Andreas Pevernage's Cantiones sacrae (1578) as a Counter-Reformation Statement of Confessional Loyalty in the Low Countries

The Flemish composer Andries Pevernage published a book of sacred and occasional motets, the Cantiones aliquot sacrae... quibus addita sunt elogia nonnula, in 1578, at the height of the religious conflicts in the Low Countries. A number of features of the volume suggest that he intended the book as a statement of his confessional and political loyalties and not simply as collection of music. The dedicatory essay, addressed to the archbishop of Cambrai, praises the archbishop for his role as protector and defender of the church, and the dedicatory motet lauds him for the unshakable faith that made him a leader of the Catholics. The other elogia, or homage motets, honor primarily figures loyal to the Spanish king and members of the clergy, and they are arranged in hierarchical order, affirming the order and structure of the Catholic community. Finally, the sacred motets in the volume are ordered in a way that pointedly positions them within the Roman Catholic liturgy

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