Ab­stracts for Mu­sica Mer­cata, 7 June 2024

Published 12.3.2024 | Updated 14.5.2024

M. Belen Vargas

Scenic music in supplements of 19th century Spanish magazines and newspapers as a market strategy  

Sheet music supplements in the press was a widespread editorial practice in the Western world from the mid-18th century until World War I. Although apparently an accessory element, musical supplement was one of the most effective strategies to stimulate the consumption of cultural and music magazines. Its success was due to the fact that it was a gift to subscribers, to the recurring nature of its distribution, and for the novelty and fashionable nature of the scores distributed. The Spanish case follows similar guidelines to the rest of Western countries, although its development was later and showed a clear preference in two music genres: scene repertoire and salon pieces. Despite being such an interesting phenomenon, music supplements in the press has not been studied enough by musicologists.

This proposal intends to analyze the sheet music supplements of the 19th century Spanish press inspired by lyrical theater and scenic dance. Transcriptions and fantasies for solo piano and voice with piano on motifs from operas and zarzuelas constitute an important volume of music released by the press, as they respond to the great success of stage genres in Spain in the 19th century. Almost a hundred works published in twenty headboards have been located. On the one hand, editorial aspects of the supplements will be analyzed (printing techniques, quality of the scores) and the link between the engraving workshops and music publishers that provided the scores with the journalistic companies will be studied. On the other hand, the selection criteria of the music published as a supplement will be investigated in order to know the scenic music hits of the moment in Spain (bel canto, Verdi and Wagner production, French operas, romantic ballet, Spanish dance, zarzuela grande, género chico, operetta and Spanish opera) and to identify the profile of the recipients.

Biography

M. Belen Vargas is a lecturer in History and Sciences of Music at University of Granada (Spain). She has focused on the study of music in 19th century Spanish press. She is author of several books, articles and book sections devoted to music criticism, advertising and music trade, sheet music supplements, iconography in illustrated and women magazines, and a methodology proposal for the music research in the press. She has also collaborated with RIPM in the study and cataloging of Spanish musical press (La Iberia Musical, 1842). She has carried out research stays at Goldsmith College (University of London) and Reid School of Music (University of Edinburgh) in recent years to study musical aspects of 19th British press and Scottish dances applied to Secondary Education.
Also, she belongs in an R+D project at University of Granada on epistolary collection of Manuel de Falla and the international projection of his musical work.

José Gálvez and Max Alt

Empowered by you: Datafying and programming music listening in the first half of the 20th century  

Perhaps the most prominent subject in current music business research is music streaming. Indeed, music streaming services have radically transformed the infrastructures of music listening, which has been rendered as a source of data collection, aggregation, and exchange. Yet, for all the important insights the booming research on music streaming (especially on Spotify) has offered, a historical dimension remains widely unexplored.

In our presentation we argue, that the datafication of music listening has its origins in the first half of the 20th century. To elaborate this hypothesis, we will focus on two concrete devices for the automatic data generation about and through listening: (1) the audimeter and the (2) play meter. (1) The audimeter, an automatically operating wavelength-recorder, was invented by market researchers in the 1930s, to achieve objective listening data through the use of radio sets. The audimeter not only interconnects radio listening and market research, but it also foreshadows the automated and hidden extraction of data while listening to media content, which is a key business of music streaming services today. (2) The play meter, a hidden counting device installed in jukeboxes, was invented in the 1930s by Wurlitzer to precisely register the number of times each record was selected. This data became crucial for jukebox operators to optimize their programming and maximize the revenues per Jukebox. The curation of playlists in music streaming platforms is based on this principle.

By means of historical and media-archeological analysis, we aim to demonstrate concisely that the datafication and monetization of music listening in the 21st century have their origins in the radio market research as well as in the jukebox industry of the 1930s and 1940s. In doing so, we also aim to add a fresh historical dimension to critical debates about music listening in digitized societies.

Biographies

José Gálvez, born and raised in Lima (Peru), has been research assistant and lecturer in the department of Musicology / Sound Studies at the University of Bonn since 2019. There he is concluding his PhD on “sonic subjectivation” in the 19th and 20th century. Previously, he worked at the Institute for Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Düsseldorf. He studied Historical and Systematic Musicology at the University of Hamburg (BA) as well as Musicology at the Humboldt University of Berlin (MA). From 2016 to 2020, he was a member of the advisory board of IASPM D-A-CH. Since 2021 he has been spokesperson of the “Early Career Researcher Group” in the German Musicological Society. He conducts research at the interface between musical analysis, media archaeology, and cultural history with a focus on popular music and music technology.

Max Alt is a research associate and PhD fellow in the department of Musicology/Sound Studies at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, Germany. Within his PhD project he researches on the datafication of music listening. Alt studied Musicology and Cultural Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin and at the University of Copenhagen. In 2020 and 2021 he was a Forum Humanum Fellowship holder at the Institute for Philosophy and the New Humanities at the New School in New York. He further oversees the research project “Sound Design in Digital Environments” at the University Bonn. His research oscillates between the history of popular music with a focus on music technology, cultural theory, media theory as well as sound design theory and practice. Next to his academic work, Max Alt is working as a producer and musician in multiple musical projects.

