The Jesuit music repertoire at the convent of Canonesses regular in Wrocław

Tomasz Jeż

Abstract

The collection of music manuscripts that once belonged to the Canonesses Regular of Wrocław (now part of the Music Collection of the University of Warsaw Library) is a set of more than 450 music sources, unique in Poland, coming from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The sources bear the provenance marks of Chori S. Annae and Chori S. Jacobi. The repertoire contained in those sources testifies to the originality and very high standards of music traditions cultivated by the canonesses, but also to their convent’s wide contacts with numerous institutions of music culture in both Silesia and the neighbouring countries. Some of the music manuscripts confirm the Wrocław convent’s links to those monastic communities elsewhere in Europe which at that time were the main promoters of new trends and stylistic tendencies in music. Of special interest in this group are compositions derived from the Jesuit circles, which once formed the most dynamically expanding network for the transmission of music culture. They are works by such Jesuits as Georg Braun, Joannes Faber, Martin Kretzmer, Leopold Liebstein, and Carolus Pfeiffer (though the piece attributed to that last composer may in fact have been written by Francesco della Porta). The collection also includes unique copies of liturgical works by Nicolaus Frölich, who for more than 40 years served as organist of the Jesuit Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Kłodzko. The canonesses of Wrocław also collected anonymously transmitted works which demonstrate evident characteristics of music then popular in the Jesuit circles.