Habsburg [Hapsburg].
Family
of rulers and patrons. They were the most powerful and long-lived ruling
dynasty in Europe and of major importance as patrons and practitioners of music
and the other arts. From the 13th century until the beginning of the 20th they
were responsible for much of the musical activity of important European
centres, chiefly Mechelen, Brussels, Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck and Madrid. The
imperial court chapel under successive rulers attracted some of the most
eminent composers, singers and instrumentalists of their day into Habsburg
service, and the corpus of music written for court functions includes vast
numbers of sacred works, operas, oratorios and chamber works.
1. Extent of Habsburg
influence.
2. 13th to 16th
centuries.
3. Music under the
Spanish Habsburgs.
4. Music under the
Austrian Habsburgs.
§1 based on MGG2 (v, 1199), by kind permission of Bärenreiter
RICHARD SCHAAL (1), MARTIN PICKER
(2), LUIS ROBLEDO (3), STEVEN SAUNDERS,
BRUCE ALAN BROWN (4)
Habsburg
1. Extent of Habsburg influence.
The
Habsburg family, named after their ancestral seat in Switzerland, may be traced
back to 950. Except for a brief period in the 18th century, Habsburgs occupied
the throne of Germany continuously from 1273 until 1806. From 1273 they enjoyed
the title King of the Romans, and in 1274 Rudolf of Habsburg was recognized as
Holy Roman Emperor (although he was never crowned). One branch of the family
established Habsburg domination of Austrian territories, while Maximilian I, by
means of skilfully arranged dynastic marriages, passed on to his grandson,
Charles V, an empire that included the Netherlands, Spain, Naples, Sicily and
the American colonies. In 1521 the house was divided into Spanish and Austrian
lines; the former died out with Charles II (1665–1700) and the latter, in the
male line, with Charles VI (1711–40), after whom Maria Theresa, founder of the
house of Habsburg-Lorraine, acceded to the throne. The last Habsburg emperor,
Karl I, abdicated in 1918 when Austria became a republic.
Habsburg
2. 13th to 16th centuries.
The
Habsburgs’ close connections with music seem to have begun in the reign of
Rudolf I (1273–91) who welcomed many travelling singers to his court, among
them Frauenlob (Heinrich von Meissen) and Stolle; thereafter the Minnesinger
were prominent in the musical establishments of successive Habsburg kings. Duke
Rudolf IV (1358–65), whose retinue for a time included Heinrich von Mügeln, is
credited with the founding of a university at Vienna (1365) and with
establishing the forerunner of the later Hofkapelle. Under Frederick III
(1440–93, emperor from 1452) the court Kantorei included musicians of German,
Flemish and Burgundian origin, among them, probably as a pupil, the young Paul
Hofhaimer. The Trent manuscripts were compiled primarily for the use of
Frederick’s chapel at the instigation of Johannes Hinderbach, imperial
secretary, later Bishop of Trent.
The
first Habsburg ruler of outstanding importance as a patron of music was
Maximilian I, King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor-elect from
1493 until his death in 1519. In spite of a sketchy education and provincial
upbringing, Maximilian was a devoted patron of the arts and learning. His
marriages to Mary of Burgundy (1477) and Bianca Maria Sforza (1493) brought him
into contact with Renaissance centres in the Netherlands and Italy, on which he
modelled his own court at Vienna.
As
consort of Mary of Burgundy and regent for their son Philip I ‘the Fair’
(1478–1506) until he came of age in 1494, Maximilian maintained the Burgundian
court chapel, whose members included Antoine Busnoys and Pierre de La Rue.
After the retirement of the Archduke Sigismund of the Tyrol in 1490, Maximilian
assumed control of his territories and made Innsbruck his residence. Hofhaimer,
court organist to Sigismund, entered Maximilian’s service and was knighted in
1515. In 1492, during a journey to Italy, Maximilian engaged Henricus Isaac for
his chapel, naming him Hofkomponist in 1497. Isaac spent only brief periods at
Vienna and other imperial cities, but he maintained an association with the
court until his death in 1517. Ludwig Senfl and Adam Rener entered the Vienna
Hofkapelle as choirboys in 1496 and 1498 respectively, and may have been
instructed by Isaac. Senfl succeeded Isaac as court composer.
