We knew he loved books and reading, now we know he must have loved the visual arts as well, since I doubt Knobelsdorff would have left his collection to an ignoramus who just uses it to impress people.
I just turned up something in the inventory of his rooms in Wesel in 1730:
eine süßklingende Flöte („Flothe douce“) eine Querflöte („Flothe Traversière“)
So two flutes! Being an 18th century nobleman, Peter having an instrument doesn't surprise me, and being a boyfriend of Fritz, it being a flute doesn't surprise me. Since we have no mention of him and music later, either his interest didn't make it into our admittedly very limited sources on him (e.g. the visual arts have *just* turned up), or, as I speculatively put in my fic, he tried out music but was never talented (or merely passionate, as Fritz was about poetry) enough to become notably good at it. (Look, I want *one* of these characters to not be passionate and/or talented when it comes to music so I can relate, okay? :P Yes, Ulrike, but I haven't written fic about her.)
But man, I need to go study German so I can read Kloosterhuis beginning to end someday. I know there are all sorts of things in there waiting for me.
Well, FW isn't passionate about music (when not Händel as played by a tall oboist). *g*
Also, what about your guy Suhm? Now you've read the letters and I haven't, so: does he ever bring up musicians he recs to Fritz, or scores, or anything like that? Because I don't recall him being mentioned as a musical patron anywhere, including Exner's dissertation.
And of course, Heinrich was passionate about music but as a player never more than okay.
Lehndorff occasionally mentions a good musician he notices, and not just the celebrities - for example, he actually names Mara as a teen in AW's employ just before the war - but plays no instrument himself, and he never talks about music with the fondness he has for reading and books, so I think while grown of age in a court dominated by a very musical royal family, he absorbed enough to like the occasional concert, but he really is more into literture and non-musical theatre, and he's never been motivated to play himself.
Oh, and I don't think EC was musical (though trying her best in the 1730s with taking lessons in anything Fritz liked). She painted a bit throughout her life, but she never was any musician's patron that I recall, and Lehndorff never mentions her playing.
ETA: re: Peter and the flutes - did you consider they might not have been for himself but for Fritz? After all, Fritz might not have been able to take a flute or several with him when travelling with Dad and strictly supervised. In that case, though, Peter leaving them behind would argue he left in a hurry.
Also, what about your guy Suhm? Now you've read the letters and I haven't, so: does he ever bring up musicians he recs to Fritz, or scores, or anything like that? Because I don't recall him being mentioned as a musical patron anywhere, including Exner's dissertation.
Yes, he's on my list too, especially for fiction (headcanons are the best canons!). Because no, no music that I recall, and I think I would have picked up on it, since it would have contradicted my headcanon.
And of course, Heinrich was passionate about music but as a player never more than okay.
Yeah, but that first part kind of negates it.
I'm not dignifying FW with a response. :P (Since I know it was meant tongue-in-cheek. *g*)
ETA: re: Peter and the flutes - did you consider they might not have been for himself but for Fritz? After all, Fritz might not have been able to take a flute or several with him when travelling with Dad and strictly supervised. In that case, though, Peter leaving them behind would argue he left in a hurry.
Hmm. That is a good thought! But you're right, and there's no evidence (yet) that he left in a hurry as opposed to as planned, so I'm tentatively going with them being for his own use. Though the fact that he didn't take them (or maybe he took his favorite, who knows) would support my headcanon that he was trying them out but *wasn't* passionate. I bet Katte was planning to take his.
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Re: Manger, Knobelsdorff - and Peter Keith!
I just turned up something in the inventory of his rooms in Wesel in 1730:
eine süßklingende Flöte („Flothe douce“)
eine Querflöte („Flothe Traversière“)
So two flutes! Being an 18th century nobleman, Peter having an instrument doesn't surprise me, and being a boyfriend of Fritz, it being a flute doesn't surprise me. Since we have no mention of him and music later, either his interest didn't make it into our admittedly very limited sources on him (e.g. the visual arts have *just* turned up), or, as I speculatively put in my fic, he tried out music but was never talented (or merely passionate, as Fritz was about poetry) enough to become notably good at it. (Look, I want *one* of these characters to not be passionate and/or talented when it comes to music so I can relate, okay? :P Yes, Ulrike, but I haven't written fic about her.)
But man, I need to go study German so I can read Kloosterhuis beginning to end someday. I know there are all sorts of things in there waiting for me.
Re: Manger, Knobelsdorff - and Peter Keith!
Also, what about your guy Suhm? Now you've read the letters and I haven't, so: does he ever bring up musicians he recs to Fritz, or scores, or anything like that? Because I don't recall him being mentioned as a musical patron anywhere, including Exner's dissertation.
And of course, Heinrich was passionate about music but as a player never more than okay.
Lehndorff occasionally mentions a good musician he notices, and not just the celebrities - for example, he actually names Mara as a teen in AW's employ just before the war - but plays no instrument himself, and he never talks about music with the fondness he has for reading and books, so I think while grown of age in a court dominated by a very musical royal family, he absorbed enough to like the occasional concert, but he really is more into literture and non-musical theatre, and he's never been motivated to play himself.
Oh, and I don't think EC was musical (though trying her best in the 1730s with taking lessons in anything Fritz liked). She painted a bit throughout her life, but she never was any musician's patron that I recall, and Lehndorff never mentions her playing.
ETA: re: Peter and the flutes - did you consider they might not have been for himself but for Fritz? After all, Fritz might not have been able to take a flute or several with him when travelling with Dad and strictly supervised. In that case, though, Peter leaving them behind would argue he left in a hurry.
Re: Manger, Knobelsdorff - and Peter Keith!
Yes, he's on my list too, especially for fiction (headcanons are the best canons!). Because no, no music that I recall, and I think I would have picked up on it, since it would have contradicted my headcanon.
And of course, Heinrich was passionate about music but as a player never more than okay.
Yeah, but that first part kind of negates it.
I'm not dignifying FW with a response. :P (Since I know it was meant tongue-in-cheek. *g*)
ETA: re: Peter and the flutes - did you consider they might not have been for himself but for Fritz? After all, Fritz might not have been able to take a flute or several with him when travelling with Dad and strictly supervised. In that case, though, Peter leaving them behind would argue he left in a hurry.
Hmm. That is a good thought! But you're right, and there's no evidence (yet) that he left in a hurry as opposed to as planned, so I'm tentatively going with them being for his own use. Though the fact that he didn't take them (or maybe he took his favorite, who knows) would support my headcanon that he was trying them out but *wasn't* passionate. I bet Katte was planning to take his.