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1. Occupational title In the early Middle Ages, a musician (from the Greek mousikós, Latin  musicus) was still generally a scholar working with speculative music theory, and of superior status to the practitioner of music (Latin musicus practicus, musicus poeta). The meaning of the term changed drastically from the dawn of the early modern period as the practice of music increased in prestige. A musician now was chiefly a person who composed music or performed it professionally as an instrumentalist or singer, and this definition cov…

1. FunctionThe monarchical or princely court everywhere in Europe in the early modern period was at once a center of political power and a focus of social life for the noble elite (Nobility). Courtly culture and its vision of the ideal life as lived by the courtier exerted a defining influence (Cortegiano; see below, 5.1.) primarily on the culture of the nobility, but also on metropolitan urban elites, and sometimes, as in France in the 17th and early 18th centuries, on the culture of provincial towns. The language and conventions of behavior at court became exemplary.During the High M…