In
1498 the Hofkapelle was reorganized under the direction of Georg Slatkonia, who
became Bishop of Vienna in 1513. Among the musicians associated with the
Kapelle in later years were Heinrich Finck and Balthasar Resinarius. In 1520,
after Maximilian’s death, it was dissolved by order of the new emperor, Charles
V. Music was composed for Maximilian’s Kapelle by both resident and visiting
musicians. In 1504, during a stay at Innsbruck, Obrecht composed a Regina
coeli for the Kapelle. In 1508, at a meeting of the Reichstag in Konstanz,
Isaac received a commission for a cycle of Mass Propers called, in a posthumous
edition by Senfl, Choralis constantinus; the published version included
music written for the imperial Kapelle as well as for Konstanz Cathedral.
Maximilian was a generous and enthusiastic patron of music. The
Swiss humanist and music theorist Heinrich Glarean was crowned poet laureate in
1512 after praising the emperor in song. An engraving by Hans Burgkmair in
Maximilian’s autobiographical Weisskunig shows him surrounded by
musicians and instruments (fig.1). In Burgkmair’s celebrated woodcuts Triumphzug
Maximilians (fig. 2), designed between 1512 and 1519
according to Maximilian’s explicit instructions, the full complement of court
musicians is displayed: fife players, trumpeters, drummers, lutenists, viol
players, a wind band of shawms, trombones and crumhorns, the organist
Hofhaimer, a mixed consort of chamber musicians, and the Hofkapelle of 20 singers
with trombone and cornett players led by Slatkonia with Isaac at his side.
Maximilian was praised in ceremonial motets by Isaac, Senfl and Benedictus de
Opitiis; his death was mourned in a motet arranged by Senfl from Costanzo
Festa’s Quis dabit oculis, and in an anonymous motet Proch dolor
attributed by some to Josquin.
After coming of age, Maximilian’s son Philip the Fair, King of
Spain, continued to promote the musical interests of the family in the
Netherlands. He enlarged the chapel, whose more eminent members included
Alexander Agricola and Pierre de La Rue. After his marriage to Juana of Castile
(1496) the chapel accompanied him on two important visits to Spain in 1501 and
1505. Philip’s early death in 1506 compelled his sister Margaret of Austria to
become regent of the Netherlands for her nephew, later Emperor Charles V, who
was under age. Margaret, the daughter of Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, was
born at Brussels in 1480. She was betrothed to Charles VIII of France while
still a child, and lived at the French court between 1483 and 1491. After her
return to the Netherlands she married Prince Juan of Spain (1497), and, after
his death, Duke Filiberto II of Savoy (1501). Filiberto died in 1504 and she
became regent of the Netherlands in 1506, a position she held, except between
1515 and 1518, until her death in 1530.
Margaret chose Mechelen as her capital and there re-established
the dispersed court of Burgundy, reviving it as a literary, artistic and
musical centre. Her intensive and varied education included music; in 1495
Govard Nepotis, the court organist to her brother Philip the Fair, instructed
her in a number of musical instruments, and her court poet, Jean Lemaire, wrote
of her skill in vocal and instrumental music, and especially of her talents as
a keyboard player. She wrote poetry, some of which was set to music by court
composers. The court chapel in Savoy, where she resided from 1501 to 1505,
included the composers Antoine Brumel, Antoine de Longueval and Pierrequin de
Thérache among its members. During Margaret’s regency of the Netherlands,
Marbrianus de Orto was director of the court chapel, Henry Bredemers was the
organist and Pierre de La Rue was employed as a singer and composer. In her
later years she formed a private chapel of which Florens Nepotis was the
organist.
Margaret’s library at Mechelen contained many music books
including one manuscript of basses danses and two of chansons (all in B-Br).
