Project information

'Musical-Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe, c.1550-1750' is an international research partnership between Uppsala University, Bach-Archiv Leipzig at the University of Leipzig, and Royal Holloway, University of London. Started in 2012, the project aims to initiate, support and promote research and research training in the history of Early Modern music. Merging an overall conceptual framework drawn from social theory and historical anthropology with the methods and materials of traditional musicology, the aim is to study the transfer and exchange of muiscal culture in Europe. This includes the processes of appropriation, translation and hybridisation as they occur in musical repertory, musical sources, musical discourse, and performance practices.

Project coordinator: Professor Lars Berglund
Funded by: The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education
Duration: 2012-2018
Project participants
Workshops & conferences
Related projects

Members

Here's a list of the participating members, as well as links to webpages with further presentations of their research interests:

Workshops & conferences

The network partnership 'Musical-Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe, c.1550-1750' arranges six-monthly workshops for participating PhD students, postdocs, and senior researchers at the three partner institutions. Information about the workshops can be found through the links below.

Uppsala, 5-7 October 2012

An initial workshop was held at Uppsala University on the 5-7 October 2012 where members presented papers applying the concepts of cultural exchange to their own research. Dr Bjarke Moe from the University of Copenhagen was invited to discuss his work on the exchanges between Denmark and Italy in the early seventeenth-century.

Royal Holloway, 17-19 April 2013

Our second workshop took place at Royal Holloway, University of London, on the 17-19 April 2013, with round-table discussion on the themes:

  • 'Networks and Infrastructure' (convened by Stephen Rose);
  • 'Collectors and Collecting' (convened by Ester Lebedinski and Maria Schildt);
  • 'Analysing Seventeenth-Century Music' (convened by Lars Berglund).

We were particularly pleased to be visited by Professor Jonathan Wainwright (University of York) and Dr Elisabeth Giselbrecht (Salzburg University). 

Leipzig, 27-30 November 2013

The network's third workshop was organised in Leipzig, 27-30 November 2013. This time foucusing on postgraduate research training in studying early modern musical sources, our participants attended seminars and stuy visits at the Bach Archive at Leipzig University, the Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum, and the Dresden Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitäts-bibliothek Dresden.

Uppsala 21–24 May 2014

At this workshop members participated in round-table discussions on the themes "Music, text and confessional conflict”, ”Imitatio”, and ”Education”, along with study visits to Uppsala University Library, the Music and Theatre Library (Stockholm), and Skokloster castle. We were pleased to welcome out guest Prof. Jeffrey Kurtzman, who delivered a keynote on ”Cultural interaction: some methodological considerations”.

Postdoctoral meeting, Uppsala 24 September 2014

One-day meeting for the postdoctoral researchers in the project, to discuss future research projects and collaborations.

Rome, 19–21 March 2015

This workshop brought us to the goal of early modern travellers. The wrokshop included round-table discussions on ”The uses of Italy and Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe”, ”The significance and use of Italian anthologies”, and the ”Encounters and exchange of music from Roman anthologies in Germany around 1650”, in addition to study visits to Roman churches and stages for music visited by early modern travellers. Our guests, Teresa Giladroni and Teresa Chirico presented their work on the CLORI database and the dissemination of Italian cantatas.

Postdoctoral meeting, Uppsala 18 December 2015

One-day meeting for postdoctoral researchers, specifically discussing the potential for an edited book based on our joint research, and an joint panel at the 2016 Baroque Conference in Canterbury.

Theory reading group, Madingley Hall, Cambridge 5–6 March 2016

A smaller group of participants met to discuss readings on concepts such as culture, identity and performance. The meeting also included a study visit to King’s College Library, hosted by Professor Iain Fenlon.

17th International Biennial Conference on Baroque Music, Canterbury Christ Church University 13–17 July 2016

A number of members organised a round-table on methodological considerations for research on early modern music exchanges, as a way to present the project to a larger audience. Many also delivered individual papers.

Wolfenbüttel, 20–22 April 2017

Our last workshop took place in Wolfenbüttel in April 2017, kindly hosted by the Herzog-August Bibliothek. The workshop centred on the unique sources held by the library, and featured themes such as ”Schütz, his associates, and the Wolfenbüttel court”, ”Princes and music books”, ”Composing women”, and ”confessional borders”. The workshop also featured a meeting setting the framework of a book based on research done within the project. 

In addition to workshops, meetings and conferences, the project has also supported a number of exchanges, which have enabled PhD students and postdoctoral scholars to spend time at partner institutions for research, supervision, and other forms of collaboration.

Related projects

Renaissance Art and Music (RA&M) was an interdisciplinary collaboration between Royal Holloway and The Courtauld Institute of Art, both parts of University of London. The aim of the project was to explore the relationship between art and music during the period c.1400-1550, with particular interest in examining how best the two disciplines can be studied and presented together. The project was carried out from October 2012 to January 2014. For more information about the project, visit [OBS! Länken till projektsidan är trasig. Tas bort?]

Early Music Online is a digitising project carried out in collaboration between the Music Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, and The British Library. The purpose of the project is to digitise 16th-century anthologies of printed music, from holdings at The British Library. So far, over 320 volumes have been digitised. For more information about the project and to browse the catalogue, visit the Early Music Online webpage.

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