International Workshop | Historical Perspectives on Musical Commissions

This workshop focuses on the often neglected aspect of musical commissions – a specific form of patronage, which Louis Epstein defined as “premeditated collaborations between patrons and composers to produce new music,” resulting from “formal solicitations, often written, sometimes legally binding” (L. Epstein, The Creative Labor of Music Patronage in Interwar France, Boydell, 2022). Scholars from Austria, Germany, Hungary, the UK, and the US will present their research. The topics range from the early eighteenth century to the present, and from Europe to North America. On this basis, we will discuss, for example, questions of hierarchy and power, the interaction of economic, political, and cultural actors, or the creative possibilities of the individual in collaborative constellations.

Organization: Elisabeth Reisinger (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Department of Musicology and Performance Studies; FWF Project “Performers as Commissioners of New Music in the Twentieth Century”)

Programm

Keynote: Louis K. Epstein (St. Olaf College, Northfield/Minnesota)

Guests are welcome. Details will soon be published