The Wurttemberg Hofkapelle c.1680-1721

<p>Today the prosperous reign of Duke Eberhard Ludwig IV (r. 1693-1733) at the court of Wurttemberg is principally associated with the construction of the magnificent palace of Ludwigsburg, some fifteen miles north of Stuttgart. His quest for prestige also resulted in a major expansion of the ducal Hofkapelle, and while much is known about music at other German courts at this time (such as Dresden, Berlin, and Vienna) that at Wurttemberg, which was comparable in size and importance, has been largely overlooked. This study aims to redress the situation through close examination of the wealth of archival documents dealing with the everyday life of the court musicians c.1700. The original employment contracts offer insights into the duties of the Kapellmeister, while the registers of musicians record the evolution of a clear division between the ordinary Hofmusici and the more select and specialized Cammermusici. The development of specialization came about as the direct result of foreign influence, and a period of foreign study was a prerequisite for a successful career as Kapellmeister. Although in the final decades of the seventeenth century French style had dominated the music at court, by the turn of the eighteenth century Italian music had begun to rise markedly in popularity. Contemporary documents show that a wider selection of instruments came into regular use following the appointment of Johann Christoph Pez as Rath und Oberkapellmeister in 1706. Between 1684 and 1714 the membership of the Hofkapelle had risen from twenty-three to thirty-five. In addition to the Kapelle there was a quite diverse range of other musical groups present at the court - the trumpeters and kettledrum players, the court and regimental oboe bands, and the Bock-music, an ensemble with origins in Eastern European folk music. Again the archival documents throw considerable light on the daily lives, musical standards, and relative status of these musicians. We are particularly fortunate that a sizeable selection of the music owned by the Wurttemberg court during this period of increased musical activity can now be found in a collection held by the Universitatsbibliothek in Rostock. Included are around 400 instrumental pieces dating from approximately 1680 up until the death of the Prince Regent, Friedrich Ludwig, in 1731. While the majority of composers represented are German, works of French and Italian origin are also included. Perhaps most interesting are the compositions by two contemporary Wurttemberg Kapellmeister, Theodor Schwartzkopff and Johann Christoph Pez, whose obscurity is due largely to the relative inaccessibility of the Rostock collection in recent years. These works were written or at least adapted for the forces of the Wurttemberg Hofkapelle. Together with the archival documents these pieces furnish a fascinating picture of a once-flourishing musical establishment, one which provided entertainment for a Duke who hoped in his own corner of Germany to emulate the court of Versailles.</p>

The Wurttemberg Hofkapelle c.1680-1721

<p>Today the prosperous reign of Duke Eberhard Ludwig IV (r. 1693-1733) at the court of Wurttemberg is principally associated with the construction of the magnificent palace of Ludwigsburg, some fifteen miles north of Stuttgart. His quest for prestige also resulted in a major expansion of the ducal Hofkapelle, and while much is known about music at other German courts at this time (such as Dresden, Berlin, and Vienna) that at Wurttemberg, which was comparable in size and importance, has been largely overlooked. This study aims to redress the situation through close examination of the wealth of archival documents dealing with the everyday life of the court musicians c.1700. The original employment contracts offer insights into the duties of the Kapellmeister, while the registers of musicians record the evolution of a clear division between the ordinary Hofmusici and the more select and specialized Cammermusici. The development of specialization came about as the direct result of foreign influence, and a period of foreign study was a prerequisite for a successful career as Kapellmeister. Although in the final decades of the seventeenth century French style had dominated the music at court, by the turn of the eighteenth century Italian music had begun to rise markedly in popularity. Contemporary documents show that a wider selection of instruments came into regular use following the appointment of Johann Christoph Pez as Rath und Oberkapellmeister in 1706. Between 1684 and 1714 the membership of the Hofkapelle had risen from twenty-three to thirty-five. In addition to the Kapelle there was a quite diverse range of other musical groups present at the court - the trumpeters and kettledrum players, the court and regimental oboe bands, and the Bock-music, an ensemble with origins in Eastern European folk music. Again the archival documents throw considerable light on the daily lives, musical standards, and relative status of these musicians. We are particularly fortunate that a sizeable selection of the music owned by the Wurttemberg court during this period of increased musical activity can now be found in a collection held by the Universitatsbibliothek in Rostock. Included are around 400 instrumental pieces dating from approximately 1680 up until the death of the Prince Regent, Friedrich Ludwig, in 1731. While the majority of composers represented are German, works of French and Italian origin are also included. Perhaps most interesting are the compositions by two contemporary Wurttemberg Kapellmeister, Theodor Schwartzkopff and Johann Christoph Pez, whose obscurity is due largely to the relative inaccessibility of the Rostock collection in recent years. These works were written or at least adapted for the forces of the Wurttemberg Hofkapelle. Together with the archival documents these pieces furnish a fascinating picture of a once-flourishing musical establishment, one which provided entertainment for a Duke who hoped in his own corner of Germany to emulate the court of Versailles.</p>

