The Low Countries and Central Europe: Historiographical Paradigms in Music and the Arts, 1400–1650

The music history of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance is largely dominated by composers born and trained in and around the Low Countries. Their migrations and the dissemination of their works—commonly referred to as „Franco-Flemish“ music—represent the main thread around which the development of European art music is narrated. Art history, by contrast, has mainly addressed Italian artists and architects, with a secondary focus on early Netherlandish painting. In both disciplines, history has been written by focusing almost exclusively on Western European regions—most notably the Low Countries, France, and Italy. However, in recent years scholars have devoted increasing attention to the region known as „Central Europe,“ including historical territories which had been long marginalized by the 20th-century division of Europe by the Iron Curtain. Thanks to the intense work of scholars, „Central Europe“ has now gained a hitherto unprecedented relevance in musicology and art history; in music, scholars have increasingly investigated the Central European reception of the works by „Franco-Flemish“ composers, while in art history the emphasis on the “correct” use of Italic forms and styles has been replaced by investigation of the mass-migration of Netherlandish artists and their work in the region. However, in neither discipline has this been accompanied by a critical reflection on the concepts and methodologies that are employed to investigate, frame, and narrate the relationship between the so-called Franco-Flemish musical tradition and Central Europe or the relative role of Netherlandish and local artists in the region. The present conference aims at reassessing such relationships, focusing on issues of broad historiographical relevance. Furthermore, it aims at creating a forum for discussion between musicologists, historians, and art historians who deal with artistic practices across these regions.