Having completed Exner's dissertation, I have not much more to add. It does what it sets out to do, presents a good picture of the musical networking triggered by Fritz the ultra musical becoming King, with a focus on the 1740 - 1756 period when, Exner says, Berlin music was cutting edge, whereas post 7 Years War it became staid because nothing was allowed to change anymore. With her Zelter prologue, she however demonstrates that even within that period, there were some great long time benefits. (For example: Zelter growing up in Frederician Berlin imprinted his musical taste and his love for all things Bach, which in turn led to his student Felix Mendelssohn loving Bach, which in turn led to Mendelssohn spearheading the great Bach revival of the 19th century.) She also provides a good "what came before" overview that includes Sophie Charlotte championing music in F1's Berlin, FW and his exception for Händel-on-oboe, with the job of being the most important musical patron of the land being taken up by F1's younger half brother Christian Ludwig, to whom Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos" are dedicated. Several of the musicians of his orchestra later ended up with Fritz or Wilhelmine after his death, so it really must have been first class. (BTW, Christian Ludwig was just five or so years older than FW, so we have another case of someone's uncle being more of a cousin. I dimly recall a none too fond quote from Fritz about him which didn't make it into Exner's dissertation, though, along the lines of him never failing to point out that he was the son of the Great Prince Elector and demanding to be treated accordingly.)
So if we need to look up a musician Fritz employed until 1756, this is good book to look it up, though personally I would go to the book I used from the Münchner Stadtbibliothek last year, because that one has original research (read: Newspapers!) whereas Exner relies on a number of older sources or anthologies and keeps making tiny avoidable mistakes. We've covered the Fredersdorf stuff; later, there was this gem, when she talks about Fritz' libretto for Montezuma and the obvious "here's what happens if you don't fight in time against the evil Catholics" moral - she says that the current Habsburgs, i.e. MT & Co., were descendended from the Spanish line of the Habsburgs. While there was some intermarriage between the Spanish line and the Austrian line (that helped making the last Spanish Habsburg such a genetic wonder) after the two lines separated post Charles V., this is really a stretch, because the Spanish line notoriously ended in said genetic dead end, who had no surviving children. But okay, that's nitpicking, and of course I agree with Fritz wanting people to associate current day Habsburg MT with the evil Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella (neither of them Habsburgs, btw; their daughter Juana married Philip le Bel who was a Habsburg, resulting in the Emperor Charles V. who was the first Habsburg to rule in Spain). Also, with all the emphasis on Fritz making Berlin cutting edge pre 1756 in musical terms, there's not a single mention of Gluck, aka the composer who revolutionized the way opera was composed, and who wasn't in Berlin but, dare I say it, Vienna. (And later France when Marie Antoinette was Queen and asked for her old teacher.) I just kept coming up against tiny stuff like this, and I wish she'd have had a better beta.
HOWEVER. One of her old sources is the Ledebur dictionary of Berlin musical artists which Mildred has uploaded now in the library. It's from 1861, and at fault for the "Fritz gave Fredersdorf Zernikow in 1734" whopper, but then information about Fredersdorf wasn't that easy to get in the 1860s. Otoh, Amalie is far better documented, and I do want share with you two excerpts from the Amalie entry, one about her musical abilities and one featuring her withering sharp tongue.
Ledebur quotes Gerber, an earlier author:
She studied counter point with her court composer, the famous Kirnberger, and advanced in this art so far that she deserves to be counted among the masters of this art, which is supported by the surviving examples of her composing. In order to prove this, I have only to remind people that it was her who could rival the great Graun's claim for the laurel of having set Ramler's "Death of Jesus" to music. How much she has achieved with this work, in which masculine style she has worked, how far she was able to use every secret of the double counter point and the fugue, the choir of this cantata proves which Kirnberger has provided us with in his "Kunst des reinen Satzes". A passage from her violin trio printed in the same place proves both her deep insight in the teaching of counter point and the Instrumentalsatz.