One book of chansons (B-Br 228) contains her portrait and many pieces
that reflect her tastes, principally by Pierre de La Rue and Josquin. Her
lament for her brother Philip, Se je souspire/Ecce iterum, appears in
this chansonnier; its music has been attributed to La Rue but may possibly be
by her. A choirbook is extant (now in B-MEa), which may have been used
in her chapel. Another (now in I-Rvat C.S.) may have been a gift from
Margaret to Pope Leo X; it contains masses by La Rue, including the Missa ‘O
gloriosa domina’ which is decorated with her coat-of-arms.
Margaret’s successor as regent of the Netherlands was Mary of
Hungary (1531–55), sister of Charles V, together with whom, as a child, she
received a detailed musical education under Margaret’s guidance at the court at
Mechelen. During her regency Mary lived mainly at Brussels, where the court
chapel was directed by Benedictus Appenzeller; she also maintained Margaret’s
private chapel.
Habsburg
3. Music under the Spanish Habsburgs.
The first Spanish king of the Habsburg dynasty was Philip the
Fair, eldest son of Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy. It was he who
introduced into Spain Burgundian ceremonial, a formality of style and an
organization of the palace inherited from the ancient dukes of Burgundy. When
Philip and his wife Juana of Castile arrived in Spain in 1506 from Flanders,
they already, as monarchs of Castile, had in their grande chapelle
(their establishment for sung Mass) musicians of such standing as Marbrianus de
Orto, Alexander Agricola, Pierre de La Rue and the organist Henry Bredemers
(music tutor of the future Charles V and his sisters). After Philip's sudden
death in September 1506, this grande chapelle remained in Spain in the
service of Juana until 1508, when it returned to Brussels and was placed at the
disposal of the future emperor.
Charles V identified himself closely with the house of Burgundy
left him by his father Philip the Fair. In 1515, when he attained his majority,
he had in his grande chapelle Orto, La Rue and Bredemers. When, in 1517,
he succeeded to the throne of Spain he was in possession of two royal houses,
those of Burgundy and of Castile, the latter inherited from his mother and his
grandmother Isabel the Catholic. The most important musical possessions
remained in the house of Burgundy: the Flemish choir and the vihuela de arco
players. However, throughout his reign he also employed ministriles altos
(players of wind instruments) from the house of Castile. In 1519 Charles became
Holy Roman Emperor. It is known for certain that he had as maestros de
capilla Adrien Pickart, Thomas Crecquillon, Cornelius Canis and Nicolas
Payen. Nicolas Gombert held the post of master of the choristers. When the
choristers' voices broke, their studies were paid for for a period of three
years, after which they joined the capilla as singers if they still had
good voices. In 1526 the emperor married Isabel of Portugal. The empress had
her own household in Spain, organized in the Spanish manner, with her own maestro,
singers and the organist Antonio de Cabezón. Charles was a cultivated music
lover (in the tablature for vihuela de mano that Luys de Narváez made of
Josquin's Mille regretz, this song is identified as ‘the emperor's
song’). When he abdicated in 1555–6 in favour of his son Philip (for Spain,
America and Flanders) and of his brother Ferdinand (for the Empire), he retired
to the Hieronymite monastery of Yuste and there organized a capilla made
up of monks summoned from various Spanish monasteries, with Juan de Villamayor
in charge.
Philip II is a key figure for an understanding of the way in which
music functioned and evolved at the Spanish court. When Isabel of Portugal
died, in 1539, Charles V ordered that part of her staff be placed at the
service of Prince Philip and part at that of the infantas Maria and Juana.
