Open Call for Papers: https://ppnm.hypotheses.org/ – Deadline: November 30, 2023

The last few decades have seen a growing amount of research on music patronage, with a fairly wide range of topics spanning centuries and geographical regions. However, one aspect has often been neglected: commissions – a specific form of patronage, which Louis Epstein defined as “premeditated collaborations between patrons and composers to produce new music,” resulting from “formal solicitations, often written, sometimes legally binding” (L. Epstein, The Creative Labor of Music Patronage in Interwar France, Boydell, 2022). It is thus a formalized framework for the negotiation of diverse social, economic, and artistic positions, but also for innovation and the creation of musical repertoires of significant scale.

The goal of this workshop is to gather and confront perspectives on granting, receiving, and realizing commissions across genres, periods, and geographic regions and to reflect on how to move forward.

Organizer: Elisabeth Reisinger (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Department of Musicology and Performance Studies; FWF Project “Performers as Commissioners of New Music in the Twentieth Century”)