P. Mauritius Pöhm and his Contribution to Musical Life in Novo mesto During the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The paper presents some of the most significant results of research on the so-called Pöhm music collections in Novo mesto (Ger. Rudolfswerth, Lat. Neostadium). P. Mauritius Pöhm, born in Bohemia in 1745, was a Franciscan friar and organist. He was later active in several monasteries in the Slovenian and Croatian regions of the former Franciscan province of the Holy Cross, where he died in 1803. His Bohemian roots and his high reputation as a musician have led some scholars in the past to assume, first, that Pöhm played a decisive role in the formation of the musical repertory in Novo mesto during the second half of the eighteenth century, and, second, that he personally obtained numerous music manuscripts preserved in Novo mesto from Bohemia. Both conjectures have been re-examined in the course of the present research – with a view to discerning the real extent of the music in this repertory that can convincingly be linked to Pöhm personally, and also to establishing its geographical origin through a study of the paper on which the manuscripts were written.