Conference Agenda
The Online Program of events for the 2025 AMS-SMT Joint Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early November.
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Daily Overview |
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Sacred Music and the Performance of Power Location: Lakeshore B Session Chair: Melinda Latour | |
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Amo Christum: Music for a Divine Marriage Case Western Reserve University, Some of the most colorful music from 17th century convents was written for the profession ceremony, in which a novice would take vows to join a religious order. A common text for this ritual was derived from a prayer attributed to St. Agnes, one of the early virgin martyrs. With the opening line “amo Christum in cuius thalamum introibo,” or “I love Christ into whose bedchamber I enter,” the prayer contextualizes the profession ceremony not only as an oath to the order, but as a wedding to Christ. In several orders, this text was sung or recited before the changing of vestments and the eucharist, formalizing the nun’s new status as a bride of Christ. Two settings of the prayer of St. Agnes, one by published composer Lucrezia Vizzana (1590-1662) and another anonymous source found in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, while very different in character, utilize common rhetorical devices to highlight the emotional and theological apex of the profession. BnF RES VMA MS-91, a newly-rediscovered anonymous manuscript, includes a setting of the Amo Christum for two sopranos and continuo, along with Marian motets, motets dedicated to female saints, and several settings of the Domine salvum fac Regem. These contents strongly suggest that the manuscript was used by a French convent in the mid-17th century. This Amo Christum uses a variety of compositional techniques, such as virtuosic melismatic writing, and metrical and tonal shifts to emphasize the dual nature of the relationship between the professing nun and her divine spouse, as well as the majestic reassurance of his voice. Vizzana’s setting, also for two sopranos and continuo, points out the two same textual moments with the use of striking chromatic inflection and dissonance. The voice of Christ is denoted by a solo passage with Phrygian characteristics, while the dual nature of the nun’s status as a wife and a virgin is highlighted with dissonance and delayed resolution. These motets shed light on how 17th century nuns understood their relationship with Christ as a marriage, and invites contemplation of the eucharist as physical union between the nun and her divine spouse. | |