Celestine Vivell

Celestine Max Vivell OSB (born October 21, 1846 in Wolfach , † March 10, 1923 in Seckau (Styria)) was a German Benedictine monk and music researcher.

Life

From 1860 he attended the grammar school in Offenburg and from 1867 the lyceum in Konstanz . Originally he wanted to embark on a career as an officer, but in 1869 he opted for the seminary in Freiburg im Breisgau and entered the Beuron monastery in 1871 . There he made his profession (the perpetual vows) on April 27, 1873 ; on May 28, 1874 he was ordained a priest at Rottenburg am Neckar .

He came to Beuron and was appointed Cantor because of his good performance as a chorus singer. Due to the order of worship in Beuron, this office resulted in greater responsibility for the choir than in the liturgical organization of French monasteries. After his studies in Beuron, he took part in several new foundations of the Beuron Benedictines because of his singing abilities: For example, he was in the new Belgian Abbey of Maredsous from 1875-82 , came to the Emauskloster in Prague in connection with the Kulturkampf over Beuron in 1883 and moved into In the same year the newly founded Seckau Abbey was one of the first settlers , in which he held various offices (including that of the Cantor) and remained until his death.

From 1902 Vivell published studies that favored the reform of choral singing in Germany. He carried on a lively scientific correspondence; the focus of his research was in the field of Gregorian chant . In contrast to Peter Wagner , a member of the Vatican Commission, who devoted his research mainly to the study of chants notated in books, Vivell concentrated on the medieval theorists. He continued the work of his compatriot Martin Gerbert (1720–1793) and Edmond de Coussemaker (1805–1876); Vivell's important directory Initia tractatuum musices (1912) was based on editions of the two named from 1784 and 1864.

His music-theoretical studies are still important today, although the Commentarius anonymus in Micrologum, which he only edited based on a Viennese model, has now found a source-wise better-founded scientific edition by Joseph Smits van Waesberghe . Coelestin's personal modesty did not allow him to speak in public or in the company of his confreres about his own studies and publications. His handwritten estate is in the Seckau abbey archive (cat. No. 39).

Web links

• Literature by and about Celestine Vivell in the catalog of the German National Library

literature

• Barbara Boisits: Coelestin Vivell, a choral researcher from the Seckau Abbey (Styria). Dissertation. Graz 1995.