Music at German Courts, 1715-1760 : Changing Artisitic Priorities

by Owens, Samantha; Reul, Barbara M.; Stockigt, Janice B.

• ISBN13: 9781843835981
• ISBN10: 1843835983
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-17
• Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc

Summary

What was musical life at German courts really like during the first six decades of the eighteenth century? Were musical ensembles as diverse as the Holy Roman Empire's kaleidoscopic political landscape? Through a series of individual case studies contributed by leading scholars from Germany, Poland, the United States, Canada and Australia, this book investigates the realities of musical life at fifteen German courts of varied size (ranging from kingdoms to principalities), religious denomination and geographical location. Significant shifts that occurred in the artistic priorities of each court are presented through a series of 'snapshots'- in effect 'core sample' years - which highlight both individual and shared patterns of development and decline. What emerges from the wealth of primary source material examined in this volume is an in-depth picture of music-making within the daily life of individual courts, featuring a cast of music directors, instrumentalists and vocalists, together with numerous support staff drawn from across Europe. Music at German Courts serves to illustrate the extraordinary diversity of eighteenth-century German court music establishments without losing sight of what these Kapellen had in common. SAMANTHA OWENS is Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. BARBARA M. REUL is Associate Professor of Musicology at Luther College, University of Regina, Canada. JANICE B. STOCKIGT is a Principal Fellow of the University of Melbourne, Australia. CONTRIBUTORS: DIETER KIRSCH, URSULA KRAMER, MICHAEL MAUL, MARY OLESKIEWICZ, RASHID-S PEGAH, BARBEL PELKER, WOLFGANG RUF, BERT SIEGMUND, MICHAEL TALBOT, RUDIGER THOMSEN-FURST, ALINA ZORAWSKA-WITKOWSKA, STEVEN ZOHN.

Author Biography

Samantha Owens is Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Barbara M. Reul is Associate Professor of Musicology at Luther College, University of Regina, Canada. Janice B. Stockigt is a Principal Fellow of the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. vii
Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Editorial Notes	p. xiii
Notes on Contributors	p. xv
List of Abbreviations	p. xviii
'Das gantze Corpus derer musicirenden Personen': An Introduction to German Hofkapellen	p. 1
Kingdoms and Electorates
The Court of Saxony-Dresden	p. 17
The Saxon Court of the Kingdom of Poland	p. 51
The Court of Brandenburg-Prussia	p. 79
The Palatine Court in Mannheim	p. 131
Duchies
The Court of Württemberg-Stuttgart	p. 165
The Court of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg	p. 197
The Courts of Saxony-Weißenfels, Saxony-Merseburg, and Saxony-Zeitz	p. 223
Principalities and Prince-Bishoprics
The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst	p. 259
The Court of Sondershausen	p. 287
The Court of Würzburg	p. 305
Landgraviates and Margraviates
The Court of Hesse-Darmstadt	p. 333
The Court of Baden-Durlach in Karlsruhe	p. 365
The Court of Brandenburg-Culmbach-Bayreuth	p. 389
'Die vornehmste Hof-Tugend': German Musicians' Reflections on Eighteenth-Century Court Life	p. 413
Index	p. 427
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.