I. Summary of the project
Introduction
Music enjoyed a special place in European cultural life of the period 1600-1900. It pervaded a vast spectrum of human activity of the time, from the formal rituals of church, court and state to the less formal ones of domestic life. Its manifestations ranged from the power-enhancing spectacle of court opera to the spontaneity of fair theatres, from the brilliant Italianate symphonic Mass to the solemn organ chorale, from the public concert or noble academy to the private salon, from the hunt or military parade to the ball or village festival. At the same time, more than perhaps any other form of art, music has always depended upon a complex institutional and technical organisation supported by the society which assures its operation. For these and other reasons, music is inextricably linked to the history of modern European societies. It helped the courts of the 17th and 18th centuries assert their supremacy, and in the 19th century it marked the emergence and affirmation of national identities. Thus music was both an essential component of social practice and an element of culture, being invested with the representations – the concepts and symbols – from which social identities are constructed.
The programme proposed here will give detailed consideration to musical life in Europe during the period 1600-1900, understood as the whole of the processes of production, distribution, communication (mediation) and reception of musical works as well as of their forms of transmission and circulation. Three overarching themes will provide the points of departure for our research on this period: first, the extensive migration of musicians and the circulation of music throughout Europe; second, the concept, character and functioning of European musical institutions; and finally, the representational aspects associated with these and other facets of European musical life.
The social and cultural history that will emerge from this programme will, of course, build upon the many specialised musicological studies carried out in the recent past. However, the cooperative nature of the project will permit it to go significantly beyond them in the breadth and depth of the research it fosters, in the degree of synthesis achieved, and in the rigorously interdisciplinary character of its approach.
Chronological framework
The chronological limits proposed, 1600-1900, cover a deliberately wide period extending from the rise of absolutism to the emergence of a European system of nation-states. On the musical front the earlier of these dates is naturally associated with the birth of opera and the beginning of its diffusion outside Italy, while the latter date marks the end of a century that saw monumental changes in musical practice and the place of music in society. This period is characterised by the democratisation of the access to music, the liberalisation of musical enterprise, the surge in music publishing, and the rise in political awareness among musicians – a development evident, for example, in their demand for professional status and the incorporation of national elements into their musical practice.
The choice of such an extended span of time should enable us to test the validity of our hypotheses when applied to musical objects reflecting extremely varied social and political conditions. This should allow us to examine thoroughly the geographical, social and historical conditions influencing the evolution of musical life during this time.
Initial hypotheses
The principal focus of our studies will be the changes occurring in European music and musical life as a result of migration, as a manifestation of the tension between experience and expectation (R. Koselleck). The objective is research into the many and varied forms of the spread of music across Europe that came about through the circulation of musicians, music and ideas. Our approach is also shaped by the fact that the history of music has always been closely linked with the history of institutions.
As a starting point we suggest (1) that there is a strong link between musical institutions and the migration (or by contrast the sedentariness) of musicians and the circulation of musical works, whereby institutions may be understood as multipliers of or obstacles to migration; (2) that musical institutions reflect not only certain socio-political conditions, but also a set of cultural images and representations; and (3) that the relationship between musical institutions and the migration (or non-migration) of musicians on the one hand and cultural representation on the other was interactive in nature, that is, that the collective or individual movements of musicians resulted from, and at the same time resulted in, the phenomenon of cultural representations.
One of the most significant consequences of the migration of musicians and their works was the internationalisation of practices and tastes in the 18th century. This is evident not only in the Europe-wide diffusion of Italian opera, together with the genres and forms related to it, but also in the fields of instrumental and sacred music. Indeed, the so-called Classical style of the period was the international style par excellence, as opposed to national styles that were variously juxtaposed or superimposed during the Baroque period. For example, the cultural event represented by the Mannheim school profited from French political and theatrical ideas, Jesuit influence in virtually every sphere, Italian and Austro-German principles of style, and the mass exodus of native Czech musicians, brought about partly by economic, partly by political causes.
