Music and Travel in Europe and the Americas, 1500-1800

FAIN: EH-50319-12

Newberry Library (Chicago, IL 60610-3305)
Carla Zecher (Project Director: March 2012 to November 2014)

A four-week institute for twenty-two higher education faculty to explore the intersections of the history of music and the history of travel.

This interdisciplinary institute for college and university teachers will break new ground in the humanities by exploring intersections between the history of music and the history of travel in early modern Europe and the colonial Americas. The institute will consider how the application of “travel,” as a category of analysis, enhances our understanding of music history from 1500 to 1800. It will also engage with the expanding field of the cultural history of travel by drawing attention to a topic--music--not usually considered by specialists in travel studies. Our goal is to listen--literally and metaphorically--to travel, focusing on two major circuits of activity: the circulation of European music and musicians within Europe, and travel westward from Europe to the Americas. Readings, lectures, and discussions will suggest ways in which scholar-teachers might integrate these interrelated topics into a variety of undergraduate courses, using primary source materials.