litany,”
processions were to held around or in these churches on all Sundays and feast
days.85 Wilhelm V issued a similar decree in 1593, which simultaneously
included an injunction banishing all secular festivities and music-making
83
Note, for example, the diary Johannes Hellgemayr, who reports processions mandated in
response to a heat wave in 1616 and further weather processions during summer 1628.
Johannes Hellgemayr,” 170, 194, 195. Regular Friday processions against the threat
of pestilence were mandated by Maximilian I in August 1611 and again in 1627; see
ibid., 191, and AEM, Generalien, August 25, 1611. Hellgemayr further reports a
procession with the relics of St. Benno held in November due to spreading pestilence;
see Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen Kapellaltisten
Johannes Hellgemayr,” 211. On the phenomenon of weather processions more gen-
erally, see Robert W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation
Germany (London: Hambledon Press, 1987), 34–35.
84
Gretser, De Catholicae Ecclesiae sacris processionibus & supplicationibus, ch. IX, “De Litania
Maiore, & illa, quæ septiformis appellatur,” 1:56–64.
85
AEM, Generalien, December 1, 1570. For original text, see Extended Reference 5.18.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 270 10/28/2013 10:36:46 PM

and a directive to all to make public prayers at the sound of the Turk bell.86
Processions, likely with litanies, were also mandated in response to the more
present danger posed by the Swedish armies of Gustavus Adolphus as they
threatened Munich in 1631 and 1632. Court altist Johannes Hellgemayr
tells us that on May 11, 1631, church and state officials, responding to the
Swedish landing in Germany, mandated a regular Friday procession from the
Franciscan church to the parish church of Unsere Liebe Frau “with the litany
and a sung Mass, in which [procession] the greater part [is formed by] his
Electoral Highness together with the entire princely retinue, as well as the
Carmelites, Capuchins, Franciscans, Augustinians, and all men and women
[of the laity].”87
Processions observing and commemorating Bavarian military victories
naturally had a rather different aural profile. None were of greater moment
than Maximilian I’s victory over Bohemian Protestant forces at White
Mountain, near Prague, on November 8, 1620, an event that led directly
to the Bavarian takeover of the Upper Palatinate and ultimately to the
Maximilian’s elevation to the electoral dignity. Returning to Munich on
November 25, Maximilian was received and accompanied by Duke Wilhelm
V and Duke Albrecht VI, Bishop Veit Adam of Freising, and the populace
to the church of Unsere Liebe Frau, where “a fine harmony” was heard.88
Maximilian’s victory would be commemorated annually, beginning in 1621
and continuing until 1777, with the so-called Prague Procession through
the city that typically took place on the Sunday following All Saints Day.
In 1621, the procession began at St. Peter and went to Unsere Liebe Frau,
where a Te Deum was sung in celebration of the victory; eight instrumental
musicians (Spielleute) contributed their services, and gunfire was heard in the
cemetery.89 By 1627 the number of instrumental personnel had increased to
thirteen, and gunfire came not only from the cemetery but also from the twin
towers of Unsere Liebe Frau itself.90
86
Mandate of November 12, 1593, BSB, Kloeckeliana 21/19. For original text, see
87
Diary of Johannes Hellgemayr, qtd. in Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche
Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen Kapellaltisten Johannes Hellgemayr,” 200. For orig-
inal text, see Extended Reference 5.20.
88
Ibid., 174. For original text, see Extended Reference 5.21. Note that Hellgemayr
gives the date of Maximilian’s entry as November 23; Stahleder in Belastungen und
Bedrückungen, 376, gives the date as Wednesday, November 25.
89
Stahleder, Belastungen und Bedrückungen, 381.
90
Ibid., 421. A similar complement is seen in 1629; see ibid., 435.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 271 10/28/2013 10:36:46 PM

There was a close link, as well, between triumphal processions and sanc-
toral devotion in Counter-Reformation Bavaria. Certainly, one factor in this
was the self-conscious promotion of sanctoral intercession as Catholic dogma,
but the saints, martyrs and missionaries among them also came to be seen
as symbols of Catholic fidelity. Public sanctoral processions included the fes-
tal translations that occurred periodically when new relics were obtained or
existing ones were moved to a new location. In 1593, several years before
acceding as head of state, Maximilian returned from Italy bearing relics of
the catacomb martyrs SS. Cyrus, Joannes, Saturninus, and Euphebius, which
were intended for the Jesuit church of St. Michael. On August 13 of that year
a triumphal procession with these relics led from St. Stephan outside the city
gates to St. Michael, accompanied by singers, trumpets, drums, and the ring-
ing of bells, culminating in a Mass at St. Michael celebrated by the bishop
of Cremona and embellished by music from the ducal chapel.91 Ducal musi-
cians were also dispatched to Landshut in May 1604, when the collegiate
chapter of St. Castulus officially moved from its previous home in Moosburg
to the church of St. Martin in Landshut, bringing with it relics of that saint.
Maximilian I ordered special music to be composed for the occasion. The
grand procession into Landshut began with cannon fire, and bells were said
to have rung of their own accord. After four string players (Geiger) in long red
robes came all the students of the German and Latin schools, then the confrater-
nities, then the musicians of St. Martin with the Landshut Stadtpfeifer, then the
Franciscans and Dominicans. Then followed the Landshut chapter and clergy,
the ducal trumpeters, and the chaplains and prelates, who accompanied the rel-
ics of St. Castulus. Musicians from Maximilian’s chapel followed. After a sung
Vespers and Compline, the relics were displayed to all.92
Processions involving the relics of St. Benno, Bavaria’s patron saint since 1603,
were likewise aurally impressive. Benno’s confessional symbolism was undis-
puted: since his death in 1106 the former bishop of Meissen had laid at rest at
that city’s cathedral until the Reformation led to the abolition of his cult and,
indeed, the disturbance of his tomb in 1539. The acquisition of his relics in 1576
by Albrecht V, then, was of great political moment. In April of that year the relics
91
See Felix Joseph Lipowsky, Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern (Munich: Jakob Giel, 1816),
272–73.
92
See Tobias Appl, “Der Ausbau geistlicher Zentren als Kernstück der Kirchenpolitik
Herzog Wilhelms V. (1579-1597/98) in Bayern” (PhD diss., Universität Regensburg,
2009), 338–89, who cites in turn BayHStA, KL Landshut, Kollegiatstift St. Martin
und Kastulus 9. See also Ludwig Heilmaier, “Überführung der Reliquien des Hl.
Castulus von Moosburg nach Landshut,” Frigisinga 2 (1925): 408–13.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 272 10/28/2013 10:36:47 PM

entered through a triumphal arch at the Isar Gate “under the sound of all the bells
[of the city] and festal choir singing,” proceeding to their initial home in the court
chapel; four years later a similar procession would accompany them to their per-
manent home at Unsere Liebe Frau.93 During times of military threat or occupa-
tion, relics were spirited out of the city to be kept in safe hiding, but their eventual
return meant opportunities for festal processions and services. Such a procession
accompanied Benno’s relics back to Unsere Liebe Frau in February 1633 after the
hasty departure of the Swedish army. Hellgemayr gives the following account:
On the evening of Purification Day St. Benno was brought to Unsere
Liebe Frau with great solemnity, with the entire clergy, religious orders,
soldiers on horse and foot, and many of the people showing fine devotion.
Six priests carried the holy image on a finely-made platform. Then we
performed a festal Vespers with the Te Deum laudamus. The soldiers also
were heard firing their cannon and muskets inside and outside the city.
The following day we sang a fine Mass. Saint Benno shall be our advocate
and shall help us in our need through his holiest intercession.94
Given Benno’s potent confessional symbolism—not to mention his
intended role as a pretext to relocate the seat of the bishopric from Freising
to Munich, long a desire of the Wittelsbach dukes—the association of the
sounds of state power with the translation of his relics hardly seems surpris-
ing.95 Yet we find a similar aural accompaniment for a very different reli-
quary translation, that of the relics of St. Dorothea to the Pütrich convent of
Franciscan tertiary nuns in 1663. Ulrike Strasser has stressed the importance
of reliquary devotion in Munich’s female convents after their full enclosure
in the early 1620s, as well as the role of male clergy—in this case, the monks
of the Franciscan monastery of St. Anthony—in defining the public image of
these women who were no longer visible to the populace.96 For the Pütrich
93
Max Joseph Hufnagel, “Der heilige Benno, Bischof von Meißen,” in Georg Schwaiger,
ed., Bavaria Sancta. Zeugen christlichen Glaubens in Bayern (Regensburg: Friedrich
Pustet, 1973), 3:209–10.
94
Qtd. in Leuchtmann, “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen
Kapellaltisten Johannes Hellgemayr,” 217–18. For original text see Extended
Reference 5.22. Less detailed accounts appear in BayHStA, KL München, Collegiatstift
ULF 1, nos. 8 and 9.
95
On the desired removal of the seat of the bishopric to Munich, see Soergel, Wondrous in
His Saints, 182.
96
On reliquary devotion in particular in Munich’s female convents see Ulrike Strasser,
State of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern Catholic State (Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004), esp. 136–48.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 273 10/28/2013 10:36:47 PM

nuns, the acqusition of St. Dorothea’s corpse marked the successful end of a
lengthy struggle with their male Franciscan superiors, who had stringently
opposed nuns’ possible participation in a public procession with the relics
as well as the display of the corpse in the convent church. In the end, the
male Franciscans approved the translation, but the public procession was to
be held under their guidance and without the nuns’ public appearance. This
procession would be dominated by the male elites of the Franciscan order and
the electoral court, but the music also featured a highly militaristic cast. On
Sunday, September 2, 1663, on the sounding of a bell at one o’clock in the
afternoon, the holy corpse left the Franciscan church under the sound of the
electoral trumpets and drummers. The male Franciscan clergy that followed
sang the Vespers hymn from the Common of Holy Women, Fortem virili pec-
tore (Let us praise the virile woman of strong breast, who everywhere radiates
the glory of sanctity). Upon entering the Pütrich church, the Franciscans
began to sing the antiphon Veni sponsa Christi, “which the electoral court
musicians continued under the din of trumpets and drums.” As the corpse
was placed on the altar, the Collect Deus, qui inter caetera was sung, and then
the electoral musicians performed Vespers and the Te Deum laudamus.97 The
nuns, who had worked so hard to clothe the body of St. Dorothea in fine jew-
els, pearls, and other precious garb, could only watch from their choir, cut
off from the public that flooded the nave. They were accustomed to hearing
the Veni sponsa Christi (Come, bride of Christ) to accompany future novices as
they processed to the altar in their investiture ceremonies, but here we find
a rendition of the antiphon that was clothed in the aural garb of princely
representation and military symbolism.98
In mixed-confessional environments, where the political symbolism of
reliquary devotion was far more inflammatory, sanctoral translations were
conducted with an imposing aural accompaniment. A notable case occurred
in 1613 in Regensburg, which had in fact been the locus of provocative
Catholic processions for some time, many of them instigated by the local
97
The account appears in Bittrich Voll Deß Himmlischen Manna. Süssen Morgen-Thau.
Das ist: Historischer Discurs, Von Dem Ursprung, Fundation, Auffnamb, glücklichen
Fortgang, Tugend-Wandel, vnd andern denckwürdigen Sachen Deß Löbl. Frauen-Closters,
Ordens der dritten Regul deß Heil. Francisci, Bey Sanct Christophen im Bittrich genannt,
In der Chur-Fürstlichen Residentz-Stadt München (Munich: Johann Lucas Straub, 1721),
141–43.
98
On the traditional role of Veni sponsa Christi as a part of investiture ceremonies, see
esp. Colleen Reardon, “Veni sponsa Christi: Investiture, Profession and Consecration
Ceremonies in Sienese Convents,” Musica disciplina 50 (1996): 271–97.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 274 10/28/2013 10:36:47 PM

Jesuits. In 1612 Bishop Wolfgang II von Hausen of Regensburg sought
to revive the cult of his eponymous predecessor, St. Wolfgang, Bishop of
Regensburg (c. 924–994), on the occasion of the construction of a new altar
and crypt for his remains.99 The public ceremonies began on Saturday, May
4, 1613, with a procession and a Vespers service at St. Emmeram, during
which numerous pilgrims from the village of Leiblfing arrived “with flying
banners and the usual songs.” After Mass the following day, a great proces-
sion with Wolfgang’s relics wound its way from the monastery through the
heavily Protestant city to the cathedral, with music provided by choirboys,
the “musicians” (students) of the local Jesuit College, the cathedral’s musi-
cians, and the Catholic laity. As the corpse was laid upon the high altar of
the cathedral, all the church bells were rung, their sound mixing with the
din of organ music, trumpeters, and drummers. A performance of the Te
Deum laudamus was then followed by prayer and a sermon by the cathedral’s
Jesuit preacher. Following afternoon Vespers, the procession made its way to
the Jesuit church of St. Paul, where a theatrical dialogue took place inside
the church; outside in the courtyard there were “fine acclamations” made by
the Jesuit students, answered by trumpets and drums. After the procession
returned to St. Emmeram, the day concluded with a service that included
a motet, the antiphon Regina caeli, and more trumpeting and drumming.
A Jesuit chronicle took note of the day’s festivities: “Our house and the hall
of our church shone with monuments, torches, poems, and emblems. The
theatrical scene resounded in praises to God; a chorus [was heard] in the hall;
from the pulpit there was a public sermon; and everywhere the voice of the
people was raised in rejoicing, some from the city, some from nearby areas,
with banners and standards, streaming to the celebration under the sound of
harmony.”100 Not surprisingly, the Jesuit chronicle leaves us wondering how
this radical appropriation and transformation of urban space would have been
received by Regensburg’s Protestant majority.
99
The following account is taken from BayHStA, KLReg, St. Emmeram 65 1/3, no. 2.
100
HPSJGS IV, 79–80. It appears that periodically the relics of St. Wolfgang were car-
ried in procession in Regensburg. One such occasion was on Cantate Sunday (the
fourth Sunday after Easter) in 1627; the procession order is similar to that of 1613. See
BayHStA, KLReg, St. Emmeram 65 1/3, no. 1.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 275 10/28/2013 10:36:47 PM

Chapter Six Sound, Pilgrimage, and the Spiritual
Geography of Counter-Reformation
Bavaria
I n 1671 the Franciscan monk and writer Fortunatus Hueber published

a book of miracles said to have occurred at Neukirchen beim Heiligen
Blut, a shrine in eastern Bavaria honoring the Virgin Mary. Offering a his-
tory of the shrine, its miracles, and descriptions of contemporary pilgrim-
ages to it, Hueber begins by identifying Neukirchen as but one of many
Marian “fortresses” sheltering the electorate of Bavaria from hostile forces
without:
Before continuing, allow me to insert particular thoughts con-
cerning God’s favor, in that our dear Bavarian fatherland, since it
has devoted itself entirely to the love and honor of Mary, has been
embraced in her merciful protection and secured within the walls of
her pomegranate-fortresses. Thus she keeps a watchful eye and firmly
cares for her devoted people in Bavaria, as she has fortified certain bas-
tions and walls against all parts of the world, and cuts all threatening
evils off at the pass: as the sun rises MARIA gives her aid to all the
helpless at Passau, on the mountain; at midday in the Tyrolean hills
she makes her gifts to Ettal and Peissenberg; at dusk she exerts her
powers on the Lechfeld; and at midnight she bestows her virtues at
Neukirchen at the edge of the Bohemian forest. But at Altötting she
watches over the heart of the fatherland, and keeps vigilant as from
a fortress. In other ways she makes manifest her holy sentinels and
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 276 10/28/2013 10:36:47 PM

emplacements, so that anyone may easily come to her, who turns away
no one without comfort and aid.1
Hueber’s description of Bavaria evokes a landscape of walls and fortresses,
governed by a protectress less maternal than militaristic: indeed, this Mary is
the “conquering Virgin” of Counter-Reformation theology.2 The geography
of Bavaria here has less to do with the electorate’s political bounds than with
its nodes of spiritual power. Despite the ubiquity of Marian architectural
and visual symbolism in Munich, the electorate’s chief spiritual fortress was
to be found in the modest Carolingian chapel housing the so-called Black
Madonna of Altötting, in a small village far to the east. Hueber’s chronicle
suggests the cultural resonance of this sacred geography, defined largely by
Bavaria’s complicated network of pilgrimage shrines and routes. And Hueber
was not alone in this effort: his pilgrimage manual joined a variety of other
contemporary Bavarian literature, including works by Matthäus Rader and
Wilhelm Gumppenberg, that proposed a landscape defined more by spiritual
nodes than by political boundaries.3
The revival of pilgrimage from the late sixteenth century onward stands
as one of the most dramatic, visible, and popular manifestations of Catholic
renewal in Counter-Reformation Bavaria. Stoked at first by political and reli-
gious elites, notably the dukes of Bavaria and members of the Jesuit and
Capuchin orders, pilgrimage became a truly mass phenomenon in Bavaria
by the early eighteenth century, the shrines at Altötting, Deggendorf, and
Bettbrunn welcoming tens of thousands of pilgrims each year. For Catholic
officials pilgrimage created devotional spaces on a regional level—delineated
by routes and anchored by shrines—that instilled Catholic identity while
1
Fortunatus Hueber, Zeitiger Granat-apfel Der allerscheinbaristen Wunderzierden In denen
Wunderthätigen Bildsaulen Unser L. Frawen [ . . . ] Trösterin aller Betrübten Zu Newkirchen
In Chur-Bayrn, am Ober Böhamer-Wald gelegen (Munich: Lucas Straub, 1671), 4–5.
For original text see Extended Reference 6.1. For a study of pilgrimage culture at
Neukirchen, see Walter Hartinger, “Die Wallfahrt Neukirchen bei Heilig Blut.
Volkskundliche Untersuchung einer Gnadenstätte an der bayerisch-böhmischen
Grenze,” Beiträge zur Geschichte des Bistums Regensburg 5 (1971): 23–240.
2
I borrow the term from Lionel Rothkrug, “Popular Religion and Holy Shrines: Their
Influence on the Origins of the German Reformation and Their Role in German
Cultural Development,” in James Obelkevich, ed., Religion and the People, 800–1700
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979), 28.
3
See Matthäus Rader, Bavaria sancta (Munich: Raphael Sadeler, 1615); and Wilhelm
Gumppenberg, Atlas Marianus, sive de imaginibus Deiparae per orbem christianum miracu-
losis (Ingolstadt: Georg Hänlin, 1657).
s o u n d, p i l g r i m a g e , a n d s p i r i t ua l g e o g r a p h y | 277
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 277 10/28/2013 10:36:47 PM

etching the confessional boundaries separating Catholic from Protestant
more deeply. For commoners pilgrimage represented a continuation of
centuries-old religious beliefs and social practices. As pilgrimage blossomed,
local authorities made ever greater efforts to ensure religious and social dis-
cipline among marchers who were less conscious of the confessional symbol-
ism of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage was a space, then, in which the interests of
different social groups and individuals variously overlapped, conflicted, and
harmonized.
If the motives of its organizers and participants sometimes varied, pil-
grimage made manifest religious identity and difference, tracing the sacral
landscape of Bavaria with sensuous spectacle. The soundscape of Bavarian
pilgrimage produced distinctive spaces within which confessional identity
could be constructed, expressed, or challenged. Singing was central to the
experience of pilgrimage, but songs and litanies can also be located within
a broader sonic discourse that included vocal prayer, bell ringing, and gun-
fire. We cannot deny the visual power of banner-carrying pilgrims marching
through the countryside and towns; but the sounds of singing, bells, and
guns had the potential to project Catholic symbolism into far wider areas. At
the same time, sound was mutable and ambivalent. Authorities puzzled over
how to prevent pilgrims from singing secular songs, and as pilgrims from
specific parishes approached their destinations, their songs competed with
those of other pilgrims, and indeed with the sounds of the tavern and the
street. Pilgrimage exhibited not only the power of sound in the creation and
maintenance of religious identity and boundaries but also its fundamental
ambivalence.
Pilgrimage in Reformation and Counter-Reformation

Bavaria
Southern Germany, and Bavaria in particular, enjoyed a long medieval tra-
dition of pilgrimage, but it was hardly immune to the challenges of the
Reformation.4 Following on the heels of late-medieval, humanist critiques,
Martin Luther attacked the doctrine of intercession and railed against this
“idolatrous” spectacle of commerce and exchange, as pilgrims squandered
4
On the favorable social and demographic background for pilgrimage in south German
culture, see esp. Rothkrug, “Popular Religion and Holy Shrines,” esp. 49–61. For
further discussion and literature, see Extended Reference 6.2.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 278 10/28/2013 10:36:48 PM

their time and money to “barter with saintly patrons.”5 In Bavaria, urban
shrines like the Schöne Maria in Regensburg quickly fell victim to Protestant
clerics and adherents; even rural pilgrimages like those to Altötting expe-
rienced steep declines after 1520.6 The ground for recovery was laid by the
Council of Trent’s firm defense of sanctoral intercession in 1563 and the sub-
sequent flowering of apologetic literature for pilgrimage, penned especially
by the Jesuits and printed in their stronghold of Ingolstadt.7 More directly
influential, perhaps, were vernacular writings such as those by the Straubing
priest Johann Jakob Rabus and the Ingolstadt theologian Martin Eisengrein,
whose Unser liebe Fraw zu Alten Oetting (Ingolstadt, 1571), for example, helped
pave the way for the remarkable explosion of pilgrimage culture at Altötting
in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.8 We shall see also that
the Bavarian dukes, themselves wont to depart on pilgrimages to regional
shrines, provided a powerful example for emulation.
5
Qtd. in Philip Soergel, Wondrous in His Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in
Bavaria, Studies in the History of Society and Culture 17 (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1993), 62. On late-medieval humanist and clerical critiques of pil-
grimage, see Extended Reference 6.3 .
6
For a general overview of the Protestant suppression of pilgrimage in Bavaria, see
Soergel, Wondrous in His Saints, 44–74; in the diocese of Freising, see Hans Rößler,
Geschichte und Strukturen der evangelischen Bewegung im Bistum Freising 1520–1571
(Nuremberg: Verein für Bayerische Kirchengeschichte, 1966), 205–7. For further
commentary on the fate of the Schöne Maria pilgrimage, see Extended Reference 6.4.
7
The Council endorsed intercession in its Decretum de invocatione, veneratione et rel-
iquiis Sanctorum, et sacris imaginibus (December 3, 1563). Jesuits soon took leading
roles in the defense of pilgrimage: see, for example, Peter Canisius, De Maria Virgine
incomparabili et Dei Genitrice Sacrosancta (Ingolstadt: David Sartorius, 1577); Robert
Bellarmine, Disputationes de controversiis christianiae fidei adversus huius temporis haereti-
cos (Ingolstadt: David Sartorius, 1586–1593); and Jakob Gretser, De sacris et religiosis
peregrinationibus libri quatuor (Ingolstadt: Adam Sartorius, 1606). For commentary on
these sources, see Pötzl, “Volksfrömmigkeit,” 892–94; Guth, “Geschichtlicher Abriß
der marianischen Wallfahrtsbewegung im deutschsprachigen Raum,” 375–79; and
Heal, The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany, 148–59.
8
Martin Eisengrein, Vnser liebe Fraw zu Alten Oetting (Ingolstadt: Alexander Weissenhorn,
1571). Rabus’s manuals on pilgrimage are the Christlichs Manual oder Handtbüchlein.
Von Rechtem Nutz vnd Frucht deß Walfartens (Straubing: Andre Summer, 1585); and his
Kurtzer, warhaffter vnd gründtlicher Bericht, von dem hoch vnd weitberühmbten wundersamen
H. Sacrament, zu Deckendorff vnd Passaw (Munich: [Adam Berg], 1584). For full titles
and further literature and discussion, see Extended Reference 6.5.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 279 10/28/2013 10:36:48 PM

A selective map of principal Bavarian pilgrimage shrines is shown in
Figure 6.1. A special place in the Wittelsbachs’ spiritual affections were
reserved for Mary as the Apocalyptic Virgin (Revelation 12:1, 5), triumphant
queen of heaven, Patroness of Bavaria on the façade of the ducal residence,
crown of the great Mariensäule in the market square, and militant protectress
of the land against heretics and unbelievers.9 Older Marian shrines such as
Bogenberg and Tuntenhausen continued to flourish but were soon overshad-
owed by the famed Black Madonna of Altötting, which became a particu-
lar object of Wittelsbach patronage—and a frequent pilgrimage destination
for the princely house—from the time of Albrecht V well into the modern
era.10 Apart from Altötting, a broader network of Marian shrines traced the
duchy’s spiritual geography: one thinks of the proliferation of copies of the
Holy House of Loreto, said to have been the birthplace of the Virgin Mary;
the “tried yet triumphant” shrine of Neukirchen beim Heiligen Blut near
the Bohemian border, a symbol of resistance to heretical iconoclasm; and the
various Mariahilf shrines—housing copies of an allegedly miraculous paint-
ing of the Virgin by Lucas Cranach—that sprouted up in Bavaria after the
outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War.11 Eucharistic shrines enjoyed strong state
support as well, reflecting the status of the transubstantiated host as one
of the prime objects of confessional controversy. Most significant were the
nearby shrine of Andechs, a frequent destination for pilgrims from Munich
and Augsburg; Bettbrunn, located to the northeast of Ingolstadt, near the
confessional frontier; and, far to the east, Deggendorf, whose origins lay in a
dubious but frequently told myth of Jewish host desecration.12 In sanctoral
pilgrimage, moreover, Counter-Reformation elites saw an opportunity to
9
For discussion of the Apocalyptic Virgin in the context of Marian devotion in Germany
see Heal, The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany, 3–8, 148–206. On
her image in Habsburg Austria, see Andrew H. Weaver, “Music in the Service of
Counter-Reformation Politics: The Immaculate Conception at the Habsburg Court of
Ferdinand III (1637–1657),” Music & Letters 87 (2006): 361–78; and Sacred Music as
Public Image for Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III: Representing the Counter-Reformation
Monarch at the End of the Thirty Years’ War: Catholic Christendom, 1300–1700
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012), ch. 7, 223–49.
10
For further discussion of Marian shrines such as Bogenberg, Tuntenhausen, and
Altötting, see Extended Reference 6.6.
11
For commentary on these Marian shrines in Bavaria see Extended Reference 6.7.
12
For a detailed study of the theological and liturgical aspects of Eucharistic devotion in
this era, see Lee Palmer Wandel, The Eucharist in the Reformation: Incarnation and Liturgy
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). For further commentary on Bavaria’s
Eucharistic shrines, see Extended Reference 6.8.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 280 10/28/2013 10:36:48 PM

Imperial city
Town 0 25 50 miles
Diocese
0 25 50 kilometers
Pilgrimage site
PFALZ-
BOHEMIA
PARKSTEIN- SULZBACH
WEIDEN
PFALZ-
SULZBACH
Nuremberg Amberg
UPPER PALATINATE Neukirchen beim
Neumarkt Heiligen Blut
Cham
PFALZ-NEUBURG
Regensburg REGENSBURG
(episcopal foundation)
Eichstätt Regensburg Bogenberg
Bettbrunn Straubing
Deggendorf
PFALZ-
Ingolstadt
Donauwörth NEUBURG
Neuburg D
er an
Riv ub Passau
u be Landshut
eR
i v er
n
Da
Augsburg Freising
BAVARIA
FREISING
Augsburg (episcopal
foundation Mühldorf
Munich Altötting
Burghausen
er
Wasserburg
Riv
Landsberg
am Inn
Ammersee AUSTRIA
Isar
Andechs Chiemsee
Starnberger Chiemsee
See Salzburg
ver
Ri
Inn SALZBURG
Innsbruck
TYROL
CARINTHIA
F i g u r e 6 . 1 Map of Bavaria showing major cities, features, and pilgrimage

shrines
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 281 10/28/2013 10:36:49 PM

promote both the doctrine of intercession and the authority of the clergy. The
prime example is the veneration of St. Benno, whose relics were festally trans-
lated to the parish church of Unsere Liebe Frau in 1580. If less popular initially
than rural sites like Altötting and Andechs, St. Benno did provide an immedi-
ate example of what Peter Burke has called the “Counter-Reformation saint,”
one drawn from the ranks of the clergy who not only brought about miraculous
cures but also confirmed the church’s authority.13
In concert with the Jesuits, Franciscans, and the Capuchins in particular, the
Bavarian state revitalized a culture of pilgrimage that dramatized Catholic mili-
tancy in a religiously contested region. It is little surprise that during the early
modern era southern Germany and Bavaria would account for nearly half of all
new European pilgrimages, many of them connected with the dramatic rise of
post-Tridentine Marian veneration.14 Having embraced this mode of devotion,
laypersons by the thousands streamed to sites like Andechs, Deggendorf, and
Altötting by the later seventeenth century.15 Furthermore, pilgrimage proved
extremely valuable in the recatholicization of territories such as Pfalz-Neuburg
or the Upper Palatinate, where Catholic officials could harness latent popular
beliefs concerning miracles and the localization of the sacred.16 Pilgrimage
shrines were not simply landmarks in a spiritual landscape; they were spaces
where different interests—lay and clerical, secular and sacred, commercial and
spiritual—could interact in complex and productive ways.17 Some pilgrims
13
See Peter Burke, “How to Become a Counter-Reformation Saint,” in The
Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Italy: Essays on Perception and Communication
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 48–62; repr. in David M. Luebke,
ed., The Counter-Reformation: The Essential Readings (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers,
1999), 129–42. For further commentary on the cult of St. Benno, which began to be
promoted forcefully in the early seventeenth century, see Extended Reference 6.9.
14
Mary Lee Nolan and Sidney Nolan, “Regional Variations in Europe’s Roman Catholic
Pilgrimage Traditions,” in Sacred Places, Sacred Spaces: The Geography of Pilgrimages
(Baton Rouge: Geoscience Publications, Department of Geography and Anthropology,
Louisiana State University, 1997), 72. For further commentary, see Extended Reference
6.10.
15
Pötzl, in “Volksfrömmigkeit,” 939–40, cites some specific figures demonstrating the
popularity of certain shrines by the early eighteenth century. Altötting, for example,
enjoyed annual visits by some 121,000 pilgrims at the end of the seventeenth century,
some 200,000 in the early eighteenth.
16
On this point see especially Trevor Johnson, Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles: The
Counter Reformation in the Upper Palatinate (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 271–91.
17
These communal and conflicting interests have been a major topic of debate within
the anthropological literature on pilgrimage, beginning with the work of Victor and
Edith Turner in Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture. Anthropological Perspectives
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 282 10/28/2013 10:36:49 PM

made private journeys out of conviction, while others marched communally
with their parishes and confraternities. For some, pilgrimage symbolized a
return to the origins of one’s faith. Pilgrimage could also be an act of penitence,
undertaken voluntarily or compelled by clergy or community, or an affirma-
tion of communal, territorial, or religious identity. For others, it represented
an opportunity for “gift exchange” in which the pilgrimage vow was offered
for favors received from the holy person venerated at that place.18 Not surpris-
ingly, for the small rural communities in which shrines were located, pilgrimage
was a crucial economic engine as well.19 Most relevant from a sonic perspective
was the interplay of sacred and secular, in which the sounds of litanies, reli-
gious songs, and prayers mixed liberally with those of idle conversation, musi-
cal instruments, and the tavern along the route. The pilgrimage network of
Counter-Reformation Bavaria was traced by characteristic sounds, but we must
not conclude that these sounds were always perceived and interpreted in the
same ways.
Songs and Litanies in Pilgrimage