However, while being way more into all Bachs than her brother, Amalie in general shared Fritz' musical preferences and wasn't shy making this known when one of her younger contemporary composers talked to her. The dictionary lists the example of J.A.P. Schulz (of whom I admit I haven't heard before), who seems to have been Rheinsberg based (working for Heinrich?) - Amalie's letter, which the dictionary entry quotes, is addressed to "Kapellmeister Schulz zu Rheinsberg", and dated Berlin, January 31st 1785. Schulz had asked permission to dedicate his "Choirs to Athalia" to her. Now, asking permission for a dedication was the rule, because by accepting the dedication, the influential person in question publicly supported the work dedicated to them, and also by implication the artist. Amalie was according to the dictionary (in)famous for turning down most people wanting to dedicate stuff to her and only accepting those she really liked. And she didn't just say no. She wrote this:
I imagine, Herr Schulz! you to have sent by accident your child's dribbling of notes on paper instead of your own work, for I couldn't discover the slightest scientific art in it, but instead found from beginning to end nothing but mistakes in expression, content and reason of the language and in rhythm. To say nothing of the modus contrarius; no harmony, no singing, the Third completely left out, no sound set out, one has to guess from which it's supposed to develop, no canon imitations, not the slightest counter point, nothing but quints and octaves, and that's supposed to be called music? May God open the eyes of those possessing such a vivid self flattering imagination, enlighten their minds and teach them to recognize that they're nothing but charlatans.
Well, I'm glad it gave you the Zelter info you were looking for and is a relatively good resource for matters music, even if the scholarship is lacking in some respects.
So if we need to look up a musician Fritz employed until 1756, this is good book to look it up, though personally I would go to the book I used from the Münchner Stadtbibliothek last year
But this one is in our Frederician library, so more convenient in some respects. :) Which was the one you're referring to? If I ever manage to recoup my savings, I might expand our library's restricted section.
omg although the scholarship may be not the best this is full of things that are Relevant To My Interests :D
(For example: Zelter growing up in Frederician Berlin imprinted his musical taste and his love for all things Bach, which in turn led to his student Felix Mendelssohn loving Bach, which in turn led to Mendelssohn spearheading the great Bach revival of the 19th century.)
I knew about Mendelssohn and Bach of course, but I never knew where Mehndelssohn got his love of Bach from. That's really cool!
she says that the current Habsburgs, i.e. MT & Co., were descendended from the Spanish line of the Habsburgs. While there was some intermarriage between the Spanish line and the Austrian line (that helped making the last Spanish Habsburg such a genetic wonder) after the two lines separated post Charles V., this is really a stretch, because the Spanish line notoriously ended in said genetic dead end, who had no surviving children. But okay, that's nitpicking
Yes, but I'm always very happy when you nitpick, because of course I don't know the difference :P
there's not a single mention of Gluck
WHAT yeah, like, I can forgive her all her history snafus, but NO GLUCK? :P
but, dare I say it, Vienna
LOL!
A passage from her violin trio printed in the same place proves both her deep insight in the teaching of counter point and the Instrumentalsatz.
Huh, I found this flute trio and I don't think I'd mistake it for Bach but I like it a lot. I wasn't as impressed with some of the other samples I found, but I suspect some of that is that it's all done by the wrong instruments -- I wish there were any recordings of her cantatas actually done with voice, but I suppose that's a lot harder to get together than for instrumentalists.
(There is also a recording on YouTube of Anna Amalia "of Brunswick" whom the poster says he thinks was Amalie of Prussia, for the very reason that it sounds Bachian. It sounds in general pretty impressive to me (I was never trained explicitly in counterpoint, but I know what sounds good :) ) which makes me think it must be our Amalie.)
I imagine, Herr Schulz! you to have sent by accident your child's dribbling of notes on paper instead of your own work
LOL FOREVER. This whole thing was, wow. AMALIE. MY OTHER PROBLEMATIC FAVE. :D
this is full of things that are Relevant To My Interests
It's written for you. :)
Anna Amalie of Brunswick: more commonly known as the Duchess of Weimar, Carl August's mother. As Charlotte's daughter, she was born a Brunswick. Having just read a biography of hers, she was a composer as well, like aunt she was named after. Her German wiki entry lists the following compositions as hers: Sinfonia a due Oboi, due Flauti, due Violini, Viola e Basso di Amalija. 1765. Oratorium (dreiteilig) (1768) (??) Vertonung von Goethes Singspiel Erwin und Elmire (1776), gedruckt Leipzig 1921. Vertonung von Goethes Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilern: Ein Schönbartspiel. Zusammen mit Carl Friedrich Sigismund von Seckendorff (1778) Sonatina per il Cembalo obligato, Corno Primo, Corno Secondo, Oboe Primo, Oboe Secondo, Flauto Primo, Flauto Secondo, Viola e Basso, di Amalia. [~ 1780 nach Christine Fornoff] Divertimento B-Dur per il Pianoforte, Clarinetto, Viola und Violoncello. [Ms ~ 1790 nach Christine Fornoff]. Verlag Amadeus, 1992. Authorship not certain: Partita [Sinfonia D-Dur für Bläser und Streicher]. Sächsische Landesbibliothek.
