“In the Homes, the Chambers, and the Honorable Assemblies”: Dedications as a Reflection of the Rise of Bourgeois Music Patronage in 16th and 17th Century Southern Low Countries

In 1993, evoking the emergence of the bourgeois class in the Low Countries and its prominent role in musical patronage, American musicologist Kristine K. Forney stated that “Nowhere is this transfer of artistic influence to the newly-rising strata of society more apparent than in Antwerp, the largest and wealthiest trade center of northern Europe.” (Forney, Kristine K., ‘Music Patronage and the Rise of Bourgeois Culture in the Low Countries,’ Revista de Musicología, vol. 16, no. 1, p. 607-610). Indeed, in this market-oriented city, merchants and tradesmen gradually gained influence and power, overshadowing the traditional patrons of music, namely the clergy and the nobility.
This shift in musical patronage becomes strikingly apparent when reading the dedications of vocal music books printed in Antwerp and Leuven in the 16th and 17th centuries. During this period, both composers and printers mostly dedicate the works they compose or print to wealthy native and foreign merchants and businessmen. These dedications not only highlight composer’s and printer’s networks of patrons, but also celebrate them as central figures in the musical flourishing in urban environments.
Thus, through the analysis of these dedicatory epistles, the aim of this poster is to define the contours of a new profile of dedicatees, characterized by their membership to the middle classes and their active role in financing and promoting musical activities, thereby contributing to the establishment of new practices of musical patronage.