Keeping the principal nodes of the Bavarian spiritual geography in mind,
let us turn now to the central topic of sound in pilgrimage. At first glance
pilgrimage songs and litanies would seem to share much in common. As with
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1978); see also Victor Turner’s The Ritual
Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969). For
further commentary on pilgrimage as “communitas” or “contestation,” see Extended
Reference 6.11.
18
I take this schema from Liliane Voyé, “Popular Religion and Pilgrimages in Western
Europe,” in William H. Swatos Jr. and Luigi Tomasi, eds., From Medieval Pilgrimage
to Religious Tourism: The Social and Cultural Economics of Piety (Westport, CT: Praeger,
2002), 115–25. On the distinction between individual and collective pilgrimage
in Bavaria see Irmgard Gierl, Bauernleben und Bauernwallfahrt in Altbayern. Eine kul-
turkundliche Studie auf Grund der Tuntenhausener Mirakelbücher, Beiträge zur altbayer-
ischen Kirchengeschichte 21, no. 2 (Munich: Franz Seitz, 1960), 111. The sociable
elements of pilgrimage are stressed by Peter Hersche in “Die Lustreise der kleinen
Leute—zur geselligen Funktion der barocken Wallfahrt,” in Wolfgang Adam, ed.,
Geselligkeit und Gesellschaft im Barockzeitalter (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), 321–
32, who in turn cites the late eighteenth-century observations of Friedrich Nicolai in
his “Nachricht von Wallfahrten,” in Beschreibung einer Reise durch Deutschland und die
Schweiz im Jahre 1781 (Berlin, Stettin, 1783), 2:35–46 (Beylage).
19
It is not going too far to say that the economic fortunes of a town like Deggendorf,
to name one prominent example, were almost entirely dependent on the commerce
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 283 10/28/2013 10:36:50 PM

litanies, both the text and music of pilgrimage songs tend to be formulaic, nar-
rating the histories of shrines in long chains of couplets set to simple melodies
that could easily be committed to memory. Many songs, in fact, betray the heri-
tage of the litany not only in their inclusion of repeated responses like “Kyrie
eleison” or “Lord, have mercy,” but also in their ample length, reflecting the
prolonged journey to regional shrines. The texts of litanies and songs also share
to varying degrees the language of thaumaturgy and intercession. Nevertheless,
the litany is sufficiently distinctive to merit separate treatment, as it has far
more intimate links with Catholic liturgy and a more patterned, prescriptive
format; textually, moreover, it reflects the dogma of sanctoral intercession in
its purest form. Let us turn first, then, to the massive and diverse repertory of
Bavarian pilgrimage songs produced and performed in the context of Bavarian
pilgrimage, identifying some features common to these songs, their manner of
dissemination, and their function in creating spaces for edification, propaganda,
and devotion.
Bavarian Pilgrimage Songs
Vernacular pilgrimage song enjoyed a long tradition in Bavaria as it did else-
where in Europe. One of the oldest and most prototypical German pilgrimage
songs, in fact, had its origins as a medieval Crusading song:
In gotes namen fara wir In God’s Name we go,
sîner gnâden gere wir His Grace we desire
nu helfe vns diu gotes kraft Now God’s power helps us,
vnd daz heilige grap And the holy Grave, Since God
dâ got selber inne lac, Kyrieleis.20 Himself lay within, Lord have
mercy.
It was likely the song’s familiarity that led Martin Luther to pen a contrafac-
tum of it teaching the Decalogue—Dies sind die heil’gen Zehn Gebot—and a mod-
ified form would appear in the earliest Catholic songbook of the confessional era,
stimulated by the presence of thousands of pilgrims during the so-called Gnadenzeit

and other times of the year. On this point see esp. Manfred Eder, Die “Deggendorfer
Gnad”: Entstehung und Entwicklung einer Hostienwallfahrt im Kontext von Theologie und
Geschichte (Deggendorf, Passau: Passavia, 1992), 590–604.
20
Transcription from Cordelia A. Spaemann, “Wallfahrtslieder,” in Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck
and Gerda Möhler, eds., Wallfahrt kennt keine Grenzen. Themen zu einer Ausstellung des
Bayerischen Nationalmuseums und des Adalbert Stifter Vereins, München (Munich: Schnell
& Steiner, 1984), 181.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 284 10/28/2013 10:36:50 PM

E x a m p l e 6 . 1 In Gottes Namen fahren wir, from Vehe, New Gesangbüchlein
Geystlicher Lieder (1567 edition)
Michael Vehe’s New Gesangbüchlein Geystlicher Lieder (Leipig, 1537), captioned

as “Ein Bitlied zusingen zur zeyt der Bittfartten ym anfang der procession.”21
Though not entirely representative of Bavarian pilgrimage song as it devel-
oped in the Baroque era, In Gottes Namen fahren wir (Example 6.1) is one of the
oldest and most resilient examples of a genre that functioned in a number of
useful ways. Pilgrimage songs propagandized for the shrine itself; they articu-
lated the pilgrim’s journey to and from the shrine; and, to the extent that they
were composed by religious elites—often clergy associated with the shrine—
they edified pilgrims in proper Catholic dogma. From the standpoint of com-
mon pilgrims, singing songs allowed them not only to relieve their fatigue on
the journey, but also to keep the sacred destination and its salvific power clearly
in mind; furthermore, singing was a powerful form of collective action that—
at least potentially—could create a temporary sense of communitas.22
21
Michael Vehe, Ein New Gesangbüchlin Geystlicher Lieder, vor alle gutthe Christen nach orde-
nung Christlicher kirchen (Leipzig: Nickel Wolrab, 1537; RISM B/VIII, 153706), no. 30.
22
See Döring, “St. Salvator in Bettbrunn,” 156–57. The citation of Turner here is mine.
For a discussion of In Gottes Namen fahren wir, see Spaemann, “Wallfahrtslieder,”
181–82, and Fritz Markmiller, “ ‘Wallfahrtsmusik’. Regionalbeispiele zur Annäherung
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 285 10/28/2013 10:36:50 PM

At its root, the traditional pilgrimage song invoked a divine object—this
is the Ruf, or invocation—and appended a plea for mercy or intercession such
as “Kyrie eleison,” “Erbarme uns,” or “Bitt Gott für uns.”23 Pilgrimage songs
of more recent provenance than In Gottes Namen fahren wir may lack this
prototypical “litany” structure, but almost without exception they fall into
simple structures, most often pairs of short rhymed verses:24
Nu laßt vns frölich heben an: Now let us joyfully raise our voices,
Kyrie eleison. Lord have mercy.
Vnd singen als was singen kan, And sing what can be sung,
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia,
Gelobt sei Gott vnd Maria. Praise be to God and Mary.
Gott zlob vnd seiner Muter wehrt, To praise God and his worthy Mother,
Kyrie eleison. Lord have mercy.
Daher vns alle Gnad beschert, From whom we receive every grace,
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia,
Gelobt sei Gott vnd Maria.25 Praise be to God and Mary.
Spaemann points to the close coordination of these verses with the regular
breathing of marching pilgrims; for this reason more elaborate verse forms
are uncommon. But the regular alternation of verse pairs also points to a
crucial feature of performance practice: the leadership of the Vorsänger. The
necessity of having a literate person—often a parish priest, schoolmaster, or
sacristan—sing the individual verses follows from the spectacular length of
many pilgrimage songs, narrating the histories and miracles of pilgrimage
an vergangene und gegenwärtige Wirklichkeit,” in Georg Schwaiger and Paul Mai,

eds., Wallfahrten im Bistum Regensburg. Zur Tausendjahrfeier des Todes des Hl. Bischofs
Wolfgang (Regensburg: Verlag des Vereins für Regensburger Bistumsgeschichte,
1994), 447–49.
23
For discussion see Spaemann, “Wallfahrtslieder,” 181. See Extended Reference 6.12
for quotation.
24
Hartinger, “Marianische Wallfahrtslieder aus Neukirchen bei Hl. Blut,”
Niederbayerische Blätter für Volksmusik 1 (1983): 35. For further discussion on the
organization of pilgrimage songs see Markmiller, “ ‘Wallfahrtsmusik’,” 449–51;
and Michael Härting, “Das deutsche Kirchenlied der Gegenreformation,” in Karl
Gustav Fellerer, ed., Geschichte der katholischen Kirchenmusik (Kassel: Bärenreiter,
1976), 2:61.
25
First two stanzas of a pilgrimage song for Neukirchen beim Heiligen Blut, preserved
in BZaR, Pfarrakten, Neukirchen Hl.-Blut 20. Composed by the local schoolmaster
Martin Huetter, this version probably represents revisions made by the Regensburg
episcopal court.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 286 10/28/2013 10:36:50 PM

shrines over dozens and sometimes hundreds of lines.26 The Vorsänger’s pres-
ence should dispel the notion that pilgrimage songs were always spontaneous
popular responses to a devotional object. Rather than organically emerging
“from below,” the textual content of songs was frequently determined in
advance by literate elites, who did not fail to design their songs for propagan-
dandistic and edificatory goals. As we shall see, the musical nature of these
songs was often rooted in the art of contrafacture, whereby new texts were
fitted to traditional, well-known tunes that were memorized by all.
Naturally, extant songs in manuscript and print are not a reliable guide to
popularity or dissemination. Pilgrimage was a venerable tradition cultivated
with great popular enthusiasm, but it was one of a number of devotional
practices whose energies were channeled in confessionalist directions by
Counter-Reformation elites. Likewise, surviving pilgrimage songs frequently
betray the confessionalist aims of their authors—often priests attached to
particular shrines—even if their form and structure follow traditional mod-
els. As a practical music sung in the course of a journey to a specific holy
site, pilgrimage songs were less often printed than, for example, the devo-
tional geistliche Lieder discussed in chapter 3; their length and geographical
specificity also made them rather less attractive for printers seeking a broad
market. Certainly a much larger substratum of song, written only in manu-
script for the use of Vorsänger, likely existed at the local level but has passed
into oblivion.
Pilgrimage songs most commonly formed a small part of large, versatile
printed compendia that included a distinct section of songs devoted to
pilgrimage or processional use.27 While publications devoted exclusively to
pilgrimage songs are a relative rarity, two songbooks published at Straubing
in the early seventeenth century are prominent exceptions. In 1607 the
printer Andre Sommer brought out Ein new Rueff-Büchlein, Von Etlichen
26
On the role of the Vorsänger see Hartinger, “Die Wallfahrt Neukirchen bei Heilig
Blut,” 139; and Döring, “St. Salvator in Bettbrunn,” 157.
27
See, for example, Johannes Leisentrit, Geistliche Lieder vnd Psalmen, der alten
Apostolischer recht vnd warglaubiger Christlicher Kirchen (Bautzen: Hans Wolrab,
1567; RISM B/VIII, 156705), fol. 152–154; the Schöne, alte, Catholische Gesang vnd
Rüff, auff die fürnemste Fest des Jars, auch bey den Kirchfärten vnnd Creutzgängen nut-
zlich zu gebrauchen (Tegernsee, 1577 and 1581); the Gesang und Psalmenbuch. Auff
die fürnembste Fest durchs gantze Jar, inn der Kirchen, auch bey Processionen, Creutzgäng,
Kirch vnd Wahlfarten nützlich zugebrauchen (Munich: Adam Berg, 1586; RISM B/
VIII, 158610); and the Catholisch Gesangbüchlein, Auff die fürnembste Fest durchs gantze
Jahr, in der Kirchen: Auch bey den Processionen, Creutzgängen, Kirch- vnd Walfahrten,
nutzlich zugebrauchen. Sambt angehenckten Gebettlein, bey der heiligen Meß zusprechen
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 287 10/28/2013 10:36:51 PM

sonderbaren Catholischen, Wahlfahrten-Gesängen, whose nine lengthy pilgrim-
age songs—including those for the shrines of St. Benno in Munich and
the Eucharistic shrines of Andechs and Deggendorf—are the focus of the
discussion that follows.28 A second songbook from 1615 superficially seems
more general in nature, the Schöne Christliche Creutz vnd Kirchen-Gesänger,
So von Alters her, Jn Catholischen Kirchen vblich gebraucht (Fine Christian
cross- and church-songs, which have long been customarily used in the
Christian Church).29 Its subtitle, vnd an jetzo auffs New, mit vilen Rüffen
vermehrt vnd gebessert, wie im Register zu sehen (and now newly expanded and
improved with many Rüffen, as may be seen in the index), suggests a previ-
ous (lost) edition, but now Sommer adds a series of Rufe that dominate the
last half of the book, and in fact bring the total proportion of “Creutz und
Wallfahrter Gesäng” to thirty-nine of the fifty-nine songs contained in the
book. Among these Rufe we find songs honoring St. George, St. Wolfgang
(patron of Straubing’s parent diocese of Regensburg), Mary Magdalene,
Jesus Christ, and the Sacrament; there are even songs against heresy and
false teachings. Sommer printed both the 1607 and 1615 songbooks in a
small oblong format that he seems to have felt was especially portable and
suited to the needs of pilgrims.30
When composed at all, new pilgrimage songs deliberately hewed to the
simple and schematic; it was also common to adapt newly written texts to
existing melodies already known by all.31 Of the six songs “bey Kirchfahrten”
in the first major Catholic songbook produced in Munich, the Gesang und
Psalmenbuch of 1586, only two are given notated melodies; the remaining
(Munich: Anna Berg Witwe, 1613). Otto Holzapfel has issued a facsimile edition
and commentary in ‘Catholisch Gesangbüchlein’. München 1613. Photomechanischer
Nachdruck, Geistlische Literatur der Barockzeit 1 (Amsterdam: Holland University
Press, 1979).
28
Ein new RueffBüchlein, Von Etlichen sonderbaren Catholischen, Wahlfahrten-Gesängen, so
Gott, seiner lieben Mutter, vnd dem heyligen Sacramenten deß Altars zu Ehren, gemacht, vnd
füglich zum Preiß GOTTES mögen gesungen werden. Wie nachfolgendes Blat zu erkennen geit
(Straubing: Andre Sommer, 1607; RISM B/VIII, 160713).
29
Schöne Christliche Creutz vnd Kirchen Gesänger, So von Alters her, Jn Catholischen Kirchen
vblich gebraucht: vnd an jetzo auffs New, mit vilen Rüffen vermehrt vnd gebessert, wie im
Register zu sehen (Straubing: Andre Sommer, 1615).
30
For an excerpt from Sommer’s preface see Extended Reference 6.12.
31
An exceptional case is formed by a repertory of songs of the thoroughbass variety relat-
ing to the various “Maria hilf” shrines found in the southern German orbit, the most
famous of which was situated near Passau. For examples see Extended Reference 6.13.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 288 10/28/2013 10:36:51 PM

four are provided only with textual indications for the appropriate tune.32
The Straubing Rueff-Büchlein of 1607 includes some quite new texts that
Andre Sommer, in his preface, claims to have been received from “an honor-
able Catholic priest” who penned them during a grave illness. A closer exam-
ination of these texts and melodies reveals the degree to which the unnamed
“priest” relied on existing tunes:33
Text incipit Notated melody [or textual
(shrine or devotional object) indication]
1. “Ach ach wie mag ich frölich seyn” Given; identical to Wolauff zu Gott
(for Christ’s Passion) mit Lobesschall
2. “O hochheyliges Creutze” (for the Cross) Given, unique melody
3. “Hoert zu ihr Christen überall” Given; identical to Frew dich du

(for St. Benno) Himmelskönigin
4. “Ihr lieben Christen singet her” Given; identical to Frew dich du

(for St. Benno) Himmelskönigin
5. “Ave Maria du grosse Keyserin” Given; related to Ave Maria du

Himmel (for the Virgin Mary) Königin
6. “Gelobet sey Gott der Vatter” “Als man den Rueff von Maria
(for the Andechs shrine) Magdalena singt”
7. “Mit Gott der allen dingen” “in der vorigen Melodey”

(for the Eucharist)
8. “Als man zehl dreyzehenhundert Jahr” “Im Thon: Ewiger Vatter im

(for the Deggendorf shrine) Himmelreich”
9. “In Gottes Namen hebn wir an” No indication34

(for the Angels)
The opening song on Christ’s Passion, Ach ach wie mag ich frölich seyn, appears
to have a “new” text, but the melody, usually attached to the text “Wolauff
32
33
See Bäumker in Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 1:165.
34
No contrafacture indication is given for “In Gottes Namen hebn wir an,” but the text
does appear in other songbooks with a distinct melody, including the Munich Gesang
und Psalmenbuch (1586).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 289 10/28/2013 10:36:51 PM

Figure 6.2 Versions of O hochheyliges Creutze compared (A: Adapted from Bäumker,
Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 1:618; B: Straubing, 1607).
zu Gott mit Lobesschall,” is found in numerous other songbooks, including

the Munich Gesang und Psalmenbuch of 1586.35 A quite different situation is
presented by the second song, O hochheyliges Creutze (Example 6.2): here a pre-
viously existing song has been stripped of its original melody—spanning an
octave, with numerous melodic leaps and syncopations—and replaced with a
much simpler tune that unfolds within the space of a fourth.36
35
Wolauff zu Gott mit Lobesschall is found here as well in songbooks published in Cologne
in 1599 (RISM B/VIII, 159905) and 1608 (160802), Konstanz in 1600 (160005), and
in many later Catholic collections. See Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied,
1:690–91.
36
The original melody, which appeared in songbooks from Konstanz (RISM B/VIII,
160005), Cologne (160802), and Neiss (162513) is here transcribed from Bäumker, Das
katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 1:618. A song with the same incipit appeared in the
Munich Newe auserleßne Geistliche Lieder (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1604; RISM
B/VIII, 160415), but I have not yet been able to determine whether the melody is
identical to the Konstanz version. The new Straubing melody is transcribed from the
original exemplar, BSB, Liturg. 1207u.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 290 10/28/2013 10:36:51 PM

The songs in honor of St. Benno are almost certainly of very recent
origin: Ihr lieben Christen singet her, for example, was included in a 1603
songbook (now lost) that was printed to promote Benno’s new shrine at
Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich.37 The given melodies, though, are identi-
cal to that of Frew dich du Himmelskönigin, a Marian song extant in print
by 1600, yet perhaps more widely known: in a case discussed later, the
schoolmaster Martin Huetter would specify this tune—without provid-
ing notation—for his new pilgrimage song for Neukirchen beim Heiligen
Blut in 1611, suggesting that he could count on his audience’s knowledge
of it.38 As for the Straubing song Ave Maria du grosse Keyserin, it is a “new”
text at first glance, but in fact it is a close imitation, textually as well as
musically, of the much more popular song Ave Maria du Himmelkönigin,
which was in print by 1588 and was ubiquitous in Catholic songbooks
thereafter (Example 6.3).39
37
The songbook carried the title Andächtiger Rueff für die Pilgram. Vom H. Bischoff
Bennone: Darinn sein Leben gueten Thails, und etliche Wunderwerck begriffen (Munich: Adam
Berg, 1603; RISM B/VIII, 160313, formerly held at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin,
now lost), and contained songs with the incipits Ihr lieben Christen singet her, Wir grües-
sen dich von Hertzen sehr, Wir kommen wider zu dir her, and In Gottes Namen heben wir an.
See Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 1:75–76.
38
The earliest appearance of Frew dich du Himmelskönigin was in the Konstanz songbook of
1600 (160005), but it would appear frequently thereafter in Catholic song collections.
Huetter would provide the direction “Im Thon: Frey Dich, du Himmelkhönigin, frey
dich Maria . . . oder in ainer anderen Melodey walfartsweiß khan gesungen werden,”
allowing for any known melody conforming with the prosody of his text. BZaR,
Pfarrakten, Neukirchen Hl.-Blut 20; see also more detailed commentary in this
chapter.
39
The song, associated with Mary’s nativity, first appears in an Innsbruck songbook of
1588 (158805) and then in the large-scale Cologne songbook of 1599 (159905), the
Konstanz songbook of 1600 (160005), the so-called Mainzer Cantual (160508), and
many other later volumes. See Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 2:129,
from where this transcription is adapted. The Straubing melody is transcribed from
the original exemplar, BSB Liturg. 1207u.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 291 10/28/2013 10:36:52 PM

Figure 6.3 Ave Maria du grosse Keyserin and Ave Maria du Himmelkönigin compared
(A: Adapted from Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 2:129; B: Straubing,
1607).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 292 10/28/2013 10:36:52 PM

The sixth and seventh songs in the Straubing book, respectively for the
Eucharistic shrine of Andechs and for the Eucharist more generally, specify
“in the tune of Mary Magdalene.” As with the Andechs song Gelobt sey Gott
der Vatter, we find that a distinctive melody already existed and had been
printed in the Munich Gesang und Psalmenbuch of 1586. However, it has some
rather unusual features for a pilgrimage song (Example 6.4a). The jarring
metrical shift after the first couplet is unusual in pilgrimage song proper,
and the setting shows further infelicities in providing more notes than avail-
able syllables for “der lebend machend Geist.” Andre Sommer may have
acknowledged these difficulties by specifying the much more straightforward
tune of “Mary Magdalene,” which bore the incipit Merckt auf, ihr Sünder alle
(Example 6.4b).40
Not surprisingly, contrafacture is also used for the eighth poem for
the Eucharistic shrine at Deggendorf, a recent text whose focus on the
shrine’s Jewish host-desecration legend lends it a strong anti-Semitic cast
(Example 6.5). Here the indicated melody is Ewiger Vater im Himmelreich,
whose history is equally complicated and whose identity in this case cannot
be determined with certainty.41 The most recent extant melody bearing this
text appeared a large Lutheran songbook printed in Dresden in 1593, as is
used here with the new Deggendorf text.42
40
The song is given in Franz Magnus Böhme, Altdeutsches Liederbuch: Volkslieder der
Deutschen nach Wort und Weise aus dem 12. bis zum 17. Jahrhundert (Leipzig: Breitkopf &
Härtel, 1877), 728–29, song no. 618.
41
The text “Ewiger Vater im Himmelreich” is first extant in a Lutheran songbook printed
in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1568 (RISM 156804; DDKL ek20a); it is not notated but
refers the reader to the “Berner” or “Herzog Ernst” melody, a popular secular tune
(DDKL A278). The melodies later connected to this text form a different complex,
however (DDKL Ga3A and Ga3B), and resemble that given here in Example 6.5. See,
for example, the cantus part of the Tenorlied on this text by Jobst von Brant (1573)
(RISM B4257) and the songbooks a90 (RISM 158117), a119 (RISM 158817), and es1-2
(RISM 159302 and 159303, the source for Example 6.5).
42
The melody is adapted from that of Ewiger Vater in Himmelreich, found in the
Gesangbuch: Darinnen Christliche Psalmen, vnnd KirchenLieder D. MARTINI LVTHERI
(Dresden: durch Gimel Bergen, 1593. RISM 159302–03). Melody Ga3B in Joachim
Stalmann, et al., eds., Das deutsche Kirchenlied, III/3, Notenband (Kassel: Bärenreiter,
2005), 284. See also commentary in the Textband, 321.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 293 10/28/2013 10:36:52 PM

E x a m p l e 6 . 4 Versions of Gelobt sey Gott der Vatter compared (A: Gelobt sey Gott
der Vatter, from Gesang und Psalmenbuch, Munich, 1586; B: Gelobt sey Gott der Vatter,
set to the melody of Merckt auf, ihr Sünder alle [“Mary Magdalene”]).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 294 10/28/2013 10:36:52 PM

E x a m p l e 6 . 5 Als man zehl dreyzehenhundert Jahr (Straubing, 1607), set to the
melody of Ewiger Vater im Himmelreich (Dresden, 1593)
The last of the Straubing pilgrimage songs, In Gottes Namen heben wir
an (Example 6.6), has no melodic indication whatsoever, but it was hardly
needed, as the song had been a fixture in Catholic songbooks up to this time:43
The reliance on contrafacture is also highly visible in Sommer’s Schöne
Christliche Creutz vnd Kirchen Gesänger (1615), which as we have seen contains
a large proportion of so-called Rüffen at its conclusion. In most cases the
contrafacture is not made plain by an Im Thon (to the tune of) designation,
but rather can be assumed from the similarity of a textual incipit to another
well-known song. For example, we find in this volume a complex of “three
other Rüff for Our Lady” which begin respectively with the incipits, “In
Gottes Namen heben wir an,” “In Gottes Namen singen wir hie,” and
43
Melody from Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 2:147–48, no. 92. It had pre-
viously appeared in songbooks printed in Munich (the 1586 Gesang und Psalmenbuch),
Cologne (RISM B/VIII, 159905 and 160802), and Graz (160203).
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 295 10/28/2013 10:36:53 PM

E x a m p l e 6 . 6 In Gottes Namen heben wir an, adapted from Bäumker, Das
katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 2:147–48
again, “In Gottes Namen heben wir an,” all suggesting the melody indi-
cated in Example 6.6 or a variant thereof.
Such are the generic features of pilgrimage songs—long chains of brief
alternating verses for the Vorsänger and pilgrims, set to simple melodies,
sometimes contrafacta of well-known tunes. As the absolute number of
unique melodies sung by pilgrims was limited by contrafacture and the
need for simplicity, the true diversity of the repertory is more appar-
ent in the texts, which reflect the sheer variety of shrines and devotional
objects scattered across the Bavarian landscape. Pilgrimage song texts,
first of all, articulated ideas of collective, rather than individual, sup-
plication, contrasting with the more subjective quality of contemporary
geistliche Lieder. Second, songs narrated the histories and salvific power of
shrines for the benefit of actual and potential pilgrims, the length of the
form often allowing for exquisite detail. Third, pilgrimage songs—espe-
cially those for shrines of relatively recent vintage—engaged in confes-
sional propaganda and polemics, pointing to the influence or authorship
of Counter-Reformation elites. As we examine these aspects of Bavarian
pilgrimage song, it is well to bear in mind that the effectiveness or lon-
gevity of a particular song may in fact depend on its serving the needs of
both elites and commoners through the interaction of devotional content,
edification, and propaganda.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 296 10/28/2013 10:36:53 PM

A nearly universal feature of Bavarian pilgrimage song is an exhorta-
tion to collective action or supplication that is apparent from the very first
verse. A suitable example may be seen in the opening of a song for the
Eucharistic shrine of Bettbrunn, which takes pride of place as the very first
item in the 1586 Munich Gesang und Psalmenbuch (Example 6.7):
O Liebe fromme Christen/ O dear pious Christians,

Weil wir Kirchfarten gohn/ As we go on pilgrimage,
Wie ihr es selb werd wissen/ As you will know it yourselves,
Jetzt zum Saluator schon/ Now to the Savior [of Bettbrunn],
So wölln wir gleich von We will now sing
solchen dingen singen/ of such things
Die do sein geschehen/ That took place there;
hilff du daß vns gelinge. help us to succeed.
O Jesu der gantzen Welt Heylandt. O Jesus, Savior of the whole world.
Similar is the aforementioned incipit Nun läßt uns fröhlich heben an

