Cultural Transfer of Music in Vienna, 1755-1780

The concept of cultural transfer was developed in the middle of the 1980s in Germany and France. Originally focused on processes of cultural exchange between these two countries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it has been expanded, comprising transfers between religious denominations, social levels, regions and cities, before 1700 and after 1900 as well. It is the aim of the current project to record the distribution and transformation of music in and from Vienna that was transferred from one geographical or social place to another in the time span from 1755 to 1780. The transfers grounded on individual intervention or commercial circulation. The project is focused on those kinds of transfer that reflect new political, social or economic developments: the political alliance of Austria and France, the awakening interest for German literature, the increasing activity of the so-called `Second Society` (middle-class) in literary, visual and performing arts along with the corresponding emergence of concert life and music market. The study focuses on four key-aspects that are both complementary and interrelated: From Court Chapel to Kärntnertor-Theater: the changing social background of the oratorio; monasteries as clients on Vienna`s music manuscript market; instrumental music from Vienna printed in Paris; opéra-comique in Vienna 17651780. They each deal with different kinds of transfer: social transfer between high ranking courtly society and middle class; regional transfer between the center of the Austrian countries and the periphery; profit-oriented commercial transfer on an informal level; and international transfer between two European metropolises initiated at a high political level. The key-aspects of our investigations focus on strategies and participants of cultural transfer, the kind and extent of transformations, motivations, continuity as well as resistance and the limits of transfer. All four key-aspects of the project are based on musical manuscripts or prints as primary sources. The systematical study of copyists and watermarks is basic research the results of which will be accessible online and supplies a bibliographic foundation: Copyists and papers in opera scores, 17661776. The coordination and competition of different networks will be analyzed in case studies; this essential part of the project ought to benefit research in cultural transfer in general. In order to receive sufficient feed-back and impulses from neighboring disciplines with similar focuses a network of "correspondents" will be established. Experts who pursue related issues will be informed about the work progress at regular intervals and be invited to workshops.

The current project aimed to record the distribution and transformation of music in and from Vienna that was transferred from one geographical or social place to another in the time span from 1755 to 1780. The transfers grounded on individual intervention or commercial circulation. The project was focused on those kinds of transfer that reflect new political, social or economic developments: the political alliance of Austria and France, the awakening interest for German literature, the increasing activity of the so-called Second Society (middle-class) in literary, visual and performing arts along with the corresponding emergence of concert life and music market. The concept of cultural transfer was developed in the middle of the 1980s in Germany and France. Originally focused on processes of cultural exchange between these two countries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it has been expanded, comprising transfers between religious denominations, social levels, regions and cities, before 1700 and after 1900 as well. The study focused on four key-aspects that are both complementary and interrelated: (1) From Court Chapel to Kärntnertor-Theater: the changing social background of the oratorio; (2) Monasteries as clients on Viennas music manuscript market; (3) Instrumental music from Vienna printed in Paris; (4) Opéra-comique in Vienna 17681783. They each deal with different kinds of transfer: social transfer between high ranking courtly society and middle class; regional transfer between the center of the Austrian countries and the periphery; profit- oriented commercial transfer on an informal level; and international transfer between two European metropolises initiated at a high political level. The key-aspects of the investigations focused on strategies and participants of cultural transfer, the kind and extent of transformations, motivations, continuity as well as resistance and the limits of transfer. All four key-aspects of the project are based on musical manuscripts or prints as primary sources. The systematical study of copyists and watermarks was basic research the results of which are made accessible online and supply a bibliographic foundation: Copyists and papers in opera scores, 17711774. In order to receive feed-back and impulses from neighboring disciplines with similar focuses a network of correspondents was established. Experts who pursue related issues were informed about the work progress at regular intervals and invited to workshops.