Cabezón would serve the former for half of the year and the latter for the
other half. In 1543, when Philip became regent of Spain, his household was
enlarged. Cabezón remained at his service exclusively, and the maestro de
capilla was García de Basurto. In 1548, when Philip's journey to Flanders
and Germany was being prepared, Charles ordered that the prince's household
should follow the model of Burgundy. From that moment Philip had at his
disposal two households parallel to those of the emperor – that of Castile (in
which the main part of his capilla was to be found, with Pedro de
Pastrana as maestro, Cabezón as organist, choristers and a master for
them, Luys de Narváez) and that of Burgundy. However, in 1554, when Philip
became royal consort of England through his marriage to Mary Tudor, most of the
capilla transferred to the Burgundian household. During Philip's stay in
England, Cabezón (who remained with the Castilian household) seems to have
performed the duties of maestro de capilla. Finally, when, in 1556,
Philip became King of Spain, the two households of Burgundy (that of the
emperor and that of Philip) were amalgamated, as also were those of Castile,
and all the musicians were at the service of Philip II. From that moment most
of the musical resources remained with the Burgundian household, as was the
case with the so-called Flemish choir (i.e. the Flemish singers who had come
from the emperor's Burgundian household), and with the so-called Spanish choir
(i.e. the Spanish singers who had come from Prince Philip's Burgundian
household), although in the Castilian household there remained musicians as
prestigious as Cabezón. Philip II held Cabezón in high regard and favoured him
above all other musicians in his service, paying him one of the highest
salaries of the Spanish royal household. Philip II's maestros de capilla
were Nicolas Payen, Pierre de Manchicourt, Jean de Bonmarché, Geert van
Turnhout, George de La Hèle and Philippe Rogier.
Philip II's musical patronage was above all institutional in
character. From 1561, when he definitively established the court in Madrid, he
laid down the basis upon which the royal chapel would function, and this was
followed for a long time after his death. He established new rules for it and
in 1595 founded the Colegio de Ninõs Cantores (choir school). In the
palace-monastery of El Escorial his most outstanding achievements were the
compiling of 214 books of plainchant for the use of the monks, and the
construction of seven organs built by the Flemish maker Gillis Brebos and his
sons. The repertory performed in Philip II's chapel included compositions of
the Franco-Flemish, Spanish, Roman and Venetian schools, including works by
Palestrina and Andrea Gabrieli. Polychoral singing was a normal feature, as was
the use of basso seguente in Franco-Flemish and Spanish works. Mention
should also be made of the permanent presence of violinists (mainly Italians)
in the queen's household from 1560.
Philip III (1598–1621) was a keen music lover. He was an
accomplished dancer, played the guitar and had the Venetian Mateo Troilo as his
viol teacher. The harpsichord, lute, harp, clavi-arpa, viol and instruments of
the violin family were introduced into the royal chapel from the beginning of
his reign, and the number of wind players was increased. Furthermore, the
chapel became hispanicized, since many of its original members returned to
Flanders. The royal maestro de capilla for the whole of his reign was
Mateo Romero; as his deputies Romero had Géry de Ghersem, Jean Dufon, Gabriel
Díaz Bessón and Juan Bautista Comes. The guitar was usually used to accompany
villancicos at Christmas and Epiphany (when the choristers took part), and this
was played by Romero himself.
Philip III employed as chamber and chapel musician the Bolognese
theorbo and viol player Filippo Piccinini, for whom he had a special affection
and with whom he himself played the viol. Another important initiative was the
creation of a permanent group of chamber musicians, singers and
instrumentalists (among them the composer Juan Blas de Castro), with the result
that secular music began to be played much more at court. Philip III's
favourite, the powerful Duke of Lerma, was important for musical patronage at
court. It was he who brought from Milan a group of violinists under the
direction of the composer Stefano Limido; their main function was to provide
music for dancing, of which the king was fond.
Philip IV (1621–65) surpassed his father in his knowledge of
music. His music teacher was Romero, and Piccinini taught him the viol; he also
composed, but none of his works survives. In general, the royal chapel followed
the lines laid down in the previous reign except that the viols were eventually
displaced by instruments of the violin family. However, the viol had an
exceptional player in the Englishman Henry Butler, who also played in the
chamber music. The principal harp and clavi-arpa player was the composer Juan
Hidalgo. Musical activity in the chapel was enriched from 1639, when the Holy
Sacrament was moved there, and the monthly service of the Cuarenta horas was
instituted. In the course of this service villancicos and tonos were
sung in the vernacular, and instrumental compositions were performed in which
instruments of the violin family played a prominent part. Many of the tonos
were composed by Juan Hidalgo. Philip IV's maestros de capilla were
Romero and Carlos Patiño.
