Music arises from the interaction of many people: those who compose it, those who publish and perform it, but also those who promote it, listen to it, reflect on it, evaluate it and write about it… Reflecting on this diversity of music-related activities is the aim of a cultural-historical perspective on music. This also heightens our awareness that composers are part of this interplay, that they are in constant dialogue with the cultural, political, social and gender-specific forces of their own time and of the past. Finally, the cultural history of music also incorporates questions concerning musical spaces, connections to other arts, everyday life (in terms of musical culture) and much more.

This diversity of perspectives entails a variety of methodological approaches, which also draw on ideas from other disciplines. Bringing these methods into a meaningful dialogue and situating them within the context of musical culture fosters what Italo Calvino termed ‘lightness’ – the flexibility of thought. It goes without saying that this does not result in a hermetically sealed edifice of music history. Rather, it is a matter of a ‘non-unity of history’ (Karin Hausen), which allows for constant rethinking and discovery just as much as it does for the diversity of perspectives on music history.