Project information
Music, Drama, and Religion: Sepolcri in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy (Music, Drama, and Religion)

The sacred dramatic music of sepolcri had a significant religious and political function within the Roman Catholic Pietas austriaca. These works, defined as oratorios performed at the Holy Sepulchre during Holy Week, had been intensively cultivated at the imperial court since the seventeenth century. The performance tradition was by no means limited to the imperial court: numerous religious orders, but also secular aristocrats and parish churches in Austria below the Enns River, Salzburg, and the Bohemian lands received this phenomenon intensively from the turn of the seventeenth century to the 1780s. The rich tradition outside the Viennese court and its cultural, political, and religious impact have not been sufficiently researched.
This innovative research will shed new light on the fascinating cultural significance of sepolcri by examining how the transfer of librettos, music, and staging practices influenced the form of sepolcri in different regions of the Habsburg monarchy. It will also analyze how sepolcri evolved depending on local languages, the intended audience, and the role of women as patrons and performers.