Large dulcians in Ljubljana
By Wouter Verschuren
On 8 and 9 April 2019, I attended the conference ‘Syntagma Musicum 1619-2019’ in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Michael Praetorius’s Magnus Opus.
I was invited as a representative of our Conservatoire to present a paper for an international gathering of specialist speakers from the USA, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Slovenia and Italy. The topics varied from organology, metrology, tempi in sixteenth century dances, cori Spezzati and Patrons of Music to the descriptions of Large Dulcians in the works of Praetorius, which was the topic of my paper, as part of my PhD research.
The conference was hosted in an outstanding way by the Musicology Department of the University of Ljubljana. The first day of the seminar was held in the main building of the university, and the second day at Schloss Kaltenbrunn, the residence of the Khisl family, who were important patrons of music in the sixteenth and seventeenth century.
The days were filled with presentations from 9 am until 6 pm, with concerts in the evening. The papers turned out to be the starting point for in-depth discussions between the audience and the guest speakers. The two days were an inspiring experience.