She also wrote some theoretical essays on music. So it could have been either of them. However, also possible: because Anna Amalia the Duchess in the 19th century after her death became a symbol of the peak of German culture (i.e. when Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, Herder, et all were all in the same tiny duchy, a development she'd started by hiring Wieland for Carl August and later participated in), and since one of the earliest princely libraries opened to the public (in Weimar, with over 5000 books from her personal collection) was named after her, while Amalie of Prussia became an obscure figure of Frederician history, it's just as possible a work of Amalie's got ascribed to her niece because collectors would have valued a work from the niece higher than one of the aunt.
Oh! OK, I see. Heh, here's an Anna Amalie of Brunswick -- yeah, you can tell this was written a generation later by someone who had heard Gluck and Haydn, presumably even Mozart by 1776. I'm going to say that I strongly believe the recording from my previous comment was Amalie of Prussia :P
Definitely a generation later, though Gluck and Haydn yes, but not Mozart. I had to look up some stuff about Paris in 1778, which is when young Mozart is there being profoundly miserable (his mother dies, and he doesn't have success in Paris, very much as opposed to 1763 when he and Nannerl were the much loved, petted and admired miracle children during the Mozart Europe tour). So in 1776, he's being miserable in Salzburg with Archbishop Colloredo. The wonderboy years are over, and success as an adult has not happened yet. I mean, naturally he did not stop composing during those years, but other than his family and the Archbishop of Salzburg, people would not have known the results.
Like I said, if I hadn't read this very week about it I might be uncertain about the dates, though there it is, as Shaffer has Joseph constantly say.
Incidentally, on a note of "it's a small world": When Leopold and his family were in Paris in 1763, one of their biggest admirers and supporters was Melchior (von) Grimm, whom we've come across repeatedly in other contexts, about which more in a moment. So when Mozart in 1778 went to Paris, of course Dad Leopold told him to visit Grimm and asked Grimm to help him. Alas, even before Mom Mozart died, Grimm this time around could not produce the same results, and what's more, he and adult Wolfgang Amadé irritated each other profoundly. (Grimm wrote to Leopold he wished Wolfgang had half the talent and twice the common sense and manners instead.) After his mother's death, Grimm nonetheless offered his place for Mozart to live in, and that's fascinating for music history because at the same time, Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-George (foremost fencer of Europe, very successful composer a decade older than Mozart - and the son of a French planter and a slave, like Dumas' Dad) lived there. But in the end, it was no good, and Mozart left, never to see Paris again (nor wanting to).
So, Grimm: will only a few years after Mozart host Heinrich and be his go to guide in Paris, much more succesfully. This is because Grimm since decades has been publishing the Correspondance Litteraire, the world's most exclusive journal, twice a month, with a circulation of only 16 to 25 people, none of them French, most of them German nobles yearning to read about what was going on in Paris culturally. Their copy of the journal was delivered by mail, and they had to promise not to have it copied or reprinted anywhere. (Subscribers included the Divine Trio - in fact, AW, Heinrich and Ferdinand were the very first subscribers, though for money saving purposes they shared a subscription among themselves, Brother Fritz not ready to provide cash for three separate copies in 1753, Catherine in Russia (which is why Grimm later became her cultural agent in Paris once she was Czarina), Stanislaw Poniatowski, Heinrich's mother-in-law in Hesse-Darmstadt (who shared her copies with Fritz for three years in the vain hope of making him spring a subscription himself), Ulrike in Sweden (and later son Gustav), Anna Amalia and son Carl August later.)
