The project concentrates its scope to the most important region in former Hungary (that is Pressburg/Pozsony now Bratislava, Slovakia and the north-west part of the present-day Hungary, respectively) for cultivating art music between the 16^th and 18^th centuries. It has three main purposes:

1. Collecting and evaluating data referring to the career of composers and musicians (education, venues of activities, migration to and fro Hungary, types of employment, the web of connections to each other etc.). The final result of this research will be (a) two databases (all entries referring to musicians in Pressburg matriculas and registers from the 17^th and 18^th centuries, and another data-base of musical referencies in the press of the time, respectively), and (b) a comprehensive study on composers active in Hungary in the period which will be the first synopsis of the topic.
2. A systhematic filological research will be permormed through the analysis and comparative study of the most significant music collections of the region (i. e. the Eisenstadt parish church, the Gyõr cathedral, the St. Martin church in Bratislava, the Sopron Holy Spirit parish church, and the Esterházy collection of the Hungarian National Library).
3. Four editions of sources will be prepared and published, each of them has a provenance from or practice in Bratislava or the region. These critical editions of music (introduced by studies both in English and Hungarian) are volumes of the Musicalia Danubiana series of the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Each one represents a different domain of the civic musical life and edits compositions belonging to a genre which has not been represented in the series so far. The volumes in preparation are as followes:

• Codex Anna Hannsen Schuman (16^th century)
• Stark Virginal Book (1689)
• Four Symphonies of Anton Zimmermann (1741–1781)
• Johann Fuss (1777–1819): Lieder

The research will be fulfilled by the members of the Department of the Hungarian Music of the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, involving external colleagues.

The art music in Hungary during the 16^th–18^th centuries flourished especially in the north-west part of the country, first of all in Pressburg/Pozsony (now Bratislava), the capital of Hungarian Kingdom for some decades in the 1700s. This project covers the biographical studies of all composers active in the region, partly through collecting data of matriculas, partly through collecting musical referencies in the press of the time. The research also comprises the detailed study of the most important music collections of the region (Eisenstadt, Gyõr, Sopron, Bratislava). As a result of this research one will gain a more accurate image of the relationship between the musical life of the Esterházy court (in Eisenstadt and Eszterháza) and that of the towns in its surroundings. On the other hand, it would increase the chance for attributing further compositions to Benedek Istvánffy, one of the most talented composers of the time. In addition, four critical editions of sources will be published as volumes in the Musicalia Danubiana series of the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. These four volumes will contain 16^th century motets for liturgical use, pieces for keyboard from the 17^th century, symphonies by Anton Zimmermann (the second half of the 18^th century), and Lieder by Johann Fuss, the contemporary of Beethoven.