Philip IV preferred secular to sacred music, and chamber music
therefore received considerable impetus during his reign. As well as the king,
the queen, the infante Fernando and infanta Maria also employed chamber
musicians. However, perhaps the most important effects of Philip IV's musical
patronage were felt in theatre music: operas, semi-operas and zarzuelas. The
initiative taken by the king's favourites, the Count-Duke of Olivares and later
Luis de Haro, was in this respect crucial. They organized elaborate
performances to please the king and to give an air of sumptuousness to the
court. Performances took place either in the salón de comedias of the
royal palace or at the Coliseo of the new palace of Buen Retiro. It was thus
through the court that the new style of Italian recitative was introduced into
Spain. The genres most cultivated were those in which speech and singing
alternated (ie. the semi-opera and the zarzuela); Juan Hidalgo, who followed
the lines laid down by the dramatist Calderón de la Barca, was the outstanding
composer.
Although Charles II (1665–1700) had no particular fondness for
music, he took harpsichord lessons from Juan del Vado, organist of the royal
chapel. However, his reign is of enormous importance because of the process of
revival in the music at court. The driving force behind this was Juan José of
Austria, Philip IV's illegitimate son, a passionate music lover and viol
player, who was first minister from 1677 to 1679. During those years
violinists, singers and a trumpeter were recruited for the royal chapel from
different parts of Italy. From among the best a maestro de violines was
chosen whose task it was to compose a specifically instrumental repertory using
a string style different from that previously employed. Several references
during the last decade of the century to ‘Italian music’, to tonatas for
violins and to groupings typical of trio sonatas show that the royal chapel was
moving in a new direction. Carlos Patiño, Cristóbal Galán and Diego Verdugo
were the maestros during Charles II's reign. Other outstanding musicians
were the guitarist Francisco Guerau, the organist Joseph de Torres, the viol
player Antonio Literes, and above all the organist Sebastián Durón. In 1675
Juan de Andueza built a new organ for the chapel, which brought together all
the characteristics of the Iberian Baroque organ. In 1698 Charles II ordered a
reform which would have reorganized the personnel and financing of the royal
chapel. Although this reform did not take place, it laid down the basis for
that carried out by the administration of the new dynasty, the house of
Bourbon, in 1701. Music for theatrical performances continued to be encouraged
at court, the favourite composer being Sebastián Durón, a key figure in the
modernization of Spanish musical style (based on Italian models) during the
final years of the 17th century and the early years of the 18th. The
encouragement given to music by Charles's second wife, Queen Mariana of
Neuburg, was also important.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
StevensonSCM
Vander StraetenMPB
H. Anglés: La musica en
la corte de Carlos V, MME, ii (1944/R)
P. Becquart: Musiciens
néerlandais à la cour de Madrid: Philippe Rogier et son école (1560–1647) (Brussels, 1967)
L. Robledo: ‘Vihuelas de arco y violones en la corte de Felipe III’, España en la música de occidente:
Salamanca 1985, ii, 63–76
E. Casares, ed.: Francisco
Asenjo Barbieri: Biografías y documentos sobre música y músicos españoles, Legado Barbieri, i (Madrid, 1986); Documentos sobre música española y
epistolario, Legado Barbieri, ii (Madrid, 1988)
L. Robledo: ‘La música en la corte madrileña de los Austrias. Antecedentes: las
casas reales hasta 1556’, RdMc, x (1987), 753–96
L. Robledo: Juan Blas de
Castro (ca. 1561–1631): vida y obra musical (Zaragoza, 1989)
M. Noone: Music and
Musicians at the Escorial, 1563 to 1665 (diss., U. of
Cambridge, 1990)
L. Stein: ‘The Iberian Peninsula’, Man and Music: the Late Baroque Era, ed. G.
Buelow (London, 1993), 411–34
L. Stein: ‘Spain’, Man and Music:
the Early Baroque Era, ed. C. Price (London, 1993), 327–48
L. Robledo: ‘Questions of Performance Practice in Philip III's Chapel’, EMc, xxii (1994), 199–218
L. Robledo: ‘Felipe II y Felipe III como patronos musicales’,
AnM, liii (1998), 95–110
L. Robledo: ‘La música en la corte de Felipe II’, Felipe II y su época, ed. F.J. Campos (San
Lorenzo del Escorial, 1998), i,
139–67
For further bibliography see §4.
