Call for Papers: Music and Patronage in the Low Countries
KVNM Autumn Meeting
Amsterdam, 12-13 November 2010

In many languages the term “maecenas”, derived from Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (70 BC - 8 BC), councilor of emperor Augustus, has become synonymous with lavish and enlightened patronage of the arts. Being in service as a musician or a composer, however, did not necessarily imply that the artist had found himself a maecenas. In 1556, for instance, Orlandus Lassus dedicated his first book of motets to Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, most likely because Lassus hoped that this influential statesman might help provide him with a position in the internationally renowned capilla flamenca of Philips II. Unfortunately for Lassus, his colleague Pierre de Manchicourt, who preceded Lassus in dedicating a music publication to Granvelle, was appointed instead.

Nowadays, more often than not it is not a natural person, but rather a private, municipal or national art fund that musicians turn to in order to get their art funded. What are the differences and similarities between musicians from a distant past that strive for money and social security and their present-day counterparts? What were the motivations of notorious patrons to select certain musicians, and to refuse others, or to prefer one art form or genre over another, and how do these motivations differ, or to what extent do they resemble, the policies of twenty-first century decision makers? To what extent have public institutions and commercial conglomerates replaced the classical patron, and what are the consequences of this shift? Given the new wealth being created in Asia and Latin America, for example, may we expect a revival of patronage in the 21st century?

The Royal Society for Music History of the Netherlands invites music historians and music policy makers to submit a proposal on the age-old theme of musical patronage in the Low Countries, and to discuss, from a historical and contemporary perspective, the use and necessity of the financing of the arts, and of music in particular. The performance of musical patronage in the Netherlands and Flanders will in this context be seen as a subtheme deserving special emphasis, while being embedded in a wider, European and global context.

Please send your abstract (up to 200 words) to: forumcommissie@kvnm.nl
Deadline for submission: 15 May 2010