The third volume of the Kromměříž Music Archive has been published

Owing to the extent of the original choir collection, it is divided into two volumes, of which the present publication brings the first – devoted exclusively to printed sources. This choir collection represents a valuable body of church music documenting musical practice from the 16th century to the early 20th century.

The corpus includes rare early polyphonic printed music as well as music reflecting the transformation of church repertoire during the Cecilian movement. Taken as a whole, these prints provide important testimony not only to period musical practice, but also to the level of musicianship and the personal preferences of the regenschori who shaped the collection over the centuries.

The main aim of this gradually expanding publishing series is to make the individual collections of the Kroměříž Music Archive accessible to both specialists and the general public. This year also brought the completion of the digitisation of the musical sources, opening up extensive opportunities for research in an online environment. Taken together with cataloguing work and the printed catalogue, this represents another step towards the modern processing and presentation of the collection

Each publication of the collection is accompanied by a themed presentation in the formo f a Music Cabinet. The fourth of these exhibitions, installed in the Archbishop´s Palace at Kroměříž, presents selected sources and figures associated with the musical history of the Church of St Maurice, placint them within their broader cultural and historical context.