Lantceva A.M. —
The miscellany «Amsterdamer hymnal» of John Amos Comenius: the history of work and some characteristics of composition of the sacred songs’ miscellany.
// Culture and Art. – 2016. – ¹ 4.
– P. 569 - 574.
DOI: 10.7256/2454-0625.2016.4.20439
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Abstract: Czech hymnal as a literary-musical genre got its wide popularity thanks to the great wide spreading of the collections sacred songs used in the Christian society and performed by a church choir and the community of believers as in the Czech Republic as in abroad. Hymnal as a genre got its final artistically appearance, it developed and spread through the common people in the Czech lands during the Baroque epoch (XVII-XVIII centuries) due to the large-scale process of recatholization (Catholic Counter-Reformation). At the same time the hymnographic work of non-Catholic people from the Czech lands have had to develop outside the country. John Amos Comenius published in Amsterdam in 1659, which is the lively example of the Czech emigrant’s hymnography became an artistic symbol of striking confirmation of the religious opposition in the Czech lands. Amsterdamer hymnal, which is a skillful combination of music and text, consists of a preface, paraphrases of psalms, the songs so called «mains», «officials» and «eventualies».
The research methodology is a historical and analytical approach, due to it the article exermine the synthesis of verbal - phonic and verbal-musical components of this Hymnal. The scientific originality of this paper consist in that Comenius is firstly in domestic komeniology represented not only as an outstanding Czech philosopher and educator, as well as a poet and composer, a key figure of the Unity of Brethren.
It should be noted that in the XVII century Amsterdamer hymnal occupied an important place in the history of spiritual singing of the Unity of Brethren due to interpretation of the Hussite hymnographic heritage through the prism of Baroque aesthetics by genius of Comenius. Comenius’es Hymnal is remained outstanding miscellany of spiritual songs to this day. Nowdays the songs from this Hymnal is well known in evangelical environments both in Czech Republic and abroad.