The musical culture of Carmelites in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century : music sources and other documentation

In recent years, there has been a growing interest among musicologists in the musical life of the monasteries of former Poland. Due to the large dispersion of the sources and difficult access to them, no comprehensive research has been carried out on the musical life of the Carmelites and no monographic work dealing with different aspects of the musical culture of the order has been written. Finding materials containing information about the presence of music in this religious milieu and analysing them would facilitate comparative research in the future. Therefore, in 2021–2022, preliminary research on the musical culture of the Order of Carmelites in the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was carried out. The main aim of this article is to indicate the types of sources for researching the musical culture of the Carmelites, and to describe them in a synthetic way. In the article, both music sources and non-musical documentation are identified. There are two groups of music sources: manuscripts containing compositions that most likely featured in the repertoire of the Carmelite ensembles, as well as some musical works created by Carmelite composers. Other documentation is discussed in the article, for example, books of provincial chapters and files of visits, books of admissions to the novitiate, religious professions, liber vitae and registers of the dead, monastery and fraternity accounts, and inventories. At the end of the article, research perspectives are suggested.