Music and Urban Life in Baroque Germany

Music and Urban Life in Baroque Germany offers a new narrative of Baroque music, accessible to non-music specialists, in which Tanya Kevorkian defines the era in terms of social dynamics rather than style and genre development. Towns were crucial sites of music-making. Kevorkian explores how performance was integrated into and indispensable to everyday routines, celebrations such as weddings, and political culture. Training and funding likewise emerged from and were integrated into urban life. Ordinary artisans, students, and musical tower guards as well as powerful city councilors contributed to the production and reception of music. This book illuminates the processes at play in fascinating ways.

Challenging ideas of “elite” and “popular” culture, Kevorkian examines five central and southern German townsAugsburg, Munich, Erfurt, Gotha, and Leipzigto reconstruct a vibrant urban musical culture held in common by townspeople of al