Colloque international « Music and Knowledge Making in the 18th Century », École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), 27-28 février 2025.

« ‘The history of the science of music has not yet been written’, declared Floris Cohen in his groundbreaking book Quantifying Music. Forty years later, we now witness a vibrant field of study and a rich body of scholarship uniting the histories of music and science. Over recent decades, however, the history of science has significantly expanded its scope and methodologies to include a wider range of cultural practices, social actors, and previously overlooked geographical regions. The concept of a ‘history of knowledge’ (or knowledges) has emerged as a challenge to the traditional notion of ‘science’ as a monolithic category, often tied to anachronistic, Eurocentric, and teleological narratives. Building on this methodological framework, the conference aims to discuss the varied approaches to music as both a source and a tool of knowledge in the Enlightenment. It seeks to critically explore what eighteenth-century authors meant when they referred to music as a science and discussed it within the leading scientific academies. Yet it also seeks to address a series of practices that flourished outside the academies and are not included in traditional histories of the ‘science of music’. Drawing on recent re-evaluations of the roles of commerce, artisanal and material practices in the creation and negotiation of knowledge, the conference will investigate the extent to which musical instruments were viewed as scientific instruments, epistemic tools, and embodiments of knowledge. It will also highlight the significance of music in the study of the body—ranging from medical sciences to performance—and its role in the gradual emergence of the human sciences during this period, particularly in the context of early anthropological and ethnographic research. By integrating a diverse array of fields, practices, and geographical perspectives on knowledge-making, the conference aims to foster interdisciplinary and collaborative discussions on the scientific claims, methodologies, and challenges that shaped the interplay of music and knowledge during the Enlightenment. Discussions on how different epistemic models of music were confronted and negotiated across disciplines and cultures are particularly welcomed. »

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