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| Society for Seventeenth-Century Music | |
|---|---|
| Name | Society for Seventeenth-Century Music |
| Formation | 1986 |
| Type | Professional association |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Region served | International |
| Language | English |
| Leader title | President |
Society for Seventeenth-Century Music is an international scholarly organization dedicated to the study and performance of vocal and instrumental music of the seventeenth century. The society fosters research, pedagogy, and performance practice connecting scholars, performers, and cultural institutions across North America, Europe, and Australasia. Its activities engage archives, libraries, conservatories, and festivals to promote critical editions, recordings, and interdisciplinary inquiry.
Founded in 1986 by a group of musicologists and performers associated with institutions such as Juilliard School, Columbia University, University of Oxford, and University of California, Berkeley, the society emerged amidst renewed interest in early music spurred by figures like Nicholas Harnoncourt, Christopher Hogwood, Gustav Leonhardt, and Neal Zaslaw. Early meetings featured papers addressing repertories linked to composers including Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and Arcangelo Corelli, as well as performance practices informed by treatises of Giovanni Battista Doni, Joachim Burmeister, and Giovanni Maria Artusi. The society's growth paralleled institutional developments at the Library of Congress, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the development of critical editions such as the Monteverdi Vespers editions and the Schütz-Werke-Verzeichnis projects. Over decades the organization has convened in venues ranging from Royal College of Music to the RISM conferences and maintained ties with festivals like Renaissance Society of America meetings, Early Music Vancouver, and Göttingen International Handel Festival.
The society's mission emphasizes scholarship on composers, performers, and institutions central to the seventeenth century, including Barbara Strozzi, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Alessandro Scarlatti, Dietrich Buxtehude, Henry Purcell, and Tomás Luis de Victoria. Activities include sponsoring research on manuscripts held in repositories such as Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Vatican Library, Bodleian Library, and Houghton Library, and fostering editions akin to the work of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and Royal Conservatory of The Hague. The society supports performance practice informed by treatises from Marin Mersenne, Michael Praetorius, Silvestro Ganassi, and Girolamo Cavazzoni, and engages with recording initiatives linked to labels like Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin Classics, and Archiv Produktion.
Annual and biennial conferences have been hosted at institutions such as Yale University, Princeton University, University of Cambridge, University of Toronto, and Australian National University, featuring presentations on repertories including works by Giuseppe Torelli, Alessandro Stradella, John Dowland, Orlando Gibbons, and William Lawes. The society publishes proceedings and monographs akin to series from Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Brepols, and Ashgate, and collaborates with journals such as Early Music History, The Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, Music & Letters, The Musical Quarterly, and Revue de musicologie. Special issues have addressed topics tied to archives like Archivio Storico Ricordi and projects at Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
Membership draws scholars, performers, librarians, and students affiliated with institutions including University of Chicago, Harvard University, Indiana University Bloomington, Princeton Theological Seminary, Royal Academy of Music, and Conservatoire de Paris. Governance follows non-profit models similar to American Musicological Society and Royal Musical Association, with an elected board including a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and editors who liaise with partners such as RISM, IAML, and the International Musicological Society. Committees oversee editorial work, conference planning, prizes, and outreach involving museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and archives like State Library of New South Wales.
The society administers awards recognizing scholarship, performance, and editions, modeled after prizes like the Grove Dictionary prize and grants from bodies such as the NEH, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Typical honors include prizes for best dissertation, best critical edition, and best recording, celebrating contributions on composers such as Heinrich Biber, Giovanni Legrenzi, Hans Leo Hassler, Alfonso Ferrabosco, and Luca Marenzio.
Major projects supported or incubated by the society have included critical editions, thematic catalogs, and digital initiatives akin to RISM-online, DIAMM, and the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music, as well as collaborative databases on repertories by Monteverdi, Schütz, Purcell, and Lully. Research initiatives have examined patronage systems involving Medici, Habsburg Monarchy, and Stuart dynasty courts, performance spaces such as San Marco, Venice, Théâtre du Palais-Royal, and Whitehall Palace, and networks linking printers like Giovanni Battista Robletti and Estienne Roger.
The society collaborates with conservatories, libraries, and festivals, partnering with organizations such as Early Music America, Cleveland Institute of Music, Boston Early Music Festival, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and Consortium of European Research Libraries. Outreach includes public lectures at venues like Carnegie Hall, workshops with ensembles such as The English Concert, Les Arts Florissants, The Academy of Ancient Music, and Concerto Italiano, and educational programs for students at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Category:Music organizations Category:Early music Category:Musicological societies