Habsburg
4. Music under the Austrian Habsburgs.
In 1521 the Habsburg territories were divided between Charles V
and Ferdinand I, the grandsons of Maximilian I, creating the Austrian and
Spanish lines of succession. Beginning with Ferdinand I's coronation in 1556,
members of the Austrian line occupied the imperial throne almost continuously
into the 19th century. Their role as Holy Roman Emperors and a dynastic
tradition of staunch Catholicism shaped Habsburg patronage of music in the
early modern era, when the imperial Kapelle served as the sounding
representation of imperial might, dominion and religiosity. Although the
emperor's Kapelle in Prague or Vienna was usually the pre-eminent
musical institution in the Habsburg lands, the archducal courts, especially
those at Innsbruck and Graz, sometimes cultivated music
on a scale that rivalled the imperial court.
Ferdinand I (reigned 1556–64) had a Kapelle as early as 1526, 30
years before becoming emperor. Like most 16th-century Kapellen, his was
decidedly sacred in character, headed by the court preachers and staffed mainly
by clerics. Ferdinand's Kapellmeister included Heinrich Finck, Arnold von
Bruck, Pieter Maessens and Jean Guyot. Maessens, in particular, is credited
with raising performing standards and recruiting distinguished musicians from
the Low Countries. The preference for musicians trained in the north continued
under Ferdinand I's successor, Maximilian II (1564–76). The extraordinary range
of the court's repertory and artistic contacts under Maximilian II is
demonstrated in the five-volume Novi atque catholici thesauri musici
(Venice, 1568), a collection dedicated to the emperor that contains motets for
liturgical and ceremonial use by composers with artistic connections to the
court, including Josquin, Lassus, Regnart, Wert and Andrea Gabrieli. The range
of styles and genres cultivated under Maximilian is also evident in the works
of his two Kapellmeister, Jacobus Vaet and, particularly, Philippe de Monte,
whose compositions include madrigals, spiritual madrigals, masses and motets in
a range of styles.
Monte continued to serve as Kapellmeister under Rudolf II
(1576–1612), whose court at Prague was still dominated by northern musicians,
including Carl Luython, Jacobus de Kerle, Jacob Regnart and Lambert de Sayve.
These composers produced a large repertory of masses, especially parody masses,
for use in the imperial chapel. Music seems to have been neglected at the end
of Rudolf's reign as he became increasingly reclusive; Monte's post, for
example, was not formally filled after his death, although Alessandro Orologio
carried out many of his duties. The Kapelle of Emperor Matthias (1612–19), led
by Lambert de Sayve and Christoph Straus, has received little attention, and
few surviving works can be securely dated to his reign. Although Matthias retained
many members of Rudolf's chapel, more progressive, Italian-influenced styles,
including monody, were known at his court. Francesco Rasi (creator of the title
role in Monteverdi's Orfeo) performed in Prague in 1612, and a document
of 1617 describes a performance of monody by a female singer who accompanied
herself on the lute.
The decisive turning-point for music at the imperial court,
however, came in 1619 with the coronation of Ferdinand II as Holy Roman
Emperor. Ferdinand dismissed nearly all Matthias's musicians, replacing them
with the thoroughly italianized Kapelle from his archducal court at Graz. His
reign ushered in a century of Italian dominance of musical and cultural life in
Vienna. Under his Kapellmeister Giovanni Priuli and Giovanni Valentini,
Ferdinand II's musicians cultivated a large repertory of both sacred and
secular works that ranged from stile antico compositions, through
large-scale polychoral works, to monodic compositions and pieces in the modern
concertato style. It was also under Ferdinand II that opera was first
established at the imperial court, probably as early as 1625. Contrary to
accounts in earlier literature, Ferdinand II did not dissolve his Kapelle
during the Thirty Years War, but instead increased its size during his reign.
