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Sacred Music between Confessionalization and Secularization (Antwerp, 17th-18th Centuries)
| Focusing on Antwerp, a city with a pronounced confessional identity as well as a rich musical life, the proposed paper aims at assessing how the local religious musical culture was influenced by or contributed to processes of confessionalization and secularization during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It will be discussed by whom and in what contexts sacred music was used - both as a tool within confessional strategies and as a means for distinction or representation -, and how this affected the composition and performance of music. Particular attention will be paid to the normative frames, the changing discourse on sacred music, and the music policy of the city's ecclesiastical authority. A consideration of musical and contextual aspects will allow mapping the elements that contributed to the confessional or secular character of sacred music, thus shedding some light on its different functions and evolving meanings within an urban society.
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