Description: This collection explores the cultures that coalesced around printed music from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Print revolutionized the presentation of musical texts, the conception of written compositions, and the dissemination of music. Studying the forms of printed music brings us closer to understanding its composers, printers, compilers, backers, performers, audiences, dedicatees, and sellers. Moreover, the practices that interconnected them in social complexes were shaped by new ideologies, new forms of exchange and circulation, and new technologies. The contributors to the volume investigate turning points in the music publishing industry, examine how musical authorship changed in the face of the new social and material economies produced by print, and consider the reception of printed repertories in church, court, salon, parlor, and street. In highlighting the tensions that exist between musical print and performance, the volume ultimately raises not just the question of how older scores can be read today, but also how printing multiplied the meanings of musical texts for readers in the past.

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