Martin Perkins

Performance Networks in Provincial Britain, 1750–1800, and the rise of the Musical Meeting

The period 1750-1800 saw a growth in concert series and festivals in London, such as Handel’s annual Foundling Hospital Messiah performances from 1749 and the monthly Concerts of Ancient Music from 1776, as well as numerous subscription series at theatres, music halls and assembly rooms. Whilst many of these London institutions have been examined in detail, less has been written about the many provincial Musical Meetings that were also established during this period, modelled on the two or three-day Three Choirs festivals, established from at least 1715, and later re-energised by the Handel Commemoration festivals from 1784. The success of these Musical Meetings, in which performances to fee-paying audiences were spread over several days, was enabled by judicious deployment of performers and resources. Outside the hub of the capital, performers and audiences were more widely scattered, meaning that such events were only possible due to the organic emergence of a highly organised network which included well-known soloists from both London and beyond, local impresarios, professional and gentlemen-amateur performers, instrument providers and patrons. This paper seeks to examine the collaborations that facilitated this enterprise across central England between 1750 and 1800. It identifies principal figures who acted as musical directors, orchestral fixers, soloists, and agents, between them establishing provincial concert circuits which encompassed events in Hereford, Gloucester, Worcester, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, Lichfield and Salisbury.

Biography

Martin Perkins is a Senior Lecturer and Instrument Curator at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. His research interests include organology, performance practice, and eighteenth-century music-making. As a performer, he is a keyboardist and director specialising in the historically-informed performance. He has studied 17th century Bolognese instrumental music and published critical editions of music by GB Vitali, Colonna, Cazzati, and Leoni. His PhD thesis, Music in Country Houses of the English Midlands, 1750-1810, led to articles, editions and recordings of previously unknown 18th-century music. Recent projects include co-editing ‘Music by Subscription Composers and their Networks in the British Music-Publishing Trade, 1676-1820’, and the online database musicsubscribers.co.uk.

Cristina Pascu

Keys to Fame: The Emergence of Romanian Pianists as International Celebrities  

This comprehensive study scrutinizes the remarkable trajectories of Romanian pianists who defied the odds to become global icons. It meticulously examines not only the economic dimensions but also the astute utilization of opportunities, skillful contract management, repertoire selection, overcoming obstacles, and the seamless integration of musical and managerial abilities.

Emerging from a country devoid of a rich pianistic tradition, culture, methodology, or industry, Dinu Lipatti, Clara Haskil, and Radu Lupu transcended borders, imprinting their names on the most illustrious stages worldwide. By employing a versatile research approach encompassing document analysis, interviews, and specialized critiques, this research aims to shed light on the determinants that propelled these pianists to international renown.

The study reveals that the global triumph of Romanian pianists stems not only from their prodigious talent but also from their adept navigation of the financial and managerial contours within the music industry. These maestros shrewdly built robust personal brands, maximizing their earnings and broadening cultural resonance through insightful and innovative approaches.

Furthermore, this article underscores the assimilation of these pianists into the European musical milieu, notably in Switzerland, France, and England, where they conducted both soloist and pedagogical activities. It delves into the opportunities and avenues that facilitated their entry and the distinctive approaches they adopted to establish themselves within this competitive landscape.

Therefore, this investigation constitutes a significant contribution to understanding the interaction between Romanian pianists and the pantheon of celebrity culture, underscoring the pivotal role of economic and managerial acumen in determining their international eminence. Additionally, it offers invaluable insights for aspiring and seasoned artists alike, equally contributing to the music industry as a whole.

Biography

Cristina Eleonora Pascu is a distinguished musicologist and a level 3 scientific researcher, serving as the spokesperson for the “Gheorghe Dima” National Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca. She holds degrees in Psychology from Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, as well as Musicology and Piano from the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. In 2020, she achieved her doctorate in music with the highest distinction of “Summa cum laude” under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Adrian Pop. In 2021, she authored the book “Playing the Piano with Alfred Cortot: Cluj Artists at the École Normale de Musique,” published by MediaMusica. Throughout her career, she conducted research placements at the University of Cambridge and the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. As a musicologist, she has delivered lectures and participated in national and international conferences in various cities. She is a member of the Union of Professional Journalists in Romania, contributing numerous articles, interviews, reviews, and previews to various cultural magazines. She is a member of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres.

Pawel Siechowicz

Virtuosity, Hausmusik, and the rise of consumer appetites. Enterprising activities of Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann  

While Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann are known for their different musical tastes, their piano works share some similar traits: they owe much to literature, they are, at times, of almost superhuman pianistic difficulty and they present the composer as equal to the poet and the writer. Building upon the recent interpretation of Liszt’s use of literary metaphor by Lawrence Kramer and Anthony Newcomb’s in-depth study of two strands within Robert Schumann’s piano music, as well as the analysis of Liszt’s concert tours by Hannu Salmi and my own study of Schumann’s Haushaltbücher, I propose to interpret their music in light of Colin Campbell’s sociological analysis of romantic ethic and consumerism that develops on Max Weber’s classical work on protestant ethic and capitalism. I will show how both composers at some point in their careers transcended an initial faith or infatuation with virtuosity in a struggle to attain similar levels of public respect and awe that began to surround the authors of literary masterworks, i.e. Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens. One way was to infuse virtuosity with literary allusions allowing the listener to ponder upon the subjects suggested by the titles added to musical works, the other was to resign from virtuosic difficulties to make the poetic music available for amateur pianists. In this framework, I will interpret Franz Liszt’s „Mazeppa” from Études d’exécution transcendante and Robert Schumann’s Fremder Mann from Album für die Jugend as expressive of the respective composer’s approaches towards the musical market. I will also argue that their activities made a significant contribution to the evolution of modern music consumerism.

