Rappel du premier message :Voodoo music study makes Vatican Library Cath News
The
Vatican Library has added to its collections a South Carolina State
University professor's study on the inculturation of voodoo in a
Catholic Mass.
Associate Professor Dr Robert Grenier was recently informed that his
article, "Werner Jaegerhuber's Messe sur les airs Vodouesques: The
Inculturation of Vodou (Voodoo) in a Catholic Mass," will be included
in the historical collection of the Vatican Library, the Times and
Democrat reports.
In 2008, Grenier's article was published in the Black Music Research Journal.
Grenier
later submitted copies to the Vatican Library and was informed later
that his article would be included in the library's collection.
"You can imagine my surprise upon receiving the letter postmarked Vatican City," Grenier said.
"The
letter informed me of the reception of my article. It was signed by
Cardinal Raffaele Farina, chief archivist and librarian at the Vatican
Library."
Grenier's
article, which took a number of years to complete due to his extensive
research and the necessity of reconstructing the musical score of the
Mass from the surviving manuscripts, describes how Werner Jaegerhuber,
a Haitian-born composer of German extraction, selected elements of
Haitian vodou, or voodoo, and blended them with music inspired by
Gregorian chant to achieve an unprecedented coupling of two opposing
faith traditions.
This odd pairing was inspired by the fact that the Mass was
commissioned to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the founding of
Haiti, the first black republic, in 1804, the Times and Democrat says.
SOURCE Professor's article part of the Vatican Library's collection (Times and Democrat)
Werner Jaegerhuber's Messe sur les airs vodouesques: the inculturation of Vodou in a Catholic mass.
Werner
Jaegerhuber's Messe sur les airs vodouesques is an exceptional creation
due to the unprecedented integration of Haitian Vodou melodies in a
Catholic mass. (1) The composition of the Messe was begun in 1947 and
completed in 1953. Its relatively long period of gestation suggests
that the composer undertook the task on his own initiative. Progress on
this work became known to Jaegerhuber's close friend and artistic
collaborator, Louis Maximilien, (2) who was an influential member of a
committee responsible for organizing the festivities for the 150th
anniversary of Haiti's independence, held on January 1, 1954.
Maximilien, in the name of the committee, commissioned Jaegerhuber to
complete the mass for the ceremonies accompanying the inauguration of
the new cathedral in Les Gonaives, the city where independence was
proclaimed in 1804. The committee responsible for the festivities,
aided by its members who were representatives of the bishopric of
Port-au-Prince and the Order of Spiritan Fathers, approached the bishop
of Les Gonaives, Monseigneur Robert, (3) who, without full knowledge as
to the nature of this composition, reluctantly accepted the concept of
an artistic mass put before him. Jaegerhuber committed his skill to
produce this Mass on Vodou Melodies, considering it an entirely
appropriate work for this commemoration.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
However, among Haiti's Catholic clergy as well as some of the laity of
the time there was little tolerance for the integration of elements of
Haitian Vodou into the Roman liturgy. Evidence of this discomfort rests
in the two different names the Messe was given. Initially, the
composer's title directed our attention to the Vodou origin of many of
the themes: Messe sur les airs vodouesques. Its secondary title, Messe
folklorique haitienne, suggested to Jaegerhuber by Louis Maximilien,
attempted to draw attention to a more diffuse perspective by
characterizing the origin of many of its melodies as generally
folkloric and thus potentially less offensive to some. (4) The eventual
refusal of Mgr. Robert to allow the Messe to be sung in his cathedral
when Jaegerhuber's intentions became evident to him attests to what was
considered the improbable merging of Christian and Vodou elements in a
Catholic liturgical work of art. Jaegerhuber's Messe suggested that a
rational bridge could be constructed and traversed from Catholicism to
Vodou. As one of Haiti's Catholic hierarchy most vigorously prosecuting
the antisuperstition campaigns, the prelate could not sanction the
performance of such a work in his cathedral. He, like many in Haiti at
this time, regarded the practice of Vodou as a regrettable element
retarding the advancement of Haitian society. In his own words it was
"a bit of God and a bit of the devil" (Robert 1962, 1206).
