The Transformation of the Legitimacy of Czech Liturgical Singing in the Second Half of the 15th Century
Abstract
In the second half of the 15th century, the inclusion of Czech-language parts of the liturgy was left to the will of individual parishes and limited to preserving the "statu quo", i.e. local custom. Although it may seem that, unlike in the 1420s and 1430s, the omission of this matter in the resolutions of the Diet from the 1440s onwards left Czech chant in a certain oblivion, this is not the case.
Czech singing was perceived by the Catholic party as the third most frequent transgression against the compact, after communion of infants and being forced to the chalice. In the case of Czech singing, the ingrained "custom" could not be challenged by its lack of rational grasp, as in the administration of the Eucharist to children.
The reference to the local customs of parishes becomes a convenient means of legitimizing the vernacular in the liturgy. Younger sources confirm that, in Utraquist eyes, reference to "custom" was a crucial argument that opened the door to liturgical change.
In 1487, however, the printing press came into play. Thus, without the constraints of local practice, the advocacy of Czech singing is disseminated with the rather radical demands of Václav Koranda the Younger, as well as prayer books whose connection to singing is revealed in a series of rubrics.
The paper therefore asks how the legitimacy of Czech singing changed around 1500 under the influence of the printing press and on which parts of the repertoire the change in legitimacy had the greatest impact.