Biography

Paweł Siechowicz, PhD is a senior assistant at the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw, Poland, translator, music critic and educator. He studied musicology and economy at University of Warsaw and was a visiting researcher at Stanford University as Junior Research Award fellow of the Fulbright Comission. He received the Polish Music Critics Prize KROPKA (DOT). He wrote about M.K. Čiurlionis’s musical imagination as well as the ideas and practices linking music and economy in the 18th and 19th centuries. His scholarly interests include the interdisciplinary areas of music and economy, music and painting, music and literature as well as music and nature. As music critic and educator he is interested in enhancing the experience of listening. He is a regular collaborator of „Ruch Muzyczny”, Chopin Museum in Warsaw, PWM Edition and Polish Academy of Sciences.

Clare Beesley

Promoting an English Virtuosa in 18th Century Paris  

Paris debuts by 18th-century foreign female virtuose remain understudied, despite the fact that the professional kudos afforded by a successful Paris debut was much coveted. To garner the praise of audiences at the Concert Spirituel provided career-endorsing prestige, whilst introductions to Paris’ influential salonnières could make or break a career, as recent scholarship has acknowledged.

In a pioneering move, this paper examines in depth the promotional strategies employed by the young British glass armonica player Marianne Davies (c.1743/44 – buried 1819) at her Paris debut in 1765. Previous scholarship regards Marianne’s debut as successful. However, little attention has been paid to the promotional strategies that defined her public image. I posit an opposing view, claiming that detrimental promotional tactics and weaknesses in her professional network provoked a false start to her continental touring career, one that did not provide the anticipated professional leverage she sought.

Taking three pieces of contemporaneous publicity documenting Marianne’s Paris debut, I provide new insights showing how journalistic expression determined the nature of her public image and affected her success in the cultural capital. Two newspaper advertisements that appeared in the Avant Coureur and L’Année Littéraire, and a prestigious feature in the Journal des Dames entitled “Description de l’harmonica” form the basis of this investigation. I examine choice of language, use of tone, arrangement of text, and readership. In particular, I provide deeper consideration of the promotional power of a two-fold novelty in Marianne’s publicity–that of a young unknown virtuosa and her new instrument–by identifying a shifting hierarchy between the two novelties, and assess the implications of this hierarchy on Parisian perception of Marianne as a virtuosa.

This study unearths new and important insights into the challenges faced by foreign female musicians in Paris as they strove to cultivate and promote their public image.

Biography

Clare Beesley is a PhD candidate at Utrecht University, historical flautist and educator. Her dissertation examines the nature of becoming a virtuosa during the 18th century through a case study of the British glass armonica player Marianne Davies (1743/44-bur.1819). Clare’s research is supervised by Dr. Rebekah Ahrendt and promoted by Prof. dr Emile Wennekes. Her recent scholarship “Becoming a Virtuosa: Advice from Vienna, 1769” appeared in article form in Eighteenth-Century Music in September 2023 (volume 20, issue 2, 159-178) and was presented at the BSECS 52nd Annual Conference Homecoming, Return, and Recovery in January 2023, where her abstract received the Michael Burden Award for Musicology. In 2021 Clare presented her analysis of professional network building as evidenced in a letter-book of introductions belonging to Marianne Davies at conferences for DS-CEMSP Women and Music in the Early Modern Age and CMS Musical Networking in the Long 19th Century (proceedings forthcoming).

Marianne Betz

“Duke, the wage earner, and Dukelsky, would-be composer”: The two musical sides of Vernon Duke alias Vladimir Dukelsky  

Like generations of European musicians before, the Russian-born composer Vladimir Dukelsky (1903-69) emigrated to the United States hoping for a better life and a successful musical career. In a singular way he developed a “dual musical existence,” as he called himself in his autobiography (1955). Trained at the Kiev conservatory with the idea of becoming a classical pianist and composer, soon his talent for popular music unfolded. When arriving in New York in 1921, he met George Gershwin, who became an important mentor. Dukelsky followed Gershwin’s advice and adopted the stage name Vernon Duke, signing his music from 1926 on up until around 1955 as either Dukelsky or Duke.

The “serious” Dukelsky, attracted to the style of composers such as Prokofiev, and supported by Koussevitzky, tried to find his way in the world of twentieth-century concert music, writing music for ballet and a piano concerto before trying his hand at symphonic works. Meanwhile the “unserious” Duke, nurturing his talent for tunes and “lowbrow” music, began to earn substantial sums of money by “jazzing” up Viennese operettas shown in London around 1926. In later years, when successfully working on shows and writing songs for the Broadway, he became the wage earner of the two.

The exploration of Duke’s development in the twenties and thirties provides valuable insight into the emergence and the growth of what would best be labelled two musical idioms. Duke’s “Jekyll-Hyde” personality, as a reviewer called it in 1933, did not remain uncommented; several times critics openly discussed the economical angle of this dichotomy, in which Duke’s, in Prokofiev’s words: “tra-la-la” music, helped secure the financial background for Dukelsky’s “real” music.

This paper will look at Duke’s career as an outstanding case study for the interdependence of musical output and financial income.

Biography

Marianne Betz is Professor of Musicology at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig since 1993. Her research explores transatlantic relations, focussing on American music of the 19th and 20th century, as well as on Early Music. Her publications include articles for the Handwoerterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie, Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, The Grove Dictionary of American Music, Archiv fuer Musikwissenschaft, Die Musikforschung, American Music, Musical Quarterly, Zibaldone, the Yearbook of the American Music Research Centre (Boulder, CO), and the Oxford Handbook of Opera. She is the editor of G. W. Chadwick’s String Quartets and his opera The Padrone, as well as the author of a monograph on Chadwick. A history of American music in German language is in preparation.

