Un corpus inédit de méditations pour le carême, conservé dans le fonds d’archives jésuites à Anvers (XVII-XVIIIe siècles)

This article discusses sixty-three unpublished meditations for Lent preserved among the Jesuit papers in the State Archives in Antwerp. These pieces were probably performed at Lenten services organized by the Jesuits in the majority of cities in the Low Countries in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The considerable role that music played in these devotional services extended well beyond merely supporting the text with sound. Three basic formats can be identified: 1) pieces for canto, basso, and basso continuo, based on strophic texts in Dutch and characterized by homorhythm and a usually syllabic setting; 2) compositions for canto or tenor with varied accompaniment (strings and/or winds and basso continuo), on short texts in Latin and characterized by close correspondence between text and music, reflected in the frequent use of rhetorical-musical figures; 3) pieces for voices (one to four), two violins, and basso continuo, on texts in Dutch and articulated by virtuoso passages that interrupt an otherwise syllabic texture. Whatever their structural and stylistic characteristics, however, the works reveal consistent musico-literary methods that include figuralism, theatrical treatment of the text, and the regular use of instrumental symphonies that intensify the impact of the text. These methods helped place the faithful in an emotional frame of mind, thus heightening their response to the words and bringing about a process of meditation which led them to examine their conscience.