The preference for modern, italianate music intensified under Ferdinand
III
(1637–57), who was himself a poet and composer. Artistic contacts with Italy
were reinforced by the emperor's step-mother, Eleonora Gonzaga (the second wife
of Ferdinand II), and his own subsequent marriage to another Gonzaga princess
named Eleonora in 1651. Both of these empresses maintained their own Kapellen
after their husband's deaths. Mantuan contacts may also have been responsible
for Monteverdi's dedicating his eighth book of madrigals (1638) to Ferdinand
III and his Selva morale (1641) to the elder Eleonora Gonzaga. Under Leopold
i
(1658–1705), also a gifted composer, the predilection for Italian composers
continued, though German-speaking musicians, including J.H. Schmelzer, F.T.
Richter and J.K. Kerll, also came to prominence, particularly for instrumental
composition. Hundreds of musical-dramatic performances, including opera, ballet,
serenata, oratorio and sepolcro, took place during Leopold's reign,
reaching an apex late in the century in the collaborations of the composer
Antonio Draghi, the librettist Nicolò Minato and the stage designer Ludovico
Ottavio Burnacini.
The reigns of Joseph I (1705–11) and Charles
vi (1711–40)
have many common elements since each monarch took over, in large measure, the
personnel of his father's Kapelle. Joseph I seems to have been less directly
involved in musical matters than other monarchs, though he was responsible for
the construction of a new opera house, which opened in 1708. The operatic
repertory, not surprisingly, continued to be dominated by Italians, including
the Bononcini brothers, Caldara and Marc’Antonio Ziani. Fux came increasingly
to dominate the musical scene under Charles VI; he was appointed Kapellmeister
after Ziani's death in 1715, and he taught the emperor composition. Charles VI
formalized the court ceremonial, which had been evolving since the reign of
Ferdinand II. The court participated in stational worship throughout Vienna,
travelling regularly to over 30 locations to celebrate particular feast days.
The music's style, solemnity and performing forces were determined by the type
of liturgical celebration, and the repertory ranged from stile antico
works that had been part of a traditional court repertory since the late
Renaissance to new works in modern and retrospective styles by court composers
such as Fux and Caldara.
Maria Theresa's patronage of music was severely limited during the
early years of her reign (1740–80), as she and her armies fought to retain her
throne, and her court poet, Pietro Metastasio (appointed by her father), wrote
little. In 1746 the empress reorganized her Hofkapelle, naming L.A. Predieri to
supervise opera and Georg Reutter (ii) to oversee church music. After 1747,
when the opera house in the Hofburg was dismantled, performances of Italian
opera and ballet continued in the smaller Burgtheater, which was extensively
remodelled in 1748, and inaugurated by Gluck's setting of Metastasio's Semiramide
riconosciuta, whose protagonist symbolized the empress triumphant.
During the next decade Maria Theresa and her chancellor, Wenzel
Kaunitz-Rietberg, effected a reorientation of foreign policy towards France.
The accompanying wave of French culture made obsolete the court's stiff Spanish
ceremonial and had important repercussions for theatre. As part of a 1752
reorganization of the court's spectacles, Kaunitz hired a company of French
actors for the Burgtheater which soon added opéra comique to its
repertory. The court's director of spectacles, Giacomo Durazzo, appointed Gluck
to lead performances (also of an ambitious concert series). Between 1758 and
1764 Gluck composed eight opéras comiques and after 1759 also supplied
ballets for the Burgtheater and (initially) the German (Kärntnertor) theatre,
where ‘regular’, written-out plays only gradually displaced semi-improvisational
farces (some with music).