The hegemony of this international style was eventually challenged by the formation of national tastes beginning in the latter part of the 18th century. This issue is in itself two-fold: it consists in identifying both the ways in which musicians and the public perceived and adapted a foreign musical culture (e. g., the notion of ‘Italianness’), and also the kinds of performances they created within their own culture in response to it. Of course, one of the essential prerequisites for both the internationalisation and diversification of music is in turn commercialisation or commodification, in addition to the ideological, regional and national representations of which a musical work is a vehicle.
The subject of the formation of musical canons cannot be dissociated from the preceding issues. By ‘musical canon’ is meant the body of texts in which a community recognises itself and which it uses to forge its identity. One must be wary, however, of associating the idea of canon too closely with a ‘nationalist’ approach to musical phenomena; instead, we shall focus on the configuration of international canons. The comparative study of canons envisaged here will thus open out onto classical questions of transfer among cultural groups, the identification of representations that ensure mediation between more or less homogenous groups, and the analysis of horizontal transfers (e.g., between national or regional cultures) and vertical ones (between the different strata of one or several societies).
Implementation of the programme
The central hypothesis of a change in European music and musical life through migration or circulation will be articulated in the work of five thematic groups (to be described in more detail below). These subject areas, chosen in consultation with international experts invited to two exploratory workshops, all pertain directly to the central aspects of the problem; indeed, their value both in themselves and for the central hypothesis largely depends on their interactivity. Among the themes common to all the working groups ar
- the mobility of musicians and its significance for the music profession in general;
- the influence of institutions (churches, theatres, concert organisations etc.) which offer employment or other opportunities to musicians and thus initiate their mobility, but are themselves subject to change;
- the interaction of the publication and performance of music on a European scale of activity;
- the training and formation of (virtuoso) musical talents according to standards oriented towards European repertoires;
- the attitudes of the listening public, informed by expectations concerning the circulation of the musical repertoire as well as of composers and performers;
- the role of symbols and images.
The five subject areas to be treated are listed below, together with a brief explanation indicating their relationship to the central concepts of the programme; for a full description of each thematic group see below, section IV.A.
- Italian Opera in Central Europe, 1614 - ca. 1780. The spread of Italian opera coincided with the emergence of a network of institutions that relied not only upon the circulation of musicians, but also of acclaimed works and styles of performance. For this reason, Italian opera emerged as a privileged field of cultural exchange, crystallising supra-national ideas and images of power.
- Opera Orchestras in 18th- and 19th-Century Europe. Opera orchestras played a considerable part in the production and diffusion of European opera in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their institutional stability created privileged bases to which musical personnel were attracted from all over Europe. The study of these ‘international’ places enables us to measure, in a paradigmatic manner, the influence of institutions on the circulation of musical works and practices.
- The Concert and Its Public in Europe, 1700-1900. As an institution, the concert is a structure representative of cultural and social life. To study it implies a priori an investigation of the diffusion and circulation of works as well as the formation and transfer of repertoires. The 19th-century concert provides a particularly favourable vantage point from which to observe the trans-social circulation of music.
- The Circulation of Music. The proliferation of music publishing and copying workshops from the 18th century onwards reflects as well as promotes the ‘Europeanisation’ and commercialisation of music. Studying the diffusion of printed and manuscript music elucidates not only the relationship between the composer and his public but also the cultural transfer of music, both geographically and socially.
- National Representations of Music, ca. 1770-1900. The activity of the conservatoires and the proliferation of texts about music (reviews, historical works, treatises etc.) crystallise theoretical, ideological and mythical representations from the end of the Ancien régime onwards. This enables us to study the emergence of collective representations, including national images, which were a point of departure for the network of musical exchange in 19th-century Europe.
We might add that these subjects all concern fields that are presently the focus of intense scholarly activity. The choice of these subject areas has thus enabled us to mobilise a large section of the musicological community around our objectives, and this in a multidisciplinary perspective.