[ . . . ] Vnd singen als was singen kann, which introduces extant pilgrimage
songs for both Altötting and Neukirchen (the latter is discussed later).44
Nearly all the Rüffen, moreover, that conclude the Straubing Schöne Christliche
Creutz und Kirchen Gesänger (1615) begin with incipits representing a com-
munal call to action: “Nun gib uns Gnad zu singen,” “Nun wöllen wir heut
loben,” “In Gottes Namen heben wir an,” and the like. In these examples the
exhortation to singing becomes a part of the song itself, but equally charac-
teristic is the use of the first-person plural, underlining the act of pilgrimage
as a communal enterprise; this can be further underscored by the direct influ-
ence of the litany, seen clearly in the “Kyrie” and “Alleluia” responses of Nun
läßt uns fröhlich heben an. Generally songs invoke divine personages on behalf
of those immediately present, but as we shall see some songs may extend the
community of supplicants to embrace all of Bavaria, infusing the music with a
more confessional-political cast. This insistent tone of collective supplication,
44
The songs for Altötting appear in the Schöner Catholischer Ruff Von vnser lieben Frawen,
vnd vralten Capellen zu alten Oettingen, Auch Außzug deß außerlesnen Büchleins D. Martini
Eysengreins. Allen Walfartern zu Gefallen vnd geistlicher Ergetzung auff nachgesetzten Thon,
von newen Reimen gestellet (Ingolstadt: Andreas Angermeyer in der Ederischen Truckerey
[Ambrosius Strauß], 1599; RISM B/VIII, 159907); the Catholisch Gesangbüchlein pub-
lished at Munich in 1613 (see Holzapfel,‘Catholisch Gesangbüchlein’. München 1613);
and in the Statuta vnd Bettbüchel Für die löbliche Ertzbruderschafft der allerheiligisten
Jungfrawen vnd Mutter Gottes Mariæ von Altenötting, mit allerley außerleßnen andächtigen
Gebett vnd Betrachtungen in Truck verfertigt (Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1628); for dis-
cussion of the song for Neukirchen beim Heiligen Blut, see below.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 297 10/28/2013 10:36:54 PM

E x a m p l e 6 . 7 O liebe fromme Christen, from Gesang und Psalmenbuch
(Munich, 1586)
then, should not allow us to draw straightforward conclusions about the actual
sentiments of pilgrims. Apart from the common authorship of pilgrimage songs
by clerical elites and leadership by designated Vorsänger, shrines like those at
Bettbrunn, Neukirchen, Dettelbach, Amberg, and Taxa lay uncomfortably close
to Protestant cities and territories, allowing propagandistic elements in pilgrim-
age songs to mark confessional boundaries in unambiguous ways.
For pilgrims, both actual and potential, songs narrated the histories and
spiritual significance of specific shrines. These histories, which often allowed
a pilgrimage song to extend over hundreds of verses, reminded pilgrims of
the power of the sacred object, but when written or printed they advertised
the shrine to literate readers, who might then sing or read the texts aloud
to an even broader audience of potential pilgrims. The case of the school-
master Martin Huetter’s song for Neukirchen points to the importance of
song as “marketing” for specific pilgrimages.45 It was likely in 1611 that
45
This episode is discussed at length in Walter Hartinger, “Ain schöner Catholischer
Rueff. Zur Genese eines barocken Wallfahrtsliedes,” Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde
(1972/1975): 195–210, and in Markmiller, “ ‘Wallfahrtsmusik’,” 451–54, based on
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 298 10/28/2013 10:36:54 PM

Huetter penned his 155-stanza “Rüeff,” a contrafactum of Freu Dich, Du
Himmelkönigin, dedicated it to a Bavarian ducal councillor, and sent it to
the Regensburg episcopal authorities for their approval for printing. The
response in March 1612 from the Regensburg vicar-general could not have
pleased him, for the diocesan officials had resolved not only to alter Huetter’s
text considerably but also to change the tune to which the text was to be sung.
Huetter’s goal had been to advertise the uniqueness of Neukirchen’s mirac-
ulous history in order to draw new pilgrims, but the Regensburg authorities
tried to place the pilgrimage in a broader theological and political context,
cutting verses that referred to nearby towns that regularly sent pilgrims
to the shrine, such as the Bohemian town of Plzen or the Upper-Palatine
town of Cham.46 Equally troubling was Huetter’s acknowledgement that
some of his historical narrative relied on oral tradition alone: “Nothing is
written about this [legend],” Huetter writes; “it was never recorded in
a book.”47 For the bishop’s men in Regensburg, only a documented tradi-
tion could project the necessary authority and prestige. Not surprisingly,
the episcopate also took care to insert verses praising the spiritual author-
ity of the Catholic clergy and the temporal power of the Catholic emperor
and the Bavarian dukes, adding polemical invocations against heretics, false
teachings, and blasphemy: “Protect this land, help it, save it, and defend it /
Against heretical poison and false teachings” [. . . ] “We pray for our bishop /
Let him also be at your command.”48 The various changes yield a more com-
pact song (142 stanzas) that de-emphasizes Neukirchen’s unique history
in favor of a broader lesson in the benefits of pilgrimage, the authority of
those charged with its regulation, and the dangers of heresy. But the diocesan
documents from BZaR, Pfarrakten Neukirchen Hl.-Blut 20. On the popularization of

shrines through song see also Extended Reference 6.15.
46
Huetter’s song refers to pilgrims arriving from Plzen (Bilsen), Chotěšov (Khettischaw,
site of a Premonstratensian convent), Horšovský Týn (Bischovendeintz), Nalžovské Hory
(Elischau), and Cham, all within easy reach of Neukirchen. See Hartinger, “Ain schöner
Catholischer Rueff,” 203, verses 1.103–1.109.
47
“Obwollen in Schrifften nichts vorhandt / So ist doch sollich wolbekhandt / Auß
wahrer Tradition her / Unnd sein da zwar die Vorsteher / die da dem Marckht haben
verwesen / In disem gar nachlessig gewesen / Daß diß so gar vermitten bliben / Unnd
in ein Buech nit eingeschriben.” Hartinger, “Ain schöner Catholischer Rueff,” 197–
99, verses 1.7–1.14.
48
“Beschütz dises Land, hilff, rhett und wehr / vor Ketzergifft und falscher Lehr” [ . . . ]
“Für unsern Bischoff bitten wür / laß ihn auch sein bevolchen dir.” Hartinger, “Ain
schöner Catholischer Rueff,” 204–5, verses 2.131–32, 2.137–38.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 299 10/28/2013 10:36:54 PM

authorities’ substitution of the very common and litany-like Nun läßt uns
fröhlich heben an for Huetter’s Freu Dich, Du Himmelkönigin is instructive, as
well.49 If the former tune’s wide circulation is any indication of its familiar-
ity—could Freu Dich have been a particular favorite of parishes in the vicinity
of Neukirchen?—then the Regensburg authorities might have expected it to
widen the song’s appeal and help to instruct readers in the spiritual efficacy
of pilgrimage.
Edifying actual or potential pilgrims was especially critical for shrines of
more recent vintage that had yet to attract a significant following. No bet-
ter Bavarian example exists than the veneration of St. Benno of Meißen, the
object of a concerted promotional campaign by court and clergy in the years
immediately after 1600. Among the flurry of apologetic literature that began
to appear around this time was Ein Andächtiger Rueff für die Pilgram Vom
H. Bischoff Bennone, printed by Adam Berg in 1603. The only known exem-
plar has been lost, but we know from Bäumker that the print contained four
songs, the first three of which were provided with notated melodies.50 The
first of these “Rueff,” Ihr lieben Christen singet her, was soon taken up into the
Straubing pilgrimage songbook of 1607, and the first three would later be
included in the comprehensive Catholische Gesangbüchlein (Munich, 1613).51
As we have seen previously, Ihr lieben Christen singet her uses the melody of the
popular Marian song Frew dich du Himmel Königin (Example 6.8):52
49
As we have seen, it was used for a song for the Altötting pilgrimage. It also appears,
however, with a text on the Decalogue in the Regensburg Obsequiale of 1570 (the old-
est “official” Catholic diocesan songbook in Germany), and with the text “Gegrüßt
seist du Maria rein” in songbooks printed in Mainz, Konstanz, and Cologne. See
Markmiller, “ ‘Wallfahrtsmusik’,” 452–53. On the Regensburg Obsequiale, see Klaus
Gamber, Cantiones Germanicae im Regensburger Obsequiale von 1570. Erstes offizielles
katholisches Gesangbuch Deutschlands (Regensburg: Pustet, 1983).
50
The four songs are Ihr lieben Christen singet her, zu Gottes vnd Sants Bennons Ehr; Wir
grüessen dich von Hertzen sehr, Souil wir seyen kommen her; Wir kommen wider zu dir her,
Vnd grüssen dich nochmalen sehr; and In Gottes Namen heben wir an, Zu loben einen Heiligen
Mann. From Ein Andächtiger Rueff für die Pilgram. Vom H. Bischoff Bennone: Darinn sein
Leben geuten Theils, vnd etliche Wunderwerck begriffen (Munich: Adam Berg, 1603; RISM
B/VIII, 160313; formerly held at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). See description in
Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 1:75–76.
51
The Straubing Rueff-Büchlein (1607) also includes another song in honor of Benno,
Hoert zu ihr Christen überall / frew dich Sanct Benno; see also Holzapfel, ed., ‘Catholisch
Gesangbüchlein’, 10–11.
52
Transcription adapted here from Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 2:82.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 300 10/28/2013 10:36:54 PM

E x a m p l e 6 . 8 Ihr lieben Christen singet her (Straubing, 1607), melody adapted
from Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 2:82
Each of its eighty-nine stanzas includes the litany-like refrains “Frew

dich S[ankt] Benno” and “Alleluia, bitt Gott für uns S[ankt] Benno,”
respectively. The first sixty-two stanzas on Benno’s vita narrate his life and
miracles, the most famous of which were closely tied to Benno’s storied alle-
giance to Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085) and opposition to the German
emperor Heinrich IV (r. 1050–1106) during the Investiture Controversy.
Persecuted by Heinrich, Benno departed for Rome, where he was to take
part in a general synod in 1076 that resulted in the emperor’s excommunica-
tion. At Benno’s request, two of his brothers, canons at the cathedral, threw
the keys of the cathedral into the Elbe River upon Heinrich’s excommuni-
cation. Returning to his bishopric in a pilgrim’s attire, Benno discovered
the keys in the belly of a fish that was served to him in a humble tavern,
signifying his rightful authority over his diocese and—by extension—his
allegiance to the Roman church. This first section of Ihr lieben Christen allows
the reader—or auditor—to associate Benno’s loyalty to Rome with that of
the Wittelsbach dukes. The text continues by assuring potential pilgrims of
the miracles likely to be experienced in Benno’s presence, but also engages
in the propagandistic exercise of excoriating Luther’s opposition to the cult
and narrating the tale of the relics’ removal to Munich. In between its regu-
lar refrains, pilgrims were to sing, “That happened in the time of Luther /
Who aroused a struggle against him / In the year one thousand, five hundred
/ And twenty-three, it is true, / When through Luther’s evil teachings, /
Saint Benno was no longer honored.” With the assistance of bishop Johann
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 301 10/28/2013 10:36:54 PM

VIII of Meißen, Duke Albrecht V is honored as the protector of Benno, who
“now rests at Our Lady’s [church] / Where everyone can look upon him.”53
Both the original Andächtiger Rueff of 1603 and Catholisch Gesangbüchlein
of 1613, however, provided appropriate songs not only for the pilgrim-
age itself but also for arrival at the shrine, for the veneration of the saint
in the presence of his relics, and for preparation for the journey home. The
Catholisch Gesangbüchlein begins its section of “Catholischer Rueff” with So
fallen wir nider auff unser Knye (So we fall down on our knees), which is to
be sung “after the completed pilgrimage, for protection from all evils and a
happy return.” Intended for any pilgrimage, this song is commonly encoun-
tered in other Catholic songbooks, including the seminal Munich collection
of 1586.54 Both the 1603 and 1613 songbooks include two additional songs
specifically for Benno, Wir grüssen dich von hertzen sehr, to be sung kneeling
before his reliquary, and Wir kommen wider zu dir her, to be sung before depar-
ture.55 Both songs are to be sung to the same melody as Ihr lieben Christen
singet her and carry the same litany-like refrain, creating a unified complex of
music that potentially regulated the entire experience of pilgrimage. As such
the Andächtiger Rueff and the Catholisch Gesangbüchlein partake of a more gen-
eral and cross-confessional trend toward the formalization and regulation of
religious devotion, as songs were increasingly designed to be sung for specific
occasions, for specific days of the week, or even for specific hours of the day.56
Given the centrality of pilgrimage to Counter-Reformation programs, it
is not surprising that many songs cross the boundary from religious edifi-
cation to confessional propaganda. This is particularly true for Marian and
Eucharistic shrines: the image of Mary as the militant victor over heresy and
the miraculous transubstantiation of the Eucharist in the face of Protestant
doubt and Jewish desecration were two of the primary fronts in contemporary
confessional polemics. The Bettbrunn pilgrimage song that appears in the
53
For full original text and translation of this passage see Extended Musical Example 6.1.
54
“Ein schöner Rueff/ den man pflegt zusingen nach Vollbrachter Kirchfahrt/ vmb
behütung vor allem vbel/ vnd glücklicher heimkunfft.” Holzapfel, ed., ‘Catholisch
Gesangbüchlein’, 134. The same song is given in the Gesang und Psalmenbuch (Munich,
1586), 56r–57r. See Bäumker, Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied, 2:198–99, no. 180a,
who also cites its presence in a Cologne songbook of 1619 (RISM B/VIII, 161906).
In addition, I have found the song in songbooks from Speyer (159905) and Augsburg
(163610).
55
Excerpts from Holzapfel, ed., ‘Catholisch Gesangbüchlein’, 155–56, are reproduced in
Extended Musical Example 6.2.
56
See Moser, Verkündigung durch Volksgesang, 29–30, 576–77.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 302 10/28/2013 10:36:55 PM

1586 Gesang und Psalmenbuch was in fact composed by Oswald Schenhauser, a
parish priest there, and after the expected narration of the shrine’s history he
turns to outright confessional attack:
25. Es ist aber jetzt zu mercken/ Now it is for us to see
Warzu diß gschicht sol taugn: Why this history should suit us:
Erstlich so thut es stercken/ First because it strengthens
Unsren Catholischen Glaubn/ Our Catholic faith:
Der ist vnd lehrt daß wir es glauben feste/ It teaches us to firmly believe
Vnder Brots gestalt/ That in the form of bread God’s
sey Gottes Leichna[m] d[er] beste/ body is the best,
Herr Jesus Saluator Gottes Sohn. Lord Jesus, Savior, Son of God.
Schenhauser compels pilgrims to sing not only in support of the real

presence of Christ’s body, but also against the provision of the lay chalice, a
core Lutheran practice. Equally tendentious is the oft-encountered Nun läßt
uns fröhlich heben an for the Altötting shrine, which makes plain the Virgin
Mary’s special relationship with the Bavarian ruling house and her vigilance
against heretics:
76. Die BayerFürsten seynd all dein/ The princes of Bavaria are
all yours,
Drumb laß sie dir befolchen sein/ Let them be commanded
by you.
77. Dein lieber Sohn Herr Jesus Christ/ Your beloved Son Jesus Christ,
Derselbig die ewig Warheit ist/ He of eternal truth,
78. Der bhüt das Land vor schand vnd spott/ Protects the land from shame and
mockery,
Vor newer Lehr vnd Ketzer Rott/ From new teachings and
heretical poison.57
The number of explicitly programmatic pilgrimage songs can be mul-

tiplied. In chapter 3, we encountered the so-called Schutzmantel song with
the incipit “Maria Himmelkönigin” that appeared in Johannes Khuen’s
Drey schöne newe Geistliche Lieder (1637). Recall that the text of this song—a
57
Transcription from the Statuta vnd Bettbüchel Für die löbliche Ertzbruderschafft der allerhe-
iligisten Jungfrawen vnd Mutter Gottes Mariæ von Altenötting (1628, op. cit.), containing
91 stanzas of text. A longer version of 125 stanzas appears in the Schöner Catholischer
Ruff Von vnser lieben Frawen, vnd vralten Capellen zu alten Oettingen (1599, op. cit.).
Omitted here are the regular refrains of “Kyrieeleison [ . . . ] Alleluia/ Alleluia/ gelobt
sey Gott vnd Maria.”
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 303 10/28/2013 10:36:55 PM

catalogue of Marian objects and devotional practices in Munich, with the
regular refrains of “Maria bitt für uns” and “Darumb liebreiche Mutter
[. . . ]”—shows the clear influence of pilgrimage song in the regular refrains.
We also saw that this song was reprinted three years later with additional
stanzas praising the new Mariensäule in the city’s market square, a monu-
ment that quickly became a devotional destination, and not unlike an urban
pilgrimage. While we cannot be precisely sure of what common pilgrims
sang on their way to rural shrines like Altötting or urban monuments like
the Mariensäule, the extant repertory demonstrates the appropriation of the
fundamental elements of pilgrimage song—simple melodies and regular
refrains—in the service of a confessionalist program.
The Litany in Bavarian Pilgrimage

We have seen that pilgrimage songs often allude to the textual and formal
character of the litany, a form that has a particularly intimate relationship
with pilgrimage. Its repeated invocations, first of all, express the Catholic
doctrine of sanctoral intercession in starkest terms. As pilgrims continu-
ally responded to the invocations of the divine figure—whether the Virgin
Mary, Christ, the Eucharist, or a particular saint—with exclamations of
“pray for us,” they asked for the same intercession that they hoped to enjoy
at the destination shrine. Furthermore, the litany’s formulaic structure and
call-and-response form lends itself especially well to the steady gait and
breath of marching pilgrims.58 Litanies were primarily forms of oral culture,
the burden of literacy being placed solely on the clergy or the Vorsänger who
recited the constantly changing invocations. The fundamental link between
litanies and motion, furthermore, meant that litanies helped to push bodies
through space, an act of both physical and aural appropriation. As a collec-
tive enterprise litanies potentially symbolized and confirmed the identity of
the community, an identity which depended on the marking of boundar-
ies—both geographical and psychological—between one’s own beliefs and
those of others. In these ways litanies, as Bruce Smith has shown with respect
to popular ballads, “interact in highly volatile ways with the physical body,
with soundscapes, with speech communities, with political authority, with
the singer’s sense of self.”59
58
On this point see Spaemann, “Wallfahrtslieder,” 181.
59
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 168–205; see p. 173 for quotation.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 304 10/28/2013 10:36:55 PM

The linkage of the litany with pilgrimage is evident, for example, in
Johannes Haym’s Litaniae textus triplex (Augsburg, 1582), a modest printed
collection of simple polyphonic litanies designed “for the use of sodalities
and fraternities making pilgrimages here and there to holy places.”60 Some
years later, Georg Victorinus alluded to the relationship of the litany to pil-
grimage in the preface of his Thesaurus litaniarum (1596):
For, when I consider it more carefully, I cannot be more greatly amazed
that hitherto no one has collected together the [litanies] scattered here
and there and long ago assembled them in a single corpus, for surely
there would be the greatest use of them in pilgrimages undertaken to
holy places.61
In 1600 Duke Wilhelm V took the unusual step of publishing a collection of
litany texts dedicated to his sister Maria Anna, who had asked her brother to
send her litany settings nearly three decades previously (see chapter 2). This
Fasciculus sacrarum litaniarum ex sanctis scripturis et patribus, running to no less
than 470 pages in duodecimo, contains a wide variety of litanies in honor of
God, Christ, the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, the Saints, the Sacrament, and for
various occasions and tribulations of the church.62 Although we do not know
whether litanies were always sung during the many pilgrimages undertaken
by the Wittelsbach dukes, their enthusiasm for pilgrimage went hand-in-
hand with a remarkable upswing in the number of litanies set after 1575 by
composers in the Munich milieu (see chapter 2). Sung in a number of differ-
ent devotional and liturgical contexts, in forms both simple and elaborate,
the litany was a genre of great utility. Its rise, however, depended in no small
part on the promotion of pilgrimage as a centerpiece of Counter-Reformation
culture.
Litanies existed in great variety in the medieval and early modern eras, but
in Counter-Reformation Bavaria pride of place was reserved for the Litany of
Loreto. This version of the Marian litany was connected with the Holy House
60
“In usum sodalitatum ac fraternitatum, ad loca sancta hinc inde peregrinantium.”
Title page of Johannes Haym, Litaniae, textus triplex (Augsburg: Josias Wörli, 1582;
RISM H4905). Haym was a vicar at the cathedral of Augsburg.
61
From preface to Victorinus, Thesaurus litaniarium, trans. by David Crook in Orlando di
Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats for Counter-Reformation Munich (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1994), 77. For original text see Extended Reference 6.16.
62
Fasciculus sacrarum litaniarum ex sanctis scripturis et patribus (Munich, 1600). Among the
further editions of this work were those published at Dillingen in 1606, Augsburg in
1614, and Munich again in 1618.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 305 10/28/2013 10:36:55 PM

of Loreto, the birthplace of the Virgin Mary that was rescued—according to
popular legend—from Muslim infidels by angels and deposited on Italy’s
Adriatic coast in 1291. From the mid-1550s the shrine was entrusted to
the care of the Jesuits, and it was Germany’s most prominent Jesuit, Peter
Canisius, who likely arranged for the first German printing of the litany
at Dillingen in 1558, after which it was widely adopted.63 In Munich, the
Litany of Loreto was prescribed for regular polyphonic performance at the
church of Unsere Liebe Frau in two separate donated services: on Sunday
evenings as part of a Salve service founded in 1575 by Duchess Renata von
Lothringen; and on the eves of all Marian and other major feasts according to
a 1570 foundation by Simon Thaddäus Eck.64 Of Orlando di Lasso’s sixteen
surviving litanies—all of which appear in sources datable to the late 1570s
or later—no less than thirteen of them are of the Loretan variety.65 The musi-
cal flowering of Marian litanies seen in Lasso’s work and in the grand Thesaurus
litaniarium of Georg Victorinus was but one part of a broader Wittelsbach and
Jesuit fascination with the Loreto cult, expressed in numerous ducal/electoral
pilgrimages to Marian shrines and in the rapid spread of architectural copies of
the Holy House through the Catholic Bavarian and Swabian landscape in the
seventeenth century.66
The explosive growth in the polyphonic litany should not obscure the like-
lihood that most litanies in pilgrimage were sung in simple monophony, the
Vorsänger intoning the long chains of invocations and the pilgrims offering their
refrains of “ora pro nobis” or, more likely, vernacular responses such as “bitt
Gott für uns” or “erhöre uns.” Unlike extant pilgrimage songs, which often
relied on contrafacture, litanies would have been sung to schematic recitation
formulas that straddled the boundary between music and heightened speech. As
such, litanies are not often preserved in songbooks per se; their texts are more
63
See Nikolaus Paulus, “Die Einführung der lauretanischen Litanei in Deutschland
durch den seligen Petrus Canisius,” Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 26 (1902): 577–
81. For further commentary, see Extended Reference 6.18.
64
See Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats, 75. See also discussion in chapter 3
of this book.
65
Lasso’s litany settings are found in BSB, Mus.mss. 2748 (copied between 1576 and
1581), 21 (ca. 1584–5), 48 (ca. 1590), and 14 (early 1590s). In addition, eight of
Lasso’s litanies (including four settings of the Litany of Loreto) have their unique
source in Victorinus’s Thesaurus litaniarum (1596). For discussion see Peter Bergquist’s
foreword to Orlando di Lasso, Sämtliche Werke, Neue Reihe, vol. 25, Litaneien, Falsibordoni
und Offiziumssätze (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1993), vii–viii, and Crook, Orlando di Lasso’s
Imitation Magnificats, 76–77.
66
For an overview of the Loreto cult in Bavaria, see especially Pötzl, “Loreto in Bayern.”
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 306 10/28/2013 10:36:55 PM

commonly found in miracle books, devotional manuals, and the statute-books
of confraternities.67 The printing of litany texts such as these point to the genre’s
flexibility as a mode of prayer that can be contemplated silently, spoken aloud,
or sung while underway on a pilgrimage.
The gulf between these simple, intoned litanies and the elaborate poly-
phonic settings of Lasso, Palestrina, and others is not as wide as one might sup-
pose. Thoroughly contrapuntal litanies were likely performed only in interior
spaces by trained choirs; more rudimentary settings could have been performed
during pilgrimage by musically competent amateurs or by accompanying pro-
fessional singers. Many fine examples can be found in Victorinus’s Thesaurus
litaniarium, such as a four-voice Litany of Loreto setting by Johannes à Fossa,
Lasso’s successor as Kapellmeister of the Munich court chapel (Example 6.9).68
Even the most musically “ambitious” sections, the opening Kyrie and final
Agnus, are composed in a largely homophonic style with minor decorative
elements at cadences; the bulk of the litany, beginning with the invocation
“Sancta Maria,” consists merely of a discantus intonation followed by an even
more rudimentary falsobordone formula with cadence. Although there is noth-
ing unsuitable here for a liturgical performance by a stationary choir, Fossa’s
litany would have been especially apt for processional or pilgrimage use, as
each individual line of music could quickly be memorized by the singers
and applied identically to the dozens of invocations. It is a reminder of the
fact that the litany, though associated clearly with the practice of Catholic
pilgrimage, did not have a single sonic profile but could take many different
shapes depending on local circumstances.
As a mode of prayer characterized by repeated textual and musical formu-
las, the litany was well suited to the flow of time and rhythm of a pilgrimage.
But the soundscape created by the litany also enabled miraculous occurrences.
For example, in his pilgrimage manual for Altötting Martin Eisengrein
recounted the story of Anna von Bernhausen, a noble lady-in-waiting in ser-
vice to the Fugger family of Augsburg.69 Anna was one of two women in the
Fugger household who allegedly were possessed by demons and had been
subjected to Jesuit-supervised exorcisms. While the young maid Susanna had
67
For example, in Rabus, Christlichs Manual oder Handtbüchlein. Von Rechtem Nutz vnd
Frucht deß Walfartens, 54r–56r; and Der würdigsten Mutter Gottes, vnnd aller heiligsten
Jungkfrawen und Himel Königin Mariae, Ertzbruderschafft in Bayern (Munich, 1581),
103v–106r. See Extended Reference 6.19 for further commentary.
68
A full transcription of Fossa’s litany appears in Extended Musical Example 6.1.
69
Eisengrein, Vnser liebe Fraw zu Alten Oetting, 125v–147r. This episode is discussed at
length in Soergel, Wondrous in His Saints, 119–26.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 307 10/28/2013 10:36:56 PM

E x a m p l e 6 . 9 Johannes à Fossa, Litany of Loreto, from Victorinus, ed.,
Thesaurus litaniarum (1596), no. 23, mm. 1–12
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 308 10/28/2013 10:36:56 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 309 10/28/2013 10:36:56 PM

been cured after making a pilgrimage to Loreto and Rome in 1569, Anna
could not entirely rid herself of her demons; in a vision the Virgin Mary
assured her that only a pilgrimage to Altötting and the offering of a votive
chalice would drive away the final demon. On January 21, 1570, Anna,
members of the the Fugger family, and an entourage that included the Jesuit
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 310 10/28/2013 10:36:57 PM

Peter Canisius arrived at Altötting. Upon arrival at the chapel the Litany of
Loreto was “devoutly performed in figural [polyphony]”;70 the following day,
the litany proved its spiritual power during Anna’s exorcism:
Then Herr Canisius in a loud voice proclaimed the confession, the
Our Father, Ave Maria, and other fine prayers, and all who were there
answered him. But when they began to piously pray the litany of Our
Lady all together, the demon soon began to quiver, and could not bear
hearing the words “Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, pray to God
for us.” And the maid, too, said these words clearly. [The demon]
wished it not, and thereupon cast the poor person down to the floor.
Then Herr Fugger took the maid in his arms, and placed her in his lap
before the altar. On his right side was Herr Canisius, and on the left
Frau Fugger with another priest, and they all held her tight.71
The litany was only one component of a lengthy—and ultimately suc-
cessful—exorcism during which Anna was tormented for her sins and those
of her parents and Fugger protectors. Other stories also cemented the asso-
ciation of litanies with miraculous events at holy sites. Recall, for example,
Jakob Rem’s vision of the Virgin Mary, prompted by a litany performance
for his Marian Colloquy at Ingolstadt in 1604 (see chapter 3). Simpler folk,
too, experienced miracles prompted by the sounds of litanies as well. The
Capuchin author and poet Prokop von Templin reported in his pilgrimage
manual for the Mariahilf shrine the following tale:
On this same day, the 31st of August 1652, on a Saturday afternoon
around three o’-clock, as the litany of Our Dear Lady was being sung
in the holy chapel at Mariahilf, and at which many common men and
women were present, a poor, young beggar came into the said chapel
on two crutches and went through the middle of the church to the side
altar of the Deposition of Christ from the Cross, and stayed there until
the end of the litany. Suddenly after its completion, a local Passau
woman led him by the hand through the middle of the church and
out, without the crutches, which were left at the iron gate at the said
altar.72
70
Eisengrein, Vnser liebe Fraw zu Alten Oetting, 126r–v. For quotations of the original text
71
Ibid., 127v–128r.
72
Prokop von Templin, Mariä Hülff ob Passau. Gnaden-Lustgarten (Passau, 1668), 2:29.
For original text see Extended Reference 6.21.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 311 10/28/2013 10:36:57 PM