The purpose of this article is twofold. In order to illustrate the
originality of Jaegerhuber's achievement it is necessary to describe
the asymmetric relationship between the two principal faith traditions
in the Republic of Haiti. The contentious reception of the Messe
registered among his contemporaries attests to the unresolved nature of
this relationship. The second goal of the article rests in an
understanding of what Jaegerhuber achieved in the Messe itself or in
other words, how he, through a work of art, could propose a resolution
to this enduring asymmetry. The first obstacle to this goal is that the
composer left no written account as to his intentions regarding this
work, whether social, artistic, or otherwise. As a result, the score
becomes the principal venue to develop our understanding. However, here
there is an additional obstacle, since no authorized published edition
is available nor even a manuscript that, with assurance, may be
ascribed to the hand of the composer. What has been preserved in the
archives of the Societe de recherche et de diffusion de la musique
haitienne in Montreal are two different scores. One score consists of
the choral solo parts prepared for the participants at its creation.
The second is a twenty-three page full score presenting both the organ
and choral/solo parts. Since these two sources differ in several
respects, most notably in the formal structure of the Agnus Dei, it has
been necessary for the purpose of this article to produce an edition
that, while acknowledging these differences, attempts to profitably
combine elements from both and reasonably resolve the differences
between contending versions.
Based on this edition one may begin to identify elements consistent
with what the original title contends: a mass on Vodou melodies.
However, a brief examination of the Messe reveals that Vodou melodies
only form a small but important portion of the material on which
Jaegerhuber relied to compose this work. It is clear that the composer
contributed his own original melodies as well as importing elements
from the Gregorian tradition. Both of Jaegerhuber's sources in Vodou
and the Gregorian tradition were mined not only for a specific melody
but also, more generally, by referencing a characteristic texture,
rhythm, and conventional practice. At no point is there a fusion of the
Gregorian and Vodou traditions if by this it is meant that the composer
contrapuntally superimposes the musical elements of each or otherwise
commingles them into a single auditory experience. Rather, he lets one
tradition predominate while using the other, if at all, to effect a
contrast in a manner that contributes to articulating the structure of
a movement. The identification of each of these elements frees us to
speculate as to Jaegerhuber's artistic choices as these relate to the
Latin mass. Indeed, it is at this juncture where, for example, a Vodou
melody is now adapted to bear the words of the Roman liturgy, that the
issue of inculturation of one tradition by another is raised. (5) It is
also here, in this newly minted contrafactum, that the asymmetry
between these traditions is challenged. Thus, Jaegerhuber's selection
and arrangement of elements derived from Haitian Vodou and inculturated
within the Roman liturgy becomes the subject of a rational appreciation
of this enterprise.
Evidence of the inculturation of Vodou elements in the Messe implies a
theological dimension in our discussion where, at some level,
Jaegerhuber intuits a link between an aspect of the Vodou religion and
a specific moment, textual or liturgical, in the Roman liturgy and its
Biblical sources. Once identified, the appropriateness of a link may be
assessed. While what Jaegerhuber actually intended may never be known
for certain, given the resources at hand and the speculative nature of
this endeavor, the succession of these events in the Messe may give
rise, nevertheless, to a musicotheological subtext that threads its way
through the course of the work and speaks to his imaginative adaptation
of both faith traditions.
As stated above, the Messe was greeted by many of Jaegerhuber's
contemporaries with such antipathy that he changed the name of his work
in order to disguise his original intentions. It was correctly
understood by all that the composer was attempting to link in a single
work of art elements of two faith traditions that for centuries shared
an uneasy coexistence. This unease can be traced to their historic
encounter where the religion "of those who serve the lwa" (6) had
inculturated aspects of Catholic ritual and iconography while
Catholicism entirely avoided a similar encroachment. The reason for
this asymmetric rapport is that Catholicism simply failed to fully
evangelize the great number of enslaved Africans in the colonial era.
Several factors contribute to an explanation of this situation.
The state of the Catholic Church in Saint-Domingue during the later
half of the eighteenth century presents us with an image of material
and spiritual poverty. In 1785 it was reported that half the churches
and rectories had to be rebuilt and an inventory of musical instruments
in the parishes of that period records that few had any organs. What
few there may have been were small positives as indicated by the period
documentation and advertisements announcing their sale and repair
(Camier 2004).
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