Melchior Grimm was one of the all time German-goes-to-Paris success stories. He'd started out as a clergyman's son in Regensburg, then studied in Leipzig which is why he was actually the guy to hold the laudatory speech on Manteuffel's 50 years immatriculation anniversary, and then went with a noble patron to Paris where he remained. His day jobs included being private secretary to the Duc d'Orleans (the father of Philipé Egalité, aka the one who'd vote for Cousin Louis' beheading in the National Assembly), he befriended Diderot and Roussau (until they broke up, which is why Rousseau trashes him in his memoirs), and his life long companion Louise d'Epinay was one of the most succesful salon hostesses (and a writer herself) in Paris at the time. When Grimm himself was travelling and thus not in Paris to report on culturale events, she and Diderot were writing the articles for the journal. The article on the Mozarts which is quoted in most biographies is dated December 1st 1763 and is Grimm's eyewitness account of listening to Nannerl (eleven) and Wolfgang (six) perform.
One more thing: Fritz: refuses to meet Grimm in 1766. Finally meets him in 1769, starts a correspondence with him which lasts till his (Fritz') death. Fritz: never subscribes to the Correspondence Litteraire, presumably thinking he gets his letters from Grimm for free anyway.
Ah, okay! At first I was like "maybe not Mozart?" but then I went and looked at his list of compositions and there were a bunch of good ones :) But, I see, that makes sense.
(Grimm wrote to Leopold he wished Wolfgang had half the talent and twice the common sense and manners instead.)
Heh. I can totally see that.
So, Grimm: will only a few years after Mozart host Heinrich and be his go to guide in Paris, much more succesfully.
Lol, I bet Heinrich had way better manners than Wolfgang! Regardless of what Fritz might think :P
(Subscribers included the Divine Trio - in fact, AW, Heinrich and Ferdinand were the very first subscribers, though for money saving purposes they shared a subscription among themselves, Brother Fritz not ready to provide cash for three separate copies in 1753, Catherine in Russia (which is why Grimm later became her cultural agent in Paris once she was Czarina), Stanislaw Poniatowski, Heinrich's mother-in-law in Hesse-Darmstadt (who shared her copies with Fritz for three years in the vain hope of making him spring a subscription himself), Ulrike in Sweden (and later son Gustav), Anna Amalia and son Carl August later.)
Wooooow, this is like a who's who of people in our fandom! (As long as they weren't French -- and I also don't see any Austrians on that list?)
Fritz: never subscribes to the Correspondence Litteraire, presumably thinking he gets his letters from Grimm for free anyway.
Lol, I bet Heinrich had way better manners than Wolfgang! Regardless of what Fritz might think :P
Well, quite, though to be fair, Heinrich was blissfully happy and fulfilling a life long dream, while Wolfgang didn't want to be there to begin with and had a miserable time even before his mother died. He'd met Aloysia Weber in Mannheim, fallen in love, and wanted to tour Italy with her, establishing her as a prima donna and himself as a composer. Leopold somewhat understandably thought this idea was nuts. His arguments: Italy, which had hundreds of home grown, well trained singers, and lots and lots of composers! They were hardly waiting for a German newbie like Aloysia to make her a primadonna. Paris, by contrast, had according to Leopold only two or so composers-plus-musicians who could be regarded as serious competition, people had fond memories of the boy wonder, and thus Paris was ideal for Wolfgang to make his name as an adult. Without Aloysia. Net result: Leopold insisted, Wolfgang went, Aloysia broke up with him and became a prima donna on her own, in Germany, though, not Italy, and no one in Paris was interested in him.
Oh, btw: back in the 1760s, the Mozarts did meet a Hohenzollern sibling - Amalie! They had avoided Prussian territory on their three years European tour (which overlapped with the last year of the 7 Years War), but Amalie was taking the waters in Aix-la-Chapelle, and since she was famous as a musical connosseur, Wolfgang and Nannerl played for her. She was delighted and made much of them, but you could tell Leopold was starting to get jaded about princes and princesses, because while at the start of the tour he'd reported triumphantly when Wolfgang kissed MT in Vienna and got kisses from her, he wrote when the same happened with Amalie "I wish all these kisses were Taler, given the bill at our inn". (Again, to be fair: MT had given presents as well after the concert - money (as much as Leopold made as concert master in Salzburg in three months) and wardrobe, one worn gala outfit from an arch duchess and arch duke for Nannerl and Wolfgang each - this btw wasn't the equivalent of a hand-me-down, it was a very valuable gift in its own right, because those gala outfits weren't every day cloths but pretty expensive.) Look, Leopold, MT is a de facto Empress; Amalie is an Abbess with an Abbey which had a lot of rebuilding to do after the war, and the sister of a super thrifty brother!
