CFP: Cultural Intermediaries in the Nineteenth-Century Music Market, Univ. of Bristol, UK, 23-24 Jun 2023

[AMS]

Cultural Intermediaries in the Nineteenth-Century Music Market

Call For Papers

University of Bristol
June 23–24, 2023

Keynote Speaker: Katharine Ellis (University of Cambridge)

Organizers: Shaena Weitz (University of Bristol), Alessandra Palidda (Oxford Brookes University)

Deadline: March 15, 2023

For more info and full CFP, see www.19cmusicmarket.com

This symposium seeks to illuminate the behind-the-scenes workings of the music market during the (very) long nineteenth century in its full spectrum. As recent and ongoing studies increasingly highlight, publishing was just one facet of the wider music-historical economic market that was enmeshed with the actions of other cultural intermediaries, including agents, claqueurs, impresarios, critics, and more. And while we know very little about their work, these individuals worked behind the scenes to manage music commerce, constructing value and mediating between economy and culture along the way. Amid a paradigm shift in our thinking about networks, historical agency, canon formation, the documents and objects that constitute musicological research, to name just a few, these gaps in our knowledge seem wider and more pressing.

We intend the symposium to offer a forum for information exchange and a means of connecting disparate actions that together make up a broader whole. In so doing, we aim to develop a commercial logic of the nineteenth-century music industry. We welcome papers without any limitations on genres or geographic boundaries, and that blur the limits of the long nineteenth century.

Potential topics may include, but are not limited to
• Contracts
• International partnerships and relationships
• Publicity
• Copyright
• Business strategies and models
• Commissions
• Court cases
• House composers

We have a particular interest in negative actions, which have not been the typical focus of musicology, yet formed an integral part of constructing strategies and value. This might include, but is not limited to
• Corruption
• Fake news
• Extortion
• Rivalry as business strategy
• Aversive attention
• Guerrilla marketing

Please send abstracts of 250 words maximum, along with name, email, affiliation (if any), and proposal type to info -at-19cmusicmarket.com by March 15. Abstracts will be anonymized for review. Participants will be informed of the outcome by April 15.

Any questions may be directed to shaena.weitz -at- bristol.ac.uk.

Full call at 19cmusicmarket.com