Concealed Music in Early Modern Pleasure Houses, 1550-1800

Before the invention of recording technology in the late nineteenth century, music was as much a visual event as it was sonic, since the sources of sound, the musicians, were typically expected to be seen. In contrast, the deliberate concealment of musicians was a rare and well-calculated exception. Through the lens of princely pleasure houses—buildings designed for the private recreation and enjoyment of Europe’s ruling elites, yet also for public representation and demonstration of princely power—my study explores concealed music as a distinct spatial form of musical display in early modern Europe. As my research demonstrates, concealed music was not a mere practicality or playful divertissement; rather, it evoked arcane philosophical ideas such as the Music of the Spheres, through which princes and courtly societies could stage themselves as the ultimate sources of sound and thus of earthly harmony, order, and peace.