Despite recent scholarly interest in Monteverdi's Selva morale et spirituale (1641), many aspects of this large, complex print remain enigmatic, and the intended context for much of the music in the collection has long been a matter of pure conjecture. Yet two of the most anomalous features of the...

During the tumultuous final decade of the Thirty Years War, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III used music as an important tool to further his religious and political agendas. Using the political ramifications of the emperor's public devotion to the Immaculate Conception as a frame of reference...

Beginning with remarks on the complementary functions of basic research and interpretive scholarship, the first part of the essay focuses on varying concepts, of Bach images, discusses authentic and unauthentic Bach portraits as well as images of the composer's personality, and criticizes the often...

How was it possible during the Nazi dictatorship for a self-confident individual to avoid the cultural "Gleichschaltung" without turning completely towards one's own inside? Based on some reflections, certain psychological backgrounds will be shown of the protective behavior as a "double...