In 1690, the pilgrimage to the Dolorous Mother or Schmerzhafte Mutter at
the Herzogspitalkirche in Munich was touched off after the singing of the
Litany of Loreto, when a ten-year-old girl noticed a Marian statue’s eyes move
to look first at the crucified Christ, and then to the onlookers in the nave.73
Anecdotes like this are scattered, but they do suggest that the litany, pro-
moted generally by the Bavarian secular and religious leadership as an effica-
cious mode of supplication in processions and pilgrimages, created spaces for
miraculous happenings.
Sound in the Practice of Pilgrimage

While extant songs can help us to understand the interplay of devotion and
propaganda in the repertory itself, we can look to a wider range of sources
that illustrate how sound was integrated into pilgrimage more broadly.
Devotional manuals, miracle books, official mandates, and parish records
give us only a partial and potentially biased view of pilgrimage practice,
of course. We should be wary of the enthusiastic accounts of marching and
singing pilgrims described below, but bias alone does not invalidate them
as a source of information for the use of music and sound in pilgrimage.
Miracle books and devotional manuals rarely dwell on sonic phenomena at
length, and comparing their accounts with the more mundane details found
in parish registers, for example, allows us to plausibly reconstruct the aural
phenomena on the departure of a pilgrimage from its home parish, while the
pilgrimage was underway, and when the pilgrimage reached its destination.
We conclude with a discussion of a more or less “typical” pilgrimage that
took place in 1603, from the parish church of St. Martin and Castulus in
Landshut to the Munich shrine of St. Benno, some of the sonic character of
which is illuminated by surviving archival evidence.
Departure
The majority of pilgrims made their way to pilgrimage shrines in groups,
such as confraternities or, more commonly, as a single parish that customar-
ily processed to a local shrine at regular intervals. As a collective enterprise,
73
Recounted in Peter Steiner, Altmünchner Gnadenstätten: Wallfahrt und Volksfrömmigkeit
im kurfürstlichen München (Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1977), 30; Franz Josef Brems,
Wir sind unterwegs. . . : 500 bayerische Marienwallfahrtsorte (St. Ottilien: EOS-Verlag,
1992), 156; and in Pötzl, “Volksfrömmigkeit,” 935–36.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 312 10/28/2013 10:36:57 PM

the beginning of a parish pilgrimage required a ceremony that would rep-
resent the pious intentions of pilgrims and mark the occasion as extraordi-
nary. Markmiller has written of the genre of “departure songs” (Auszugslieder)
that were common in the Austrian orbit, at least, and were likely sung in
Bavaria as well. In prayers, litanies, and songs such as In Gottes Namen fahren
wir—whose incipit would have made it especially suitable for the begin-
ning of a pilgrimage—pilgrims asked divine personages for a successful
journey and to watch over those left at home.74 In larger urban areas the
departure of large-scale pilgrimages could be the occasion for elaborate fes-
tivities, music, and sounds. By the 1580s at the latest, the Archconfraternity
of Corpus Christi’s annual Ascension Day pilgrimage to Andechs was sent
off with considerable pomp. On the morning of departure the pilgrims were
accompanied by musicians as far as Sendlinger Tor, the southern city gate.
At the front of this procession were ministers clad in red bearing crosses and
torches, followed by singers, and finally, the confraternity and its prefect.75
A possible predecessor of the Corpus Christi Archconfraternity, a butchers’
guild based at St. Peter, began and ended its annual pilgrimage to Andechs
under the singing of that church’s choir.76 To the songs of pilgrims and the
choirs and musicians engaged to send them off we can most certainly add the
festal ringing of church bells, which otherwise were a common accompani-
ment to urban processions.
En Route and upon Arrival

The most colorful accounts of pilgrims’ music surely come from contempo-
rary miracle books and devotional manuals. In many cases, the authors of
this literature were personally invested in the fortunes of local shrines, and
wrote with the potential pilgrim firmly in mind. Readers and listeners could
learn of the miracles described in these books but also anticipate the commu-
nal experience of pilgrimage and be instructed in proper deportment during
the journey. Pilgrimage literature also reflected the propagandistic aims of
Counter-Reformation elites, who hoped not only to stoke a venerable popu-
lar tradition, but also to interpret pilgrimage as an exemplary expression
of Catholic fidelity. Authors like Johann Rabus were wont to describe the
74
Markmiller, “ ‘Wallfahrtsmusik’,” 456.
75
See Dieter J. Weiß, Die Corporis-Christi-Erzbruderschaft bei St. Peter. Ein Beitrag zur
altbayerischen Kirchen- und Frömmigkeitsgeschichte, Aus dem Pfarramt von St. Peter in
München 3 (Munich: Stadtpfarramt St. Peter, 1990), 16–18.
76
Bertha Antonia Wallner, “Ein Wallfahrtsgesang aus dem Münchener Gesang- und
Psalmenbuch von 1586,” Peterskalender München (1919), 45.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 313 10/28/2013 10:36:57 PM

sounds of marching pilgrims as they emerged from the fields and approached
the holy site:
It is indeed a pleasure to behold when the peasant folk, not to men-
tion other prominent persons, hurry to this most precious, holy object
with such great zeal; and also when Crosses [borne by pilgrims] come
in large numbers, one from one place, one from another, perhaps on
the same day, or, as I have seen myself, when four or five come within
a single hour. And all are crying to the LORD CHRIST for aid, grace,
and mercy with the usual calls [rueffen] and songs of praise. Truly this
devotion should not disappear, rather it should in all ways be strength-
ened and continually increased.77
As a parish priest from the nearby town of Straubing and a former court
preacher to Duke Albrecht V, Jakob Rabus was hardly an impassionate
observer; a chief motivation of his manual on the Deggendorf pilgrimage
was to stoke popular interest in the so-called Gnad and situate its history
and miracles in a Counter-Reformation program. The presence of a nearly
identically worded account of pilgrims approaching the shrine of Bettbrunn,
published in the same year by Johann Engerd, professor of poetics at the
University of Ingolstadt, should raise doubts about Rabus’s intent to repre-
sent this pilgrimage faithfully. In its description of the arrival of pilgrims on
the Friday after Ascension Day, Engerd’s story matches that of Rabus; Engerd
adds, however, that “on the same day one service after another is sung, and
the regal is played at all times by the aforementioned Herr Primissarius him-
self.”78 This small detail lends slightly more credibility to Engerd’s account,
perhaps, but the general similarity of the passages suggests that the wit-
nessing of an actual event was quite beside the point for these authors.
Seventeenth-century accounts of singing pilgrims, such as the following tale
of the Neukirchen pilgrimage by Fortunatus Hueber, are characteristically
baroque in style. “Whole regiments and parties of the Virgin’s devotees,”
Hueber writes, “march in commendable order with flying banners, under
singing and sounding harmonies, proclaiming their holiest calls and praises,
flowing together just like the diffuse water fountains at Our Dear Lady of the
Holy Blood.” He continues, “It is even happier to hear from afar the voices
of the singing [pilgrims], who warble their sacred songs through fields and
77
Rabus, Kurtzer, warhaffter vnd gründtlicher Bericht, 78v, also qtd. in Eder, Die
“Deggendorfer Gnad”, 274. For original text see Extended Reference 6.22.
78
Johann Engerd, Sanct Saluator zu Bettbrunn in Bayrn (Ingolstadt, 1584), 105–6. For
original text see Extended Reference 6.23.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 314 10/28/2013 10:36:58 PM

forests, over mountains and [through] valleys with such great zeal that even
the trees and woods themselves are joyous.”79
Few authors are as effusive as the popular Augustinian preacher Abraham
à Santa Clara (1644–1709), who had served as a feast-day preacher at the
pilgrimage shrine of Maria Stern at Taxa in the late 1660s. His curiously
titled Gack, Gack, Gack, Gack, à Ga. Einer Wunderseltzsamen Hennen in dem
Hertzogthumb Bayrn (Cluck, Cluck, Cluck—a rare and miraculous hen in
the Duchy of Bavaria) refers to an early seventeenth-century hen who had
reportedly laid an egg on whose shell was found an image of a woman’s
head surrounded by shining rays (thus the designation “Maria Stern” for the
shrine). Writing nearly twenty years later, now as prior of the St. Anna clois-
ter in Graz, Abraham painted an affecting picture of the pilgrimage he had
witnessed:
The bells of Taxa seek a harmony with the resounding song of the pious
pilgrims, allowing [this song] to be heard directly through their reso-
nating iron. The eminent doctor Augustine writes of the great leader
Moses in book one of his Concerning the Miracles of Holy Scripture that
this Moses parted the deep sea with his wondrous staff, and then with
dry feet passed through with his people, leaving the stubborn Pharoah
to be consumed by the water. Thereupon [Moses] began to sing a new
song of praise and joy, which not only was sung by the adults, but also,
through a miracle, was sung very clearly by eight-week old children
who otherwise could not yet speak. At that time nothing was to be
heard but singing and music. Such miracles are unknown elsewhere,
but it is true that in such pilgrimages and processions young and old
sing together, and praise the Mother of God with all kinds of songs,
such that the angels may pause in their heavenly music and keep still,
so that they can listen to this pious sound of joy. For verily the heavens
often hold the rough, yet devout songs of such peasant folk in greater
regard than the finest music in which strings and winds are mingled
together.80
79
Hueber, Zeitiger Granat-apfel, 244–45, 248. For original text see Extended Reference
6.24.
80
Abraham à Santa Clara, Gack, Gack, Gack, Gack, à Ga. Einer Wunderseltzsamen Hennen in
dem Hertzogthumb Bayrn. Das ist: Ein außführliche, und umbständige Beschreibung der berüh-
mten Wallfahrt Maria-Stern In Taxa, Bey den PP. Augustinern Parfüessern (Munich: Lucas
Straub, 1685), 64–65. For original text and further commentary, see Extended
Reference 6.25.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 315 10/28/2013 10:36:58 PM

This fanciful soundscape described by Abraham conveys sensous excess, the
songs of pilgrims mixing liberally with the festal ringing of bells from the
Taxa church tower. Earlier in his book Abraham had commented on the Taxa
bells, writing that so many pilgrims were coming in the springtime that “it
would hardly be a wonder if the bells of Taxa became so hot with so much
ringing that they could no longer sound, for the more feast days there are,
the fewer days of rest can be enjoyed by the bells themselves. But this joyous,
bright-sounding ringing only thickens the more often the pilgrims assem-
ble.”81 Abraham’s description is flamboyant, but his biblical justification for
music and pilgrimage is entirely of a piece with pilgrimage literature as a
whole, in which the boundary between description and propaganda is easily
crossed.
More practically, singing relieved the fatigue of a long journey, refreshing
body and spirit alike. In 1584 The preacher Melchior de Fabris published
a Guide for Crusaders, Pilgrims, and Procession-makers in which he assured his
readers that “When the journey brings to [pilgrims] any difficulty or fatigue,
they may comfort themselves with psalms, canticles, and sacred songs, so
that their devotion will be strengthened, and their weariness relieved.”82
Jakob Rabus, who occupies himself at length with the proper deportment of
pilgrims, encourages the potential pilgrim “to give thanks to the almighty
God for all of his favors with praying, singing, with pious sacred songs, can-
ticles, calls [rüffen], etc. For he will marvel at the powerful refreshment that
lies hidden in these pieces.”83 Similar statements can be found elsewhere,84
81
Ibid., 63. For original text, see Extended Reference 6.26.
82
“Wo auch das gehen verdrüß/ vnd Müdigkeit jnen zufügete/ mögen sie mit Psalmen/
Lobgesang vnd Geistlichen Liedern sich selbst trösten/ damit wird die Andacht
gestärckt/ vnd die Müdigkeit geschwecht.” From Melchior de Fabris, Wegweyser aller
Creutzferter, Kirchferter, Walferter oder Pilgram andacht, so Christlicher vnd Catholischer
mainung die heiligen ort besuchen, zu befürdern (Munich: Adam Berg, 1584), 60v–61r.
83
“Vnd auff solches alles mag der Pilgram hernacher dem Allmechtigen Gott für alle
dise seine genaden dancksagen/ mit Betten/ Singen/ mit andechtigen Geistlichen
Liedern/ Lobsprichen/ rüffen/ &c. So wirdt er wunder sehen/ was für ein krefftige
Erquickung/ in disen stucken haimlich verborgen lige.” Rabus, Christlichs Manual oder
Handtbüchlein. Von Rechtem Nutz vnd Frucht deß Walfartens, 28v–29r.
84
For example, the Augustinian Canons of Dießen recommended in their miracle
book for St. Grafrath that “Auf dem weeg offters sein Hertz zue Gott vnd seinen
Hl: St: Graffrath erheben, vnderweillen von Geistlichen sachen reden, am Rosen
Crantz betten; Letaneÿen oder andere schöne gebettlein Sprechen, Gott vnd seinen
heilligen, hitz, müedigkheit vnd andere deß weegs vngemach aufopffern” (BayHStA,
KL Fasz. 178/16, p. 118); on the Jesuit use of singing to help relieve fatigue
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 316 10/28/2013 10:36:58 PM

but we should regard them as ideals rather than accurate descriptions of
actual pilgrims’ music. Religious elites expressed their concerns about less
devout, or even heretical, singing when they exhorted the laity to avoid secu-
lar or frivolous music making en route to pilgrimage shrines. The synod of
the Salzburg Archdiocese in 1569 hoped to revive the practice of pilgrimage
in the wake of the Reformation, but they insisted on regulating pilgrims’
behavior carefully: priests were to walk in front of the procession with sur-
plices and carrying crosses; men and women were to be separated and never
be allowed to sleep overnight in the same place; nor should there be drink-
ing, idle chatter, laughing, or telling of immoral stories. Above all, it was
important that no heretical songs be sung.85 As we have seen, Jakob Rabus
promoted pious song as spiritual refreshment, but he also lamented that
some go [on pilgrimage] practicing their trades while underway; these
belong to the knaves that Christ drove from the Temple (Luke ch. 19).
Others go with good intentions, but while underway make merry, sing
insolent songs, tell foolish tales, yell, bellow, and sometimes take with
them [wind] and string instruments, so that there can be dancing and
other kinds of promiscuity.86
Good behavior was expected both during the pilgrimage and in the hours that
preceded it: “How is it possible,” Rabus continues, “that you can properly pray
and make your devotion in the Mass on the route, when the night before you
occupied yourself with singing, dancing, noise-making, and other worldly
mischief?”87 A particular concern of the Bavarian authorities was the presence
of taverns along the route or at the destination, which too often tempted pil-
grims with music and dancing. In 1651, Maximilian I mandated that “at those
during their processions, see Hansgeorg Molitor, “Mehr mit den Augen als mit den
Ohren glauben. Frühneuzeitliche Volksfrömmigkeit in Köln und Jülich-Berg,” in
Hansgeorg Molitor and Herbert Smolinsky, eds., Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit
(Münster: Aschendorff, 1994), 96.
85
“Quod si alicubi haud fuerit obseruatum, præcipimus, vt Parochus, vel Concionator,
qui aliam in Agendario non contentam canere incæperit, vel cani permiserit, vt omni-
bus beneficijs priuetur, & in carcere tanquam traditionum Ecclesiasticarum contemp-
tor, & de hæresi suspectus, acerimè puniatur.” From Constitutiones, et decreta, concinnata
atque in Provinciali Synodo Salisburgensi edita (Dillingen: Sebald Mayer, 1574), 270.
A lengthier excerpt of the original text appears in Extended Reference 6.27.
86
Rabus, Christlichs Manual oder Handtbüchlein. Von Rechtem Nutz vnd Frucht deß Walfartens,
14r–v. For original text see Extended Reference 6.28.
87
Ibid., 15v.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 317 10/28/2013 10:36:58 PM

churches with great pilgrimages, like Altötting, Tuntenhausen, and the like,
dancing in nearby taverns should either be banned entirely, or should take place
at a different place, so that pilgrims’ devotion and God’s honor shall not be com-
promised.”88 Again, we find a desire to tame popular noise that could distract
from spiritual discipline, and that was an aspect of pilgrimage as a Lustreise, an
intensely sociable and pleasurable activity during which religious prayer and
singing was only one part of the possible sonic profile.89 As late as 1694, the
Jesuit preacher Wolfgang Rauscher noted that “even if the foot is tired, the
mouth is not lame; even if the throat is filled with dust, the voice is still ready
to sing immoral songs.”90
Some degree of control was offered by the Vorsänger—often desig-
nated by the parish—who led pilgrims in appropriate songs and litanies
along the route. The parish church of Neukirchen, for example, regularly
made payments to three boys—perhaps choirboys—for its pilgrimages to
Bogenberg: one to carry the drums, one to sing the litany, and one to sing
German songs for the women, who marched separately from the men.91 Even
though Rabus chided the pilgrims for bringing musical instruments on the
journey, instrumentalists were commonly hired for pilgrimages: presumably
their abstention from playing secular music was a condition of their employ-
ment. In his study of the Neukirchen pilgrimage, Walter Hartinger has col-
lected scattered evidence of instrumentalists from parish records: they were
primarily organists (playing on regals or portative organs) and civic wind
players.92 For its annual pilgrimages to Neukirchen and the Bogenberg, the
88
“Beÿ denen Gottshäußern, wo grosse Wahlfahrten seÿnd, wie zu Alten-Oëtting, dun-
tenhaußen, und dergleichen, sollen die Tänz, zumahl, wann die Würthshäußer nahe
an der Kirch ligen, entweder gar abgestelt, od[er] an abgesönderten orten gepflogenn
werden, damit man die Andacht deren Wahlfahrtern, und die Ehre Gottes nicht
dardurch hintere.” StAM, BR 60B 2, 526, 24 February 1651. See also BayHStA,
Staatsverwaltung 2812, 48v.
89
Peter Hersche—citing Friedrich Nicolai on pilgrimage as a “Lustreise”—doubts
that communal prayer and religious song was a constant sound along the pilgrimage
route: “Es ist auch unwahrscheinlich, daß die doch erhebliche Marschleistung von
rund 40 km am Tag ständig mit lautem Gebet und Liedersingen erbracht wurde.”
Hersche, “Die Lustreise der kleinen Leute,” 324.
90
Wolfgang Rauscher, Mark der Cedarbäum (Dillingen: Johann Caspar Bencard, 1689),
1:295–7, also qtd. in Elfriede Moser-Rath, “Volksfrömmigkeit im Spiegel der
Barockpredigt,” Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 65 (1969): 202.
91
Hartinger, “Die Wallfahrt Neukirchen bei Heilig Blut,” 129, citing sources from
1673 and 1694.
92
Ibid., 138–40.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 318 10/28/2013 10:36:59 PM

parish of Deggendorf paid singers as early as 1601; payments for civic instru-
mentalists and their apprentices (Thurner and Thurner Gesellen) are recorded
from 1625 onward; and from 1639, organists and bellows men were paid as
well. 1650 was a typical year: the Neukirchen pilgrimage involved a chap-
lain, schoolmaster, the civic instrumentalists with their apprentices, and one
discantist; the Bogenberg pilgrimage, a schoolmaster, civic instrumental-
ists and apprentices, cantor, organist, bellows man, and two discantists.93
Musicians performed not only along the route, but also at the destination: in
1654 the choir director of the parish church of Altötting had to be admon-
ished not to admit musicians into the choir without prior notice to the chap-
ter.94 Instrumentalists sometimes appeared unsolicited along the route, as
well; Hartinger cites a 1674 pilgrimage from Neukirchen to St. Engelmar
during which several musicians from Viechtach were paid tips for their ser-
vices.95 Remarkably, communal parish pilgrimages may have had a greater
sonic imprint than the many journeys undertaken to shrines like Altötting
and Tuntenhausen by the duke/elector of Bavaria, his family, and courtiers.
With a few exceptions, little evidence of active participation by court musi-
cians seems to exist for state pilgrimages, which were conducted in deliberate
modesty and on foot.96
Vernacular songs, litanies, and perhaps instrumental music by civic musi-
cians marked the route of pilgrims as they wound their way through the
Bavarian countryside. Their approach to the shrine would have been first
noticed by those stationed in church towers at or near the destination, whose
function it was to ring the bells to greet the procession. The sound of these
bells assured pilgrims that their journey was all but complete, and compelled
local clergy and officials to make the necessary preparations. We have already
seen Abraham à Santa Clara’s colorful account of bells growing hot by ringing
in so many individual pilgrimages to Maria Stern in Taxa, but more mun-
dane evidence of this ringing comes from the parish records for Neukirchen
93
StA Deggendorf, Pfarrkirchen Rechnungen R 27.
94
“[ . . . ] herkhommenten pereginaten mit ihren bey sich habenden aigenen musi-
cis, wie es sonderbarlich von Stött- Vnd Märkhten öfters geschieht [ . . . ] der Chor
ohne Vorwissen des Chorregenten nit eröffnet werden.” From a manuscript cited as
Akt.-Nr. 1044, “Musikanten-Instruktion”, qtd. in Max Moesmang, Geschichte der
Altöttinger Stifts- und Kapellmusik. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Kirchenmusik in Bayern
(Altötting: Verlag der St. Antoniusbuchhandlung Altötting, 1909), 19–20.
95
“Denen Musicanten zu Vichtach, als solchen Creuzgang einblaithen helffen, Trünckgelt
verraicht 45 kr.” Neukirchen Gotteshaus-Rechnungen, 1674, cited in Hartinger, “Die
Wallfahrt Neukirchen bei Heilig Blut,” 140.
96
For commentary on this enforced modesty, see Extended Reference 6.29.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 319 10/28/2013 10:36:59 PM

beim Heiligen Blut, which document several occasions on which individuals
were paid for ringing the town’s bells on the approach of pilgrims.97 Bells
also marked the pilgrims’ passage through the towns and villages en route,
and welcomed them back to their home parish—this ringing, too, signaled
crucial nodes of the territory’s spiritual geography. Between 1605 and 1608,
a controversy erupted in Landshut when pilgrims returning to the St. Jodok
(Jobst) parish church from Altötting found that they were suddenly no lon-
ger greeted by the bells of St. Martin, whose great brick tower dominated the
city’s skyline.98 St. Jodok’s parish priest, a Herr Riepel, told church visitors in
1608 that in the last few years the procession had been met with bell ringing
“everywhere” (vnnder weeges aller orthen eingeleittet) except upon returning to
Landshut. Such a scandal ensued that some of the pilgrims hoped that a bolt
of lightning would destroy the tower and its bells. The culprit was believed
to be a certain Herr Riedel, a canon of the St. Martin chapter, who forbade his
sexton to ring in the pilgrimage, jesting that “they are not Turks; therefore,
why ring the bells?” In response, the Dominican preacher at St. Jodok gave
a fiery sermon suggesting that one causing such mischief hardly deserves a
canonicate: he deserves nothing more than to have a millstone hung around
his neck, and since the Isar River (which flows through Landshut) is too shal-
low, he should be cast instead into the deep sea. Riepel’s testimony suggests
that bell ringing was taken for granted in parish pilgrimages, and that its
omission—particularly upon the joyous conclusion of a successful journey—
would have been upsetting to the laity.
The arrival at a destination—whether the pilgrimage shrine or the pil-
grim’s home parish church—was always articulated by joyous sounds,
whether songs, bell ringing, or instrumental music. Directing his comments
to the individual pilgrim, Jakob Rabus first encourages the giving of thanks
and the examination of one’s conscience upon arrival. But, he cautions,
pious pilgrims do not simply storm into the presence of the holy object or
97
Hartinger, “Die Wallfahrt Neukirchen bei Heilig Blut,” 92. Hartinger cites parish
account records from 1674, the year in which six persons were paid 2 fl. 34 kr. for
ringing the bells on “Khürchfartstägen.”
98
BayHStA, Landshuter Abgabe 1982, Landshut, St. Martin, B 4. The central point of
contention in this 1608 visitation report was the reining in of pilgrimages and proces-
sions at the St. Jodok parish church in Landshut, which were seen by the chapter of
St. Martin and the ducal government as ill-organized and a distraction from the more
centralized and solemn events organized by St. Martin. The parish priest of St. Jodok
evidently took it upon himself to continue these processions and pilgrimages despite
their official curtailment.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 320 10/28/2013 10:36:59 PM

image: “They see themselves as unworthy of approaching such a holy place;
they kneel before the portal, remaining silent for a while, or they entreat
the Almighty God and his worthy Mother, or other saints for aid with a call
[ruff], song, or a spoken prayer.”99 Most appropriate for this occasion, per-
haps, was a song like the commonly printed Wir fallen nieder auf unsere Knie.
Fortunatus Hueber is characteristically effusive in describing the fervor of
pilgrims when they first glimpse the holy shrine: “Some raise their hands and
eyes to the heavens; others strike their breast in joy; many fall to their knees
and greet the Mother of Mercy; others raise their voices and sing praises to
the Virgin according to their abilities.”100
Such accounts can easily be dismissed as prescriptive rather than descrip-
tive, but some confirmation of the music and noise of arriving pilgrims is
offered by correspondence extant in the Regensburg episcopal archives con-
cerning the pilgrimage to Neukirchen beim Heiligen Blut, which was under
the bishop’s spiritual jurisdiction.101 On May 3, 1614, the episcopal authori-
ties wrote to the pastor of Neukirchen of the need to combat certain abuses
at the shrine:
It has been plausibly reported to us that disorder and various abuses
have taken place during the praiseworthy arrival of large numbers of
pilgrims, seeking to make their devotions, from various places to the
church entrusted to you. On several occasions it has happened that
various [groups of] parishioners have been singing different songs
in various places in the church at the same time, out of which has
come such an intolerable noise and dissonance, that others wishing to
pray, grieve for their sins, and confess are disturbed from their devo-
tion, and their confessors can neither hear them, nor make themselves
understood.102
Among the bishop’s demands was that “arriving pilgrims should be admon-
ished not to sing more than one or two stanzas of their song in the church,
99
Rabus, Christlichs Manual oder Handtbüchlein. Von Rechtem Nutz vnd Frucht deß Walfartens,
45r–v. For original text see Extended Reference 6.30.
100
Hueber, Zeitiger Granat-apfel, 248. For original text see Extended Reference 6.31.
101
BZaR, Pfarrakten Neukirchen-Hl. Blut 20. Formerly BZaR, I. 740/3 b.
102
BZaR, Pfarrakten Neukirchen-Hl. Blut 20. For original text, see Extended Reference
6.32. This episode is also mentioned by Hartinger in “Die Wallfahrt Neukirchen bei
Heilig Blut,” 125–26.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 321 10/28/2013 10:36:59 PM

so that, according to the teachings of the Holy Apostle Paul, order may be
maintained in the church and one may not hinder the other’s devotion.”103
Music by pilgrims was to be encouraged, then, but not to the point of
unruliness. One official strategy was to engage professional musicians, who
could perform both during the divine service at the shrine as well as in extra-
liturgical contexts. Neukirchen was one of many shrines that made regu-
lar musical provisions for visiting pilgrims by the mid-seventeenth century.
Because of the threat of war, its famous Gnadenbild had been temporarily
housed by the Carmelites of Straubing in the early 1640s, and votive offer-
ings made during that time were used to help finance the construction of a
new organ for the pilgrimage chapel.104 By the mid-1660s at the latest, the
Straubing church fielded a substantial musical ensemble, including an organ-
ist, singers, and players of string and wind instruments, a group that likely
could not have existed had it not been for the active pilgrimage.105 A music
inventory taken in September 1667 includes a copy of Lasso’s Magnum
opus musicum; concerti by the otherwise obscure Severinus Conradi and the
Franciscan monk Felician Schwab (or Suevus); motets by Giovanni Rovetta;
psalms by Stefano Bernardi; and a Requiem Mass by Rufinus Sigelius.106
Writing in 1671, Fortunatus Hueber reported that elaborate services were
held on Sundays and feasts; furthermore, on Saturdays the musicians were
obligated to perform “deß H. Casimiri Lobgesang,” most likely the hymn
Omni die dic Mariae associated with the fifteenth-century Polish prince and
saint.107 Hueber relates, however, that outside the regular cycle of services,
whenever the image was uncovered in the presence of pilgrims, “the organ,
with all of its bellows, is inflated and played for greater grandeur and encour-
agement [of the faithful].”108 Later in the century, parish accounts from
103
“[ . . . ] dann aber malls anndere, so die ankommenden kirchfarter vermahnen, dz Sÿ
vber ain oder.2. gesetz ihres Rueffs in der kirchen nit singen sollen, dardurch dann,
nach lehr des H: Apostels Paulj, ein ordnung in der kirchen gehalten, aines von dem
anndern in d[er] andacht nit abgehalten.”
104
Documents relating to the transfer of the image to Straubing and its return may be
found in BZaR, Pfarrakten Neukirchen-Hl. Blut 20.
105
According to a 1667 visitation report; see ibid.
106
Ibid. For commentary on these prints, see Extended Reference 6.33.
107
See Hueber in Zeitiger Granat-apfel, 244–45, who indicates that this performance was
donated by Franciscus Ignatius, count of Rozdraziou, lord of Platna, and imperial
councilor in Bohemia.
108
“So offt die Vortafel wird hinweg geschoben/ vnd das H. Bild von oben gezaigt/ wird
die Orgel mit völligen Windladen zu grösserer Herrlichkeit vnd anmahnung geschla-
gen vnnd auffgeblasen.” Hueber, Zeitiger Granat-apfel, 253. Hueber’s manual includes
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 322 10/28/2013 10:37:00 PM

