Benedictine abbey near Krems, Lower Austria. It was founded in 1083 by Bishop Altmann of Passau as a monastery for prebendaries. In 1094 it was taken over by Benedictines from St Blasien in the Black Forest, and rapidly became an important centre of religious and intellectual life. After a period of decline during the Reformation, Göttweig flourished in the Baroque era, particularly under the abbot Gottfried Bessel (1714–49), who, after a fire in 1718, instigated the rebuilding of the monastery in Baroque style. Despite the misfortunes which befell the monastery during the Enlightenment and the Napoleonic Wars, and the disruption caused by World War II, Göttweig remained an important religious and cultural centre. It has a long musical tradition; choral singing was fostered from the abbey’s foundation, and its choir school dates from the Middle Ages. By the 15th century an organist had been appointed, and polyphony was sung in the 16th century. An inventory of 1612 lists works by many important Dutch, German and Italian composers; in the mid-17th century the repertory became dominated by Venetian music. Johann Stadlmayr dedicated the second part of his Musica super cantum gregorianum (1626) to Georg Falb, abbot from 1612 to 1631. The latter was succeeded by David Gregor Corner (1631–48), who had compiled the comprehensive Gross Catholisch Gesangbuch (1625).
During the second half of the 17th century the abbey was influenced by the imperial court in Vienna; Leopold I stayed at Göttweig in 1677, and his court organists Poglietti and Kerll visited the abbey, teaching monks who subsequently took charge of music there. The earliest known composer in Göttweig is Johannes Baptista Gletle (1653–99), son of J.M. Gletle, who was Kapellmeister of the Augsburg Cathedral. The most outstanding of Göttweig’s composers was J.G. Zechner (1716–78), organist from 1736 to 1743, who, in addition to composing church music and instrumental works, was responsible for ceremonial music in honour of abbots Bessel and Odilo Piazol. Under his influence Göttweig became an important centre of the Classical style.
In addition to their religious duties, the monks gave concerts in the monastery, performing symphonies, divertimentos, oratorios and even operas. In the 1760s the symphonies of Joseph and Michael Haydn were played, and a pupil of the latter, Virgil Fleischmann (1783–1863), became rector chori. Fleischmann’s successor, Heinrich Wondratsch, compiled a thematic catalogue in 1830, containing the entire repertory performed since the early 18th century; this includes numerous symphonies and other works by Joseph Haydn.
In the 19th century, up to about 1880 when the scope of church music became restricted by the puritanical Cecilian movement, music played an important part in the church services. In addition, Beethoven’s symphonies were performed by the monks, and the playing of string quartets was especially cultivated. After World War II, Baroque and Classical music was again regularly performed at Göttweig, and interest in the musical tradition of the monastery revived.
Despite many wartime losses (including the autographs of four Haydn symphonies), Göttweig’s music archive is one of the most important collections in Austria. It consists largely of church and instrumental music of the 18th and 19th centuries, both in manuscript and in print, in addition to a part of the library of the Viennese collector Aloys Fuchs.
MGG2 (H.C.R. Landon)
P.A. Janitsch: Kurz abgefasste Geschichte des uralten Benedictiner-Stiftes Göttweig (Vienna, 1820)
P.R. Johandl: ‘Die Orgel in der Stiftskirche zu Göttweig’, ZI, xxxii (1911–12)
P.H. Siegl: Das Benediktinerstift Göttweig (Gottweig, 1914)
P.L. Koller: Die literarische Tätigkeit im Stift Göttweig 1603–1924 (St Pölten, 1925)
P.L. Koller: Abtei Göttweig (Göttweig, 1952)
F.W. Riedel: ‘Musikpflege im Benediktinerstift Göttweig (Niederösterreich) um 1600’, KJb, xlvi (1962), 83–97
F.W. Riedel: ‘Die Kirchenmusik im Benediktinerstift Göttweig’, Singende Kirche, xiii (1966), 196–202
F.W. Riedel: ‘Die Libretto-Sammlung im Benediktinerstift Göttweig’, FAM, xiii (1966), 105–11
F.W. Riedel, ed.: Der Göttweiger thematische Katalog von 1830 (Munich, 1979)
FRIEDRICH W. RIEDEL