Carolina Queipo and Teresa Cascudo

Designing Classical Concert Programs for Profit: the Seasons of the Sociedad de Cuartetos de Madrid (1863-1894)  

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the performative events organised around chamber music were located at the intersection between artistic criteria and the logic of commerce in the era of capitalism. The binomial formed by specialisation and professionalisation played a fundamental role there (Scott 2012; Bashford and Montemorra 2016; Golding 2018). In accordance, the works programmed by the Sociedad de Cuartetos de Madrid (1863-1894) focused essentially on what we know as “classical music”. Therefore, this musical society contributed to the dissemination and stabilisation in Madrid of both, the repertoire associated with it and the concept of “classical music” itself (cf. Weber 2008, Queipo, 2015). But the Sociedad de Cuartetos was also an entrepreneurial initiative (Sobrino and Cortizo 2001): the sessions, organised by professionals who occupied a prominent place in the musical field, were accessed through a capitalist musical system like the purchase of tickets whose profits were shared among the members of the quartet. In this communication, we will carry on with our previous research on this topic (Cascudo and Queipo 2021, 2023) and we will first focus on the critical analysis of the historiographical and media construction of the reputation of the Sociedad de Cuartetos and, secondly, on the entrepreneurial model that it applied, which was to a large extent transferred from London. As a novelty in this time, we will extend our analytical examination to the profits obtained in all the seasons organised by the Sociedad, from 1863 to 1894, taking into account the double context of the political struggle and the music business in Madrid at the time.

Biographies

Teresa Cascudo is Senior Lecturer at the Universidad de La Rioja, where she coordinates the Doctorate Program in Musicology. She received her doctorate at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and she has focused many of her publications on the relationship between music and nationalism in Portugal. Her current research agenda is also devoted to musical criticism in Spain. She coordinates in the SEdeM (Spanish Society of Musicology) the Study Group “Música y Prensa”, which was created at her initiative. Her most recent works include the edition of the collective volume Un Beethoven Ibérico: dos siglos de transferencia cultural (Comares, 2021) and the article on Enrique Granados in the Oxford Bibliographies Online (2022). Her latest and forthcoming publications focus on Madrid’s musical life from the the mid 1840s onwards, and more specifically on musical practices linked to chamber music and to progressive liberalism.

Carolina Queipo. Musicologist professor at Conservatorio Superior de Música de Navarra. Ph.D at the University of La Rioja (2015). Her main research particularly concerns social and cultural history of music of the 19th century in Spain, focusing on chamber music. She has published several research papers in this field and has taken part in different research groups at Spanish universities. Currently is part of the international research team, Music as Performance in Spain: History and Reception (1730-1930). More information: https://unirioja.academia.edu

Elke Hager

Beethoven and his powerful female network: A Strategic Alliance for Competitive Value Creations  

The beginning of the 19th century is characterized by a decline of aristocratic engagement in musical life and a rise of bourgeois wealth and interest in music. The demand for scores that could be played at home led to a commodification of music and publishers therefore demanded marketable works. Consequently, composers earned a part of their living by selling their works. One of the most prominent composers in this era was Ludwig van Beethoven. His name is narrowly linked to his male patrons, who are commonly referred to as enablers of the composer’s freelance career. A closer look at the then evolving music market offers a different perspective: From the very beginning of Beethoven’s career in Bonn throughout most of his time in Vienna, we can find multiple female influences in the composer’s success: In salons and semi-private gatherings, it has been the ladies who performed his music and led the discussions about the quality of art and therefore acted as co-creators of value. Further they organized semi-private concerts and subscription lists for public concerts and for important works.

My paper aims to show main factors for economic success by looking at Beethoven’s specific value chain and the impact his female network had. The analysis refers to Michael E. Porter’s concept of a value chain as laid out in “Competitive Advantage” and in “Competitive Strategy”. This concept explains economic success as creation of a unique value in different elements of a business process. Based on Beethoven’s work portfolio I will show how he created (economic and immaterial) value. I will further argue that female persons have had a crucial impact on the composer’s value chain and must be referred to as strategic partners for the composer being at least as important as the widely known male patrons.

Biography

Elke Hager was studying business economics with the main focus on Marketing and Innovation Management at Karl-Franzens-University in Graz and Musicology at University of Vienna. In 1992 she has been visiting scholar at MIT/Sloan School of Management. After gaining her Ph.D. in business economics she became a self-employed tax and business consultant for artists. Elke Hager is a professor for entrepreneurship and cultural administration at Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz. Her research is focusing on identity constructions, networks, and the social and economic history of musicians and aims to look at music history from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik

Accompanists, instrument dealers, and seamstresses: the socioeconomic status of women piano teachers in Finland and Estonia, 1861–1924  

This presentation examines the transnational revenue logic of women piano teachers in late nineteenth-century Finland and Estonia. As demonstrated in previous research by, e.g., Claudia Schweitzer, although women’s music-making was restricted by gendered social norms, the profession of piano teacher allowed women from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds support themselves financially. Where did they study music and how did they finance their studies? What did they typically charge for lessons and were they able to earn their daily bread by teaching? Did they stay in one town or travel to different regions in search for steady income?

Based on a systematic survey of first-hand sources, such as memoirs, newspaper clippings, and judicial documents, I argue that the professional profile of women piano teachers was multi-faceted indeed, and their socioeconomic status varied greatly based on their background, education, and even the town they chose to work in. Although private piano teaching was often associated with impoverished upper middle-class ladies in contemporary literature and mass media, reality was more complex. Some teachers, such as Selma Kajanus in Helsinki or Alice Segal in Tallinn, managed to create successful music schools of their own. Others, in turn, supported themselves as instrument dealers, accompanists, language teachers, or seamstresses in addition to giving private piano lessons.