Neukirchen reveal that trumpets and kettledrums greeted pilgrims on feasts
and major pilgrimage days, adding a triumphalist element to celebrations of
the Mass, Vespers, and litanies. Instrumentalists had become so indispens-
able that in 1688 special quarters were built in the vicinity of the shrine to
house them; when receiving pilgrims and playing during services they wore
special blue robes. A 1766 inventory of instruments stored next to the organ
in the pilgrimage church reveals, in addition to string instruments, three
trumpets, two kettledrums, and four hunting horns.109
Neukirchen was not unique in this respect. As early as 1572, pilgrims at
Andechs treated to the exposition of the monastery’s many relics could enjoy
the sound of instrumental music as they viewed the holy treasures.110 And at
Altötting, we know of several substantial foundations that ensured a regular
diet of polyphonic liturgical music in the small pilgrimage chapel by the
mid-seventeenth century. A Jesuit-authored chronicle and miracle book for
the shrine, first published in 1644, tells us that the clergy and musicians of
the neighboring collegiate church of SS. Philip and Jakob entered the chapel
after Vespers each evening to sing a Marian antiphon and the Ave Maria, fol-
lowed by a Marian litany. In addition, Maria Maximiliana of Bavaria (1552–
1614, sister of Wilhelm V) donated a polyphonic litany on Saturdays, while
polyphonic Masses on Marian feast days were founded by both Karl I. von
an engraved bird’s-eye view of the pilgrimage site (p. 280), showing that the organist
had his own house directly adjacent to the shrine. BayHStA, KL Andechs 34, contain-
ing records of salaries for the Andechs monastery’s employees, includes regular pay-
ments for an organist between 1584 and 1590, although his duties are not specified. It
was not uncommon for organs to be procured even for smaller pilgrimage shrines: note,
for example, the building of organs for the Marian shrines of Thalkirchen in 1631
and Ramersdorf in 1645. See Bernhard M. Hoppe, “München-Thalkirchen,” in Peter
Pfister and Hans Ramisch, eds., Marienwallfahrten im Erzbistum München und Freising
(Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1989), 128; and Helmuth Stahleder, Belastungen und
Bedrückungen. Die Jahre 1506–1705, Chronik der Stadt München 2 (Ebenhausen,
Hamburg: Dölling und Galitz Verlag; Munich: Stadtarchiv München, 2005), 529.
109
Hartinger, “Die Wallfahrt Neukirchen bei Heilig Blut,” 92–93.
110
A 28-folio parchment codex from the monastery indicates that instrumental music
(“Hic sonent rursum Instrumenta Musices”) was performed after the display of vari-
ous categories of relics in turn: those of holy widows and virgins, confessors, martyrs,
Apostles, the Virgin Mary, and Christ himself (the monastery held thorns of his crown
and pieces of the True Cross). BayHStA, KL Andechs 33, “Ordo demonstrandi rel-
iquias monasterii in monte sancto Andecensi.” I have discussed this 28-folio parch-
ment codex in greater detail in my Music and Religious Identity in Counter-Reformation
Augsburg, 1580–1630 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), 265–66.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 323 10/28/2013 10:37:00 PM

Liechtenstein (1569–1627) and Ferdinand of Bavaria (1577–1650, son of
Wilhelm V and Elector of Cologne).111
In a given year every pilgrimage shrine saw ebbs and flows in attendance,
as parishes in the region tended to choose fixed occasions—often falling in late
spring and late summer—to make their annual journey. Some shrines formal-
ized this routine by mounting especially elaborate spectacles that opened the
pilgrimage “season” or coincided with the arrival of the largest numbers of pil-
grims. At Deggendorf the so-called Gnadenzeit or Gnad began with great pomp
on the Feast of St. Michael (August 29), starting at noon, with an hour of bell
ringing mixed with gunfire as the portal to the Grabkirche was officially opened.
On September 30, in the midst of the Gnadenzeit, the community mounted a
grand procession that in many respects resembled the spectacular processions
held on Corpus Christi in many Bavarian towns. A typical year was 1601,
when the Deggendorf parish paid no fewer than thirty-three persons, including
twenty-two local and visiting clergy, the Latin schoolmaster, cantor, organist,
three civic instrumentalists (Thurrnern), the sextons of the parish church and
the Grabkirche (likely for ringing the church bells during the procession), and
two adult singers. We find also that in later years local choirboys were paid
nominally for singing in the choir and for carrying a regal, banners, torches,
and the instruments of the Passion.112 From the time of the Thirty Years’ War
onward, the firing of guns was customary during the procession, which made
stations around the town for the singing of the Gospels, and wound its way to
the Grabkirche itself, where a Te Deum was sung.113 Likely observed by hundreds
of visiting pilgrims, the great procession during Deggendorf’s Gnadenzeit par-
took of the same militaristic pomp that characterized public devotion to the
body of Christ in the Bavarian Counter-Reformation.
Earlier we noted the bishop of Regensburg’s objections to the “compet-
ing” songs of pilgrims at the Neukirchen shrine, but he also objected to the
fact that they were staying the whole night inside the pilgrimage chapel,
“during which many bad things happen” (vnnderweils auch viel vbels darbeÿ
geschicht). The nature of this vbel is left to the imagination, but overnight stays
in pilgrimage churches were increasingly common in this period, with pil-
grims habitually passing the time by singing religious songs. Johann Engerd
111
Jakob Irsing, Historia Von der weitberühmbten unser lieben Frawen Capell zu Alten-Oeting in
Nidern Bayrn, trans. Johann Scheitenberger (Munich: Johann Jäcklin, 1660), 56–60.
The first edition of Irsing’s manual was published in 1644 by Cornelius Leysser at
Munich.
112
StA Deggendorf, R 27. I have examined parish records from 1584 to 1650.
113
Eder, Die “Deggendorfer Gnad”, 504.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 324 10/28/2013 10:37:00 PM

tells us, for example, that after the host and relics are put away for the night
at Bettbrunn, the pilgrims staying overnight “sing such fine and pious calls
[Rüff] and sacred songs throughout the night that it must be a hard-hearted
person indeed whose eyes do not well up at the sound.”114 The Benedictines
of Andechs openly encouraged overnight stays by pilgrims, probably real-
izing that this meant a greater economic return for them. In 1602, the abbot
Johann Chrysostomus had a chronicle of Andechs published in Munich—
dedicated to duke Maximilian I, one of the shrine’s great patrons—which
opened with a preface “to the Christian reader” describing the current nature
of pilgrimages there. Litany-singing pilgrims bearing crosses and torches
habitually made their way to Andechs on Laetare Sunday (the fourth Sunday
in Lent), on Ascension Day, and on the Sunday preceding the feast of St.
Michael. “Apart from other praiseworthy practices,” the abbot writes,
they pray with raised hands, they fall upon their knees, beat their
breasts, confess, and receive the most worthy Sacrament of the altar
with devotion. To many it seems good to keep vigil and sing through-
out the entire night, as did David, Isaiah, Christ the Lord himself,
Paul, and Silas. The holy Basil explained this custom well when he
said: “after this one was commanded to begin to sing what there was
to sing, upon which they passed the entire night with various songs
and prayers.”115
For the Marian shrine of Neukirchen we have the testimony of Romanus Sigl,
a priest from the nearby town of Straubing:
It is also true that a large number of pilgrims remain awake the entire
night, lying inside and around the holy chapel. For the entire night,
until the dawn of the new day appears and they attend the divine
service, they sing German, Bohemian, and Catholic songs of praise
in honor of God and his Mother. Indeed I have seen and heard this
myself, not without tears falling from my eyes.116
114
Engerd, Sanct Saluator zu Bettbrunn in Bayrn, 103–4. For original text, see Extended
Reference 6.34.
115
Preface to the Chronicon Andecense, Montis Sancti. Von dem Vrsprung der Herren vnd Grafen
von Andechs, auch mancherlay Stifftungen, auff deren alten Gräfenlichen Sitz vnd Schloß
Andechs in Obern Bayrn, Augspurger Bisthumbs, der Heylig Berg genannt (Munich: Nikolaus
Heinrich, 1602). The reference to St. Basil is unclear. For original text, see Extended
Reference 6.35.
116
Romanus Sigl, Unser liebe Fraw zum H. Bluet bey Newkirchen vor dem
Obern Böhemer Waldt. Das ist: Warhafft kurtzer Bericht von der heylig
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 325 10/28/2013 10:37:00 PM

Fortunatus Hueber augmented Sigl’s account of nighttime singing at
Neukirchen in 1671 when he wrote that “there are many who shorten the
night with communal songs of praise and intent wakefulness, and let their
Bohemian piety be heard in a fine and laudable manner with lovely sacred
songs.”117 This tradition only grew in popularity: in the Jubilee year of 1752,
when some 30,000 pilgrims visited the shrine, the author of a collection of
sermons would note that the churches were entirely filled at night, and “there
resounded in alternation and without interruption the most gracious Marian
songs of praise.”118 Enough accounts exist of such nighttime communal song
to conclude that it was a common element in the shaping of devotional space,
one that—in the absence of the shrine’s clergy and diurnal rituals—was con-
trolled by pilgrims themselves.
A Pilgrimage to St. Benno in Munich

Although sound and music indisputably were vital elements in early modern
pilgrimage, they are rarely thematized in primary sources, and an overall
picture of sound in pilgrimage can emerge only from combining widely scat-
tered pieces of evidence. Such a reconstruction is possible, for example, in the
case of the pilgrimage of the St. Martin parish at Landshut to the shrine of
St. Benno at Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich in September 1603. Documents
originally belonging to the collegiate chapter of St. Martin and Castulus,
now housed in the Bavarian State Archives in Munich, show that the chapter
fielded its own musical ensemble for the journey and also negotiated with
local authorities in both Freising and Munich for musical assistance.119
Since St. Benno was a relatively new pilgrimage and one closely bound
up with Wittelsbach political ambitions, it is of little surprise that its ini-
tial impetus came from not from parishioners but from the canons of the
Landshut chapter, who discussed it on Wednesday, August 27, 1603. At the
meeting, the provost saw the pilgrimage as an opportunity for parishioners
“to enjoy the intercession of Saint Benno,” but also called for “special persons
berühmbten Wahlfarhts Kirchen, und Bildtnuß der heyligist hochgebenedeyten Jungkfrawen

Gottes Gebärerin MARIÆ, zum H. Bluet genant (Straubing: Simon Haan, 1640),
ch. 4. For original text see Extended Reference 6.36.
117
Hueber, Zeitiger Granat-apfel, 250. For original text see Extended Reference 6.37.
118
Marianisches Predig-Octavarium (1753, p. 11), qtd. in Hartinger, “Die Wallfahrt
Neukirchen bei Heilig Blut,” 95.
119
BayHStA, KL Fasz. 314/20 1/2.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 326 10/28/2013 10:37:00 PM

[to watch out for] those who wilfully get drunk, or make mischief with curs-
ing or otherwise; these should be expelled from the flock.”120 Pilgrims were
instead to pray the Rosary or the Penitential Psalms, as well as the litany “for
the preservation of the Christian, Catholic religion, extirpation of heresy,
and for the concerns of the the people”—likely a version of Gregory XIII’s
Litaniae et preces ad opem aduersus haereticos et omnes S. Ecclesiae inimicos imploran-
dam (1578). The provost hoped for the participation of the Landshut city
council, not to mention the laity from nearby towns like Geisenhausen and
Vilsbiburg. The procession was to be led by the Confraternity of the Holy
Sepulchre, amounting to as many as eighty to a hundred persons; in addition,
the provost anticipated that flagellants (disciplinanten), who were accustomed
to marching in the evening procession on Good Friday, would join them as
well. This document and another composed two days later sketch the route
of the pilgrimage. Pilgrims would follow the Isar upriver to the southwest,
and cross the river at Moosburg, where a Mass was to be heard at the church
of St. Castulus. The procession was to continue to Freising, where the pil-
grims would make a station at the cathedral before retiring for the evening.
The next morning the pilgrims would depart Freising for Neufahrn, where
another Mass was to be heard, before continuing on to the northern outskirts
of Munich.121 The pilgrims were then to march in procession to the church
of Unsere Liebe Frau, arriving in time for the celebration of Vespers. Having
stayed overnight in Munich, the pilgrims would attend a service in honor of
St. Benno in the morning before beginning the return journey to Landshut.
Assuming that the pilgrims would overnight again at Freising, the pilgrim-
age would have taken a total of four days to complete.
A document dated August 29 gives a detailed order for the procession,
demonstrating the clear articulation of social groups and the separation of
men from women. Pilgrims were to assemble at St. Martin at 4:30 in the
morning on Monday September 15 to hear Mass, and then were to begin the
pilgrimage between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. in the following order:
First the Confraternity of the Holy Sepulchre with their banner.
120
Ibid. For original text, see Extended Reference 6.38.
121
Likely the pilgrims heard Mass at the church of St. Wilgefortis at Neufahrn, which
itself had been a modest pilgrimage destination from the late fifteenth century
onward. For an iconographical study of the cult of St. Wilgefortis (also known as St.
“Kümmernis”) see Koraljka Kos, “St. Kümmernis and Her Fiddler,” Studia musicologica
19 (1977): 251–66.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 327 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

Both of the cloisters [the Franciscans of St. Peter and Paul, and the
Dominicans of St. Blasius]
The clergy and the musicians, with the banner of St. Martin; the clergy
shall be strengthened as much as possible with local priests or pas-
tors from the countryside.
The candles to be offered, [carried] by one in a long gown and surplice,
or other special dress.
The banner of [the confraternity of] Our Lady of Altötting.
The men, first the princely governors, the city council, and others
from the nobility, burghers, and young men, [walking] two by two
with their staves.
The banner of [the confraternity] of the Rosary of Our Lady.
The virgins and women, also in good order, [walking] two or three
abreast.
From the very beginning the chapter concerned itself with the proper
musical accompaniment for the pilgrimage. Musicians from Landshut, as the
procession order shows, were to accompany the pilgrimage, but the dean
of Freising cathedral was to be asked whether his musicians could perform
for the arriving pilgrims on Monday afternoon, since the Landshut musi-
cians would likely be too tired from the journey. A draft of this letter, dated
September 6, reveals a “pilgrimage within a pilgrimage”: upon arriving at
the cathedral, the marchers would express their devotion at the altar of St.
Sigismund, “who still works miracles daily by the grace of God.”122 The chap-
ter calls for a “motet or litany” to be sung in the saint’s chapel—the earlier
documentation calls specifically for a Litany of All Saints—but requests the
aid of the cathedral musicians. No less important was the music to accom-
pany the pilgrimage’s arrival in Munich and its devotions in the church of
Unsere Liebe Frau. In its initial discussions the chapter resolved to write to
the Munich Jesuits, requesting that they send musicians to accompany the
pilgrims into the city—marching along with the Confraternity of the Holy
Sepulchre, at the head of the procession—and to perform during the Vespers
service to follow; furthermore, the chapter agreed to invite the ducal court
musicians as well to march with the Altötting Confraternity. An annotation
in the initial documentation suggests that the chapter rejected the idea of
122
On the veneration of St. Sigismund at Freising, see Stephan Randlinger, “Die Verehrung
des heiligen Sigismund, des zweiten Diözesanpatrons, in Freising,” in Wissenschaftliche
Festgabe zum zwölfhundertjährigen Jubiläum des heiligen Korbinian (Munich: Anton Huber,
1924), 350–62.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 328 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

engaging Jesuit musicians, “since they would have to be paid for it”; a let-
ter of September 6 to the dean of Unsere Liebe Frau, however, does indeed
request Jesuit musicians for the occasion (it is not known whether a similar
request was made for the ducal court musicians).
These are prescriptive documents, of course, but based on the scattered
evidence for this pilgrimage and others like it, it is plausible that a pilgrim-
age of this size—given the procession order quoted above, one estimates a
few hundred marchers—could have expected bell ringing upon departure
at Landshut, while entering and departing Moosburg and Freising, and per-
haps upon entering Munich’s urban core as well. The procession was adorned
at various points by the city’s own musicians, those of Freising cathedral,
the Munich Jesuits, and possibly Maximilian I’s court, all of which would
likely have performed polyphonic music. The documents tell us little about
the pilgrims’ music, but the varied types of monophonic litanies and songs
discussed earlier would have helped them pace the long journey of roughly
seventy-five kilometers through the Bavarian countryside. It is tempting to
think that the Andächtiger Rueff für die Pilgram Vom H. Bischoff Bennone, newly
printed by Adam Berg in Munich in that year, might have been available to
the Landshut Vorsänger, and that the refrains “Frew dich Sankt Benno” and
“Alleluia, bitt Gott für uns Sankt Benno” would have resounded along the
shallow valley of the Isar.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 329 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 330 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM
Bibliography
Albrecht, Dieter. Maximilian I. von Bayern 1573–1651. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998.

Alphabetum Christi seu virtutes præcipuæ quæ adolescentes ornant. Munich: Raphael Sadeler,
Anna Berg, 1618.
Alphabetum Sodalitatis B. Virginis, Quod sanctissima, antiquissima, sapientissima SS.
PP. schola composuit, exposuit, proposuit. Munich: Anna Berg, 1616.
Andres, Helga Marie. Rekonstruktion der Herzog-Maxburg in München. Schriften
aus dem Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität München 18.
Munich: tuduv-Verlag, 1987.
Appl, Tobias. “Der Ausbau geistlicher Zentren als Kernstück der Kirchenpolitik
Herzog Wilhelms V. (1579–1597/98) in Bayern.” PhD diss., Universität
Regensburg, 2009.
Atkinson, Niall. “Sonic Armatures: Constructing an Acoustic Regime in Renaissance
Florence.” Senses & Society 7 (2012): 39–52.
Attali, Jacques. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Translated by Brian Massumi.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985.
Bäumker, Wilhelm. Das katholische deutsche Kirchenlied in seinen Singweisen von den
frühesten Zeiten bis gegen Ende des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts. 4 vols. Freiburg im
Breisgau: Herder, 1883–1911.
Barth, Fredrik. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Cultural
Difference. Bergen: Universitets Forlaget, 1969.
Batz, Karl, ed. Die Jesuiten in Ingolstadt, 1549–1773: Ausstellung des Stadtarchivs,
der Wissenschaftlichen Stadtbibliothek und des Stadtmuseums Ingolstadt.
Ingolstadt: Stadtarchiv Ingolstadt, 1991.
Bauer, Barbara. “Multimediales Theater. Ansätze zu einer Poetik der Synästhesie
bei den Jesuiten.” In Renaissance-Poetik, edited by Heinrich F. Plett, 197–238.
Berlin: De Gruyter, 1994.
Bauer, Barbara, and Jürgen Leonhardt, eds. Trivmphvs divi Michaelis Archangeli
Bavarici. Triumph des Heiligen Michael, Patron Bayerns (München, 1597). Jesuitica
2. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2000.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 331 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

Bauer, Robert. Die Marienwallfahrt Tuntenhausen. Rosenheim: L. Berchtenbreiter, 1930.
Bauer, Wolfgang. Aus dem Diarium gymnasii S. J. Monacensis. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des
k. Wilhelmsgymnasiums in München. Munich: J. Gotteswinter & Mössl, 1878.
Beer, Axel. Die Annahme des “stile nuovo” in der katholischen Kirchenmusik Süddeutschlands.
Frankfurter Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 22. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1989.
Beer, Axel. “Michael Kraf (1595–1662) – Lebensweg und Schaffen.” In Bedeutende
Bad Neustädter: Ein musikalisches Dreigestirn, edited by Erhard Nowak, 33–76. Bad
Neustadt: Rötter, 1998.
Bellarmine, Robert. Disputationes de controversiis christianiae fidei adversus huius temporis
haereticos. Ingolstadt: David Sartorius, 1586–1593.
Bente, Martin, Marie Louise Göllner, Helmut Hell, and Bettina Wackernagel,
eds. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Katalog der Musikhandschriften. 1. Chorbücher und
Handschriften in chorbuchartiger Notation. Kataloge Bayerischer Musiksammlungen
1. Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 1989.
Bergquist, Peter. “Orlando di Lassos Nunc Dimittis-Vertonungen.” Musik in Bayern 33
(1986): 5–28.
Bergquist, Peter. “Modal ordering within Orlando di Lasso’s publications.” In Orlando di
Lasso Studies, edited by Peter Bergquist, 203–26. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999.
Best, Thomas W. Jacob Bidermann. New York: Twayne, 1975.
Bettbüchel Für die löblich Ertzbruderschafft, der allerheiligisten Jungkfrawen vnd Mutter Gottes
Mariæ mit allerley ausserleßnen andächtigen betrachtungen, von newem vbersehen vnd gemeh-
ret. Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1612.
Bischoff, Bernhard, and Tilmann Breuer, eds. Deutscher Glockenatlas. 4 vols.
Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1959–1985.
Bittrich Voll Deß Himmlischen Manna. Süssen Morgen-Thau. Das ist: Historischer Discurs,
Von Dem Ursprung, Fundation, Auffnamb, glücklichen Fortgang, Tugend-Wandel, vnd
andern denckwürdigen Sachen Deß Löbl. Frauen-Closters, Ordens der dritten Regul deß
Heil. Francisci, Bey Sanct Christophen im Bittrich genannt. Munich: Johann Lucas
Straub, 1721.
Blesser, Barry, and Linda-Ruth Salter. Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 2006.
Boetticher, Wolfgang. Orlando di Lasso und seine Zeit, 1532–1594.
Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1958.
Böhme, Franz Magnus. Altdeutsches Liederbuch: Volkslieder der Deutschen nach Wort und
Weise aus dem 12. bis zum 17. Jahrhundert. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1877.
Boer, Hans-Peter. “Das Glockenläuten im Dorf. Historische Läuteformen und
Läutebrauchtum am Beispiel des Stifts- und Pfarrkirche St. Martinus zu Nottuln.”
Rheinisch-westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 41 (1996): 101–42.
Börner, Egid. Dritter Orden und Bruderschaften der Franziskaner in Kurbayern.
Franziskanische Forschungen 33. Werl in Westfalen: Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, 1988.
Braun, Reiner, ed. Die bayerischen Teile des Erzbistums Salzburg und des Bistums Chiemsee in
der Visitation des Jahres 1558. St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1991.
Brems, Franz Josef. Wir sind unterwegs . . .: 500 bayerische Marienwallfahrtsorte.
St. Ottilien: EOS-Verlag, 1992.
Brenninger, Georg. Orgeln in Altbayern. Munich: Bruckmann, 1982.
332 | b i b l i o g r a p h y
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 332 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

Breuer, Dieter. Oberdeutsche Literatur 1565–1650: deutsche Literaturgeschichte
und Territorialgeschichte in frühabsolutistischer Zeit. Zeitschrift für bayerische
Landesgeschichte Beiheft 11, Reihe B. Munich: Beck, 1979.
Breuer, Dieter. “Absolutische Staatsreform und neue Frömmigkeitsformen.
Vorüberlegungen zu einer Frömmigkeitsgeschichte der frühen Neuzeit aus lit-
erarhistorischer Sicht.” In Frömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit: Studien zur religiösen
Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland und Spanien, edited by Dieter Breuer,
5–25. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1984.
Brown, Christopher B. Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the
Reformation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
Bruckbräu, Friedrich Wilhelm. Geschichte der Mariensäule in München 1638–1855.
Munich: J. G. Weiss, 1855.
Brückner, Wolfgang. “Zum Literaturangebot des güldenen Almosens.” Zeitschrift für
bayerische Landesgeschichte 47 (1984): 121–39.
Burke, Peter. “How to Become a Counter-Reformation Saint.” In The
Counter-Reformation: The Essential Readings, edited by David M. Luebke, 129–42.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999.
Burn, David J. “On the Transmission and Preservation of Mass-Propers at the Bavarian
Court.” In Die Münchner Hofkapelle des 16. Jahrhunderts im europäischen Kontext,
edited by Theodor Göllner and Bernhold Schmid, 319–33. Munich: Verlag der
Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006.
Busch, Karl. “Die Residenz der Wittelsbacher in München.” In Der Mönch
im Wappen: aus Geschichte und Gegenwart des katholischen München, 259–83.
Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1960.
Canisius, Peter. Institutiones christianae pietatis seu catechismus. Dillingen: Sebald Mayer, 1572.
Canisius, Peter. De Maria Virgine incomparabili et Dei Genitrice Sacrosancta.
Ingolstadt: David Sartorius, 1577.
Casey, Edward. “How to Get from Space to Place in a Fairly Short Stretch of
Time: Phenomenological Prolegomena.” In Senses of Place, edited by Steven Feld and
Keith Basso, 13–52. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 1996.
Chronicon Andecense, Montis Sancti. Von dem Vrsprung der Herren vnd Grafen von Andechs,
auch mancherlay Stifftungen, auff deren alten Gräfenlichen Sitz vnd Schloß Andechs
in Obern Bayrn, Augspurger Bisthumbs, der Heylig Berg genannt. Munich: Nikolaus
Heinrich, 1602.
Classen, Constance. Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and across Cultures.
London, New York: Routledge, 1993.
Classen, Constance, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott. Aroma: The Cultural History of
Smell. London, New York: Routledge, 1994.
Contzen, Adam, S. J. Politicorum libri decem, in quibus de perfectae Reipublicae forma,
virtutibus, et vitiis, insitutione civium, legibus, magistratu ecclesiastico, civili, potentia
Reipublicae, itemque seditione et bello, ad usum vitamque communem accommodate tractatur.
Mainz: Johannes Kinck, [1621?].
Corbin, Alain. Time, Desire, and Horror: Towards a History of the Senses. Translated by Jean
Birrell. Cambridge: Polity, 1995.
Corbin, Alain. Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the Nineteenth-Century French Countryside.
Translated by Martin Thom. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
b i b l i o g r a p h y | 333
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 333 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

Corpis, Duane J. “Mapping the Boundaries of Confession: Space and Urban Religious
Life in the Diocese of Augsburg, 1648–1750.” In Sacred Space in Early Modern
Europe, edited by Will Coster and Andrew Spicer, 302–25. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005.
Coster, Will, and Andrew Spicer, eds. Sacred Space in Early Modern Europe.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Craig, John. “Psalms, Groans and Dog-Whippers: The Soundscape of Sacred Space in
the English Parish Church, 1547–1642.” In Sacred Space in Early Modern Europe,
edited by Will Coster and Andrew Spicer, 104–23. Cambridge: Cambridge
Creasman, Allyson F. “The Virgin Mary against the Jews: Anti-Jewish Polemic in the
Pilgrimage to the Schöne Maria of Regensburg, 1519–25.” Sixteenth Century Journal
33 (2002): 963–80.
Crook, David. Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats for Counter-Reformation Munich.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Crook, David. “A Performance of Lasso’s Penitential Psalms on Maundy Thursday 1580.”
In Orlando di Lasso in der Musikgeschichte: Bericht über das Symposion der Bayerischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften München, 4.–6. Juli 1994, edited by Bernhold Schmid,
69–77. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996.
Crook, David. “A Sixteenth-Century Catalog of Prohibited Music.” Journal of the
American Musicological Society 62 (2009): 1–78.
Culley, Thomas D., S.J. Jesuits and Music: I. A Study of the Musicians connected with the
German College in Rome during the 17th Century and of their Activities in Northern
Europe. Sources and Studies for the History of the Jesuits 2. Rome: Jesuit Historical
Institute, 1970.
De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Steven Rendall.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
De Smet, Ingrid A. R. “Contre les cloches: pour une lecture de neuf épigrammes
inédites de Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617).” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et
Renaissance 66 (2004): 91–110.
Döring, Alois. “St. Salvator in Bettbrunn. Historisch-volkskundliche Untersuchung
zur eucharistischen Wallfahrt.” Beiträge zur Geschichte des Bistums Regensburg 13
(1979): 35–234.
Dollinger, Robert. “Erhalt uns Herr, bei deinem Wort!” Zeitschrift für bayerische
Kirchengeschichte 29 (1960): 33–42.
Duhr, Bernhard. Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge in der ersten Hälfte
des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 2 vols. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1913.
Durand, Guillaume. Rationale divinorum officiorum. Lyon: sumptibus Ioannis Baptistae
Buysson, 1592.
Edelmann, Bernd. “Zu den vier Messen des Münchner Hofkapellcodex Mus.ms. 64.”
In Die Münchner Hofkapelle des 16. Jahrhunderts im europäischen Kontext, edited by
Theodor Göllner and Bernhold Schmid, 434–66. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006.
Eder, Manfred. Die “Deggendorfer Gnad”: Entstehung und Entwicklung einer Hostienwallfahrt
im Kontext von Theologie und Geschichte. Deggendorf: Stadt Deggendorf;
Passau: Passavia, 1992.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 334 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

