At the Conference in Krems, Austria, for the First Time

ČESKÁ VERZE

The conference simply belongs to the life of a postgraduate student. “You need to toughen up somehow,” I say to myself while starting the car and checking the printed and marked content of my presentation for subsequent time. I inspect the eight-page document with certain doubts and disdain for the last time as it is about to be presented in the lecture hall of the Danube University Krems (Donau-Universität Krems) on that very day. With reluctance and gradually growing panic, I begin my journey to the picturesque city Krems, Lower Austria, altogether with Doc. Jana Perutková, Dr. Irena Veselá and Mgr. Petr Slouka, who will present their research as well. On the 0–10 scale, my measure of nervousness stands on the level 2.

The conference Vernetztes Sammeln was held in the 5^th biggest city of the Lower Austria from 10^th to 12^th April 2019. It was supported by the project Kloster_Musik_Sammlungen, which official place of residence is university in Krems. The project itself was initiated by three monastery archivists – Martin Haltrich from Klosterneuburg, Johannes Prominczel from Melk and Bernhard Rameder from Göttweig – as an effort to map the music material from monastery archives. The cardinal question was to which extent will the archives be similar and how did the operational interconnection between the monasteries looked like. An effort to digitize the music manuscripts and make them more accessible to both academics and non-expert audience is also an important part of the project (for more information see the interview with Dr. Martin Haltrich for Musicologica). After that, the project Kloster_Musik_Sammlungen gained the support of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, represented by musicologist Elisabeth Hilscher, as well as of the university in Krems, from which an art historian Anja Grebe and musicologist/slavicist Eva Maria Stöckler joined the organisational and research team. Furthermore, postgraduate students Stefanie Preisl, Ulrike Wagner, Max Theisen and Günter Stummvoll assist these experienced researchers. Department of Musicology at the Masaryk University, Brno, represented by Doc. Jana Perutková and Dr. Vladimír Maňas, was then chosen as a foreign partner of the project.

Seriousness of the situation was beginning to occur with the distance travelled – I’m going to present my academic research at the academic conference. For the first time. Abroad. In German (to which I’m doing terrible favour by clumsy pronunciation and inflection). Measure of nervousness slowly passes the level 4 as I’m trying to stay focused to show no sign of growing nervousness. I’m thus proceeding my journey to Krems – quite resignedly.

Opening of the conference was set to 9:30 a.m. as presenters were taking turns behind the speaker’s stand up until the 6 p.m. (except the coffee/lunch breaks). Our arrival was delayed by 30 minutes due to the obligatory and unfortunate traffic situation in Brno, so we jumped right to the course of the conference programme, which was initiated by Anja Grebe’s paper Zwischen Kunstkammer und Musikarchiv. Kontexte klösterlicher Sammelpraxis im 18. Jahrhundert. Half of our “Brno expedition” had their presentation planned to the Wednesday (first day out of three), whereas the second half was to present the day after. I had a (bad) luck to close the first day of the conference (and therefore present after Irena Veselá) by my paper on the monastery in Nová Říše. No matter how I tried to be fully focused on the presentation of other speakers – Berhard Rameder’s Sammelleidenschaft im Stift Göttweig – ein “Museum“ zwischen Repräsentation und Wissenschaft, Christiana Marie Hornbachner‘s Instrumentalmusik in Klosterinventaren des 18. Jahrhunderts and Johannes Prominczel‘s Musikarchiv Stift Melk: Geschichte und Struktur in particular ­– the time of my first ever academic presentation in public was getting nearer and nearer. Alongside with my restlessness, which reaches the level 7 on the imaginary scale, despite the kind encouraging of the other members of our “expedition”. Irena Veselá starts with her paper Die musikalischen Beziehungen zwischen den Benediktinern in Raigern und den Augustiner-Eremiten in Brünn in der 2. Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts and marks the last speaker before it’s my turn on the pedestal. My stomach is in knots while hearing “Vielen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit” and being invited to come forward. With suddenly shaky legs, I’m ascending the stairs leading to the stand and the only certainty that keeps me from bursting into a sheer hysteria is the prepared text for which I’m extremely thankful to Doc. Perutková and translational craft of Mgr. Helena Kramářová (to whom I sent it at the last moment). Putting the papers on the table, I’m taking a deep breath while hearing myself speaking: “Sehr geehrte Damen und Herrn, im Rahmen meines Beitrags möchte ich Ihnen die Musiksammlung des Prämonstratenserkloster in Neureisch vorstellen.” The nervousness level? Zero – total Zen. I no longer perceive the importance of the situation I’m currently in as I’m reading the hypotheses, citing the sources and describing compositional individualities of the Premonstratensian monastery in Nová Říše. My performance comes to the and as I’m feeling the burst of euphoria and relief. However, the first day of the conference didn’t not come to its end at all. Now it’s time to start more than an hour-long discussion between particular (and in advance chosen) presenters, between whom are representatives of the RISM database or the Music Department of the Austrian National Library. Discussion includes topics such as digitisation, cataloguing and other topics regarding the music manuscripts. Even though many interesting opinions and questions were raised during this time, number of the debaters was limited to the presenters only, from not further specified reason. It wouldn’t certainly mind if others joined as well.

The second day of the conference was initiated by the Jana Perutková’s paper Klosterneuburger Librettodrucke aus dem 18. Jahrhundert – neu bewertet, who was later after the paper Zur Geschichte der Periochen und Stücktexte des Piaristentheaters by Matthias J. Pernerstorfer and short coffee break followed by her postgraduate student Petr Slouka and his paper The Lobkowicz Music Collection: Past, Present & Future. At that time, I finally had the needed time and energy to listen to the presenters fully. Besides the precise papers from the “Brno expedition” (my bosom swelled with pride), the paper of Maciej Jochymczyk The music collection of the Jasna Góra monastery was another one I found quite inspirational. Martin Haltrich, together with students working on the database connecting both technical and musicological aspects, introduced technological approach towards the digitisation as well as fragments from the database itself within his paper Metodische Überlegungen zum Umgang mit den sogenannten “Digital Humanities“ im Hinblick auf historische Musiksammlungen. Also, there was a city tour with sightseeing prepared for those who were interested. The tour ended in front of the lovely pub, providing lot of time for discussion regarding both academic and unserious topics.

The third and last day of the conference offered presentations by Stefan Engl (Moritz Graf von Dietrichstein (1775–1864) als “Gründer“ der Musiksammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek) and Paul Tarling (Die Notensammlung Anton Friedrich Justus Thibauts) as everything was symbolically wrapped up by one of the organizers of this event Elisabeth Th. Hilscher (Die Sammlung Aloy Fuschs in Stift Göttweig – Kuckucksei oder Bereicherung?).

Even though some aspects (time schedule regarding or the above mentioned “discussion”) could have been organized more properly, the conference marked the first sign of further possible cooperation in regards of the monastery archives not only between Danube University and Masaryk University, but also between the particular academic branches and, hopefully, other countries as well. If enthusiasm and eagerness stay with the organisational team, we may hope that the academic research in this field deepens enough so we can get more of the valuable knowledge, hardly accessible otherwise. What a sweet promise of the further months and years.

Photo ​Eva Maria Stöckler