The aforementioned general trends will be illustrated by three case examples – those of Vaasa-based Lotten Poppius (1832–1884), Helsinki-based Magda Kempe (b. 1861), and Tartu-based Hedwig Wulffius (1871–1945). Drawing on wider feminist and intersectional scholarship on social, cultural, and ethical insights on music history – such as studies by Anna Bull, Samantha Ege, Christina Scharff, and Kira Thurman – this presentation highlights the importance of addressing the career paths of women piano pedagogues on their own terms, bearing in mind the historically varied nature of professional musicianship.

“This is especially important considering the fact that these three case studies include material on sensitive topics, such as suicide.”

Biography

Dr Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik is a cultural historian working as an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher (2022–2025) at the University of the Arts Research Institute, Helsinki. Her field of expertise is the sociocultural history of music and gender in nineteenth-century Northeastern Europe. Her PhD thesis (University of Helsinki, 2019) examined ladies’ salon orchestras, and, more recently, she has participated in a five-year research project on historical Finnish women composers led by Professor Susanna Välimäki. Koivisto-Kaasik’s current research explores the transnational career trajectories of women piano teachers in Helsinki and Tallinn at the turn of the twentieth century. For the past three years, she has been one of the lead coordinators of the annual Gender and Musicianship symposia organised by the University of the Arts Helsinki and Research Association Suoni.

Anu Schaper

Tallinn Sheet Music Catalogue and Musical Trade around 1600 

The oldest catalogue of sheet music from an institution in Tallinn, dating back to the first decades of the 17th century, provides unexpectedly profound insights into the town’s musical heritage. With over 200 publications, it’s very extensive against the local background, showcasing a diverse selection of sheet music ranging from compositions by Lassus to the secular pieces by Schein. The catalogue includes dance anthologies and Italian secular vocal music, providing a glimpse into the vibrant musical life of the era.

The focus of the catalogue is on sacred vocal music by Lassus and his successors. Including repertoire which was widespread in Lutheran churches of the German cultural sphere, the catalogue reflects the orientation on German models. Tallinn repertoire was published in German printed houses almost without exception, with Nuremberg playing a dominant role, and in original a part of it was meant for the local Nuremberg audience.

The presentation focuses on the interaction between the Tallinn catalogue’s repertoire and the broader musical trade. Specifically, it explores how the Tallinn repertoire was shaped, the mechanisms through which sheet music reached Tallinn, and the impact of musical trade connections on the selection of repertoire in Tallinn.

Biography

Anu Schaper studied German Language and Literature at the University of Tartu as well as musicology at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and the University of Freiburg (MA from the University of Tartu and from the University of Freiburg). Since 2008 she has been a research fellow at EAMT; she is editor of the scientific journal Res Musica. Her research area is the music and musical life of the 17th century, especially in the Baltics; she is going to defend her thesis about Johann Valentin Meder (1649–1719) in December 2023.

Tobias Plebuch

Bach Inc.: The Baltic Network of C.P.E. Bachs Music Business in the late 18th Century   

During his tenure as cantor and music director in Hamburg (1768—88), Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach established an extensive network of business partners that allowed him to sell his music to places as far as South Africa, Archangelsk, Petersburg, Moscow, London, Bordeaux and Vienna. My investigation focuses on the logistics of Bach’s music business and the demographics of his customers in the Baltic area where he could sell hundreds of copies to Latvian, Danish, Russian and Prussian buyers. Some of Bach’s subscribers served as hubs for regional distribution, such as his former student Nils Schiørring in Copenhagen and Johann Friedrich Hartknoch in Riga, the most productive publisher and book dealer of his time in the Baltic States. Through self-publishing and subscription-based marketing, Bach generated net gains that matched ca. 11 annual salaries of his previous appointment at the Berlin court. A key factor of success was, of course, the thriving oversea trade of the Hanseatic city.

The period under consideration is characterized by enlightened reform projects, relatively peaceful international relations, and a transition to the capitalist market economy with its largely anonymous target groups. In music history, we are used to describe the time as a period of transition toward classical and preromantic idioms that can be traced in Bach’s music itself. Based on Actor-Network Theory, Bach’s business can be reconstructed as a complex mosaic of scores, subscription lists, letters, bills, newspaper ads, catalogues of book dealers, auctions and estates. Within the conceptual framework of ANT, I discuss how manifest stylistic trends in Bach’s music not only respond to changing penchants of amateur audiences but are also driven and shaped by material agencies, such as currencies, postal service, printing technology, commerce and the press.

Biography

Education: Music Education, Bremen (1991); PhD, Humboldt University Berlin (1997); Habilitation/postdoc thesis, Humboldt University Berlin (2010). Appointments as musicologist at universities Freiburg, Berlin, Stanford. Presently senior lecturer at Uppsala University. Grants by Richard-Wagner-Gesellschaft, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft etc.; fellowship at the Stanford Humanities Center.
Numerous publications about 18th-century music, film music and music aesthetics in peer-reviewed collections and journals. Editorial work: Carl Dahlhaus, Gesammelte Schriften, 11 vols. (2000-08), Ereignis und Exegese. Festschrift für Hermann Danuser zum 65. Geburtstag (2011), C.P.E. Bach: Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, critical edition (2011), Carl Dahlhaus und die Musikwissenschaft: Werk, Wirkung, Aktualität (2011).

Carla Conti

Music collecting and cultural female patronage. The Capece Minutolo archive at the Conservatory San Pietro a Majella of Naples

Naples, December 30th, 1882, the noblewoman Clotilde Capece Minutolo donates one of the richest private music collections to the Real Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella. It contains autographed manuscript music (including Socrate immaginario and Tamburro notturno by Giovanni Paisiello), rare editions (the first Mozart’s works copies in Italy) that the noble Capece Minutolo della Sonora family of the princes of Canosa had purchased between the end of the Eighteenth century and throughout the Nineteenth century.

