III. Explanations of key concepts
On the terms ‘circulation’ and ‘migration’
The term ‘circulation’ as employed here refers both to the migration of musicians and other individuals associated with music and to the geographical diffusion or distribution of music in all its aspects. The complex of problems circumscribed by the terms ‘innovation’, ‘effect’, and ‘reception’ has always played a role in historical research, though in widely varying forms. Despite numerous and often valuable attempts at explanation, however, many fundamental questions remain unanswered.
Scholars grappling with these issues have identified ‘migration’ and ‘diffusion’ as key concepts in this field of research, and the study of migration has emerged as a highly active and fertile interdisciplinary field. Though considerable progress has been made, there has yet to develop a widely accepted general theory of migration and diffusion. As a result, its degree of abstraction is not yet very high, which in a way facilitates its application in historical fields.
As characterised by the majority of historians, migration and diffusion research attempts to describe and explain when, where, why, how and by whom innovations were introduced in various sectors of society, in what fashion they were adopted by the various social groups, and to what consequences of a theoretical, social and economic kind that adoption led. In the process, scholars are endeavouring to discover the mechanisms and laws that form the basis for these events.
The migration of musicians
For the research project presented here, the theories of migration and diffusion research are to be combined with music history and musicological research practice. Institutional demand (or the lack thereof) represents a decisive element in the mobility of the musician. It nonetheless remains appropriate to analyse, independently of demand, the precise motivations which led the musician to move (e.g., apprenticeships, financial or political reasons [exile], the search for prestige), insofar as such motivations can be identified. Hence the migratory movement of these musicians (whether simple orchestral musicians, itinerant virtuosi, vocal stars or composers) will be analysed according to a typology that takes into account both the profile and relative power of the institutions and the personal motivation of the musicians involved. This typology should enable us to clarify the special characteristics relating to the musician’s mobility (normal comings and goings, the tour, definitive emigration etc.) in terms of time and space.
Linking the function of the institutions with the travels of musicians will help highlight their routes and strategies as well as the directions of migratory flux and the centres of attraction. It will also help identify the centres of emigration and immigration as well as the points of passage and diffusion for each period.
The circulation of music
The migration of musicians cannot be dissociated from the circulation of music in all its manifestations: works, styles, repertories and so on as well as music in the material sense (printed and manuscript music).
The study of the circulation of works and styles is all the more important considering that certain musicians, though their works were widely distributed, hardly ever ventured from their home base. This was the case, for example, for French and Italian musicians such as Lully, Couperin, Pergolesi and Tartini. As for repertoires, the spread of Italian opera across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries already represents such a transfer. In the 19th century the development of the virtuoso constitutes one of the overriding factors in the transfer of repertoires, since the concert seasons and the orchestral and operatic repertoires could only be planned in light of the soloists hired. Also important is the diffusion in the 19th century of specific repertoires resulting from the democratisation of musical access in the form of garden concerts, concerts given by military groups and even large choral performances.
Our point of departure in dealing with the circulation of printed and manuscript music will be to examine the various modes of distribution based on studies of the centres of music publication and manuscript production, the circulation and interaction of publishers and printers, and their links with institutions and with the public (e.g., through the system of subscriptions). It will also be appropriate to examine the phenomena of arrangement and adaptation as well as the distribution of sheet music in the form of anthologies for small musical groups or for solo instruments (keyboard, lute, guitar).
We shall also give consideration to the transformation of operas and opera texts, including their languages, subject matter and dramaturgical structures, when they are transferred to other localities or social contexts. As a text containing representations of society and of culture itself (e.g., in historical plots or parodies of other cultural products), an opera may actually stand in contrast to the social and political conditions prevailing in its place of performance. One could ask how, for instance, a given Italian opera could succeed equally well in St. Petersburg or London or at a German court. In fact, the European hegemony of Italian opera in the 18th century and the history of its local adaptations calls into question the functional relationship between society and representation, raising the problem of emancipatory or alternative functions of music and theatre.
On the term ‘institution’
In its broadest sense, the study of institutions is the study of those conditions which make possible the cohesion of human beings, society and culture - how social life can survive, acquire structures and unfold. Historical anthropology has developed the view that the specifically historical and spatial features of the process of institutionalisation can only be explained by reference to the stock of moral-practical and technical knowledge recorded and handed down as part of our cultural conceptions of life. This orientation can provide a fruitful basis for the historical study of institutions.
It is admittedly difficult to deal adequately with the term ‘institution’, since the spectrum of definitions offered by existing scholarship is particularly broad and diffuse. Social and anthropological research practice, however, suggests at least two dimensions of the concept that may profitably inform a historical research project such as the present one. On the one hand, ‘institution’ refers primarily to social patterns of action, behaviour and thought. On the other hand, the term always has an organisational and material dimension. Institutions may therefore be understood as the consolidated manifestations of social patterning.
Musical institutions
The concept of a ‘musical institution’ will be used here broadly rather than narrowly to mean any entity utilising musicians to make music for its own material, social or spiritual benefit. Individually, institutions may be distinguished by their performance spaces, public or private (the opera house, the concert hall, the private salon, the monastery, the cathedral, the parish or abbey church), or by their sphere of activity, such as organising concerts and academies, educating musicians (church and monastery schools, conservatoires) or producing and selling music (publishers, performing bodies). They may also be defined by the organisation which provides their principal support (courts, ecclesiastical organisations, municipal bodies).
One should always bear in mind that every institution conveys and engenders certain norms (social, legal, political, aesthetic etc.) but is also shaped by periodic transgressions of these norms, a process that serves to transform and redefine it. That is to say, the analysis of institutions (which is also a way of thinking about the expression of musical/social events) should not stand alone but should be complemented by a consideration of specific actions taken by institutions within a social environment and by sensitivity to their dynamic character. Viewed in this way, the institution appears less as a haven of stability and efficacy and more as a mediating and transacting authority at the intersection of the domains of norms and practices.
Representation: Images and symbols
The practice of music, despite its technical nature, cannot be separated from the social and cultural conditions that encouraged it. Thus musical works and their reception were in part responsible for the distinctive cultural identities, for the transfers and cultural exchanges that shaped Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries. This leads us to a two-fold hypothesis: (1) that cultural representations, insofar as they shaped the institution and inspired action not only by institutional agents but also by the musicians themselves, played a key role in the migration or non-migration of the latter; and (2) that the migration of musicians and the diffusion of works and repertoires contributed in turn to cultural transfer or, in reaction, to the affirmation of local cultural identities.
One task will therefore be to identify the cultural representations that motivated musicians as well as institutional agents. The analysis of travel diaries and memoirs (e.g., Burney, Berlioz), ambassadors’ reports, newspaper articles and the like should highlight the clash of cultures. But the cultural bias and prejudice contained in these sources cannot be brought to light without first being confronted with more neutral documentation, like concert programmes, theatre schedules and door receipts.
