Amongst the courts of Anhalt, Anhalt-Zerbst is unique thanks to Johann Friedrich Fasch who as its court Kapellmeister oversaw the quality and continuity of musical performances for over 36 years. But other art forms were also very much in vogue at the court. Does this immediately warrant the label “Zerbst, a Court of the Muses”? The international scholarly conference that was held on the occasion of the Thirteenth International Fasch Festival focused on this question. The establishment of appropriate terminology was the incentive and starting point for a comprehensive exploration. The interdisciplinary nature of the conference’s theme gave scholars the opportunity to examine documents and historical sources in order to complete a picture of Zerbst’s cultural life in general, and to compare that to music, thereby gaining new insights into Johann Friedrich Fasch’s music.
