UK/Germany

Reinhard Strohm

2012 Balzan Prize for Musicology

For his extensive research on the history of European music within the cultural and socio-historical context from the late Middle Ages to the present, and for his detailed descriptions of vocal music, especially early sacred music in Flanders, and of the works of Vivaldi, Handel, and Wagner.

The important musicological work of Professor Emeritus Reinhard Strohm covers over half a millennium of the history of European music. His research focuses on the Franco-Flemish region in the late Middle Ages and the tradition of Italian opera seria, in particular the works of Antonio Vivaldi and George F. Handel.
As in the field of his research as a whole, Reinhard Strohm’s musicological presentations are set in a context of general historic-cultural and historic-social considerations concerning the respective periods in Europe. Since Strohm’s interests centre on vocal music, he has also included poetic models as well as historic-literary references in his accounts. As an academic at leading universities in England and in America, he has inspired generations of music scholars.