ABSTRACT
In contrast to the increasingly lively town music tradition of the 1650s, 1660s and 1670s, where most suite collections were published, comparatively few collections of suites by court composers seem to have been printed during this time. Even allowing for losses, the 1650s and 1660s seem to have been particularly sparse in this respect, although there was an increase in the number of printed editions by court composers issued during the 1670s. Court composers’ seeming reluctance to publish during the 1650s and 1660s may reflect the straightened financial circumstances of many German courts and their musicians after the Thirty Years War, although other documents including opera and ballet libretti frequently found their way to print. But given the apparently strong link between publishers and town musicians, it is also possible that publishers during this time were simply reluctant to put suites from the more varied court tradition into print. Table 5.1 provides a chronological list of select dance-music publications by court composers between 1650 and 1680 and I will consider how far these editions reflect court musical practice, and how far they reflect the increasingly well-ordered collections by town musicians.
