Book contents
- A History of Music in the Czech Lands
- A History of Music in the Czech Lands
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Before 1800
- 1 Medieval Traditions of Plainchant in Bohemia
- 2 Medieval Music and Czech National Identity
- 3 Liturgical Music of the Bohemian Reformation
- 4 Music at Rudolf II’s Court in Prague
- 5 Music in the Catholic Reformation of Seventeenth-Century Bohemia
- 6 Music in Bohemian Royal Coronations and Opera in Prague in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- 7 Aristocratic Patronage of Music in the Bohemian Crownlands: A Series of Vignettes
- 8 “il’y aura six enfants de Choeur ou Clercs”: The Bohemian Kapellknaben Ensemble of Dresden’s Catholic Court Church
- Part II The “Long” Nineteenth Century
- Part III The Twentieth Century and Beyond
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
1 - Medieval Traditions of Plainchant in Bohemia
from Part I - Before 1800
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2025
Book contents
- A History of Music in the Czech Lands
- A History of Music in the Czech Lands
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Before 1800
- 1 Medieval Traditions of Plainchant in Bohemia
- 2 Medieval Music and Czech National Identity
- 3 Liturgical Music of the Bohemian Reformation
- 4 Music at Rudolf II’s Court in Prague
- 5 Music in the Catholic Reformation of Seventeenth-Century Bohemia
- 6 Music in Bohemian Royal Coronations and Opera in Prague in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- 7 Aristocratic Patronage of Music in the Bohemian Crownlands: A Series of Vignettes
- 8 “il’y aura six enfants de Choeur ou Clercs”: The Bohemian Kapellknaben Ensemble of Dresden’s Catholic Court Church
- Part II The “Long” Nineteenth Century
- Part III The Twentieth Century and Beyond
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The church music in Prague at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was predominantly monophonic, but nevertheless remarkably diverse. In St. Vitus’s Cathedral, the main institution of the Prague diocese, traditional Gregorian chant, partly distinctly archaic, was cultivated in the second half of the fourteenth century as a manifestation of the political aspirations of the Luxembourg rulers to establish Prague as the new megalopolis of Christianity and heir to Rome. In diocesan churches on the other hand, new liturgical repertory flourished, characterized by extravagant melodies and partly rhythmic performance. At the same time, the repertory of vernacular sacred songs was gaining increasing popularity in Bohemia. All these aspects found expression in the constitution of the vernacular liturgy for a parish church – the first in the history of the Western Church– – after the outbreak of the Hussite Wars in 1419.
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- A History of Music in the Czech Lands , pp. 7 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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