About
Musical Life of the Late Middle Ages in the Austrian Region (https://musical-life-net) is a research projekt at the University of Vienna. It is supported by the FWF, The Austrian Science Fund. We uncover and communicate new insights in the early musical culture of the Austrian region, in the period from ca. 1340 –ca. 1520.
“We” are:
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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Lodes, |
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Prof. em. Dr. Reinhard Strohm, |
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Prof. Dr. Marc Lewon,
Professor of Medieval and Early Modern Lute Instruments at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, musicologist and performing musician |
with junior researchers as temporary collaborators.
38 international experts in music history, cultural history and affiliated disciplines are contributing to the project as authors, another c. 30 support the project as honorary advisors. Four performing ensembles in variied groupings, have recorded over 100 audio samples on behalf of the Musikleben project, of which the majority had previously not been available as recorded sound. Several other sound examples have been provided for us by various labels and copyright owners.
Dozens of museums, libraries, archives and private collectors in Austria and abroad have given permission to publish source materials, photos, artworks, text documents and sheet music in their possession and supported us as institutional partners.
It is our aim to bring a significant period of European historical culture to life. Long before the creation of the Habsburgian empire, the Austrian region together with its nearest neighbours was a central arena of European music. This music had previously been almost unexplored as an aesthetic heritage and was little-known as a cultural past.
Musical Life is distinguished from earlier research in this field especially by its concentration on cultural history (» 0. SL Kulturgeschichte).
The transmitted music is being placed in the context of the lives of people of that era: materiality and spirituality, everyday experience, artistic practice, popular and courtly environments, ceremonial and intellectual traditions. The material and spiritual presence of this cultural heritage consisted not only of beautiful compositions, but also of simple songs and church hymns, dance melodies, cries, bellringing and march rhythms. Temporal and spatial distances are being newly assessed, including the relationship of the region with the rest of Europe.
In presenting the importance of this musical culture , we consider musical notations, archival documents, literary texts, images from art and architecture, as well as musical instruments and other material objects, which are embedded in a new history of the musical life of the region. The text, written in understandable prose, is divided into 12 main themes (Leitthemen), which contain a total of c. 90 essays (with many sub-chapters) and spotlights (Schlaglichter). In the manner of a scholarly museum catalogue, the text often singles out individual detailed topics, compositions, manuscripts or documents. About 150 sound examples (Hörbeispiele) serve as examples of musical art and are contextualized with evidence from material life at the period in images and documents. An audible instrument museum introduces the user to the sound world of the instruments. In addition, a media gallery facilitates access to the various topics starting from ca. 460 individual images or musical examples. An interactive map allows searching forlocations connected with music and their relevance to texts, images and audio files presented in the website.
The Music Life project aims to reassess the applicability of cultural studies for the music history of this era and to offer a new evaluation of the significance of regional music in a European context. Its impact concerns methodology – as a cultural historiography of music – and a new view of the Austrian region in European musical culture of the late Middle Ages.
Publications on the making of the project and the website:
Marc Lewon, Birgit Lodes and Reinhard Strohm: “Musical Life of the Late Middle Ages in the Austrian Region (c. 1340–c. 1520): a Historical and Audio-Visual Exploration”, in Die Musiktheorie 4/2019: 250–267.
Recordings:
Two CDs have been released from the recordings commissioned by Projekt Musikleben and are commercially available:
ARGENTUM ET AURUM – Musical Treasures from the Early Habsburg Renaissance, Ensemble Leones (conductor: Marc Lewon), Naxos (8.573346) 2015. The recording received the International Classical Music Award (ICMA) 2016 in the category “Early Music”. Further information and links (including to all song texts with translation) can be found on the supplement blog.
Flos virginum – Motets of the 15th Century, Ensemble Stimmwerck, cpo (777 937-2) 2015. Further information and links can be found on the supplement blog.
Blog:
Parallel to the official Musikleben website, Marc Lewon wrote a companion blog “Musikleben - Supplement” from 2012 to 2017, mainly presenting, discussing and transcribing new identifications of contemporary sources.
The project in the media (selection):
Report on the event “Contemporary Music in the Late Middle Ages” in the course of the anniversary celebrations 650 years of the University of Vienna on 11 September 2015; uni:view Magazin.
Report on the project in the magazine Universum, 1-2/2013: 64-65.
Report on the project in the Salzburger Nachrichten, 29 December 2012.
Report on the project in the online newspaper of the University of Vienna, December 2012.