Wooooow, this is like a who's who of people in our fandom! (As long as they weren't French -- and I also don't see any Austrians on that list?)
Well spotted, I hadn't noticed. Mind you, for all I know there were Austrians there as well, they just weren't among the examples wiki provides.
Huh, this is interesting; I don't know as much about Mozart as I ought to, discounting early exposure to Amadeus which I know doesn't count :P (Though I do know more since reading snippets from you on your DW and in salon! <3 ) Leopold, heh, I do feel kind of sorry for him, always having to talk Wolfgang out of terrible ideas like Italy and feeding his baby sugar water instead of milk (WTF Wolfgang??)
Ooh, well, at least I'm glad Amalie met them? :) "I wish all these kisses were Taler, given the bill at our inn" Aw, Leopold, I can see where he's coming from :)
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timeasmymeasure
Music and Hohenzollerns
Date: 2021-03-22 08:07 am (UTC)So if we need to look up a musician Fritz employed until 1756, this is good book to look it up, though personally I would go to the book I used from the Münchner Stadtbibliothek last year, because that one has original research (read: Newspapers!) whereas Exner relies on a number of older sources or anthologies and keeps making tiny avoidable mistakes. We've covered the Fredersdorf stuff; later, there was this gem, when she talks about Fritz' libretto for Montezuma and the obvious "here's what happens if you don't fight in time against the evil Catholics" moral - she says that the current Habsburgs, i.e. MT & Co., were descendended from the Spanish line of the Habsburgs. While there was some intermarriage between the Spanish line and the Austrian line (that helped making the last Spanish Habsburg such a genetic wonder) after the two lines separated post Charles V., this is really a stretch, because the Spanish line notoriously ended in said genetic dead end, who had no surviving children. But okay, that's nitpicking, and of course I agree with Fritz wanting people to associate current day Habsburg MT with the evil Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella (neither of them Habsburgs, btw; their daughter Juana married Philip le Bel who was a Habsburg, resulting in the Emperor Charles V. who was the first Habsburg to rule in Spain). Also, with all the emphasis on Fritz making Berlin cutting edge pre 1756 in musical terms, there's not a single mention of Gluck, aka the composer who revolutionized the way opera was composed, and who wasn't in Berlin but, dare I say it, Vienna. (And later France when Marie Antoinette was Queen and asked for her old teacher.) I just kept coming up against tiny stuff like this, and I wish she'd have had a better beta.
HOWEVER. One of her old sources is the Ledebur dictionary of Berlin musical artists which Mildred has uploaded now in the library. It's from 1861, and at fault for the "Fritz gave Fredersdorf Zernikow in 1734" whopper, but then information about Fredersdorf wasn't that easy to get in the 1860s. Otoh, Amalie is far better documented, and I do want share with you two excerpts from the Amalie entry, one about her musical abilities and one featuring her withering sharp tongue.
Ledebur quotes Gerber, an earlier author:
She studied counter point with her court composer, the famous Kirnberger, and advanced in this art so far that she deserves to be counted among the masters of this art, which is supported by the surviving examples of her composing. In order to prove this, I have only to remind people that it was her who could rival the great Graun's claim for the laurel of having set Ramler's "Death of Jesus" to music. How much she has achieved with this work, in which masculine style she has worked, how far she was able to use every secret of the double counter point and the fugue, the choir of this cantata proves which Kirnberger has provided us with in his "Kunst des reinen Satzes". A passage from her violin trio printed in the same place proves both her deep insight in the teaching of counter point and the Instrumentalsatz.
However, while being way more into all Bachs than her brother, Amalie in general shared Fritz' musical preferences and wasn't shy making this known when one of her younger contemporary composers talked to her. The dictionary lists the example of J.A.P. Schulz (of whom I admit I haven't heard before), who seems to have been Rheinsberg based (working for Heinrich?) - Amalie's letter, which the dictionary entry quotes, is addressed to "Kapellmeister Schulz zu Rheinsberg", and dated Berlin, January 31st 1785. Schulz had asked permission to dedicate his "Choirs to Athalia" to her. Now, asking permission for a dedication was the rule, because by accepting the dedication, the influential person in question publicly supported the work dedicated to them, and also by implication the artist. Amalie was according to the dictionary (in)famous for turning down most people wanting to dedicate stuff to her and only accepting those she really liked. And she didn't just say no. She wrote this:
I imagine, Herr Schulz! you to have sent by accident your child's dribbling of notes on paper instead of your own work, for I couldn't discover the slightest scientific art in it, but instead found from beginning to end nothing but mistakes in expression, content and reason of the language and in rhythm. To say nothing of the modus contrarius; no harmony, no singing, the Third completely left out, no sound set out, one has to guess from which it's supposed to develop, no canon imitations, not the slightest counter point, nothing but quints and octaves, and that's supposed to be called music? May God open the eyes of those possessing such a vivid self flattering imagination, enlighten their minds and teach them to recognize that they're nothing but charlatans.