The collection, which I have reconstructed thanks to a handwritten booklet by Clotilde with a detailed list of her donation, was made up of the Marchioness Matilde della Sonora and her three daughters Paolina, Clotilde and Adelaide Capece Minutolo.

Among the interesting aspects of this musical collection, at least two deserve to be underlined. The first is that it was material for study and execution/performance of the female musical cenacle established in the Capece Minutolo family thanks to the presence of the musician Giuseppe Balducci, who in addition to being their teacher, wrote and dedicated many didactic works but above all theatrical compositions ‘en travesti’. The second is that it favored the production of female composers – particularly the sisters Capece Minutolo and Zeneide Lebzeltern – trained with theoretical texts (Burney, Lichtenthal, Martini, Fux to name but a few) belonging to the collection.
Retracing the history and contents of this collection restores the very fervent dynamics of a cultural female patronage where music meets international diplomacy and spreads practices that will become established in the community of the nascent Italian nation, starting from the second half of the 19th century.

Biography

Full professor at Conservatory of Music Santa Cecilia of Rome in the Music Education Department.
Among her publications, Nobilissime allieve – della musica a Napoli tra Sette e Ottocento, 2003; Lo Stabat Mater di Clotilde Capece Minutolo…in «Archivio per la storia delle donne» vol II – 2005; Per devozione e per diletto – Le donne e la musica a Napoli nel decennio francese in «Stato e Chiesa nel Mezzogiorno napoleonico» 2011; ‘Purzì contraffatta’. Le forme della canzone napoletana nella prima metà dell’Ottocento in «Le forme della canzone» 2014; De l’ hortus clausus à la chambre de musique: l’enseignement de la musique à Naples dans la première moitié du xixe siècle in «Pratiques musicales féminines» Symétrie Lyon 2016; “Tutto attruorno canta: Ammore! Ammore! Ammore”. Sibelius e la canzone napoletana, in «Sibelius e l’Italia» 2019; Zeneide Lebzeltern. Musica e diplomazia al femminile nella Napoli dell’Ottocento, in «Musiciste e compositrici. Storia e storie», 2021.

Taryn Dubois

Materials and Marketing of Manzottis late ballets 

In October 2020, one Edwardo Zavala corresponded with an online professional appraiser about the value of a Ricordi lithograph print from the 1897 ballet Sport. The disappointment was palpable when what Zavala had imagined as a rare item of extraordinary value—sufficient to merit a costly appraisal—turned out to be a worthless reprint from the mid-twentieth century.

With this exchange, the antique appraisal forum Mearto.com has archived an example of the fluctuating valuations of Italian ballet, which reached a peak in the 1880s and 90s with the series of lavishly expensive ballets by choreographer Luigi Manzotti. Impresarios hinged entire seasons at La Scala on their success or failure, but critics largely condemned the ballets as decadent extravagances precluding operatic offerings of a more elevated aesthetic. In the middle of these debates, Ricordi not only published ballet scores, but co-produced numerous advertising and collectable materials, such as Zavala’s poster. What value do the ballets and their material residue have for theatre history today?

Taking to mind Carolyn Abbate’s warnings about the trapdoors of operatic ephemera (2021), this paper examines the high-end editions of scores and libretti for Manzotti’s Amor (1886), and three items relating to the above-mentioned Sport: a chromolithograph memory album, four dinner plates from the porcelain company Ginori, and a set of Liebig’s Meat Extract trading cards. These objects navigate the dynamic tensions of dance’s lucrative economic potential and (purported) aesthetic bankruptcy. Ultimately, the material focus of this paper shifts attention away from critics to appreciate the perspective and motivations of other audience members and consumers. Building from Michela Ronzani’s investigation of Ricordi’s advertising practices (2015) and Alessandra Campana’s research on operatic audiences (2015), I consider the historic audience for these materials, their testament to an Italian modernity, and their legacy and value today for archives, collectors, and scholarship.

Biography

Taryn Dubois is a PhD candidate at Yale University. She researches the music accompanying dance and gymnastics performances in late nineteenth-century Italy and the resonances with a nascent Italian modernity. Prior to studying at Yale, she completed her Masters at the University of Toronto, and a BMus at Brandon University.

Egberto Bermudez

Migration, job opportunities and self-promotion between Spain and America: the case of Gutierre Fernández Hidalgo, chapelmaster and composer, 1584-1623  

Gutierre Fernández Hidalgo (c.1547-1622/23) migrated to America in late 1583 arriving in Santafé (today Bogotá, Colombia) in May 1584. After only 18 months of holding the post of chapelmaster at the cathedral and that of rector and music teacher at the local Seminary, he decided to move to Quito (Ecuador) in early 1586 searching for better opportunities, where he held the same posts with a better salary until 1590 when he moved to Lima and later in 1591 to Cuzco (Peru). During 1592 and 1608 he oscillated between Cuzco and La Plata (now Sucre, Bolivia) where he finally settled around 1613 and died around 1622/23. We know of the music of only three Spanish composers who migrated to America in the 16th century, the other two being Hernando Franco (1532-85) and Pedro Bermudez (c.1558-c.1605) who worked mainly in Mexico and Guatemala. Of them, only Fernández Hidalgo signed in 1609 a contract with the Superior of the emerging Jesuit Missions to print his works in Europe (Spain or France), which details hint at the prospects of self-promotion, and exclusivity within the context of a long-term vision about the establishment of European music in South America. We do not know if his music was finally printed but some samples of his work (the earliest polyphonic music preserved in South America) survive in manuscripts now at the Bogotá Cathedral Archive.

