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Round Table 2
chairperson: Ryszard Wieczorek (Poznań)
Patronage and Music, c.1400-c.1700: Italy vs. Northern Europe
This roundtable seeks to explore the interaction between patronage and music in early modern Europe. There is a
long history of thought about the relationship between music and patronage, and this roundtable is intended as a
forum to bring together the diverse fields within which that thinking has gone on. The aim of the roundtable is therefore to approach the subject in as broad and inclusive a manner as possible, to provide an opportunity to discover
different ways in which the relationship has been theorised and described, and to propose some of the ways in which
future research and practice might develop. While the chronological span falls within a time-frame of c.1400-c.1700,
papers which might address historiographic aspects, as well as critical and long-term historical perspectives, are
equally encouraged. The official languages of the roundtable are English and German.
Proposals are particularly encouraged within the following areas, although other topics are also welcome:
- Patronage of music, patronage of musicians, patronage of musical performance: How was the world of musical patronage changing in the
15th, 16th and 17th century Europe? What was the character of patronage in a particular cultural milieu in Italy and in Northern
Europe? What were the differences between musical patronage, literary patronage and art patronage?
- How different were the levels of musical patronage (individual, family, corporate, etc.)? What were the recruitment activities, administrative structures and social or political ramifications of musical patronage? What were the purposes, programs and cultural output of public,
formal institutions and agents of patronage (ecclesiastical institutions, royal and aristocratic courts, etc.) and of private patronage (activities
of high-ranking individuals, confraternities, trade guilds, merchamt nations, informal academies, literary societies)? What was the mechanism for commissioning and performing music?
- What role did musical patronage play in a court’s political strategies? How did the system of patronage depend upon the policy of a single
ruler? In which way was music intended to symbolise and represent the social rank of the individual or institution commissioning it? How
did the contemporary audience recognise references to the social status of the patron? How did a corporate or state patronage reflect civic
ideals of public achievement? What possibilities did the patronage bring to musicians as a class?
- What was the interaction of patronage, music and ritual? How did patronage of music and ceremony in religious institutions actually
work? Was the Church’s promotion of music the consequence of obligation or of patronage?
- Urban corporate society, lay devotional congregations etc. as new music patrons and arbiters of musical taste: What implications for musical patronage did the rise of bourgeois culture have? How did the middle class exercise their power and patronage outside governments?
- Female patrons in Italy and in northern Europe: What role did female members of the nobility play as musical patrons? In which way
did the activities of noblewomen have an impact on musical culture?
- Music printing: What new possibilities in patronage did the advent of music printing bring? What effect did traditional patronage have
upon the printing press? What opportunities for composers did music printing offer? Did patrons see the potential of the printing press as
means of public recognition? What were the differences between the active musical patron and the passive musical collector? What were the
differences between the support provided to musicians by members of the upper classes, and the sponsorship of music printers in the 16th c.,
or of opera impresarios in the 17th c.?
- How can the study of patronage explain the nature of particular kinds of music or the character of music performance, or the emergence of
a new music or musico-litrary genre? How did patronage stimulate or support experimentation with these genres? How did the nature of
music created at particular times and places depend on the personality and personal preference of a patron? Did the strategies of musical
patronage have any reflection in the development of local styles? What kinds of music or repertoires did not receive “official” patronage? Did
the absence of a patronage relationship have a significant effect on the forms of composition cultivated in Europe?
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Jagiellonian University - Institute of Musicology | www.muzykologia.uj.edu.pl
- Musical patronage in early modern Europe as an anthropological phenomenon: How can an anthropological approach to the issue of
musical patronage be helpful? How does music demonstrate a change in the client-patron relationship, or a change in the status of clients?
What was the consequence of conflicting interests of patronage and clientage? How was music important as a political tool? How did music
help to define nobility? What was the interrelation between diplomacy and musical patronage in its political aspects? What were the politics
of “possession” and protection of a musician? Were musicians “feudal vassals” or “free agents”? What are the implications of musical
patronage for the interpretation of early modern society? What are other methodological tools applicable to this type of study?
Proposals should clearly articulate the paper's premise; candidates for master’s and doctoral degrees are requested, if
possible, to include a short recommendation from their advisor.
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