Yep, that's Fritz' sister, alright.
Re: Music and Hohenzollerns
Date: 2021-03-22 07:45 pm (UTC)So if we need to look up a musician Fritz employed until 1756, this is good book to look it up, though personally I would go to the book I used from the Münchner Stadtbibliothek last year
But this one is in our Frederician library, so more convenient in some respects. :) Which was the one you're referring to? If I ever manage to recoup my savings, I might expand our library's restricted section.
Re: Music and Hohenzollerns
Date: 2021-03-23 06:18 am (UTC)Re: Music and Hohenzollerns
Date: 2021-03-24 01:09 pm (UTC)Also, apparently I forgot to comment on Amalie snark? That was amaaaaazing and I loved it!
Re: Music and Hohenzollerns
Date: 2021-03-24 05:32 am (UTC)(For example: Zelter growing up in Frederician Berlin imprinted his musical taste and his love for all things Bach, which in turn led to his student Felix Mendelssohn loving Bach, which in turn led to Mendelssohn spearheading the great Bach revival of the 19th century.)
I knew about Mendelssohn and Bach of course, but I never knew where Mehndelssohn got his love of Bach from. That's really cool!
she says that the current Habsburgs, i.e. MT & Co., were descendended from the Spanish line of the Habsburgs. While there was some intermarriage between the Spanish line and the Austrian line (that helped making the last Spanish Habsburg such a genetic wonder) after the two lines separated post Charles V., this is really a stretch, because the Spanish line notoriously ended in said genetic dead end, who had no surviving children. But okay, that's nitpicking
Yes, but I'm always very happy when you nitpick, because of course I don't know the difference :P
there's not a single mention of Gluck
WHAT yeah, like, I can forgive her all her history snafus, but NO GLUCK? :P
but, dare I say it, Vienna
LOL!
A passage from her violin trio printed in the same place proves both her deep insight in the teaching of counter point and the Instrumentalsatz.
Huh, I found this flute trio and I don't think I'd mistake it for Bach but I like it a lot. I wasn't as impressed with some of the other samples I found, but I suspect some of that is that it's all done by the wrong instruments -- I wish there were any recordings of her cantatas actually done with voice, but I suppose that's a lot harder to get together than for instrumentalists.
(There is also a recording on YouTube of Anna Amalia "of Brunswick" whom the poster says he thinks was Amalie of Prussia, for the very reason that it sounds Bachian. It sounds in general pretty impressive to me (I was never trained explicitly in counterpoint, but I know what sounds good :) ) which makes me think it must be our Amalie.)
I imagine, Herr Schulz! you to have sent by accident your child's dribbling of notes on paper instead of your own work
LOL FOREVER. This whole thing was, wow. AMALIE. MY OTHER PROBLEMATIC FAVE. :D
Re: Music and Hohenzollerns
Date: 2021-03-24 12:50 pm (UTC)It's written for you. :)
Anna Amalie of Brunswick: more commonly known as the Duchess of Weimar, Carl August's mother. As Charlotte's daughter, she was born a Brunswick. Having just read a biography of hers, she was a composer as well, like aunt she was named after. Her German wiki entry lists the following compositions as hers:
Sinfonia a due Oboi, due Flauti, due Violini, Viola e Basso di Amalija. 1765.
Oratorium (dreiteilig) (1768) (??)
Vertonung von Goethes Singspiel Erwin und Elmire (1776), gedruckt Leipzig 1921.
