Music and Medicine in Czech Religious Literature
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | This paper observes views of music and its impact on human emotions, morality, and health in various Czech texts from the early modern era. The texts are unified by their topic – they all discuss the religious or spiritual aspects of music – but they differ in genre and purpose, ranging from educational literature through hymn book preambles to homiletics. The paper outlines prevailing notions in the texts and then focuses on B. H. Bilovský’s sermon, where music and medicine metaphors mingle. Music played an essential role in conflicts between the Catholic and Protestant confessions, which continued even after the Battle of the White Mountain when Catholicism was declared the state religion. Hymn tunes commonly migrated between the Catholic and Protestant environments and were paired with diverse texts. Reflecting on this process, hymn books depict pleasing melodies as persuasive tools that reinforce the impression of any message. The Catholic priest Jan Rozenplut, for instance, refers to the protestant hymns with borrowed tunes as poison, which has to be healed by an „antidote“ – texts in his hymn book that follow the Catholic doctrine. Even music as such – independent of text – is regarded as highly influential. Numerous authors mention its ability to heal, tame anger, cheer up the sorrowful and cultivate morale. These insights continue the aesthetic tradition based on the ancient theories of ethos and catharsis. However, the ecclesiastic environment modifies such ideas, relating them to biblical stories and the Christian doctrine. The authors frequently refer to King David, who played the lyre to King Saul to expel the evil spirit from him, and also to St. Augustine, who was driven to tears by music. Such music images often become metaphors for spiritual concepts (e. g. Christ taming sinners by playing his humanity like an instrument, low-pitched music as the Devil’s seduction). Music’s ability to heal and affect emotions has been discussed since Antiquity and the idea became particularly significant in the Baroque era when the doctrine of affections arose. The paper demonstrates how this notion resonated in the Czech lands in early modernism and how it intertwined with Christian theology. |
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