The advent of music printing was a significant milestone in the social and cultural contexts of late medieval and early modern Europe. Prelates, reformers, composers, and businessmen were among the many that seized upon the new technology to accomplish a variety of aims. These included the dissemination of standardised liturgies, the spread of new religious ideals, the cultivation of relationships with powerful patrons, and the maximization of profits from the printing industry. The resultant sources are not only important witnesses to their contemporary religious, political, and musical climates, but also to their material cultures. This latter aspect has recently garnered increased attention in musicological scholarship.

Over the past five years, the University of Salzburg has hosted two projects on music printing north of the Alps. Led by Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl, the research has focused on the technical challenges of printing musical notation, on various networks, and on printing during the Reformation. The end of the first project was marked by a successful conference in July 2015, ‘Good Impressions: The First Century of Music Printing and Publishing’. The current project, Music printing in German-speaking lands: From the 1470s to the mid- sixteenth century, will conclude in spring 2019. To mark this occasion, we are organising a second conference with a broader chronological and geographical focus. We will also be formally launching our new database and geo-mapping tool, and presenting the edited volume stemming from the first project, Early Music Printing in German- Speaking Lands (Routledge, 2018).

Papers are invited that address a broad range of issues relating to music printing and material culture in Europe during the early modern period, such as:

Specific source types
// Liturgical and hymn books
// Theory prints and humanist books
// Polyphonic music books and instrumental tablatures
// Broadsheets, pamphlets and graphic works with legible music notation

Cultural networks
// Trade between printers, institutions, and individuals
// Dedicatees and contributors
// Privileges, copyright, and piracy

Mediality and materiality
// Technical aspects of music printing and book production
// Design, format, and mise-en-page
// Relationships between manuscripts and prints

Repertoire and reception
// Musical genres and named composers
// Multiple editions, reprints, and expanded editions
// Individual copies, their owners, and their users

Contributors are encouraged to use our online searchable catalogue (www.vdm.sbg.ac.at), which includes over 1,000 editions of various source types with musical notation printed in the German-speaking lands between c. 1470 and 1550. There is also an interactive online mapping tool that can visualise the production of music prints over time (https://ispacevm38.researchstudio.at/vdm). The abstracts from the forthcoming book will be available for consultation on the vdm website.

We are pleased to announce that Kate van Orden (Harvard) will give the keynote.