Vertonung von Goethes Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilern: Ein Schönbartspiel. Zusammen mit Carl Friedrich Sigismund von Seckendorff (1778)
Sonatina per il Cembalo obligato, Corno Primo, Corno Secondo, Oboe Primo, Oboe Secondo, Flauto Primo, Flauto Secondo, Viola e Basso, di Amalia. [~ 1780 nach Christine Fornoff]
Divertimento B-Dur per il Pianoforte, Clarinetto, Viola und Violoncello. [Ms ~ 1790 nach Christine Fornoff]. Verlag Amadeus, 1992.
Authorship not certain: Partita [Sinfonia D-Dur für Bläser und Streicher]. Sächsische Landesbibliothek.
She also wrote some theoretical essays on music. So it could have been either of them. However, also possible: because Anna Amalia the Duchess in the 19th century after her death became a symbol of the peak of German culture (i.e. when Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, Herder, et all were all in the same tiny duchy, a development she'd started by hiring Wieland for Carl August and later participated in), and since one of the earliest princely libraries opened to the public (in Weimar, with over 5000 books from her personal collection) was named after her, while Amalie of Prussia became an obscure figure of Frederician history, it's just as possible a work of Amalie's got ascribed to her niece because collectors would have valued a work from the niece higher than one of the aunt.
Re: Music and Hohenzollerns
Date: 2021-03-26 05:46 am (UTC)Oh! OK, I see. Heh, here's an Anna Amalie of Brunswick -- yeah, you can tell this was written a generation later by someone who had heard Gluck and Haydn, presumably even Mozart by 1776. I'm going to say that I strongly believe the recording from my previous comment was Amalie of Prussia :P
Re: Music and Hohenzollerns
Date: 2021-03-26 08:26 am (UTC)Like I said, if I hadn't read this very week about it I might be uncertain about the dates, though there it is, as Shaffer has Joseph constantly say.
Incidentally, on a note of "it's a small world": When Leopold and his family were in Paris in 1763, one of their biggest admirers and supporters was Melchior (von) Grimm, whom we've come across repeatedly in other contexts, about which more in a moment. So when Mozart in 1778 went to Paris, of course Dad Leopold told him to visit Grimm and asked Grimm to help him. Alas, even before Mom Mozart died, Grimm this time around could not produce the same results, and what's more, he and adult Wolfgang Amadé irritated each other profoundly. (Grimm wrote to Leopold he wished Wolfgang had half the talent and twice the common sense and manners instead.) After his mother's death, Grimm nonetheless offered his place for Mozart to live in, and that's fascinating for music history because at the same time, Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-George (foremost fencer of Europe, very successful composer a decade older than Mozart - and the son of a French planter and a slave, like Dumas' Dad) lived there. But in the end, it was no good, and Mozart left, never to see Paris again (nor wanting to).
So, Grimm: will only a few years after Mozart host Heinrich and be his go to guide in Paris, much more succesfully. This is because Grimm since decades has been publishing the Correspondance Litteraire, the world's most exclusive journal, twice a month, with a circulation of only 16 to 25 people, none of them French, most of them German nobles yearning to read about what was going on in Paris culturally. Their copy of the journal was delivered by mail, and they had to promise not to have it copied or reprinted anywhere. (Subscribers included the Divine Trio - in fact, AW, Heinrich and Ferdinand were the very first subscribers, though for money saving purposes they shared a subscription among themselves, Brother Fritz not ready to provide cash for three separate copies in 1753, Catherine in Russia (which is why Grimm later became her cultural agent in Paris once she was Czarina), Stanislaw Poniatowski, Heinrich's mother-in-law in Hesse-Darmstadt (who shared her copies with Fritz for three years in the vain hope of making him spring a subscription himself), Ulrike in Sweden (and later son Gustav), Anna Amalia and son Carl August later.)
Melchior Grimm was one of the all time German-goes-to-Paris success stories. He'd started out as a clergyman's son in Regensburg, then studied in Leipzig which is why he was actually the guy to hold the laudatory speech on Manteuffel's 50 years immatriculation anniversary, and then went with a noble patron to Paris where he remained. His day jobs included being private secretary to the Duc d'Orleans (the father of Philipé Egalité, aka the one who'd vote for Cousin Louis' beheading in the National Assembly), he befriended Diderot and Roussau (until they broke up, which is why Rousseau trashes him in his memoirs), and his life long companion Louise d'Epinay was one of the most succesful salon hostesses (and a writer herself) in Paris at the time. When Grimm himself was travelling and thus not in Paris to report on culturale events, she and Diderot were writing the articles for the journal. The article on the Mozarts which is quoted in most biographies is dated December 1st 1763 and is Grimm's eyewitness account of listening to Nannerl (eleven) and Wolfgang (six) perform.
