Music and Sense of Belonging. Liturgical, Musical and Ceremonial Practices of National Churches of Rome in the Early Modern Period

Important centres of charity, hospitality and representation, the national churches of Rome were also major hubs of musical production. Several of them were also parish churches. They played a fundamental role with respect to the cohesion of Rome and its inhabitants, such as helping foreigners to settle and be integrated in Rome. They also were in charge of some functions « shared by innumerable other parish churches », even if the congregation of national churches distinguish themselves from latter : they « were not, strictly speaking, ‘neighbourly’, but rather ‘communitarian’ or, more precisely, ‘national’» (1). Veritable foreign enclaves within Rome, the national churches were all founded, managed and protected by illustrious members of their own nation and they functioned both as charitable institutions for their own national communities and as representatives of their respective home countries. They were also deeply integrated within the religious, political and cultural life of Rome. As a result, they were at once subject to the authority of their respective sovereigns and the delegates of the latter in Rome (at times, these sovereigns acted as remote protectors, at others as direct authorities) and bound to respect the customs and traditions prevailing in Rome at the time. This dual affiliation rapidly proved to have a determining effect on the ceremonial and musical practices of the national churches.
As a result of two successive research projects – « Le modèle musical des églises nationales à Rome à l’époque baroque (Université de Liège/Programme Marie Curie, 2013-15, directed by Michela Berti and Émilie Corswarem) and « Musique et processus identitaire: le cas des églises nationales romaines (FRS-FNRS/Université de Liège, Université libre de Bruxelles, 2015-19, directed by Marie-Alexis Colin and Émilie Corswarem, – we edited a book which showed that music was a key factor in the construction of belonging. Through different examples, this paper aim to demonstrate how the musical life of these churches contributed to promote a sense of identity — national or other — in their respective communities by offering them places in which to convene, events which brought them together, regularly shared rituals and acts of devotion, etc. In doing so, this work sheds important new light on the crucial role played by musical, liturgical, devotional, festive and ceremonial practices in forging and promoting a sense of belonging to the foreign communities of early-modern Rome. (1) Bernard Dompnier, « Identity Affirmation and Roman Conformity: the Festive Calendars of the National Churches », in Music and the Identity Process: The National Churches of Rome and their Networks in the Early Modern Period, ed. by Michela Berti and Émilie Corswarem, with the collaboration of Jorge Morales, Turnhout, Brepols, 2019, p. 148