Eisengrein, Martin. Ein Christenliche predig, Auß was vrsachen, so vil Leut, in vilen
landen, vom Papstum[m] zum Luthertum[m] fallen. Vnd. Wie wir zu disen schweren
leuffen, den versuchungen des bösen feinds, in glaubens sachen, widerstand thun sollen.
Ingolstadt: Alexander and Samuel Weissenhorn, 1562.
Eisengrein, Martin. Vnser liebe Fraw zu Alten Oetting. Das ist, Von der Vralten Capellen
vnser Lieben Frawen vnnd dem Für. Stifft S. Philip vnd Jacob zu Alten Oetting: Was auch
von den vilen Wunderzaichen, Haylthumb, Kirchfärten, Creützgängen, Erscheinungen vnd
hülff der Hayligen &c. desselben vnd anderer ort, zu halten sey. Ingolstadt: Alexander
Weissenhorn, 1571.
Eitner, Robert. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und
Musikgelehrten. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1900.
Ekirch, A. Roger. At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past. New York: Norton, 2005.
Engerd, Johann. Sanct Saluator zu Bettbrunn in Bayrn: Das ist, Von der Alten H. Capellen
vnd wirdigen hochberühmten Gotteshauß vnsers lieben Herrn Sanct Saluators zu Bettbrunn
in Fürstenthumb Bayrn, Regenspurger Bisthumbs: Auch Von den vielen Wunderzeychen,
Heylthumb, Gelübden, Walfärten vnd anderer Christlichen Andacht desselben Orts, &c.
Durch Joannem Engerdum, bey der Hohenschul zu Jngolstatt ordinari Professorn, &c.
Ingolstadt, 1584.
Erb, James. “Orlando di Lasso’s First Magnificat Publication: A Contribution to the
Complete Edition, With Commentary.” PhD diss., Harvard University, 1978.
Erlmann, Veit. “But What of the Ethnographic Ear? Anthropology, Sound, and the
Senses.” In Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity, edited by Veit
Erlmann, 1–20. London: Berg, 2004.
Erlmann, Veit, ed. Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity.
London: Berg, 2004.
Eurich, Amanda. “Sacralising Space: Reclaiming Civic Culture in Early Modern
France.” In Sacred Space in Early Modern Europe, edited by Will Coster and Andrew
Spicer, 259–81. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Fabris, Melchior de. Wegweyser aller Creutzferter, Kirchferter, Walferter oder Pilgram andacht,
so Christlicher vnd Catholischer mainung die heiligen ort besuchen, zu befürdern. Durch
Melchiorn de Fabris vnwirdigisten Pfarrherrn in Tauffers, Anno 1584. zusamen gezogen.
Munich: Adam Berg, 1584.
Feld, Steven. Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics and Song in Kaluli Expression.
2nd ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990.
Fellerer, Karl Gustav. “Ein Musikalien-Inventar des fürstbischöflichen Hofes in Freising
aus dem 17. Jahrhundert.” Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 6 (1924): 471–83.
Fellerer, Karl Gustav. “Die Dommusik im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert.” In Der
Freisinger Dom. Beiträge zur seiner Geschichte, edited by J. A. Fischer, 221–38.
Freising: Historischer Verein 1967.
Fellerer, Karl Gustav, ed. Geschichte der katholischen Kirchenmusik. 2 vols.
Fisher, Alexander J. “Song, Confession, and Criminality: Trial Records as Sources
for Popular Musical Culture in Early Modern Europe.” Journal of Musicology 18
(2001): 616–57.
Fisher, Alexander J., ed. Rudolph di Lasso. Virginalia Eucharistica (1615). Recent
Researches in the Music of the Baroque 114. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 2002.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 335 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

Fisher, Alexander J. Music and Religious Identity in Counter-Reformation Augsburg, 1580–
1630. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
Fisher, Alexander J. “ ‘Per mia particolare devotione’: Orlando di Lasso’s Lagrime di San
Pietro and Catholic Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Munich.” Journal of the
Royal Musical Association 132 (2007): 167–220.
Fisher, Alexander J. “Celestial Sirens and Nightingales: Change and Assimilation in the
Munich Anthologies of Georg Victorinus.” Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 14,
no. 1 (2008). http://www.sscm-jscm.org/v14/no1/fisher.html.
Fisher, Alexander J., ed. Anton Holzner. Viretum pierium (1621). Recent Researches in the
Music of the Baroque Era 156. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 2009.
Fisher, Alexander J. “Themes of Exile and (Re-)Enclosure in Music for the Franciscan
Convents of Counter-Reformation Munich during the Thirty Years’ War.” In
Enduring Loss in Early Modern Germany: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives, edited by
Lynne Tatlock, 281–305. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Flotto, Adam. Historia Provinciae Societatis Jesu Germaniae Superioris. Ab Anno 1601 ad
1610. Augsburg: Happach & Gruber, 1734.
Forster, Marc R. “The Thirty Years’ War and the Failure of Catholicization.” In The
Forster, Marc R. Catholic Revival in the Age of the Baroque: Religious Identity in Southwest
Germany, 1550–1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Forster, Marc R. “Catholic Confessionalism in Germany after 1650.” In
Confessionalization in Europe, 1555–1700. Essays in Honor and Memory of Bodo Nischan,
edited by John M. Headley, Hans J. Hillerbrand, and Anthony J. Papalas, 227–42.
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
Frandsen, Mary. “Salve Regina / Salve Rex Christe: Lutheran Engagement with the
Marian Antiphons in the Age of Orthodoxy and Piety.” Musica disciplina 55
(2010): 129–218.
Fuchs, Achim. “Die Durchführung der Gegenreformation in der Oberpfalz.” In Die
Oberpfalz wird bayerisch. Die Jahre 1621 bis 1628 in Amberg und der Oberpfalz, edited
by Karl-Otto Ambronn, 49–60. Amberg: Kulturamt der Stadt Amberg, 1978.
Fürstl: Bischoffliches Mandatum, die ChristenLehr betreffend: Außgangen an die gantze
Freysingische Clerisey, im Jahr 1642. Munich: Cornelius Leysser, 1642.
Gallus, Nikolaus. Vom Bäpstlichen Abgöttischen Fest, CORPORIS CHRISTI oder
Fronleichnams Tag genannt, aus den Historien und aus Gottes wort, warer gründtlicher
Bericht. Regensburg: Heinrich Geisler, 1561.
Gamber, Klaus. Cantiones Germanicae im Regensburger Obsequiale von 1570. Erstes offizielles
katholisches Gesangbuch Deutschlands. Regensburg: Pustet, 1983.
Ganzer, Klaus. “Das Konzil von Trient und die theologische Dimension der
katholischen Konfessionalisierung.” In Die katholische Konfessionalisierung.
Wissenschaftliches Symposion der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus Catholicorum
und des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1993, edited by Wolfgang Reinhard and
Heinz Schilling, 50–69. Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 198.
Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1995.
Garceau, Michelle E. “ ‘I Call the People.’ Church Bells in Fourteenth-Century
Catalunya.” Journal of Medieval History 37 (2011): 197–214.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 336 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

Gasch, Stefan. “Die Fastenzeit Proprien Mattheus Le Maistres für den Münchner Hof.”
In Die Münchner Hofkapelle des 16. Jahrhunderts im europäischen Kontext, edited by
Theodor Göllner and Bernhold Schmid, 334–63. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006.
Geiß, Ernest. Geschichte der Stadtpfarrei St. Peter in München. Munich: Druck der Officin
des königl. Central-Schulbücher-Verlages, 1867.
Genz, Bernd. “Johannes Kuen. Eine Untersuchung zur süddeutschen geistlichen
Lieddichtung im 17. Jahrhundert.” PhD diss., University of Cologne, 1957.
Gierl, Irmgard. Bauernleben und Bauernwallfahrt in Altbayern. Eine kulturkundliche
Studie auf Grund der Tuntenhausener Mirakelbücher. Beiträge zur altbayerischen
Kirchengeschichte 21/2. Munich: Franz Seitz, 1960.
Glixon, Jonathan. Honoring God and the City: Music at the Venetian Confraternities,
1260–1807. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Gmeinwieser, Siegfried. “Anton Holzner, Organist und Komponist am Hofe
des Kurfürsten Maximilian in München.” Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch 53
(1969): 133–44.
Gmeinwieser, Siegfried. “Die altklassische Vokalpolyphonie Roms in ihrer Bedeutung
für den kirchenmusikalischen Stil in München.” Analecta Musicologica 12
(1973): 119–42.
Göllner, Marie Louise, ed. Katalog der Musikhandschriften. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
2. Tabulaturen und Stimmbücher bis zur Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts, Kataloge bayer-
ischer Musiksammlungen 5/2. Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 1979.
Göllner, Theodor, and Bernhold Schmid, eds. Die Münchner Hofkapelle des 16.
Jahrhunderts im europäischen Kontext. Bericht über das internationale Symposion der
Musikhistorischen Kommission der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaft in Verbindung
mit der Gesellschaft für Bayerische Musikgeschichte München 2.- 4. August 2004.
Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006.
Gray, Emily Fisher. “Good Neighbors: Architecture and Confession in Augsburg’s
Lutheran Church of Holy Cross, 1525–1661.” PhD diss., University of
Pennsylvania, 2004.
Gretser, Jakob. De sacris et religiosis peregrinationibus libri quatuor. Eiusdem de Catholicae
Ecclesiae processionibus seu supplicationibus libri duo. Quibus adiuncti: de voluntaria flagel-
lorum cruce, seu de disciplinarum usu libri tres. Ingolstadt: Adam Sartorius, 1606.
Guevara, Antonio de. Erster Theil der guldenen Sendtschreiben. Translated by Aegidius
Albertinus. Munich: Adam Berg, 1600.
Gumppenberg, Wilhelm. Atlas Marianus, sive de imaginibus Deiparae per orbem christianum
miraculosis. Ingolstadt: Georg Hänlin, 1657.
Guth, Klaus. “Geschichtlicher Abriß der marianischen Wallfahrtsbewegung im
deutschsprachigen Raum.” In Handbuch der Marienkunde, edited by Wolfgang
Beinert and Heinrich Petri, 721–848. Regensburg: Pustet, 1984.
Härting, Michael. “Die kirchliche Gesäng in der Volkssprache.” In Geschichte
der katholischen Kirchenmusik, edited by Karl Gustav Fellerer, 1:453–63.
Härting, Michael. “Das deutsche Kirchenlied der Gegenreformation.” In Geschichte
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 337 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

Härting, Michael. “Das deutsche Kirchenlied der Barockzeit.” In Geschichte
Hamacher, Theo. Beiträge zur Geschichte des Katholischen Deutschen Kirchenliedes.
Paderborn: im Selbstverlag, 1985.
Hamilton, Sarah, and Andrew Spicer. “Defining the Holy: the Delineation of Sacred
Space.” In Defining the Holy: Sacred Space in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited
by Andrew Spicer and Sarah Hamilton, 1–23. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.
Hanauer, Josef. Die bayerischen Kurfürsten Maximilian I. und Ferdinand Maria und
die katholische Restauration in der Oberpfalz. Regensburg: Verlag des Vereins für
Regensburger Bistumsgeschichte, 1993.
Hartinger, Walter. “Die Wallfahrt Neukirchen bei Heilig Blut. Volkskundliche
Untersuchung einer Gnadenstätte an der bayerisch-böhmischen Grenze.” Beiträge
zur Geschichte des Bistums Regensburg 5 (1971): 23–240.
Hartinger, Walter. “Ain schöner Catholischer Rueff. Zur Genese eines barocken
Wallfahrtsliedes.” Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde (1972–1975): 195–210.
Hartinger, Walter. “Marianische Wallfahrtslieder aus Neukirchen bei Hl. Blut.”
Niederbayerische Blätter für Volksmusik 1 (1983): 35–39.
Hartinger, Walter. Mariahilf ob Passau: volkskundliche Untersuchung der Passauer Wallfahrt
und der Mariahilf-Verehrung in deutschsprachigen Raum. Passau: Verlag des Vereins fur
Ostbairische Heimatforschung, 1985.
Hartmann, August, ed. Historische Volkslieder und Zeitgedichte vom sechzehnten bis neunzehten
Jahrhundert. Munich: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1907.
Harvolk, Edgar. “Szenische Ölbergandachten in Altbayern.” Bayerisches Jahrbuch für
Volkskunde (1978): 69–87.
Haub, Rita. “Georgius Victorinus und der Triumphus Divi Michaelis Archangeli
Bavarici.” Musik in Bayern 51 (1995): 79–84.
Häutle, Christian. “Die Reisen des Augsburger Philipp Hainhofer nach Eichstätt,
München und Augsburg in den Jahren 1611, 1612 und 1613.” Zeitschrift des
Historischen Vereins für Schwaben 8 (1881): 1–204.
Heal, Bridget. The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and
Catholic Piety, 1500–1648. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Heilmaier, Ludwig. “Überführung der Reliquien des Hl. Castulus von Moosburg nach
Landshut.” Frigisinga 2 (1925): 408–13.
Heinzel, Alexander. “Orlando di Lasso und die Münchner Salve Regina-Tradition.”
Musik in Bayern 55 (1998): 143–58.
Hell, Helmut, Monika Holl, and Robert Machold, eds. Die Musikhandschriften aus dem Dom zu
Unserer Lieben Frau in München: thematischer Katalog: mit einem Anhang, Ein Chorbuch aus St.
Andreas in Freising. Kataloge bayerischer Musiksammlungen 8. Munich: G. Henle, 1987.
Hell, Helmut, and Horst Leuchtmann, eds. Orlando di Lasso: Musik der Renaissance
am Münchner Fürstenhof: Ausstellung zum 450. Geburtstag, 27. Mai–31. Juli 1982.
Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1982.
Hemmerle, Josef. Geschichte des Augustinerklosters in München. Munich, Pasing: Verlag
Bayerische Heimatforschung, 1956.
Herrmann, Hildegard. “Die Musikpflege der bayerischen Franziskaner von der
Gründung der Provinz bis zur Säkularisation.” In Musik in bayerischen Klöstern,
1:259–91. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1986.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 338 10/28/2013 10:37:01 PM