One more thing: Fritz: refuses to meet Grimm in 1766. Finally meets him in 1769, starts a correspondence with him which lasts till his (Fritz') death. Fritz: never subscribes to the Correspondence Litteraire, presumably thinking he gets his letters from Grimm for free anyway.
Re: Grimm
Date: 2021-04-07 05:17 am (UTC)(Grimm wrote to Leopold he wished Wolfgang had half the talent and twice the common sense and manners instead.)
Heh. I can totally see that.
So, Grimm: will only a few years after Mozart host Heinrich and be his go to guide in Paris, much more succesfully.
Lol, I bet Heinrich had way better manners than Wolfgang! Regardless of what Fritz might think :P
(Subscribers included the Divine Trio - in fact, AW, Heinrich and Ferdinand were the very first subscribers, though for money saving purposes they shared a subscription among themselves, Brother Fritz not ready to provide cash for three separate copies in 1753, Catherine in Russia (which is why Grimm later became her cultural agent in Paris once she was Czarina), Stanislaw Poniatowski, Heinrich's mother-in-law in Hesse-Darmstadt (who shared her copies with Fritz for three years in the vain hope of making him spring a subscription himself), Ulrike in Sweden (and later son Gustav), Anna Amalia and son Carl August later.)
Wooooow, this is like a who's who of people in our fandom! (As long as they weren't French -- and I also don't see any Austrians on that list?)
Fritz: never subscribes to the Correspondence Litteraire, presumably thinking he gets his letters from Grimm for free anyway.
LOL this is SO FRITZ.
Re: Grimm
Date: 2021-04-07 05:18 pm (UTC)Well, quite, though to be fair, Heinrich was blissfully happy and fulfilling a life long dream, while Wolfgang didn't want to be there to begin with and had a miserable time even before his mother died. He'd met Aloysia Weber in Mannheim, fallen in love, and wanted to tour Italy with her, establishing her as a prima donna and himself as a composer. Leopold somewhat understandably thought this idea was nuts. His arguments: Italy, which had hundreds of home grown, well trained singers, and lots and lots of composers! They were hardly waiting for a German newbie like Aloysia to make her a primadonna. Paris, by contrast, had according to Leopold only two or so composers-plus-musicians who could be regarded as serious competition, people had fond memories of the boy wonder, and thus Paris was ideal for Wolfgang to make his name as an adult. Without Aloysia. Net result: Leopold insisted, Wolfgang went, Aloysia broke up with him and became a prima donna on her own, in Germany, though, not Italy, and no one in Paris was interested in him.
Oh, btw: back in the 1760s, the Mozarts did meet a Hohenzollern sibling - Amalie! They had avoided Prussian territory on their three years European tour (which overlapped with the last year of the 7 Years War), but Amalie was taking the waters in Aix-la-Chapelle, and since she was famous as a musical connosseur, Wolfgang and Nannerl played for her. She was delighted and made much of them, but you could tell Leopold was starting to get jaded about princes and princesses, because while at the start of the tour he'd reported triumphantly when Wolfgang kissed MT in Vienna and got kisses from her, he wrote when the same happened with Amalie "I wish all these kisses were Taler, given the bill at our inn". (Again, to be fair: MT had given presents as well after the concert - money (as much as Leopold made as concert master in Salzburg in three months) and wardrobe, one worn gala outfit from an arch duchess and arch duke for Nannerl and Wolfgang each - this btw wasn't the equivalent of a hand-me-down, it was a very valuable gift in its own right, because those gala outfits weren't every day cloths but pretty expensive.) Look, Leopold, MT is a de facto Empress; Amalie is an Abbess with an Abbey which had a lot of rebuilding to do after the war, and the sister of a super thrifty brother!
Wooooow, this is like a who's who of people in our fandom! (As long as they weren't French -- and I also don't see any Austrians on that list?)
Well spotted, I hadn't noticed. Mind you, for all I know there were Austrians there as well, they just weren't among the examples wiki provides.
Mozarts
Date: 2021-04-10 05:34 am (UTC)Ooh, well, at least I'm glad Amalie met them? :) "I wish all these kisses were Taler, given the bill at our inn" Aw, Leopold, I can see where he's coming from :)