From documentary evidence in Spain and America, this paper follows the trail of Fernández Hidalgo from Talavera de la Reina (near Toledo) to Bolivia, examining the economic, social and cultural circumstances of his different employments, highlighting a well-known pattern of high mobility for musicians, determined by factors as size of salaries, job duties and the possibility of obtaining additional income, ecclesiastical benefices and social prestige and status.

Biography

Egberto Bermúdez studied early music performance practice and musicology at the Guildhall School of Music and King’s College, University of London. At present Profesor Titular (Tenured) at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. Author of Los instrumentos musicales en Colombia (1985), La mísica en el arte colonial de Colombia (1994) and Historia de la Música en Bogotá: 1538-1938 (2000) he has published numerous articles and studies on organology, colonial, traditional and popular Colombian and Latin American music. President of the Historical Harp Society (1998-2000), director of the Master of Musicology Program (UNal), editor of Ensayos. Historia y Teoría del Arte, Fellow of the Academia Colombiana de Historia and Vice-President (2017-22) of the International Musical Society (IMS).

Veronika Kusz

Promoting a war criminal? The struggles of Ernst von Dohnányi and his impresario Andrew Schulhof in the United States (1949–1953)  

On 9 February 1945, the Hungarian Provisional National Government compiled the first list of Hungarian war criminals, which included the name of the world-known Hungarian musician, Ernst von Dohnányi (1877‒1960). This is how the composer’s inglorious case began, which finally ended, some years later, with the publication of a document certifying his acquittal. The proceedings in Hungary had no direct impact on Dohnányi’s life as he had left the country in 1944 heading to the United States of America. Indirectly, on the other hand, he was certainly affected by events because the accusations, or rather the uncertain news about the accusations, often based on rumors rather than official documents, followed him abroad. After settling in the United States in 1949, it was a huge disappointment for him that the expected—and much-needed—concert invitations were canceled, or simply did not come. His impresario, Andrew Schulhof [Schuhoff] found himself in a very strange situation, too, as he experienced the injustice of the accusations against Dohnányi firsthand when the composer personally helped him get out of Europe after becoming persecuted by the Anti-Jewish Legislations in Berlin, and then in Budapest. What can an impresario do in such a case, when success is not only in his financial interest, but his attempts are also fueled by the wish for moral justice? How to fight the rumors that pop up again and again? How is it possible to promote a politically suspect personality in music life? What PR tactics would be the most appropriate in such a sensitive situation? What can the power of music and musical genius add to the marketing campaign? Based on new primary research, I am planning to give a summary of this complicated, but very emotional story of musical management, promotion, and friendship.

Biography

Veronika Kusz (*1980), a senior research fellow at the Hungarian Institute for Musicology, and lecturer at the Budapest Liszt Academy of Music. She studied musicology at the Liszt Academy, she defended her PhD dissertation in 2010. She was a Fulbright “visiting scholar” in 2005/06 conducting research in the American Dohnányi Estate in Tallahassee, FL. She is the author of the monograph A Wayfaring Stranger: Ernst von Dohnányi’s American Years (1949−1960) published by the University of California Press in 2020. She also published several monographs and editions in Hungarian: Járdányi Pál (2003/2016), Dohnányi amerikai évei Dohnányi’s American years, The Last Romantic: Dohnányi’s American Concert Recordings (CD, 2017), Dohnányi Ernő: Válogatott írások és nyilatkozatok Selected writings and interviews. She attended several international conferences and has published articles in international journals such as American Music or Notes. Her next volume of Dohnányi’s writings in English, co-edited with James A. Grymes, will be published at Oxford University Press (Summer 2024).

Emma Sohlgren

Operatic Expenses: Theatre Visits and Personal Finances of a Swedish Diplomat in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Paris 

Swedish Count Claes Ekeblad d.y. (1708–1771) spent two years as a diplomat in Paris from 1742 to 1744. In a table-format journal, Ekeblad meticulously recorded with whom he dined, his gambling wins and losses, as well as the opera and theatre performances he attended, along with their costs. This document reveals the importance Ekeblad placed in visits to the theatre, as well as his concern for this expenditure. This paper presents a detailed examination of the journal that investigates what performances Ekeblad attended, the frequency of his theatre visits, and the associated costs. This is put in relation to his financial status and other expenses in the lavish diplomatic life in Paris. The records show that Ekeblad spent more money on visits to the theatre than he lost through gambling. Yet, his theatre attendance increased as his financial worries deepened toward the end of his time in Paris. In light of this, the paper further explores what Count Ekeblad might have gained from his cultural consumption, both on a personal level and as a representative of the Swedish state, within the broader context of eighteenth-century diplomacy, luxury consumption, and material culture. The example of Ekeblad can thus provide valuable insights into the material and immaterial value of music and opera for the highest strata of society in mid-eighteenth-century Europe.

Biography

Emma Sohlgren started her PhD in Musicology in 2021 at Uppsala University, Sweden, and is working on a dissertation on the dissemination and performances of Italian opera arias in mid-eighteenth-century Sweden. Her previous studies include a BA in Music from the University of Cambridge (2012) and an MA in Musicology at Uppsala University (2020). 

