Orthodox Church Music at the Crossroads between Central-European and Mediterranean Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Numerous studies have been written and published on the social status and cultural progress of the emerging Serbian and Greek bourgeoisie of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 18th and 19th ce-nturies.1 Still, only a handful of them is devoted to the role of music in the shaping of the identity of Balkan Christians in the given country and period. In the focus of this chapter is the establishment of the practice of multipart choral singing in the Serbian and Greek Orthodox Churches of the Habsburg Monarchy, which was untypical for their liturgical traditions. This novel musical current will be explored from the perspective of theological and cultural influences from the West, which rapidly and profoundly transformed the image of Orthodox Balkan nations, and blurred the boundaries between West and East, and European and Balkan/Mediterranean cultural spaces. The self-perceived cultural inferiority of members of the Greek and Serbian diaspora in the face of the abundant and diverse musical heritage of imperial Vienna, was, as will be pointed out, critical for «installing» multipart choral ensembles in the galleries of Orthodox church edifices. Therefore, this phenomenon will serve as a basis for our narrative.