Music in Vienna in the 14th and 15th Centuries

Emphases of the planned research activity are: inquiry regarding the valuation of music within the conceptual world of Viennese Humanism, regarding its position in the newly founded university, questions regarding music theory and practical music instruction (still strongly influenced by late scholastic tradition), and the classification and exploitation of source materials regarding musical theory and practice that circulated in the milieu of the Vienna University and of the citys humanistic elite. The theme is to be understood as a contribution to the urban and cultural historiography of Vienna in the period from the late 14th to the early 16th century. The time frame is set between 1384 date of the refoundation of the Vienna University and its decline in the first decades of the 16th century. The new humanistic orientation connects back to late scholastic tradition and gives rise to a model of education lending an individual identity to the Vienna University. The union of humanistic learning and urban politics as well as the connection between humanistic elites and urban oligarchies is thoroughly documented from the historical point of view (see for example the Case Study regarding Augsburg as center of humanistic and Renaissance culture north of the Alps). Less research has been done into the influence of learned elites and of humanists on the new understanding of music. The writings as well as the letters of the humanists offer here significant insights into their reflection upon music, upon its meaning and its position within the arts respective to newly emerging Renaissance thinking. A primary focus of our theme of research is therefore the examination of up to now neglected musical constituents of scholarly libraries, both private those of humanists, middle-class collectors, students, and secular institutions as well as ecclesiastical: those of diocesan priests, parsons, court preachers, and monks. Through these we can profile the citys state of learning, specifically that of a social elite which set the tone and determined the level of culture. The collection of the Austrian National Library offers the best conditions for this, since its earliest acquisitions of incunabula can be traced back to the collections of Viennese humanists. Assessment of the above- mentioned sources should convey a picture of the valuation of music within the newly founded Vienna University, which is to be further situated in the context of general humanistic reflection on the fine arts. In this period Music, just like poetry, architecture, and the other fine arts, was to fulfill a new conceptual and aesthetic purpose.