Merle Greiser and Risto Pekka Pennanen

Performing Bavarianness: Images of Bavaria in the Early 20th Century Music Industry

The Free State of Bavaria, currently the largest German state by land area and the second largest in terms of population, encompasses distinct regional characteristics of identity and culture, including the regions of Franconia (Franken) and the eastern part of Swabia (Schwaben).
Since the late 19th century, both rural and urban folklore have been successfully incorporated into the Bavarian entertainment industry. This panel aims to explore the history and role of Bavarian musical folklore within local and national entertainment and recording industries. With a particular emphasis on brass bands as a prototypical music formation, the speakers will trace the economic development of Bavarian musical folklore within a broader socio-economic context.

Merle Greiser: Entertaining the Beer Tent: How Economic Success Shaped a Musical Genre  

Contemporary depiction of German folk music most often includes musicians dressed in lederhosen and dirndl, playing brass instruments, dancing schuplattler or holding a jug of beer. This imagery is intertwined with geographical allocation such as the state of Bavaria in general or Munich’s Oktoberfest in particular. The latter is known for its enormous beer tents in which patrons can experience this kind of folk music.

Although often regarded as old and traditional, brass band dressed in national costumes did not emerge before the 1890s. On the other hand, setting up large marques seating around 6000 people and employing a tent’s own brass band is no development of the past 50 years. Both changes happened simultaneously and found supraregional recognition in 1898 with the ‘First Bavarian Giant [beer] Hall’, operated at that year’s Oktoberfest by restaurateur Georg Lang (1866–1904).
Through newspapers, contemporary postcards as well as song books that were sold or handed out in performance venues, and audio recordings, it is possible to reconstruct the impact of this new form of beer tent entertainment, its influence on the aesthetics of ‘Bavarian folk music’ as well as tracing its development through the emerging 20th century.

Risto Pekka Pennanen: Commercial Recordings of Bavarian Instrumental Folk Music and Their Marketing before the First World War  

Prior to the outbreak of the First World War, the commercial production of Bavarian instrumental folk music recordings was both intense and commercially successful. This led to a variety of formations, including Bauernkapellen (peasant bands), Oberlandlerkapellen (highland bands), military and civilian bands, and studio ensembles, contributing to these recordings. The repertoire comprised traditional pieces from Bavaria as well as compositions in folk styles that represented the region.
The central concept in my presentation is commercial nationalism, a phenomenon that fostered cultural discourses with the aim of creating a recognisable and marketable version of folkloric Bavarianness. Despite being a Federal State in the German Empire from 1871 onwards, the Kingdom of Bavaria retained a privileged status with its own diplomatic body and army until the First World War. This fact justifies the use of the term commercial nationalism.
Consequently, my research explores how these recordings and recording artists portrayed Bavarianness, the significance of the Bavarian repertoire to record companies, the role of commercial nationalism in marketing these recordings, and how marketing materials and strategies varied according to social and geographic target groups.

Biographies

Merle Greiser studied Musicology and Ethnomusicology at the Lizt School for Music Weimar (Germany), Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany), Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre Tallinn (Estonia), and Julius Maximilian University Würzburg (Germany). She is a research associate at the Research Centre for Franconian Folk Music (Forschungsstelle für fränkische Volksmusik) in Uffenheim (Germany). Her research interests include conceptional histories of folk music narratives, socio-cultural impacts in the use of folk music, and history of popular music before 1950.

Risto Pekka Pennanen – musicologist and historian of ideas specialising in the Balkans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire – holds a title of docent in ethnomusicology at Tampere University, Finland. Pennanen received his PhD from University of Tampere and has been an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Department of Musicology at Georg-August-University in Göttingen and at Forschungsstelle für märkische Volksmusik, Uffenheim, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and a research fellow at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Currently he is a visiting research fellow at the Uniarts Helsinki’s History Forum (Sibelius Academy), University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland). His ongoing research projects are The Gramophone in Austria-Hungary, 1898–1918: Facets of Shared Listening, Gender and Soundscape and Commercial Recordings of South German Instrumental Folk Music and Their Marketing before the First World War.

Karin Larsson Eriksson

Swedish folk music and music publication: the case of AB Nordisk folkmusik 

Swedish folk music is and has been transmitted in many forms, of which music editions are one. However, the investigations of forms of mediation for folk music has primarily studied oral transmission, while other forms of mediation are in no way treated to the same extent. This applies especially to printed music, which can only be considered as under-explored in relation to the importance that music have had and to some extent still have in spreading the repertoire.

One of the actors who during the 20th century published folk music editions was AB Nordisk folkmusik (Nordic folk music Ltd.). They were operating for about fifty years, starting in 1931, and in their publications can several of the tunes that are still an active part of the Swedish folk music repertoire today be found. Mainly they published booklets with traditional tunes adapted for spelmanslag (fiddler groups) and practitioners within the organized fiddler’s movement. The tunes were often arranged for two violins, sometimes also for viola, and thus well adapted to the intended target group.

The work of AB Nordisk folkmusik will in the presentation be used as a starting point for a discussion about the underlying purposes of publishing folk music in the middle of the 20th century. One of the editions, 56 sörmländska låtar (56 tunes from Södermanland) from 1956, will furthermore serve as an example of how the music was adapted for the intended target group and presented in relation to a contemporary ideological view of traditional music.

The presentation is part of a broader aim to show the breadth of different mediation forms for traditional music, that includes other forms of mediations than oral transmission.

Biography

Karin L. Eriksson is professor of musicology at Linnæus University, Växjö, Sweden. Her research is mainly in the field of ethnomusicology with particular focus on historical as well as contemporary perspectives on traditional music in Sweden. Of particular interest are questions which connects ideology and practice in different ways, from the 19th century until to-day. She has, for example, studied the organized fiddler’s movement and work shops in folk music for adult amateurs. Presently, she is studying the use of printed music for Swedish folk music based on a case study of the folk music publisher AB Nordisk folkmusik.