Prolegomena do badań nad twórczością religijną Amanda Ivanschiza
A prolegomena to studies on religious works by Amand Ivanschiz

Author(s): Maciej JOCHYMCZYK
Subject(s): Music, History of Art
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: Vocal-instrumental religious works of early Classical composers remained in the shadowof secular music for a long time in musicological studies. Despite the fact that our state ofknowledge has undergone a gradual improvement, still many interesting authors of that timeremain unknown. One of the representatives of a temporary period between the Baroqueand Classicism is father Amandus Ivanschiz (1727—1758), a Pauline monk and composerwho stayed in an Austrian Wiener Neustadt and Mariatrost near Graz, and, as the latest researchclaims, was also seen in Rome. In the context of father Amand’s early death, we haveto pay a special attention to a large number of found works (over 100 compositions) andtheir stylistics, clearly introducing Classicism in music. It is expressed in a definite divergencefrom a polyphonic texture and linearism in favour of clear and early Classical “lightness”.The very feature can be observed both in the secular and religious music.Vocal-instrumental compositions by Ivanschiz, the most popular of which are known forits few or even several copies, were maintained in over 260 manuscripts stored in about 70archives in the territory of 8 countries in Central Europe. These are above all masses, litanies,settings of Marian antiphons and other religious works of a cantata structure. One ofthe most serious challenges connected with the research of the repertoire in question is theissue of establishing and confirming the authorship of the composition (the autographsdevoid of doubts have not been found so far), as well as the issue of the variant nature of themessage. It takes on every possible form in father Amand’s music, from small differences insound pitch or transposition (of a whole composition or a part of it) to voice changes or additionof subsequent instrumental parts and a deep recomposition or a change of longerfragments of works. A substantial majority of known copies of his works was created between1760 and 1800, so after his death whereas some of them were copied even in the 19thcentury. It shows how long father Amand’s works functioned, but also calls for a far-reachingcarefulness when making an attempt to locate little-known composers in time on the basis ofthe dates of their work copies

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