Music historiography and 'periphery'. The musical culture of Central Europe from current research perspectives.
Abstract
From the nineteenth century the mainstream narrative of music historiography follows a line that can be characterized by three key phrases: new music, important cultural centres, and great composers. Forms of musical practice and creativity which existed outside these parameters in different parts of Europe have not always been incorporated into the mainstream narrative of medieval and Renaissance music.
The musical culture of Central Europewas, in general, seen asperipheral,compared with its development in the so-called central countries (e.g. France, Italy, the Low Countries), lagging behind mainstream culture and often musically unsophisticated.The political situation after 1945 also played a part, negatively influencing the interpretation of late medieval music history of the region with the anachronistic application of modern borders to the historical situation.
This lecture discussed problems of the musical historiographical approach to the "peripheral" regions of Europe and to present current research on Central European topics conducted within the completed research project HERA Sound Memories: The Musical Culture of Late-Medieval and Early-Modern Europe (www.soundme.eu) and the ongoing project Old Myths, New Facts: Czech Lands in the Centre of 15th-century Music Developments.