“Wagner Festival Ravello” as a Sociocultural Phenomenon of the Festival Process in Italy

The relevance of the issue is due to the need to consider Italian music festivals as a component of national culture, to summarize their experience, which is important for musical life in general and for Ukraine in particular.The purpose of the article is to identify the prerequisites for the origin, the development process, as well as the modern vector of functioning of one of the most authoritative festivals in the south of Italy “Wagner Festival Ravello”, the 68th season of which took place in 2020.The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time in Ukrainian art history, Italian music festivals are considered as an organic, artistic and economic component of the national culture, their traditional and innovative features are noted, and prospects for further development in the musical life of modern Italy. A detailed analysis of the Wagner Festival in Ravello will contribute to the dissemination of Italian experience for the organization and conduct of musical projects in Ukraine.The research methodology is based on the use of the inductive method, which, to characterize the festival process in the cultural life of Italy, involves the study of individual festival projects and provides for the use of a set of complementary research methods — historical-analytical, empirical and sociocultural. The historical-analytical method contributed to the understanding of the logic of the formation and development of the festival, the appeal to empirical and sociocultural methods made it possible to consider the features of the organization of the festival in the context of social relations in the system of musical life in modern Italy.Main results and conclusions. “Wagner Festival Ravello” is developing and constantly improving its capabilities. The high professional level of the international festival has been maintained for many years, and this is done thanks to the coordinated management of everyone involved in the organizational process. It should be noted that there is significant support from public authorities, as well as investments from the business sector. Within the framework of a modern project, there are creative scenes created using innovative technologies, orchestra of the Teatro San Carlo, the recording studio, the festival magazine — all these components of systemic activity are interconnected and aimed at ensuring an impeccable result. The Ravello Foundation has been leading and constantly developing the project for almost 20 years in order to represent the city of Ravello internationally as one of the cultural centers of the Campania region. Further creative life and the success of the festival require cooperation of cultural, financial, state institutions, constant technological renewal — everything that will allow the world to demonstrate the historical and artistic monuments of the City of Music and preserve the Wagner Festival of Ravello for future generations as an Italian cultural brand. Prospects for further research in this direction are: first, in a thorough study of the specifics of the functioning of music festivals in modern Italy and coverage of various aspects of the organization of this process; secondly, in the analysis of cooperation between the cultural, financial, tourism sectors, which affects the high level of organization and long-term creative life of festival events; thirdly, in considering the control system by the state, which should always be focused on professional support and represent the most important component of the functioning of art projects. All of the above will help domestic musicians learn about the specifics of organizing music festivals in Italy, as well as adopt and use it in the practice of musical life in modern Ukraine

‘They Fell Like Meteorites’: Avatars of the Andean Sound and Their Reception by Italian Music Groups (1973–1996)

Despite the attention given to the transnational circulation of Andean music, its reception and adoption by European musicians have been rarely researched. This article focuses on the specific case of Italy, where the Andean music boom blended with that of the New Chilean Song in exile (1973–89) and where, in addition, repertoires and practices of both musics were adopted by dozens of local groups formed by young Italians. Those Italian groups – with their performative strategies and their choices of repertoires – provide a privileged lookout about how different representations of the andeaneity (the Nueva Canción Chilena with its ethical and political connotations, the musique des Andes of the French matrix, the autóctonas indigenist currents) interacted in creating an Italian imagery of the Andes. They also suggest how the adoption of ‘someone else's music’ can act, with its transcultural complexity, in the elaboration of personal narratives of identity.

Ariane consolée par Bacchus and François Couperin’s early writing for the viol

Ariane consolée par Bacchus, newly discovered by Christophe Rousset and the only surviving cantata attributed to François Couperin, is scored for bass voice, obbligato bass viol and continuo. Because Couperin passionately engaged with Italian music, scholars have long assumed that he would have composed cantatas, but until now none had been known to survive. His choice of bass voice and viol, an unusual combination in the French cantata repertory, opens several avenues for investigation. A precursor to his choice of bass voice and viol can be found in his petits motets, some of which date from the 1690s, and the verset Deus virtutum convertere (1705). Although bass voice and solo viol do not yet appear together in a single work, Couperin’s writing betrays his interest in new Italian music and in composing for the viol. Some Italianate features that appear in the early sacred works can also be found in Ariane consolée par Bacchus.