Italian opera, given only sporadically during the height of the
Seven Years War, returned in force in 1760 with Hasse's Alcide al bivio,
for the marriage of Archduke Joseph. Throughout the next decade Hasse (the
empress's former singing teacher, employed at Dresden) and Gluck, together with
their respective librettists Metastasio and Calzabigi, headed opposing operatic
factions, that of Gluck and Calzabigi, supported by Kaunitz, aiming for greater
continuity and expression at the expense of vocal display in such works as Orfeo
ed Euridice (1762) and Alceste (1767). By 1770 things were
essentially at an impasse, and no opera whatsoever was commissioned for the
marriage of Maria Antonia to the French dauphin. In 1772 Maria Theresa wrote to
another daughter that ‘for the theatre … I prefer the least of the Italians to
all our [court] composers, whether Gassmann, Salieri, Gluck or anyone else’.
Maria Theresa's children were all trained in music (principally by G.C.
Wagenseil, appointed in 1749) and dance, skills essential for their future
self-presentation as rulers or as spouses of rulers. On numerous occasions they
performed in specially written componimenti drammatici or ballets, some
of them memorialized in paintings.
Under Joseph II (co-regent 1765–80, emperor 1780–90) Vienna's
theatres underwent numerous changes of repertory and organization. His creation
in 1776 of a German Nationaltheater, replacing the French players, reflected
his desire for financial efficiency more than patriotic conviction. Until 1778
musical works were banned as too distracting, but public demand forced the
addition of Singspiele to the repertory. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem
Serail (1782) was a notable success, but lack of available pieces led to
the Nationalsingspiel being replaced by an Italian opera buffa company
in 1783. The emperor worked closely with theatre director Franz
Orsini-Rosenberg, favouring Salieri (whom he had appointed in 1774 to succeed
Gassmann as court composer and music director) but also giving other composers,
such as Mozart, opportunities to succeed with the Burgtheater public.
The Hofkapelle, already much consolidated under Maria Theresa, was
further reduced under Joseph II. His decrees, issued in 1783, restricting
concerted church music and introducing German devotional song in its place were
highly unpopular, especially in rural areas, and were ultimately rescinded.
Joseph, an accomplished cellist, enjoyed private music-making several times a
week with Salieri and other select company. His preference for learned
compositions corresponded to the taste of Gottfried van Swieten and his circle,
who organized antiquarian performances on a larger scale.
Although his reign was short (1790–92), Joseph's brother Leopold
II thoroughly reshaped the court's theatrical life, firing Mozart's
collaborator, Lorenzo Da Ponte, reintroducing opera seria and ballet and
encouraging a simpler style of opera buffa. It was for his Bohemian
coronation in 1791 that Mozart wrote his last opera, La clemenza di Tito.
In 18th-century Italy several Habsburgs influenced musical life in
important ways. Maria Theresa herself occasionally intervened in the affairs of
Milan's Regio Ducal Teatro (where her namedays were celebrated), and in 1771
she dissuaded Archduke Ferdinand, regent of Lombardy, from taking the young
Mozart into his service. In Tuscany Archduke Leopold was a conspicuous patron
of opera and ballet, and fostered a Handel revival that predated that in
Vienna. Lavish musical and theatrical entertainments marked the weddings of
several imperial children on the peninsula, and often also family visits in
either direction.
After 1800 the French military threat, inflation and the increased
importance of market forces in the musical world made imperial patronage
largely irrelevant; there were also complaints about the decline in quality of
the court theatre's orchestra. But Emperor Franz II (1792–1835), and even more
his wife, Marie Therese, commissioned important works from such composers as
Haydn and Joseph Eybler, and between them amassed a large collection of
manuscript music (the Kaisersammlung, now in A-Wn), used in part for
private performances in which the empress and various courtiers participated.
Archduke Rudolph (son of Leopold II) had a uniquely personal relationship
with Beethoven as both pupil and patron. The composer's Missa solemnis,
though not completed in time for Rudolf's investiture as Cardinal in Olmütz,
was dedicated to him on its publication in 1827.
During the 19th century the musicians employed at the imperial
court included Leopold Kozeluch, Franz Krommer and Hans Richter. After 1918,
when the Austrian republic was established, the Hofkapelle continued to
organize concerts and to be responsible for church services until 1945, when it
was taken over by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Habsburg, §4: Music
under the Austrian Habsburgs
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KöchelKHM
SennMT
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