Musical Materialities and Conduits of Culture: revealing the hidden histories of music during Poland’s ‘Golden Age’ (c. 1475 – 1600)

From the Middle Ages, the Polish Kingdom and Grand Duchy of Lithuania (P-L, from 1569 a Commonwealth) possessed a rich diversity of cultures, from Armenians and Ashkenazi Jews to those of Bohemian, French, Italian, Scandinavian and German origins.

Engaging in commercial and artistic pursuits across urban and rural communities, multicultural P-L cultivated a nation of tolerance and a flowering of artistic and philosophical thought from the end of the fifteenth century known as Polands Golden Age.

Situated in this fertile period, MusiConduits will bring together unique resources to develop a multi-faceted understanding of musical culture through its objects: from archives, books and printed/engraved art to museum objects and historic buildings.

The MusiConduits project is innovative in its design and focus, intersecting material culture studies, musicology, organology, gender-sensitive approaches, family and urban studies, fine and decorative arts studies, artistic craft processes, lexicography and the history of the printed page.

Developed within the fellowship, an innovative digital project strand (2D3D) will explore as a pilot the use of 3D printing and digital technology to increase access to flat heritage collections for groups and individuals where touch is an essential part of engagement.

The short pilot will work in collaboration with key heritage institutions and stakeholder groups of people with visual impairments, who are neurodiverse and/or have additional support needs.

Where possible, cataloguing and coding of data using content management software (Omeka) and qualitative analysis software (Aquad) will support an in-depth examination of urban vs. rural music-making, trade and commercial centres, the transfer of musical aesthetics through art objects, printed books as conduits of musical culture and gendered music-making/music consumption.Deliverables include creating a bespoke Handwritten Text Recognition engine automatically transcribing Polish-language archival documents through Transkribus software, a project exhibition (University of Warsaw), a monograph, published articles and the innovative pilot project (2D3D), resulting in 3D-printed exhibition objects and framework for a planned future 2D4D grant application.