Hersche, Peter. “Die Lustreise der kleinen Leute – zur geselligen Funktion der barocken
Wallfahrt.” In Geselligkeit und Gesellschaft im Barockzeitalter, edited by Wolfgang
Adam, 321–32. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997.
Hess, Günter. “Religionis theatrum. Emblematik und Fest bei der Kanonisationsfeier
der Heiligen Ignatius und Franz Xavier in Ingolstadt 1622.” In Der Tod des Seneca.
Studien zur Kunst der Imagination in Texten und Bildern des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts,
302–20. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2009.
Hildebrandt, Maria, and Klaus-Dieter Engel. Münchner Stadtpfeifer und Stadtmusikanten.
Volksmusik in München 17. Munich: Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt
München, Musikverlag Preissler, 1993.
Hoffer, Peter Charles. Sensory Worlds in Early America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins
Hofmann, Dorothea. Die “Rhitmorum Varietas” des Johannes Werlin aus Kloster Seeon.
Collectanea musicologica 7. Augsburg: Bernd Wißner, 1994.
Hofmann, Ruth. “Notendruck.” In Musik in Ingolstadt. Zur Geschichte der Musikkultur
in Ingolstadt. Ausstellung des Stadtarchivs und Stadtmuseums Ingolstadt vom 19.10. bis
18.11.1984, edited by Siegfried Hofmann, 125–42. Ingolstadt: Historischer Verein
Ingolstadt, 1984.
Hofmann, Siegfried, ed. Musik in Ingolstadt. Zur Geschichte der Musikkultur in Ingolstadt.
Ausstellung des Stadtarchivs und Stadtmuseums Ingolstadt vom 19.10. bis 18.11.1984.
Ingolstadt: Historischer Verein Ingolstadt, 1984.
Hofmann, Siegfried. Geschichte der Stadt Ingolstadt 1506–1600. Ingolstadt: Donaukurier
Verlagsgesellschaft, 2006.
Holt, Mack P. “Confessionalization beyond the Germanies: The Case of France.” In
Confessionalization in Europe, 1555–1700. Essays in Honor and Memory of Bodo Nischan,
edited by John M. Headley, Hans J. Hillerbrand, and Anthony J. Papalas, 257–74.
Holzapfel, Otto, ed. “Catholisch Gesangbüchlein”. München 1613. Photomechanischer
Nachdruck, mit Kommentar und Nachwort von Otto Holzapfel. Geistlische Literatur der
Barockzeit 1. Amsterdam: Holland University Press, 1979.
Honisch, Erika Supria. “Sacred Music in Prague, 1580–1612.” PhD diss., University of
Chicago, 2011.
Hoppe, Bernhard M. “München-Thalkirchen.” In Marienwallfahrten im Erzbistum
München und Freising, edited by Peter Pfister and Hans Ramisch, 127–35.
Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1989.
Howard, Deborah, and Laura Moretti. Sound and Space in Renaissance Venice: Architecture,
Music, Acoustics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
Howes, David, ed. The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the
Senses. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
Hsia, R. Po-Chia. Social Discipline in the Reformation, Central Europe 1550–1750.
London: Routledge, 1989.
Hubensteiner, Benno. Vom Geist des Barock: Kultur und Frömmigkeit im alten Bayern.
Munich: Süddeutscher Verlag, 1967.
Hueber, Fortunatus. Zeitiger Granat-apfel Der allerscheinbaristen Wunderzierden In denen
Wunderthätigen Bildsaulen Unser L. Frawen, der allerheiligisten Jungfräwlichen Mutter
Gottes MARIA Bey zweyen hoch-ansehentlichen Völckern der Bayrn vnd Böhamen.
Besonders Von der Blutfleissenden Bildsaulen der gnadenreichisten Himmelkönigin und
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 339 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Trösterin aller Betrübten Zu Newkirchen In Chur-Bayrn, am Ober Böhamer-Wald gelegen.
Munich: Lucas Straub, 1671.
Hueber, Fortunatus. Lob-Danck- vnd Ehren-reiche Gedächtnuß, Von dem Geist- und Löblichen
Jungfrau-Closter deß III. Ordens S. FRANCISCI. Munich: Sebastian Rauch, 1695.
Hufnagel, Max Joseph. “Zeugen eucharisticher Frömmigkeit in St. Peter, Münchens
ältester Pfarrei.” In Eucharistische Frömmigkeit in Bayern, edited by Adolf Wilhelm
Ziegler, 9–36. Munich: Seitz, 1963.
Hufnagel, Max Joseph. “Der heilige Benno, Bischof von Meißen.” In Bavaria Sancta.
Zeugen christlichen Glaubens in Bayern, edited by Georg Schwaiger, 3:204–12.
Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1973.
Irsing, Jakob. Historia Von der weitberühmbten unser lieben Frawen Capell zu Alten-Oeting in
Nidern Bayrn. Translated by Johann Scheitenberger. Munich: Johann Jäcklin, 1660.
Jacobsen, Knut A., ed. South Asian Religions on Display: Religious Processions in South Asia
and in the Diaspora. New York, London: Routledge, 2008.
Jedin, Hubert. “Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation?” In The
John, Sabine. “ ‘Mit Behutsambkeit und Reverentz zu tractieren’: Die
Katakombenheiligen im Münchner Pütrichkloster—Arbeit und Frömmigkeit.”
Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde (1995): 1–34.
Johnson, Trevor. Magistrates, Madonnas and Miracles: The Counter Reformation in the Upper
Palatinate. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009.
Kaff, Brigitte. Volksreligion und Landeskirche: die evangelische Bewegung im bayerischen Teil
der Diözese Passau. Munich: Kommissionsbuchhandlung R. Wölfle, 1977.
Kaplan, Benjamin J. Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in
Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of the Harvard University
Press, 2007.
Karant-Nunn, Susan. The Reformation of Ritual: An Interpretation of Early Modern
Germany. London: Routledge, 1997.
Karnehm, Christl. Die Münchner Frauenkirche. Erstausstattung und barocke
Umgestaltung. Miscellanea Bavarica Monacensia 13. Munich: Kommissionsverlag
UNI-Druck, 1984.
Kelman, Ari. “Rethinking the Soundscape: A Critical Genealogy of a Key Term in
Sound Studies.” Senses & Society 5, no. 2 (2010): 212–24.
Kendrick, Robert L. Celestial Sirens: Nuns and Their Music in Early Modern Milan.
Oxford, New York: Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, 1996.
Kendrick, Robert L. “ ‘Honore a Dio, e allegrezza alli santi, e consolazioni alli
putti’: The Musical Projection of Litanies in Sixteenth-Century Italy.” In Plasmare
il suono: Il culto dei santi e la musica (secc. XVI-XVIII), edited by Simon Ditchfield,
15–46. Sanctorum 6. Rome: Viella, 2009.
Kirchhuber, Barnaba. Der Gnaden- und Tugend-reiche Anger, Das ist: Die sonderbare grosse
Gnaden, tugendsame Leben, vnd andere denck- vnd lob-würdige Begebenheiten, So In dem
Uhr-alten vnd Hoch-berühmten Gotts-Hauß, vnd Jungfräulichen Closter S. CLARÆ
Ordens in München bey S. JACOB am ANGER biß in die 480. Jahr verschlossen,
vnd verborgen gelegen, nunmehr angemerckt und eröffnet. Munich: Maria Magdalena
Rauchin, 1701.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 340 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Knöpfler, Aloys. Die Kelchbewegung in Bayern unter Herzog Albrecht V. Ein Beitrag zur
Reformationsgeschichte des 16. Jahrhunderts. Munich: E. Stahl, 1891.
Körndle, Franz. “ ‘Ad te perenne gaudium.’ Lassos Musik zum ‘Vltimum Judicium’.”
Die Musikforschung 53 (2000): 68–71.
Körndle, Franz. “Der ‘tägliche Dienst’ der Münchner Hofkapelle im 16. Jahrhundert.”
In Musikalischer Alltag im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, edited by Nicole Schwindt,
21–37. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2001.
Körndle, Franz. “Between Stage and Divine Service: Jesuits and Theatrical Music.”
In The Jesuits II: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540–1773, edited by John W.
O’Malley, 479–97. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
Körndle, Franz. “Das Münchner Proprienrepertoire und das Konzil von Trient.” In Die
Münchner Hofkapelle des 16. Jahrhunderts im europäischen Kontext, edited by Theodor
Göllner and Bernhold Schmid, 364–76. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, 2006.
Krammer, Otto. Bildungswesen und Gegenreformation: die Hohen Schulen der Jesuiten im
katholischen Teil Deutschlands vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert. Würzburg: Gesellschaft
für deutsche Studentengeschichte; Archivverein der Markomannia, 1988.
Krettner, Josef. Erster Katalog von Bruderschaften in Bayern. Munich: Bayerisches
Nationalmuseum; Würzburg: Bayerische Blätter für Volkskunde, 1980.
Kropf, Franciscus Xaverius. Historia Provinciae Societatis Jesu Germaniae Superioris. Pars
IV. Ab anno 1611 ad annum 1630. Munich: Johann Jakob Vötter, 1740.
Landersdorfer, Anton. Das Bistum Freising in der bayerischen Visitation des Jahres 1560. St.
Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1986.
Landrecht Policey, Gerichts- Malefitz- und andere Ordnungen der Fürstenthumben Obern und
Nidern Bayrn. Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1616.
Lang, Peter Thaddäus. “ ‘Ein grobes, unbändiges Volk.’ Visitationsbericht und
Volksfrömmigkeit.” In Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit, edited by Hansgeorg
Molitor and Herbert Smolinsky, 49–63. Münster: Aschendorff, 1994.
Leaver, Robin A. Luther’s Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications. Grand Rapids,
MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2007.
Leben vnd Marter Deß heiligen Christophori, Sambt einem Lob=Ruef vnnd Gebett. Zu
Trost aller deren, so den Namen deß gemelten heiligen Martyrers mit Andacht tragen.
Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith.
Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.
Leitmeir, Christian Thomas. “Vom Adlatus Lassos zum bayerischen Hofkapellmeister. Die
Verdienste Johannes de Fossas um die Münchner Hofmusik.” In Die Münchner Hofkapelle
des 16. Jahrhunderts im europäischen Kontext, edited by Theodor Göllner and Bernhold
Schmid, 47–101. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006.
Leppert, Richard. “Desire, Power, and the Sonoric Landscape.” In The Place of
Music, edited by Andrew Leyshon, David Matless, and George Revill, 291–321.
New York: Guilford Press, 1998.
Leuchtmann, Horst. “Organisten und Orgelbauer in ihrer Beziehung zum bayerischen
Herzogshof.” Acta Organologica 6 (1972): 99–122.
Leuchtmann, Horst. “Zeitgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen des Bayerischen
Kapellaltisten Johannes Hellgemayr 1595–1633. Ein Beitrag zur Münchner
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 341 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Stadt- und Musikgeschichte.” Oberbayerisches Archiv für vaterländische Geschichte 100
(1975): 142–221.
Leuchtmann, Horst. Orlando di Lasso. 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel,
1976–1977.
Leuchtmann, Horst, ed. Die Münchner Fürstenhochzeit von 1568. Massimo Troiano: Dialoge.
Munich, Salzburg: Verlag Emil Katzbichler, 1980.
Leuchtmann, Horst. “Die Maximilianeische Hofkapelle.” In Um Glauben und
Reich: Kurfürst Maximilian I. Beiträge zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kunst,
1573–1657, edited by Hubert Glaser, 364–75. Wittelsbach und Bayern II/1.
Munich: Hirmer, 1980.
Leuchtmann, Horst. “Zum Ordnungsprinzip in Lassos Magnum Opus Musicum.”
Musik in Bayern 40 (1990): 46–72.
Liebhart, Wilhelm. “ ‘Die Seelen haben einen großen Trost verloren. . .’: Die ‘gott-
selige’ Klara Hortulana Empacher im Münchner Angerkloster.” Amperland 31
(1995): 36–39.
Liessem, Franz. “Phileno Agostino Cornazzani, oberster Instrumentalist der herzo-
glichen Hofkapelle zu München unter Orlando di Lasso.” Die Musikforschung 24
(1971): 368–85.
Lipowsky, Felix Joseph. Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern. Munich: Jakob Giel, 1816.
Lippert, Friedrich. Die Reformation in Kirche, Sitte und Schule der Oberpfalz (Kurpfalz)
1520–1620. Rothenburg ob der Tauber: J. P. Peter’sche Buchdruckerei, 1897.
Lippert, Friedrich. “Bücherverbrennung und Bücherverbreitung in der Oberpfalz
1628.” Beiträge zur bayerischen Kirchengeschichte 6 (1900): 173–91.
Lippert, Friedrich. Geschichte der Gegenreformation in Staat, Kirche und Sitte der
Oberpfalz-Kurpfalz zur Zeit des dreißigjährigen Krieges. Freiburg im Breisgau: Paul
Waetzel, 1901.
Litaniae novae, ad Deum et eos præcipue Sanctos, quorum memoriae vel reliquiæ in basilica nova
S. Michaelis Archangeli honorifice servantur. Munich, 1597.
Lodes, Birgit. “Ludwig Senfl and the Munich Choirbooks. The Emperor’s or the
Duke’s?” In Die Münchner Hofkapelle des 16. Jahrhunderts im europäischen Kontext,
edited by Theodor Göllner and Bernhold Schmid, 224–33. Munich: Verlag der
Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006.
Lukács, Ladislaus, ed. Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Iesu (1586, 1591, 1599).
Monumenta Paedagogica Societatis Jesu 5. Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis
Iesu, 1986.
Luria, Keith P. “ ‘Popular Catholicism’ and the Catholic Reformation.” In Early Modern
Catholicism: Essays in Honour of John W. O’Malley, S.J., edited by Kathleen M. Comerford
and Hilmar M. Pabel, 114–30. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.
MacCulloch, Diarmaid, Mary Laven, and Eamon Duffy. “Recent Trends in the
Study of Christianity in Sixteenth-Century Europe.” Renaissance Quarterly 59
(2006): 697–731.
Mai, Paul. “Bruderschaften und Benefizien am Regensburger Dom.” Beiträge zur
Geschichte des Bistums Regensburg 10 (1976): 399–418.
Mai, Paul. Das Bistum Regensburg in der bayerischen Visitation von 1559. Beiträge zur
Geschichte des Bistums Regensburg 27. Regensburg: Verlag des Vereins für
Regensburger Bistumsgeschichte, 1993.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 342 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Markmiller, Fritz. “ ‘Wallfahrtsmusik.’ Regionalbeispiele zur Annäherung an ver-
gangene und gegenwärtige Wirklichkeit.” In Wallfahrten im Bistum Regensburg.
Zur Tausendjahrfeier des Todes des Hl. Bischofs Wolfgang, edited by Georg Schwaiger
and Paul Mai, 445–85. Regensburg: Verlag des Vereins für Regensburger
Bistumsgeschichte, 1994.
Maron, Gottfried. “Die nachtridentinische Kodifikationsarbeit in ihrer Bedeutung
für die katholische Konfessionalisierung.” In Die katholische Konfessionalisierung.
Wissenschaftliches Symposion der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus Catholicorum und
des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1993, edited by Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz
Schilling, 104–24. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1995.
Mayer, Anton. Die Domkirche U. L. Frau in München. Munich, 1868.
Mayer, Johann. Gewisse vnd vormals in Truck nie außgangne Beschreibung, Deß gantzen
vnd halben Vmbgangs, oder Procession, Welcher Järlich in der Fürstlichen Hauptstatt
München auff das Hohe Fest Corporis Christi, solenniter vnd stattlich gehalten wirdt.
Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1604.
McLuhan, Marshall. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962.
Meitinger, Otto. “Die baugeschichtliche Entwicklung der Neuveste. Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte der Münchner Residenz.” Oberbayerisches Archiv 92 (1970): 3–295.
Melton, Barbara Lawatsch. “Loss and Gain in a Salzburg Convent: Tridentine Reform,
Princely Absolutism, and the Nuns of Nonnberg (1620 to 1696).” In Enduring Loss
in Early Modern Germany: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives, edited by Lynne Tatlock,
259–80. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Metzger, Wolfram. Beispielkatechese der Gegenreformation: Georg Voglers “Catechismus in
ausserlesenen Exempeln,” Würzburg 1625. Veröffentlichungen zur Volkskunde und
Kulturgeschichte 8. Würzburg: Bayerische Blätter für Volkskunde, 1982.
Mitterwieser, Alois. Geschichte der Fronleichnamsprozession in Bayern. Munich: Knorr &
Hirth, 1930.
Moesmang, Max. Geschichte der Altöttinger Stifts- und Kapellmusik. Ein Beitrag
zur Geschichte der Kirchenmusik in Bayern. Altötting: Verlag der St.
Antoniusbuchhandlung Altötting, 1909.
Mohr, Klaus. Die Musikgeschichte des Klosters Fürstenfeld. Musik in bayerischen Klöstern
2. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1987.
Molitor, Hansgeorg. “Mehr mit den Augen als mit den Ohren glauben.
Frühneuzeitliche Volksfrömmigkeit in Köln und Jülich-Berg.” In Volksfrömmigkeit
in der frühen Neuzeit, edited by Hansgeorg Molitor and Herbert Smolinsky, 90–105.
Münster: Aschendorff, 1994.
Moser, Dietz-Rudiger. Verkündigung durch Volksgesang: Studien zur Liedpropaganda und
-katechese der Gegenreformation. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1981.
Moser-Rath, Elfriede. “Volksfrömmigkeit im Spiegel der Barockpredigt.” Zeitschrift für
Volkskunde 65 (1969): 196–206.
Muir, Edward. “The Eye of the Procession: Ritual Ways of Seeing in the Renaissance.”
In Ceremonial Culture in Pre-Modern Europe, edited by Nicholas Howe, 129–53.
Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.
Münch-Kienast, Barbara. Philothea von Johannes Paullin: das Jesuitendrama und die
Geistlichen Übungen des Ignatius von Loyola. Aachen: Shaker, 2000.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 343 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Münster, Robert. “Die Musik in den bayerischen Klöstern seit dem Mittelalter.” In
Musik in Bayern. I. Bayerische Musikgeschichte. Überblick und Einzeldarstellungen,
243–60. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1972.
Münster, Robert. “Die Musik im Augustinerchorherrenstift Polling vor der
Säkularisation.” In 10 Jahre Pollinger Bibliotheksaal, 1–5. Polling: Freunde des
Pollinger Bibliotheksaals, 1985.
Myers, W. David. “Poor, Sinning Folk”: Confession and Conscience in Counter-Reformation
Germany. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996.
Neumann, Helmut. Staatliche Bücherzensur und -aufsicht in Bayern von der Reformation bis
zum Ausgang des 17. Jahrhunderts. Heidelberg, Karlsruhe: C. F. Müller Juristischer
Verlag, 1977.
Neureuther, J. “Beiträge zur Kirchenmusik bei St. Peter in München im 17.
Jahrhundert.” St. Peterskalender (1919): 49–52.
Neureuther, J. “Die große Renaissance-Orgel bei St. Peter.” St. Peterskalender (1920): 50–55.
Newe Letaney Zu Gott vnd denen Heyligen, als freunden Gottes, welcher Gedächtnuß, Reliquien
vnd Heyligthumb, in der newgeweichten Kirchen deß H. Ertzengels vnnd Himmelfürsten
Michaelis, nach vraltem Catholischen brauch demütig verehret vnd herrlich auffbehalten
werden. Munich: Adam Berg, 1597.
Niemann, Hartwig. “Das Liturgische Läuten.” In Glocken in Geschichte und Gegenwart,
edited by Beratungsausschuss für das Deutsche Glockenwesen, 2:18–30. Karlsruhe:
Badenia-Verlag, 1997.
Nies, Karl Ludwig. Die Glocken des Münchner Frauendoms. Munich: Verlag Sankt
Michaelsbund, 2004.
Nolan, Mary Lee, and Sidney Nolan. “Regional Variations in Europe’s Roman Catholic
Pilgrimage Traditions.” In Sacred Places, Sacred Spaces: The Geography of Pilgrimages,
61–93. Baton Rouge: Geoscience Publications, Department of Geography and
Anthropology, Louisiana State University, 1997.
Obsequiale, vel liber Agendorum, circa Sacramenta, Benedictiones, & Ceremonias secun-
dum antiquum usum, & ritum Ecclesie Ratisbonensis. Ingolstadt: Ex Typographia
Weissenhorniana, 1570.
Oettinger, Rebecca Wagner. Music as Propaganda in the German Reformation.
Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Methuen, 1982.
O’Regan, Noel. Institutional Patronage in Post-Tridentine Rome: Music at Santissima Trinità
dei Pellegrini, 1550–1650. Royal Musical Association Monographs 7. London: Royal
Musical Association, 1995.
Ordnung der gantzen Procession deß Allerheiligisten vnd Hochwürdigisten Sacraments, wie dieselb
in der Fürstlichen Hauptstatt München in Obern Bayrn, &c. Auff das Fest CORPORIS
CHRISTI diß jahrs, mit vil statlichern, herrlichern, schönern vnd zierlichern Figuren, denn
zuuor jemaln gehalten wirdet. Auß dem Alten vnd Newen Testament genommen, vnd in
Zünfften eingetheilt. Munich: Adam Berg, 1603.
Otte, Heinrich. Glockenkunde. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1884.
Overath, Johannes. Untersuchungen über die Melodien des Liedpsalters von Kaspar Ulenberg
(Köln 1582). Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Kirchenliedes im 16. Jahrhundert. Beiträge
zur rheinischen Musikgeschichte 33. Cologne: A. Volk, 1960.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 344 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Özyurt, Şenol. Die Türkenlieder und das Türkenbild in der deutschen Volksüberlieferung vom
16. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. Munich: Fink, 1972.
Paulus, Nikolaus. “Die Einführung der lauretanischen Litanei in Deutschland durch
den seligen Petrus Canisius.” Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 26 (1902): 574–600.
Pettegree, Andrew. Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion. Cambridge: Cambridge
Pfister, Peter. “Die Kathedrale der Erzdiözese: Die Münchener Frauenkirche.” In
Marienwallfahrten im Erzbistum München und Freising, edited by Peter Pfister and
Hans Ramisch, 23–32. Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1989.
Pfister, Peter, and Hans Ramisch. Der Dom zu unserer lieben Frau in München: Geschichte,
Beschreibung. 4th ed. Munich: E. Wewel, 1994.
Picker, John M. Victorian Soundscapes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Pietschmann, Klaus. “Römische Spuren im Repertoire der Münchner Hofkapelle
zur Zeit des Trienter Konzils.” In Die Münchner Hofkapelle des 16. Jahrhunderts im
europäischen Kontext, edited by Theodor Göllner and Bernhold Schmid, 105–17.
Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006.
Pörnbacher, Karl. “Jesuitentheater und Jesuitendichtung in München.” In St. Michael
in München: Festschriften zum 400. Jahrestag der Grundsteinlegung und zum Abschluss des
Wiederaufbaus, edited by Karl Wagner and Albert Keller, 200–14. Munich: Schnell
& Steiner, 1983.
Pötzl, Walter. “Loreto in Bayern.” Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 2 (1979): 187–218.
Pötzl, Walter. “Volksfrömmigkeit.” In Handbuch der bayerischen Kirchengeschichte. Band
II: Von der Glaubenspaltung bis zur Säkularisation, edited by Walter Brandmüller,
871–963. St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1993.
Putz, Hannelore. Die Domus Gregoriana zu München. Erziehung und Ausbildung im
Umkreis des Jesuitenkollegs St. Michael bis 1773. Schriftenreihe zur Bayerischen
Landesgeschichte 141. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2003.
Rabus, Johann Jakob. Kurtzer, warhaffter vnd gründtlicher Bericht, von dem hoch vnd weit-
berühmbten wundersamen H. Sacrament, zu Deckendorff vnd Passaw, in dem hochlöblichen
Fürstenthumb Nidern Bayern, &c. Sambt Christlicher Vnderweisung, was from[m]e, glau-
bige vnd andächtige Hertzen, zu besuchung vnnd verehrung desselben, fürnemblich bewegen
vnd antreiben soll. Durch Iacobum Rabus, der H. Schrifft Doctor, &c. Munich: [Adam
Berg], 1584.
Rabus, Johann Jakob. Christlichs Manual oder Handtbüchlein. Von Rechtem Nutz vnd Frucht
deß Walfartens. Vnd Mit was Christlicher Andacht Weiß vnd Maß, fromme Kirchferter, die
Gedechtnussen vnd Gotsheuser, der gebenedeyten Mutter Gottes Marie, vnd anderer Heyligen
besuchen sollen. Eins thails auß dem Jtalianischen ins Teutsch gebracht, anders thails
aber, mit vilen andern nothwendigen Puncten gemehrt vnd verbessert. Straubing: Andre
Summer, 1585.
Rader, Matthäus. Bavaria sancta. Munich: Raphael Sadeler, 1615.
Rädle, Fidel. “ ‘Benno Comoedia’. Münchens Stadtpatron auf der Jesuitenbühne.”
Literatur in Bayern 49 (1997): 2–11.
Rädle, Fidel. “Musik und Musiker auf der Bühne des frühen Jesuitentheaters.” In
Musikalische Quellen, Quellen zur Musikgeschichte. Festschrift für Martin Staehelin zum
65. Geburtstag, edited by Ulrich Konrad, 187–202. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 2002.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 345 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Randlinger, Stephan. “Die Verehrung des heiligen Sigismund, des zweiten
Diözesanpatrons, in Freising.” In Wissenschaftliche Festgabe zum zwölfhundertjährigen
Jubiläum des heiligen Korbinian, 351–62. Munich: Anton Huber, 1924.
Rath, Richard Cullen. How Early America Sounded. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 2003.
Reader, Ian, and Tony Walter, eds. Pilgrimage in Popular Culture. London: Macmillan, 1993.
Reardon, Colleen. “Veni sponsa Christi: Investiture, Profession and Consecration
Ceremonies in Sienese Convents.” Musica disciplina 50 (1996): 271–97.
Regel, Auch Bäpstliche Gnad vnd Ablaß der löblichen deß Heiligen Creutzs vmb ein seliges
Lebens endt Bruderschafft zu Forstenriedt, bey der Chur Fürstl: Hauptstatt München. Im
Jahr 1620 auffgericht. Mit angehengten andächtigen Betrachtungen, Gebetten, vnnd deß
heiligen Creutzes Tagzeiten. Munich: Anna Berg, Johann Hertsroy, 1623.
Regel vnd Leben Der büssern, oder deß dritten Ordens, deß Seraphischen Vatters S. Francisci, so
in versam[m]lung der dreyen wesentlichen Ordens gelübden lebend, Durch Bapst Leonem den
zehenden bestettiget. Sampt einer Vorred von deß Ordens vrsprung, von beygetruckten Statuten,
von zweyen Bäpstlichen nach einander gewesnen Nuncijs, mit gwalt eines Legati de latere vnd
visitatorn den 22. Aprilis im 1599. vnd den 12. Februarij im 1607. Jahr zu Lucern bestet-
tiget. Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1622.
Reinhard, Wolfgang. “Konfession und Konfessionalisierung in Europa.” In Bekenntnis
und Geschichte. Die Confessio Augustana im historischen Zusammenhang, edited by
Wolfgang Reinhard, 165–89. Munich: Verlag Ernst Vögel, 1981.
Rocca, Angelo. De campanis commentarius. Rome: Apud Guillelmim Facciottum, 1612.
Rößler, Hans. Geschichte und Strukturen der evangelischen Bewegung im Bistum Freising
1520–1571. Nuremberg: Verein für Bayerische Kirchengeschichte, 1966.
Rößler, Hans. “Warum Bayern katholisch blieb. Eine Strukturanalyse der evange-
lische Bewegung im Bistum Freising 1520–1570.” Beiträge zur Altbayerischen
Kirchengeschichte 33 (1981): 91–108.
Rosner, Heinrich. “Mehrchörige Musikpflege in Freising 1550–1650.” Frigisinga 46
(1963): no. 4, 1–4; no. 5, 1–4; no. 6, 1–4.
Roth, Friedrich. “Eine lutherische Demonstration in der Münchner Augustinerkirche.”
Beiträge zur bayerischen Kirchengeschichte 6 (1900): 97–109.
Roth, Joachim. Die mehrstimmigen lateinischen Litaneikompositionen des 16. Jahrhunderts.
Kölner Beiträge zur Musikforschung 14. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1959.
Rothkrug, Lionel. “Popular Religion and Holy Shrines: Their Influence on the Origins
of the German Reformation and Their Role in German Cultural Development.”
In Religion and the People, 800–1700, edited by James Obelkevich, 20–86. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
Sandberger, Adolf. Beiträge zur Geschichte der bayerischen Hofkapelle unter Orlando di Lasso.
Drittes Buch: Dokumente. Erster Theil. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1895.
Santa Clara, Abraham a. Gack, Gack, Gack, Gack, à Ga. Einer Wunderseltzsamen Hennen
in dem Hertzogthumb Bayrn. Das ist: Ein außführliche, und umbständige Beschreibung
der berühmten Wallfahrt Maria-Stern In Taxa, Bey den PP. Augustinern Parfüessern.
Sattler, Maximilian Vincenz. Geschichte der Marianischen Kongregationen in Bayern.
Munich: Verlag der J. J. Lentner’schen Buchhandlung (E. Stahl), 1869.
Schafer, R. Murray. The Tuning of the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 346 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Schalkhaußer, Erwin. “Die Münchner Schule in der Stuckdecoration des 17.
Jahrhunderts. Die Stukkaturen der Michaelskirche und des maximilianischen
Residenzbaues in München und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Entwicklung
der Stuckdekoration in Altbayern, Schwaben und Tirol im 17. Jahrhundert.”
Oberbayerisches Archiv für vaterländische Geschichte 81/82 (1957): 1–140.
Schattenhofer, Michael. Die Mariensäule in München. Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1970.
Scheitler, Irmgard. Das Geistliche Lied im deutschen Barock. Schriften zur
Literaturwissenschaft 3. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1982.
Scherer, Georg. Ein Predig vom Fronleichnamsfest vnd Vmbgang. Geschehen zu Wien in
Österreich, durch Georgium Scherer Societatis IESV, am Tag der H. Dreyfaltigkeit.
Ingolstadt: David Sartorius, 1588.
Scherer, Georg. Catechismus oder Kinderlehr Jn welcher alle Artickel vnsers Christlichen
Catholischen Glaubens, gründtlich und klärllich außgelegt, vnd wider aller Ketzereyen
bestettiget werden. Passau: inn Ihr Hoch Fürstl: Durchl: Truckerey in Passaw, 1608.
Schertl, Philipp. “Die Amberger Jesuiten im ersten Dezennium ihres Wirkens
(1621–1632).” Verhandlungen des historischen Vereins von Oberpfalz und Regensburg 102
(1962): 101–94; 103 (1963): 257–350.
Schilling, Heinz. “Die Konfessionalisierung im Reich. Religiöser und gesellschaftli-
cher Wandel in Deutschland zwischen 1555 und 1620.” Historische Zeitschrift 246
(1988): 1–45.
Schilling, Heinz. “Die Konfessionalisierung von Kirche, Staat und Gesellschaft –
Profil, Leistung, Defizite und Perspektiven eines geschichtswissenschaftli-
chen Paradigmas.” In Die katholische Konfessionalisierung. Wissenschaftliches
Symposion der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus Catholicorum und des Vereins für
Reformationsgeschichte 1993, edited by Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling,
1–49. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1995.
Schilling, Heinz. “Urban Architecture and Ritual in Confessional Europe.” In Religion
and Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe, edited by Heinz Schilling and István
György Tóth, 122–37. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Schilling, Heinz. “Confessionalization: Historical and Scholarly Perspectives of a
Comparative and Interdisciplinary Paradigm.” In Confessionalization in Europe,
1555–1700. Essays in Honor and Memory of Bodo Nischan, edited by John M. Headley,
Hans J. Hillerbrand, and Anthony J. Papalas, 21–36. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
Schindler, Norbert. “Nocturnal disturbances: on the social history of the night in the
early modern period.” In Rebellion, Community and Custom in Early Modern Germany,
193–235. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Schindling, Anton. “Konfessionalisierung und Grenzen von Konfessionalisierbarkeit.”
In Die Territorien des Reichs im Zeitalter der Reformation und Konfessionalisierung, edited
by Anton Schindling and Walter Ziegler, 7:9–44. Münster: Aschendorff, 1997.
Schmid, Alois, ed. Die Säkularisation in Bayern 1803: Kulturbruch oder Modernisierung?
Munich: Beck, 2003.
Schneider, Bernhard. “Wandel und Beharrung. Bruderschaften und Frömmigkeit in
Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit.” In Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit, edited
by Hansgeorg Molitor and Herbert Smolinsky, 65–87. Münster: Aschendorff, 1994.
Schulordnung der Fürstenthumb Obern- und Nieder- Bayerlands. Munich: Adam Berg, 1569.
Schulz, Adalbert. Die St. Michaels-Hofkirche in München. Munich: J. J. Lentner, 1897.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 347 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Schwämmlein, Karl. “ ‘Philothea.’ ” Verhandlungen des Historischen Vereins für Oberpfalz
und Regensburg 131 (1991): 73–114.
Schwämmlein, Karl. “Philothea. Das erste Oratorium auf deutschem Boden im Bistum
Regensburg. III. Notenteil Zweitfassung. München 1669 - Straubing 1679.”
Unpublished typescript. BSB, Mus. ms. app. I 2023-1/2.
Schwaiger, Georg. Kardinal Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg als Bischof von Regensburg
(1649–1661). Munich: K. Zink, 1954.
Schwaiger, Georg, and Paul Mai, eds. Wallfahrten im Bistum Regensburg. Zur
Tausendjahrfeier des Todes des Hl. Bischofs Wolfgang. Beiträge zur Geschichte des
Bistums Regensburg 28. Regensburg: Verlag des Vereins für Regensburger
Bistumsgeschichte, 1994.
Schwartz, Hillel. Making Noise: From Babel to the Big Bang & Beyond. Brooklyn,
NY: Zone Books, 2011.
Scribner, Robert W. Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany.
London: Hambledon Press, 1987.
Scribner, Robert W. “Volksglaube und Volksfrömmigkeit. Begriffe und
Historiographie.” In Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen Neuzeit, edited by Hansgeorg
Molitor and Herbert Smolinsky, 121–38. Münster: Aschendorff, 1994.
Scribner, Robert W. “Reformation and Desacralisation: from Sacramental World
to Moralised Universe.” In Problems in the Historical Anthropology of Early
Modern Europe, edited by R. Po-Chia Hsia and Robert W. Scribner, 75–92.
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997.
Scribner, Robert W. “Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Europe.” In Problems
in the Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Europe, edited by R. Po-Chia Hsia and
Robert W. Scribner, 11–34. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997.
Shaw, Dougal. “Nothing but Propaganda? Historians and the Study of Early Modern
Ritual.” Cultural and Social History 1 (2004): 139–58.
Shelemay, Kay Kaufman. Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World.
New York: Norton, 2006.
Sifrid, Henricus. Heilig Seraphisch Lieb brinnendes Hertz. Darinnen Nit allein die Indulgentz,
Genaden vnd Ablas der grossen vnd Weitberümbten Lob: Ertzbruederschafft des Cordons oder
Geweÿchten Strick girtl, des H. Seraph: Ertzvatters Francisci, sondern auch waß darzue
erfordert vnd vonnöten, dan die Regel des dritten Ordens dis H. vatters für alle Weltliche
Man: vnd Weibspersonen. Innsbruck: In Verlegung Daniel Maÿr Kunstfüerer wonhafft
zu München in der Aw; Johann Gäch, 1631.
Sigl, Romanus. Unser liebe Fraw zum H. Bluet bey Newkirchen vor dem Obern Böhemer
Waldt. Das ist: Warhafft kurtzer Bericht von der heylig berühmbten Wahlfarhts Kirchen,
und Bildtnuß der heyligist hochgebenedeyten Jungkfrawen Gottes Gebärerin MARIÆ, zum
H. Bluet genant. Straubing: Simon Haan, 1640.
Silbermann, Johannes [Johannes Paullinus]. Philothea, id est Anima Deo Chara: comoedia
sacra anno MDCXLIII et MDCLVIII Monachii et deinde in variis theatris saepius decan-
tata nunc typis excusa atque sic aptata, ut etiam in templis: aut pro honesta animi relax-
atione, et pietatis incitamento tam in scena, quam sine scena cantari possit. Munich: Johann
Jäcklin, 1669.
Smith, Bruce R. The Acoustic World of Early Modern England: Attending to the O-Factor.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 348 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Smith, Bruce R. “Listening to the Wild Blue Yonder: The Challenges of Acoustic
Ecology.” In Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity, edited by Veit
Erlmann, 21–41. London: Berg, 2004.
Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. “The Art of Salvation in Bavaria.” In The Jesuits II: Cultures,
Sciences, and the Arts 1540–1773, edited by John O’Malley, et al., 568–99.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. Sensuous Worship: Jesuits and the Art of the Early Catholic
Reformation in Germany. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
Smith, Jonathan Z. To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1987.
Smith, Mark M. Listening to Nineteenth-Century America. Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, 2001.
Soergel, Philip M. Wondrous in His Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria.
Studies in the History of Society and Culture 17. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1993.
Söhner, Leo. Die Musik im Münchner Dom unserer lieben Frau in Vergangenheit und
Gegenwart. Munich: Verlag Lentnersche Buchhandlung, 1934.
Spaemann, Cordelia A. “Wallfahrtslieder.” In Wallfahrt kennt keine Grenzen. Themen
zu einer Ausstellung des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums und des Adalbert Stifter
Vereins, München, edited by Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck and Gerda Möhler, 181–92.
Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1984.
Spicer, Andrew, and Sarah Hamilton, eds. Defining the Holy: Sacred Space in Medieval and
Early Modern Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.
Spicer, Andrew. “ ‘God Will Have a House’: Defining Sacred Space and Rites of
Consecration in Early Seventeenth-Century England.” In Defining the Holy: Sacred
Space in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Andrew Spicer and Sarah
Hamilton, 207–30. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.
Sprinkart, Alfons. “Kapuziner.” In Handbuch der bayerischen Kirchengeschichte. Band II: Von
der Glaubenspaltung bis zur Säkularisation, edited by Walter Brandmüller, 795–824.
St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1993.
Staber, Joseph. “Volksfrömmigkeit und Wallfahrtswesen des Spätmittelalters im
Bistum Freising.” Inaugural-Dissertation, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität,
Munich, 1955.
Stahleder, Helmuth. Belastungen und Bedrückungen. Die Jahre 1506–1705. Chronik der
Stadt München 2. Ebenhausen: Dölling und Galitz Verlag, 2005.
Stalla, Gerhard, ed. Geschicht Buech de Anno 1609 biß 1650. Das Tagebuch der Maria
Magdalena Haidenbucher (1576–1650), Äbtissin von Frauenworth. Geistliche Literatur
der Barockzeit 11. Amsterdam: APA–Holland University Press, 1988.
Statuta et preces Congregationis Beatissimae Virginis Mariae, quae in collegiis Societatis Iesu
instituta. Dillingen: Formis Academicis, apud Uladricum Rem, 1621.
Steiner, Peter. Altmünchner Gnadenstätten: Wallfahrt und Volksfrömmigkeit im kurfürstlichen
München. Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1977.
Steiner, Peter. “Der gottselige Fürst und die Konfessionalisierung Altbayerns.” In Um
Glauben und Reich: Kurfürst Maximilian I. Beiträge zur Bayerischen Geschichte und
Kunst, 1573–1657, edited by Hubert Glaser, 252–63. Munich: Hirmer, 1980.
Steward, Jill, and Alexander Cowan, eds. The City and the Senses: Urban Culture Since
1500. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 349 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Stieve, Felix. Das kirchliche Polizeiregiment in Baiern unter Maximilian I., 1595–
1651. Munich: Verlag der M. Rieger’schen Universitäts-Buchhandlung (G.
Himmer), 1876.
Stokes, Martin, ed. Ethnicity, Identity and Music: The Musical Construction of Place.
Oxford: Berg, 1994.
Stoller, Paul. The Taste of Ethnographic Things: The Senses in Anthropology.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.
Strasser, Ulrike. State of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern Catholic
State. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004.
Strohm, Reinhard. Music in Late Medieval Bruges. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1985.
Thompson, E. P. “Rough Music.” In Customs in Common, 467–538. London: Merlin
Press, 1991.
Thompson, Emily. The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of
Listening in America, 1900–1933. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.
Tlusty, B. Ann. Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany.
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001.
Troiano, Massimo. Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Fürsten vnnd
Herren [ . . .] Wilhalmen [ . . .] Vnd derselben geliebsten Gemahl der [ . . .] Fürstin Frewlin
Renata [ . . .] gehalten Hochzeitlichen Ehren Fests. Munich: Adam Berg, [1568].
Trautmann, Karl. “Archivalische Beiträge zur Geschichte der Schulkomödie in
München.” Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für deutsche Erziehungs- und Schulgeschichte 1
(1891): 61–68.
Truax, Barry. Acoustic Communication. 2nd ed. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing, 2001.
Turner, Victor and Edith. Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture. Anthropological
Perspectives. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.
Ursprung, Otto. Münchens musikalische Vergangenheit. Von der Frühzeit bis zu Richard
Wagner. Munich: Bayerland-Verlag, 1927.
Valentin, Jean-Marie. Le théâtre des Jesuites dans les pays de langue allemande (1554–
1680): salut des âmes et ordre des cités. Bern: Lang, 1978.
Valentin, Jean-Marie. Le Théâtre des Jesuites dans les pays de langue allemande. Repertoire
chronologique des pièces représentées et des documents conservés (1555–1773). 2 vols.
Stuttgart: A. Hiersemann, 1983.
Veit, Patrice. “Kirchenlied und konfessionelle Identität im deutschen 16. Jahrhundert.”
In Hören, Sagen, Lesen, Lernen: Bausteine zu einer Geschichte der kommunikativen Kultur.
Festschrift für Rudolf Schenda zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Ursula Brunhold-Bigler
and Hermann Bausinger, 741–54. Bern: Lang, 1995.
Venard, Marc. “Volksfrömmigkeit und Konfessionalisierung.” In Die katholische
Konfessionalisierung. Wissenschaftliches Symposion der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe
des Corpus Catholicorum und des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1993, edited by
Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling, 258–70. Schriften des Vereins für
Reformationsgeschichte 198. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1995.
Vetter, Conrad. Lutherisch Disciplin Büchel. Zur Bekrefftigung, vnnd Handhabung deß tref-
felichen Buchs D. Jacobi Heilbronners, wider das Papistische Geißlen und Disciplinieren &c.
[Ingolstadt]: [Andreas Angermeyer], 1607.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 350 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Victorinus, Georg. Summarischer Inhalt der Aktion Von Enthauptung deß H. Joannis Tauffers
vnnd Vorlauffers Christi vnsers Seligmachers. Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1618.
Voyé, Liliane. “Popular Religion and Pilgrimages in Western Europe.” In From Medieval
Pilgrimage to Religious Tourism: The Social and Cultural Economics of Piety, edited by
William H. Swatos Jr. and Luigi Tomasi, 115–35. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.
Wackernagel, Bettina. Musikinstrumentenverzeichnis der Bayerischen Hofkapelle von 1655.
Faksimile, Transkription und Kommentar. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2003.
Wallner, Bertha Antonia. “Ein Wallfahrtsgesang aus dem Münchener Gesang- und
Psalmenbuch von 1586.” Peterskalender München (1919): 39–46.
Wandel, Lee Palmer. The Eucharist in the Reformation: Incarnation and Liturgy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Warhafftige Vrkund der erschröcklichen zeittung von den Jesuiten zu München inn Bayrn, wegen ihrer
schandt- vnd mordstucken, die sie mit eines Burgers Tochter allda sollen begangen haben, wie solches
newlich an drey vnderschidlichen Orten, Reimen vnd Liedweiß in Truck außgangen, vnd jetzund
zu München mit rechtem warem grund, vnd hoch ansehlichen vnwidersprechlichen Zeugknussen
beschriben, vnd an das Liecht gebracht wirdt. Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1607.
Weaver, Andrew H. “Music in the Service of Counter-Reformation Politics: The
Immaculate Conception at the Habsburg Court of Ferdinand III (1637–1657).”
Music & Letters 87 (2006): 361–78.
Weaver, Andrew H. “Divine Wisdom and Dolorous Mysteries: Habsburg Marian
Devotion in Two Motets from Monteverdi’s Selva morale et spirituale.” Journal of
Musicology 24 (2007): 237–71.
Weaver, Andrew H. Sacred Music as Public Image for Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand
III: Representing the Counter-Reformation Monarch at the End of the Thirty Years’ War.
Catholic Christendom, 1300–1700. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012.
Weber, P. Leo. “Die Neugestaltung des Domes unter Fürstbischof Veit Adam von
Gepeckh.” In Der Freisinger Dom. Beiträge zur seiner Geschichte, edited by Joseph A.
Fischer, 141–96. Freising: Verlag des Historischen Vereins Freising, 1967.
Weis, Eberhard. Die Säkularisation der bayerischen Klöster 1802/03: neue Forschungen
zu Vorgeschichte und Ergebnissen. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 1983.
Weiß, Dieter J. Die Corporis-Christi-Erzbruderschaft bei St. Peter. Ein Beitrag zur alt-
bayerischen Kirchen- und Frömmigkeitsgeschichte. Aus dem Pfarramt von St. Peter in
München 3. Munich: Stadtpfarramt St. Peter, 1990.
Wilczek, Gerhard. “Die Jesuiten in Ingolstadt (1589–1594).” Ingolstädter Heimatblätter
39 (1976): 23–24, 27–28, 32, 34–36, 39–40, 43–44, 48.
Wilczek, Gerhard. “Die Jesuiten in Ingolstadt von 1601–1635. 1. Teil. Übersetzung
des ‘Summarium de variis rebus Collegii Ingolstadiensis’ (Ordinariatsarchiv
Eichstätt/Bayern).” Unpublished typescript, 1981.
Wilhelm V of Bavaria. Fasciculus sacrarum litaniarum ex sanctis scripturis et patribus.
Munich, 1600.
Winkler, Gerhard B. Die nachtridentinischen Synoden im Reich: Salzburger
Provinzialkonzilien 1569, 1573, 1576. Vienna: Bohlau, 1988.
Winter, Paul. “Das mehrchörige Musizieren in Bayern.” In Musik in Bayern. I. Bayerische
Musikgeschichte. Überblick und Einzeldarstellungen, edited by Robert Münster and
Hans Schmid, 155–63. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1972.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 351 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Wittmann, Doris. “Die Bürger-Kongregation Maria vom Sieg Ingolstadt – Erbe und
Auftrag.” In Pater Jakob Rem SJ. 400 Jahre Dreimal Wunderbare Mutter in Ingolstadt,
edited by Rita Haub and Isidor Vollnhals, 49–76. Munich: Deutsche Jesuiten;
Ingolstadt: Katholisches Münsterpfarramt, 2004.
Wittweiler, Georg. Catholisch Haußbuch. Munich: Nikolaus Heinrich, 1631.
Woeckel, Gerhard P. Pietas Bavarica: Wallfahrt, Prozession und Ex voto-Gabe im Hause
Wittelsbach in Ettal, Wessobrunn, Altötting und der Landeshauptstadt München
von der Gegenreformation bis zur Säkularisation und der ‘Renovatio Ecclesiae’.
Weißenhorn: Anton H. Konrad, 1992.
Woodford, Charlotte. Nuns as Historians in Early Modern Germany. Oxford: Oxford
Der würdigsten Mutter Gottes, vnnd aller heiligsten Jungkfrawen und Himel Königin Mariae,
Ertzbruderschafft in Bayern. Munich, 1581.
Wüst, Wolfgang. Censur als Stütze von Staat und Kirche in der Frühmoderne: Augsburg,
Bayern, Kurmainz und Württemberg im Vergleich. Schriften der Philosophischen
Fakultäten der Universität Augsburg 57. Munich: Vögel, 1998.
Zager, Daniel. “Post-Tridentine Liturgical Change and Functional Music: Lasso’s Cycle
of Polyphonic Latin Hymns.” In Orlando di Lasso Studies, edited by Peter Bergquist,
41–63. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Zeeden, Ernst Walter. “Grundlagen und Wege der Konfessionsbildung in Deutschland
im Zeitalter der Glaubenskämpfe.” Historische Zeitschrift 185 (1958): 249–99.
Zeeden, Ernst Walter. Die Entstehung der Konfessionen. Grundlagen und Formen der
Konfessionsbildung im Zeitalter der Glaubenskämpfe. Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1965.
Zeeden, Ernst Walter. “Aspekte der katholischen Frömmigkeit in Deutschland im 16.
Jahrhundert.” In Konfessionsbildung: Studien zur Reformation, Gegenreformation und
katholischen Reform, 314–31. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1985.
Ziegler, Adolf Wilhelm, ed. Eucharistische Frömmigkeit in Bayern. 2nd ed. Beiträge zur
altbayerischen Kirchengeschichte 23/2. Munich: Seitz, 1963.
Ziegler, Walter, ed.. “Die Rekatholisierung der Oberpfalz.” In Um Glauben und
Reich: Kurfürst Maximilian I. Beiträge zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kunst, 1573–
1657, edited by Hubert Glaser, II/1:436–47. Munich: Hirmer, 1980.
Ziegler, Walter, ed. Altbayern von 1550–1651. 2 vols. Dokumente zur Geschichte
von Staat und Gesellschaft in Bayern Abteilung I, Band 3, Teil 2. Munich: C.
H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1992.
Ziegler, Walter. “Typen der Konfessionalisierung in katholischen Territorien
Deutschlands.” In Die katholische Konfessionalisierung. Wissenschaftliches Symposion
der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus Catholicorum und des Vereins für
Reformationsgeschichte 1993, edited by Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling,
405–18. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1995.
Ziegler, Walter. “Altgläubige Territorien im Konfessionalisierungsprozess.” In Die
Territorien des Reichs im Zeitalter der Reformation und Konfessionalisierung, edited by
Anton Schindling and Walter Ziegler, 7: 67–90. Münster: Aschendorff, 1997.
oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 352 10/28/2013 10:37:02 PM

