The Jesuits and Music: Winning over Hearts and Minds in the Counter-Reformation

After the Council of Trent in the mid-16th Century, the Jesuits set out on a mission to revitalize the Catholic Church, by containing Protestant encroachment and evangelizing non-Christian populations. They used music as a tool to advance both objectives.

The success that Protestantism enjoyed in German and Czech territories could be traced in part to the way congregational singing in the vernacular strengthened people’s identification with their religious community. The Catholic Church needed a similar popular appeal to restore its dominion in Europe and expand into new societies.

Originally distrustful of music in a devotional setting, the Jesuits learned -- in German and Czech territories and in the jungles of Latin America -- what a powerful force music could be in redefining Roman Catholicism as a culture of active lay participation.

Join our guide Robert as we follow the Jesuits’ mission through music they banned (Orlando di Lasso's) and music they wrote (such as Adam Michna's and Domenico Zipoli's), vernacular settings of sacred music, litanies for processions and pilgrimages, instruction in musical instruments, and performance of music dramas (including a baroque opera written for the indigenous people of colonial Latin America).