The Well-Travelled Musician: John Sigismond Cousser and Cultures of Musical Exchange in Baroque Europe (2013-2014)

This project aims to reconceptualize current understandings of how European musicians of all ranks were connected during the Baroque period and the ways in which this series of interrelated networks enabled the widespread dissemination of two specific musical styles: the French and the Italian. Through a groundbreaking study of the unique commonplace book of the widely-travelled music director and composer John Sigismond Cousser, the realities of musical exchange will be examined at grass-roots level, from Bratislava to Paris, Hamburg to Dublin, and beyond. The resulting monograph will make a substantial and innovative contribution to our knowledge of how European music developed, as well as to the field of cultural history more generally.