Index
Albrecht IV, 160, 199 death-bell, 157–58, 175

Albrecht V, 3, 33, 34, 49, 80–81, 174, 190, at Unsere Liebe Frau (Munich), 196–200
204, 250, 272 at Frauenwörth, 74, 75
Altötting in pilgrimage, 19, 313, 316, 319–20
exorcism of Anna von Bernhausen at, and prayer, 198–99, 200–5
307, 310–11 and religious authority, 26, 28, 194–95
music in pilgrimage chapel, 323–24 Salve bell, 159
and the Wittelsbachs, 277–78, 280 as soundmarks, 9
Amberg, 40, 176–77, 202–3 and time, 193–94
Andechs, 280 Turk bell, 168, 204–5
confraternal pilgrimages, 247, 313 Benedictines
music during pilgrimage, 293, 323 Benediktbeuern, 68
overnight stays at, 325 composers connected with, 69,
Au am Inn (monastery) 130–31
See under Augustinians Frauenwörth, 70, 74–76
Augsburg liturgical music, 67–68
and civic space, 190, 191–92, 267 and the sacred concerto, 70n114, 130–31
and the sacred concerto, 112–13 Seeon, 131, 132–33
and Protestant song, 217, 220, 222 Tegernsee, 67–68, 69, 179, 180, 181
sacred music in, 2 Weihenstephan, 68, 69
Augustinian Canons Weingarten, 69, 131
Beyharting, 68 Benediktbeuern (monastery)
Herrenchiemsee, 74 See under Benedictines
Polling, 68, 69 Berg, Adam, 175n158, 179
Augustinians Bettbrunn (shrine), 297, 325
Au am Inn, 68, 69 Beyharting (monastery)
devotional music, 133 See under Augustinians
liturgical music, 67, 68 Bidermann, Jakob, 179, 180, 181–82
and Lutheran song, 1, 34–35 Borlasca, Bernardino, 20, 89, 90, 91, 92
St. Zeno in Reichenhall, 68 Ardori spirituali, 126
Cantica divae Mariae Virginis, 93–99
Bartholomaeus, Adam, 34, 37 Scala Iacob, 93
bells, 7, 11, 19
Angelus, 188, 194, 200–2, 203, 205 Canisius, Peter, 45, 185, 306, 311
apotropaic power of, 193, 196 cannon fire
and civic space, 11, 191, 192–205 See gunfire
Index.indd 353 10/28/2013 10:13:44 PM

Capuchins, 152, 166–68, 266, 269 Deggendorf (shrine), 280, 283n19, 293,
catechism, 184–85 295, 324
censorship, 27, 174–75, 176, 217, 222–23 devotion
chorales, Lutheran in confraternities, 140–156
Aus tiefer Not, 1, 34, 36, 39, corporate, 156–168
157n101, 173 cradle, 71, 161–162
Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort, 1, 13, 22, Lenten, 162–168
173, 182–83, 218–19 monastic, 130–140
and propaganda, 13, 171 polyphony for, 106–130
in Protestant conventicles, 176–77 in public celebrations, 169–70
and Protestant defiance, 1, 218 rituals of, 25–26
Vater unser im Himmelreich, 1, 36, 37 and song, 170–189
Wir glauben all an einem Gott, 1, 36, 37 spaces for, 105–106
Christmas in public supplications, 168–69, 170
See devotion, cradle See also paraliturgical activities
Cistercians Dillingen
Fürstenfeld, 68 canonization ceremony for Ignatius and
Seligenthal, 70, 71 Francis Xavier, 234–35
claustration Marian Congregation, 141
See enclosure processions in, 266–67
Compline, 66, 104, 159, 160
concerto, sacred Eck, Johannes, 38, 246
and confraternities, 150, 153 Eisengrein, Martin, 250, 279, 307
at court, 20, 87, 91–92, 102, 103 enclosure, 72, 133–134, 136, 273
in devotional practice, 106, 112–130 Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort
and Jesuits, 47, 49–51 See under chorales, Lutheran
at monasteries, 70n114, 130–31 Ertl, Sebastian, 69–70
confessionalization, 4, 13–17 Eucharist
confraternities, 140–41, 147–56 and confessional controversy, 23–24, 30,
Archconfraternity of Corpus Christi, 249–50, 302–3
152–53, 246–47, 253, 313 in devotional music of Rudolph di
and Catholic reform, 26 Lasso, 112
devotional music for, 109 and liturgical space, 18, 26, 55, 105, 198
Franciscan Cordeliers, 153–54, 246, 249 and Lasso’s Gustate et videte, 257
Marian Confraternity of Altötting, 151–52 shrines, 280
in Munich, 150–56, 246–47 Wunderbares Gut (Augsburg), 75n131
in pilgrimage, 327–28 See also Andechs; processions,
and polyphony, 23 Corpus Christi; confraternities,
and processions, 246–47, 264–65, 267, 269 Archconfraternity of Corpus Christi
contrafacture
in Catholic song, 182–83, 288–96, Ferdinand II (Emperor), 3, 235
298–300, 302 Fossa, Johannes à, 20, 59, 88, 307–10
in oral culture, 21–22, 171–72 Franciscans
Corbin, Alain, 7, 192–93, 195, 201 music in female tertiary houses, 24,
Cornazzano, Fileno, 60, 93, 261, 264 70–71, 72–74, 134–135, 136, 273–274
Corpus Christi processions and organ music, 68–69
See under processions See also enclosure
Crivelli, Giovanni Battista, 20, 90 Frauenkirche
See Unsere Liebe Frau
Daser, Ludwig, 80, 83 Frauenwörth (convent)
de Certeau, Michel, 10, 27, 217 See under Benedictines
354 | i n d e x
Index.indd 354 10/28/2013 10:13:44 PM

Freising, cathedral of, 55–56 Khuen, Johannes, 77, 131–33, 135–40
Freising Rite, 64, 81 Florilegium Marianum, 132, 135, 136–140
Fugger family, 108, 307, 310–11 Maria Himmelkönigin, 185–89, 242–43,
funerals, 156–59 303–4
Kindlwiegen
Gretser, Jakob See devotion, cradle
and processions, 248, 267, 269, 270 Kirmayr, Kaspar, 64–65, 66
Udo of Magdeburg, 225 Kraf, Michael, 68, 69, 131
gunfire Krumper, Hans, 101n192, 125, 127, 186
in popular festivities, 177
at Jesuit ceremonies, 53, 226, 235 Landshut
at Mariensäule consecration, 237 Jesuit church in, 52–53
in processions, 19, 25, 191, 258, pilgrimage controversy, 320
252, 253 processions in, 272
and the Te Deum, 145, 169 and public prayer, 202
vernacular song in churches, 33–34
Haidenbucher, Maria Magdalena, 70, Lasso, Ferdinand di, 20, 88, 153, 226
74–75, 76 Lasso, Ferdinand II di, 20, 88–89, 91, 92
Holzner, Anton, 20, 67–68, 89–90 Apparatus musicus, 89, 93, 100
Canticum Virginis seu Magnificat, 94 Lasso, Orlando di
Viretum pierium, 126 court chapel under, 3, 20, 78, 80–85
Huetter, Martin, 291, 298–300 Gustate et videte quam suavis sit Dominus, 2,
256–57
Ingolstadt and Jesuit dramas, 225, 227
Jesuit presses in, 183 Lagrime di San Pietro, 109, 112
Lenten devotions, 165 Lieder, 21
Marian Congregations, 144–47, and Litany of Loreto, 306
166, 169 Magnificat settings, 24, 93
processions in, 233–34, 246 Magnum opus musicum, 108, 322
Stadtpfeifer, 212 motets, 106, 107–8
street singing in, 214, 217 music in Bavarian institutions, 43–44,
Unsere Liebe Frau, 145–46 53, 56, 58, 67, 68
Penitential Psalms, 78, 143, 164
Jesuits Salve Regina settings, 160, 161
church music, 41–54 Teutsche Psalmen: Geistliche Psalmen, 108–11
defense of the Salve Regina,160 in Victorinus’s Thesaurus litaniarum, 46
and devotion, 162–66, 169 Lasso, Rudolph di, 20, 89, 90, 92, 130, 143
and the Litany of Loreto, 306 Ad sacrum convivium, 153
and pilgrimage, 279, 307, 310–11 Alphabetum Marianum, 143
and processions, 252, 266–67 Circus Symphoniacus, 93
and the sacred concerto, 128 Teutsche Psalmen: Geistliche Psalmen, 109,
song: anti-Jesuit, 219, 220–21; 110–111
catechism, 184–85; contrafacta, 22; Virginalia Eucharistica, 100, 112–126
songbooks, 13; as propaganda, Lauingen, 175, 220
178–79, 183 Le Maistre, Matthaeus, 80, 83
Spiritual Exercises, 112, 229 Lefebvre, Henri, 10, 31
theater, 18, 53–54, 108, 224–35 Leisentrit, Johannes, 39, 179
in the Upper Palatinate, 40, 175, 177 lied, thoroughbass
See also Bidermann, Jakob; Canisius, as devotional song, 171
Peter; Marian Congregations; St. in monastic devotion, 131–13
Michael; Vetter, Conrad monophonic song adaptation of, 243
i n d e x | 355
Index.indd 355 10/28/2013 10:13:44 PM

lied, thoroughbass (Cont.) Mass
in Munich, 28 and civic celebrations, 234, 235
as spiritual song, 185–86 at convents, 71, 73–75
litany, 25 at court chapel, 80–81, 82, 87, 91
in civic celebrations, 234, 238 and sound, 18, 23–24
and confraternities, 23, 151–52, 154 at Unsere Liebe Frau in Munich, 161
at court chapel, 84–85, 100–101 Maximilian I, 3
and the Jesuits, 44–47, 48–49 censorship of Protestant song, 218, 221,
of Loreto: Canisius’s promotion of, 45n41, 222, 223
305–6; and confraternities, 151; in choir screens, removal of, 54
Lenten devotion, 167; and Marian and confessional surveillance, 190, 191
Congregations, 144, 145–47; at the court chapel of, 20, 80, 85–104
Mariensäule, 238; in processions, and devotions, 126–27,
264; and Salve services, 160, 161; 166, 169
in Victorinus’ Thesaurus litaniarum, and Marian devotion, 24, 141
25, 47, 48–49, 307–10; in Lasso’s and the Mariensäule, 235, 237
Virginalia Eucharistica, 113 and noise in public spaces, 208–9, 214
at Marian Congregations, 142–43, 145–47 and processions, 268, 272
in pilgrimage, 19, 304–12 and public prayer, 202
processional, 248, 270–71 and Unsere Liebe Frau, 56, 59, 63–64
supplicatory, 168–69 victory at White Mountain, 62,
172, 271
madrigal, spiritual, 106, 109, 112 Mielich, Hans, 78–79
Magnificat, 28, 31, 44 Munich
at court chapel, 83, 93–99, 101–102 bells in, 158, 196–200
in monastic houses, 69, 71 confraternities of, 142–44, 150–56
at Unsere Liebe Frau, 60–61 court chapel, 77–104, 107–30
in Victorinus’ Philomela coelestis, 66, 129 devotional services in, 160–68
Marian Congregations Marian devotion in, 24,186–89; and
Congregation of Mary Victorious confessional discipline, 191; and Litany
(Ingolstadt), 143–47, 166 of Loreto, 306, 312; and Mariensäule,
devotional music for, 109, 140–47 235–44
Lenten devotions of, 164, 165–66 monasteries and convents, 1, 34, 68–69,
in Munich, 142–44 70–74, 133–40
Marian devotion and pilgrimage, 312, 326–29
and confessional politics, 24–25, 302, 303 processions, 2, 18–19, 158, 246–47,
in convents, 137 253–66, 268–69, 272–74
at court chapel, 77, 80, 99, 101 religious drama, 224–32
in Khuen’s Maria Himmelkönigin, 186–89 song in, 1–2, 28, 34–35, 174, 186–89,
and pilgrimage shrines, 276–77, 213–15, 217–18, 220–23, 239–44
280, 281 See also St. Michael; Unsere Liebe Frau
in Rudolph di Lasso’s compositions, (Munich)
112–113, 118, 125
Mariensäule, 235–37 Neukirchen beim Heiligen Blut (shrine),
as pilgrimage destination, 280 276, 280
processions to, 247 music during pilgrimage to, 318–23
and public devotion, 17, 236, 237, overnight stays at, 325–26
238–44 song for pilgrimage to, 298–300
Martin, Christoph, 58–59, 60, 62, 161 Niess, Johann, 143–44
Mary, Virgin nuns, 70–77, 133–140
See Marian devotion Nuremberg 176, 177, 190, 220, 222
356 | i n d e x
Index.indd 356 10/28/2013 10:13:44 PM

Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da, 46, processions
67, 102 at consecration of St. Michael, 53
paraliturgy, 17–18, 105 Corpus Christi, 2, 18–19, 25, 29, 191,
Passau, 35, 217, 276, 311 249–66
Perckhover, Christoph, 59, 60 Good Friday, 192, 266–69
Perlazio, Giacomo, 20, 89 history of, in Bavaria, 26, 245–49
Pfalz-Neuburg, duchy of, 175, 202 Prague, 63, 271
pilgrimage sanctoral, 233, 272–75
and confraternities, 152, 247 and space, 105, 191
by enclosed nuns, 133 supplicatory, 269–71
and litanies, 304–12 Psalms
Marian, 24, 151, 247, 276–77, 279–80, Catholic, 22, 66, 108–11, 135, 142
303, 307–11, 319, 323 for funerals, 157, 158–59
revival of, 276–78 Penitential, 157, 163–67
sites, in Bavaria, 278–83 Protestant, 33, 175, 176–77, 212, 217
and song, 12, 22, 26, 29, 283–304 Pütrich (convent)
sound at various stages of, 312–29 See Franciscans
and space, 12–13, 18, 19, 29, 276–77,
280, 320 Regensburg
to St. Benno, 326–329 confraternities in, 150n79, 150n82
Piscator, Georg, 90, 102 Jesuit theater, 230
Polling and Lenten devotion, 166
See under Augustinian canons processions in, 235, 252, 274–75
polychoral music, 20 Protestant song in, 219
in churches, 56, 60, 61 Reiche Kapelle, 85–86, 126–127
at court chapel, 87, 93, 94 Reiner, Jakob, 59, 69
in devotional activities, 234, 235 Ridler (convent)
and litanies, 47 See Franciscans
at monasteries, 68, 70 Roman Rite
Poor Clares and church music 20–21, 24, 57–59
See Franciscans at court chapel, 77, 81
Porro, Giovanni Giacomo, 20, 90, 100,
101–102 St. Benno
Porta, Costanzo, 142, 151n85 Bennobogen, 57
propaganda Benno Comoedia, 226
and Catholic song, 22, 171, 182–83 pilgrimage to, 282, 291, 300–2,
litanies as, 248 326–29
mixed intent of, 16–17 processions for, 272–73
pilgrimage song as, 287, 296, 298–304 St. Ignatius (Jesuit church, Landshut),
Protestantism 52–53, 54
and bells, 201 St. Jakob am Anger (convent)
censorship of, 27, 174–75, 176, 177, See Franciscans
217, 222 St. Michael (Jesuit church, Munich)
and funerals, 156–58 architecture, 18, 32, 41–44, 52–53, 55,
history of, in Bavaria, 3, 15–16, 66, 250 56–57, 191
in imperial cities, 190, 219, 252, 267 confraternities at, 155–56
and pilgrimage, 278–79 cradle devotion at, 162
and popular belief, 26 music performed at, 45–54 , 226–227
and the Salve Regina, 159–60 and sanctoral processions, 272
and song: congregational, 32–37, 40–41; Wittelsbach funerals at, 158–59
devotional, 172–78; public, 213, 217–23 St. Nicholas (chapel for Wilhelm V), 128
i n d e x | 357
Index.indd 357 10/28/2013 10:13:45 PM

St. Peter (Munich church) Stadlmayr, Johann, 68, 102
and Corpus Christi procession, 257, 258 Stadtpfeifer, 210–212, 262, 272
and devotional services, 160, 166–68
liturgical music at, 64–66 taverns, 209–10, 211, 317–18
organ, 103 Te Deum laudamus
St. Zeno in Reichenhall (monastery) in celebratory devotion, 54, 62–63,
See under Augustinians 68 169–70, 233, 235
Salve Regina, 37, 159–61 in confraternities and Marian
Schafer, R. Murray, 7, 19, 193 Congregations, 144–45, 153
Seeon (monastery) in convents, 74, 75, 76
See under Benedictines in court music, 102
Seligenthal (convent) in processions, 271, 273, 274, 275, 324
See under Cistercians Tegernsee (monastery)
Senfl, Ludwig, 79, 80, 83 See under Benedictines
Silbermann, Johannes Paul (Johannes Thirty Years’ War, 3, 65, 100, 144, 145,
Paullinus) 235–36, 270, 271, 273, 280, 324
Philothea, 51, 227–32 thoroughbass lied
Theophilus, 227–28, 229n140 See lied, thoroughbass
Smith, Bruce, 8–9, 23, 106, 205–6, 216 trombone, 60, 210, 225, 229, 259–60
Society of Jesus Trent, Council of, 148, 160, 249, 279
See Jesuits Truax, Barry, 7–8, 106
sodalities Tumler, Walram, 81–82
See Congregations, Marian
Sommer, Andre, 287–88, 289–96 Ulenberg, Caspar, 22, 108–109, 142
song, 21–23 Unsere Liebe Frau (Munich)
catechism, 184–85 bells of, 158, 196–200
Catholic, 22, 31, 36–41, 162, 178–89, 239, devotional services at, 160, 166, 169–70
241–42, 284–304 Litany of Loreto at, 306
in confraternities, 150–51, 155–56 Lutheran song in, 34
and devotional space, 106, 170–72 Marian confraternity of Altötting at,
in Marian Congregations, 147, 148 51–52, 247
pilgrimage, 283–304, 313 organ at, 103
processional, 215–16, 248–49 polyphony in, 20–21
Protestant, 32–37, 40–41, 172–78, in processions, 271, 273
217–223 renovation of, 56–64
spiritual, 185–86 Unsere Liebe Frau (Neuburg), 100–101
and street singing, 213–17 Upper Palatinate, 27, 40, 62, 159–60, 172,
in the urban soundscape, 213–23 175–78
See also contrafacture bells in, 202–3
sound, 4, 10–11, 13, 23–24, 192 censorship in, 27
soundscape, 7–9, 17–27, 106 Corpus Christi processions in, 252–53
space song in, 40–41, 172, 175–78
appropriation of, 2, 38
devotional, 105–107, 113, 170–71, 177 Valentini, Giovanni, 68, 102
liturgical, 23–25, 30–32 Vespers, 24, 28, 66, 85, 87, 104, 234–35
and pilgrimage, 277–78 at court chapel, 81, 83–84, 91, 93–99
and place, 4, 9–13 and the Miserere, 165
and processions, 245–46 at St. Michael, 44, 45
Protestant, 172–73, 176 at Unsere Liebe Frau, 59, 60
urban, 190–95, 233 See also Magnificat
Spee, Friedrich, 131 Vetter, Conrad
358 | i n d e x
Index.indd 358 10/28/2013 10:13:45 PM

on Lenten devotions, 163 Weingarten (monastery)
Paradeißvogel, 131n31, 154–55, 180, See under Benedictines
181, 182 , 185 Wilhelm IV, 80
Victorinus, Georg Wilhelm V
and Marian Congregations, 143 court chapel of, 3, 20, 80, 81–85
music for dramas, 224, 227 funeral of, 159
Philomela coelestis, 66, 129, 130 and Lenten devotion, 164
Siren coelestis, 47, 49–50, 128–129 litany text publication, 305
at St. Michael, 46, 50, 128 and Marian Congregation and
at St. Peter, 65–66 confraternities, 141, 151, 152
Thesaurus litaniarum, 46–47, 48–49, and processions, 253
142–143, 305, 307–10 and Roman Rite, 20–21, 58, 59, 60,
63–64
Wartenberg, Maria Maximiliana von, 72, and secular noise, 206–7, 209, 214
135, 140 and Turk bell, 204–205, 270–71
Wasserburg am Inn, 166, 212 and Victorinus’s Siren coelestis, 128
Weihenstephan (monastery) Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg, 61,
See under Benedictines 100, 175
i n d e x | 359
Index.indd 359 10/28/2013 10:13:45 PM

Index.indd 360 10/28/2013 10:13:45 PM
Index.indd 361 10/28/2013 10:13:45 PM
Index.indd 362 10/28/2013 10:13:45 PM
Index.indd 363 10/28/2013 10:13:45 PM
Index.indd 364 10/28/2013 10:13:45 PM

Alexander J. Fisher - Music, Piety, and Propaganda - The Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation Bavaria PDF

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Título original

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Alexander J. Fisher - Music, Piety, and Propaganda - The Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation Bavaria PDF

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Music, Piety, and Propaganda

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd i 10/28/2013 10:35:36 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd ii 10/28/2013 10:35:37 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd iii 10/28/2013 10:35:37 PM

Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

Published in the United States of America by

© Oxford University Press 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

You must not circulate this work in any other form

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd iv 10/28/2013 10:35:37 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd v 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

chapter one Sound, Space, and Confession in

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd vii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd viii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd ix 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

My initial thoughts about a book project on the aural culture of

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xi 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xiii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

AEM Archiv des Erzbistums München und Freising

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xv 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xvi 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

Oxford has created a password-protected website to accompany Music, Piety,

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xvii 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd xix 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

O n sunday morning, June 19, 1558, congregants attending Mass in

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 1 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 2 10/28/2013 10:35:38 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 3 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 4 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 5 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 6 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 7 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 8 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

Sound, Space, and Place

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 9 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 10 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 11 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 12 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

Identity, Discipline, and Confessionalization

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 13 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 14 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

beyond the Germanies: The Case of France,” in Headley et al., Confessionalization in

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 15 10/28/2013 10:35:39 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 16 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

The Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation Bavaria

in Hansgeorg Molitor and Herbert Smolinsky, eds., Volksfrömmigkeit in der frühen

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 17 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 18 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 19 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 20 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 21 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 22 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 23 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 24 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 25 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 26 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

The Structure and Scope of the Book

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 27 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 28 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

oxfordhb-9780199764648.indd 29 10/28/2013 10:35:40 PM

I n a time when religious and secular authorities increasingly subjected