Sounds of the city 18: Conference on and Festival of 18th-century music (Antwerp, 11-14 March 2010)

Among my acquaintances I have someone with an extensive collection of operas on vinyl, from Monteverdi to this day. While he was leafing through his operas all placed in chronological order, I was struck not to know that our own Belgian composer of opéras comiques, André Ernest Modeste Grétry (Luik/Liège 1741-France 1813), was Mozart's contemporary.

Grétry's name will be dropped in the upcoming conference, in English, at Antwerp devoted to 18th-century music culture in an urban environment, entitled Stadsklanken 18 - Sounds of the city 18, the 18 referring here to the century under scrutiny.

Not only is the eighteenth century in Flanders a blind spot on my personal map, studies related to this century in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium seem scarce to me. In the Taalunie’s prestigious book series on the history of Dutch literature, emeritus professor Joost Kloek has yet to publish the volume related to the 18th century. Or is it a false impression? And did our regions know its share of book dealers and other savants discussing the local epistolary novel, prince de Ligne and Voltaire?

Stadsklanken 18 – Sounds of the City 18 is looking at the music culture of the city of Antwerp in the 18^th-century. Several aspects of music culture – private music, church music, song books, music and spectacle, performance practice for historical music, – are held against the light of a broader picture of music culture in Western European cities at that time.

The conference is interdisciplinary, as musicologists, musicians, (book) historians and concert organizers mingle on the subject in lectures and panel talks.

The conference is accompanied by a choice selection of concerts: the performance of an opera called Sinjoôr in China performed in Kasteel d’Ursel in Hingene, church music, organ music, a Sunday concert of carillon music, and the performance of eighteenth-century dance music and historical dance by specialist in the field Lieven Baert.

Members of Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis, the Dutch-speaking chapter of book historians in this country, are delivering talks. Timothy De Paepe has a talk called “Les opéras étaient en vogue” (Friday 12 March 2010, morning session 10.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m.), and Maartje De Wilde tackles “Merriness and Misfortune in Songbooks” (Friday 12 March, afternoon session 1.45-3.45 p.m.).

Registration for conference and concerts is mandatory, but some activities are free.
All details here: Stadsklanken 18 – Sounds of the City 18. Date: 11-14 March 2010. Venue: Cultureel Congrescentrum Elzenveld, Antwerp, as well as other locations.