Historical and Cultural Studies in Music

About this Group

The research group Historical and Cultural Studies in Music is grounded on a strong multidisciplinary approach, combining Historical Musicology with other fields of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The research themes comprise a vast chronological scope and wide range of approaches, and team members are deeply committed to disseminating results both in academia and in society in collaboration with institutions such as libraries, archives, museums, theaters, concert halls and cultural societies, among others.

Objectives and priorities for 2025-2029

Objectives

• To develop Cultural Studies perspectives in research on music in Portugal, as well as in other territories with historical, cultural and artistic relations with Portugal, from the 16th century to the present;
• To study institutional and performance contexts, musicians’ trajectories, genres and musical practices from a wide range of approaches, combining methodologies from historical musicology with other social sciences, humanities and artistic studies.
• To carry out field and archival research on musical heritage and on contemporary processes, focusing on a wide variety of sources: archival documents, scores, librettos, theoreticl treatises, literary sources, correspondence, newspaper articles, iconography, recordings and audiovisual materials.
• To develop outreach activities and outputs aimed at the general public, such as concert-lectures, thematic concerts and festivals, recordings, exhibitions, internet resources, press articles, radio and television programmes.

Priorities

• Music, Power and Politics:
  To carry on studying subjects related to Music and the State, one of the group’s main areas of investigation since its creation in 2005, from the 18th to the 21st century; to develop topics of research such as Music and Exile; Music, Performing Arts and Diplomacy; Music and Democracy; Cultural policies for music and musicians.
• Musical Heritage:
  Mapping Portuguese Musical Heritage through a cartography of musical resources preserved in national archives, libraries and museums; Collaboration with the National Museum of Music in the historical and social contextualization of musical instruments collections; Promoting knowledge of music archiving, which is crucial for the preservation and internationalization of musical heritage.
• Historical Practices of Music and the Performing Arts:
  To explore the close relation between musicological research and historical performance practices, counting on the expertise of group members, who are professional musicians, specialized in early music. Portuguese musical repertoire will be studied and disclosed through score editions, articles, concerts, recordings and projects that combine music with other arts (historical dance and theatre, baroque gesture, scenography).
• Women’s History and Gender Studies:
  To develop studies on the role of women as composers, performers, patronesses and music collectors in different historical periods, spaces and contexts, and on the national and international networks they established, as well as on other issues related to gender studies in the performing arts.
• Music in Ibero-Atlantic space:
  Study of musical relations between Portugal and Spain, including the respective colonies, based on diverse subjects and approaches, such as resources and practices of the villancico, musical theory from the 16th and the 17th centuries, court music, music during dictatorial regimes, circulation of music and musicians, music and press, the interaction between art music and traditional and urban popular music.

Other topicss:

• Musicians’ socio-professional status and organizations of professional musicians;
• Music and Sociabilities (assemblies balls in the 18th century; musical salons in the 19th and 20th centuries);
• Music and Cinema.

Thematic Lines involved

• Heritage(s), Archives and Museums
• Studies on Women, Gender and Sexuality
• Power, Politics and Activism

Regular events

• Permanent Seminar on Historical and Cultural Studies in Music
• International Seminars “Music in the Iberian Courts (18th-19th centuries)” in collaboration with the ICCMU – Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Non-academic partner organisations

• The Ajuda Library
• National Library of Portugal
• Cinemateca Portuguesa
• Museum of Portuguese Music
• National Museum of Music
• National Museum of Theatre and Dance
• Portingaloise – Associação Cultural e Artística (Danças europeias dos séculos XV a XVIII)

Academic societies and associated international networks

• Sociedade Portuguesa de Investigação em Música (SPIM)
• International Council for Traditional Music and Dance (ICTMD)
• International Musicological Society (IMS)
• International Association of Music Libraries (IAML)
• Sociedad Española de Musicologia (SEdeM)
• Universidad Complutense de Mardid/ICCMU
• Universidad de La Rioja