This article examines the “Lives in Musicology” column in Acta Musicologica (introduced in 2017 by Federico Celestini and Philip V. Bohlman) as a lens for reflecting on the discipline of musicology. Eight renowned scholars – including pioneers in musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory – from the United States, Europe, East Asia, Africa, and Australia – revisited their careers, revealing the construction and trajectory of the field. Their autobiographical accounts, analyzed through the theory of autobiography by Jaume Aurell, trace the discipline’s expansion from the Western canon to diverse research areas, the establishment of new concepts, and the radical shift in Acta Musicologica editorial policy from conservative positivism focused on the Germanic canon toward a pluricultural and multilingual global musicology.

Diplomats had multiple tasks: not only negotiating with the representatives of other states, but also mediating culture and knowledge, and not least elaborating reports on their observations of politics, society, and culture. Culture, according to the studies featured in this book, is defined as a complex sphere including aspects like systems of communication, literature, music, arts, education, and the creation of knowledge. This edition containing contributions from six conferences held in Vienna and Istanbul by the Don Juan Archiv Wien focuses on the complex diplomatic and cultural relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe from the time of the early embassies to Istanbul up to Tanzimat.