‘Il grosso pacco della musica’: The Galuppiana Consignments for August III and Count Heinrich von Brühl in Warsaw, 1757–1761

The Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (SLUB), holds one of the world’s largest collections of sacred and secular works by the Italian composer Baldassarre Galuppi, “il Buranello”, whose operatic music was very popular in the mid-1750s with the Saxon elector and Polish king August III and other members of his court. This impressive collection of Galuppiana includes numerous copies of liturgical works from the copying house of the Venetian priest and notorius forger Iseppo (Giuseppe) Baldan. Recently, several compositions falsely attributed to Galuppi by Baldan have turned out to be the works of Antonio Vivaldi, including an excellent setting of Dixit Dominus (RV 807). This article demonstrates that the Galuppi-Baldan manuscripts were sent in several batches from Venice to Warsaw (and not Dresden, as originally thought) during the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), when August III resided in the Polish capital. The Saxon prime minister count Heinrich von Brühl and his musically gifted daughter Maria Amalia also stayed in Warsaw during this period, as did Brühl’s secretary and musical director Friedrich August von Koenig, who arranged for the purchases from Galuppi and Baldan. The fact that operas were also being sent from Rome to Warsaw during the war shows that the nobility in the Polish capital was up-to-date with all the latest Italian music. Reports of performances of Galuppi’s music in Warsaw is presented through official documents and letters written by Friedrich August de Rossi, secretary of Italian affairs at the Saxon-Polish court. This includes a description of a serenate performed at the fifty-seventh birthday of Brühl in August 1757, and evidence is provided which strongly suggests that the music, the so-called “Endimione” serenate, was specially composed by Galuppi for this occasion. Finally, details of the musical manuscripts being sent from Warsaw to Dresden in 1763 and the cataloguing of the collection is presented, in addition to an account of a previously unknown visit of Galuppi to the Saxon capital in 1765.

Duels in Sound: Pietro Antonio Locatelli vs Jean-Marie Leclair

The tradition of musical duels harkens back to the days of ancient Greece. One of the earliest examples of musical rivalry is the myth of Marsyas and Apollo, which ends tragically for the satyr. Without doubt, the tournaments of the ancients served as an inspiration for later generations of musicians. In each epoch they took a different form, tailored to the current norms and customs. In the sixteenth century the singing contests of the Meistersingers became extremely popular. With the development of instrumental music in the seventeenth century, duels, in which the main subject of the dispute was the superiority of one of the performers in terms of interpretation and mastery of playing a given instrument, were increasingly growing in importance. The eighteenth century, in which public concert life flourished and demand for virtuoso instrumentalists consequently grew, brought a genuine boom in musical duels. During that era, musical duels were not only confrontations between individual musicians or their patrons, but also important contributions to the exchange of experiences between artists, the spread of musical novelties and dissemination of the works themselves. Additionally, such ‘battles’ symbolised a confrontation of musical styles, in particular the Italian and the French one. Jean-Marie Leclair, known as the French Corelli, is considered by many researchers as the founder of the French violin school. Pietro Antonio Locatelli, an heir to the legacy of Arcangelo Corelli, is justifiably considered as the Paganini of the eighteenth century. Despite shared roots in the Italian violin school, their music differs in both form and expression. At first glance, Locatelli’s typically Italian music goes far beyond the previously accepted norms as far as demands placed on the violinists are concerned, whereas Leclair’s French music bears the mark of Antonio Vivaldi’s models set in the latter’s violin concertos. We know that the first confrontation of the violinists took place on 22 December 1728 at Kassel court. Some authors speculate that it was not the only meeting of these two musicians. The surviving accounts suggest that both of them stirred strong emotions among the audiences with their playing. Despite their enormous importance for the development of violin music, both composers remain underrated. This article briefly outlines the history of musical duels and sheds light on the practice of violin performances in the first half of the eighteenth century. Additionally, I have attempted a comparative analysis of selected violin concerts, namely: Locatelli’s Violin Concerto in G major Op. 3 No. 9 and Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 7 No. 5 by Jean-Marie Leclair. These two come from a similar period in the work of both composers and are close in time of composition to the famous duel.

Studies on the reception of Italian music in central-eastern Europe in the 16th and 17th century, ed. Marina Toffetti, Kraków 2018

Recenzja książki pod red. Mariny Toffetti Studies on the reception of Italian music in central-eastern Europe in the 16th and 17th century, Kraków 2018