At the end of August, this conference summer held another highlight: the 21^st Quinquennial Congress of the International Musicological Society.

Following a five year cycle, hundreds of music scholars gathered in Athens, Greece, enjoying a wideranging program representing the broad variety of our discipline. I, myself, actively particpated in two roles, as participant of a study session on musical patronage and as presenter of a free paper.

The session “Musical Patronage across Borders: Gender, Institutions, and Economics of Music” organized by Vincenzina Ottomano (Università Ca’Foscari Venezia) and María Cáceres-Piñuel (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona), the founders of the IMS Study Group “Gender and Musical Patronage” brought together “researchers interested in the role of gender in patronage systems and in the dissemination and management of music going beyond individual and local experiences to focus on transnational exchanges and cultural transfers.” Presentation topics featured the 18^th century Lisbon Court (Cristina Fernandes, Universidade Nova de Lisboa), concert economics in 18^th century London (Lise Karin Meling, University of Stavanger), Viennese aristocracy in late 18^th century (Roberta Vidic, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg), Fanny Mendelssohn (Beatriz González, Spain), and musical education in 19^th century Switzerland (Christine Fischer, University of Vienna).

Taking the chance of addressing aspects of the 20^th century, I shared some thoughts on two musicians I investigate in my ongoing project: harpsichordists Sylvia Marlowe (USA, 1908–1981) and Antoinette Vischer (Switzerland, 1909–1973). The discovery of the harpsichord as a modern instrument in the early 20^th century can be largely attributed to the proactive engagement of such performers. Marlowe and Vischer systematically commissioned composers to write for them. They were not only responsible for a new repertoire of notable extent, but transformed their instrument from a historical artifact to a versatile medium for the music of Cage, Carter, Ligeti, Rieti, and others. Their regular sponsorship of new music, I argue, can be understood as a form of patronage. In my presentation, I gave an overview of Marlowe’s and Vischer’s activities as performer-patrons, discussed their self-conceptions as artists and commissioners, and provided an outlook on negotiations of power within this specific constellation of art production. Two aspects are particularly relevant: first, those two women’s agencies as empowered actors in the generally male business world of classical music of their time; second, the specific sociocultural circumstances in Vischer’s Basel and Marlowe’s New York. Their personal mobility (both traveled across the Atlantic) as well as their connections to international composers and also to harpsichord icon Wanda Landowska (as her students) strengthen an transatlantic perspective. Thus, this topic contributes to the study of women musicians in a comparative perspective. By foregrounding the role of performers, it further enhances shifting the focus away from the “(male) creating genius” paradigm in the writing and thinking about classical music towards a more inclusive view on its pluralities, represented by the two protagonists of my talk as well as the diverse lifeworlds that surrounded them.

In my free paper, I returned to a topic that I’ve been working on for some time now: Benny Goodman’s (1909–1986) involvement with classical music. For the clarinetist and swing icon, the year 1938 was marked not only by his concert at Carnegie Hall in mid-January but also by a general artistic reorientation: only two days after that event, he introduced the Mozart Clarinet Quintet to his swing-focused radio broadcast “Camel Caravan;” in April, he became the first clarinetist ever to record this standard work; in the fall, he commissioned Béla Bartók to write a new piece for him. In my paper, discussed Goodman’s artistic conceptions with special attention to “classical” music, reactions to his “double life,” and his impact on the clarinet as a solo instrument in the 20^th century. In particular, I focused on the decade from 1938 to 1948, framed by Goodman’s commissions to Bartók and Copland, the results of which are now fixtures in the clarinet repertoire. Although Goodman-specialized scholars, such as Ross Firestone (1994), Maureen Hurd (2007/08), and Catherine Tackley (2012), have certainly addressed this subject, its inclusion in narratives about Goodman is often condensed into separate excursus chapters. I argue, however, that the complexity of Goodman’s artistic persona can only be approached with a holistic view of his social and cultural backgrounds, his professional and private networks, and the various personal and structural factors that affected his musical decisions, especially from 1938 onward. Extensive (but largely unpublished) documents from the Goodman Archives at Yale University, press reports, and audio material allow for an in-depth analysis, contextualization, and reevaluation of Goodman’s activities in the classical music sphere. Doing so, my study contributes to various fields, such as discussions on artistic identities, intersectional hierarchies in the art world of music, and the multifaceted interactions of musical traditions in the U.S. in the first half of the 20^th century.

IMS 2022 was a wonderful experience – it provided highly interesting presentations, inspiring discussions as well as a lot of beautiful music, and although the weather was as hot as one could expect from August in Greece, Athens with its history built a truly stunning and unique surrounding.

---

---

---