City in Austria, capital of the Tyrol province. The reigning princes at first resided in their ancestral castle, Schloss Tirol (now Castel Tirolo, Italy); Meran (now Merano) was the first capital of the province, which was allied to Austria from 1363. Duke Friedrich transferred his residence to Innsbruck, which had become a township in 1239, and from 1420 built a palace, the Neuer Hof, to which Emperor Maximilian added a splendid oriel, the Goldenes Dachl. Between 1766 and 1770 a new palace was built, which has survived. On the extinction of the Tyrolean royal house (1665) the province passed to the Austrian emperor. In 1918 the Tyrol became a federal state of Austria.
2. The Hofkapelle; secular music to 1750.
WALTER SENN/HARALD GOERTZ
The main church, St Jakob (a cathedral since 1964), is first mentioned in 1180. The Gothic building erected subsequently was demolished in 1717 and replaced by a Baroque church, consecrated in 1724. Church music in the Middle Ages was the responsibility of a Kantorei consisting of teachers and pupils at the church school (the parish school, later the Lateinschule). In addition to music the boys were instructed in Latin and other subjects. The earliest record of a schoolmaster dates from 1204, and an organ is known to have been in use by the 14th century. The Lateinschule master conducted the music in church and taught the boys singing. The Kantor gave general instruction in music and also ‘in figurativis’ (polyphony), and rehearsed the music for services.
The Gymnasium founded by the Jesuits in 1562 offered a considerably higher level of education, and replaced the Lateinschule, which continued to be used as a hostel for choirboys and as a music school. Under the last Lateinschule master Georg Angermann (1594–1634) the Kantorei became a parish choir, the pupils giving way to officially appointed singers and instrumentalists. His successors called themselves choirmasters, and later ‘Chorregenten’, and were also prebendaries. Originally the choir sang in the presbytery, in front of the high altar, and the main organ stood in the nave near the chancel; from 1645 the choir and organ were both in a gallery on the west wall. After the rebuilding of St Jakob an organ was built (1724–6) by Kaspar Humpel, who lived for a time in Wilten (now a suburb of the city); it was altered in the 19th century and was transferred to the church at Hötting in 1932. The original organ case was used for a new organ, built by Rieger of Jägerndorf.
Emperor Joseph II's ecclesiastical reforms (1765–90) included the dismissal of members of the choir, who were replaced by amateurs, adversely affecting the standard of church music. After the mid-19th century the choir improved once more, reaching a peak under the directors Lambert Streiter (1903–24) and Karl Koch (1924–71, also a prominent composer). In the 1990s the choir was still the most important church choir in the city.
The court's services were held in St Jakob until the building of the Hofkirche (1555–63), the earliest example of Renaissance church architecture in the north Tyrol, which contains the cenotaph of the Emperor Maximilian I. The original organ was built by Jörg Ebert of Ravensburg (1555–61), enlarged in the 17th and 18th centuries and restored from 1972 to 1976. The Hofkirche also served as a church for the Franciscan monastery from 1564. Built onto it is the Silberne Kapelle, where Archduke Ferdinand II of the Tyrol is buried; it has a positive organ in a case dated 1614 with eight stops and mostly wooden pipes, possibly of Italian origin (fig.1). Other churches that have cultivated choral music at some time are the collegiate church at Wilten, the Servite church, and the parish churches of Wilten and Pradl (another suburb of the city).
The Tyrolean sovereigns already had trumpeters and pipers in their service when they resided at Schloss Tirol. In Innsbruck these instrumentalists were augmented by trombonists, timpanists, harpists and lutenists. There is evidence that after 1463 there was a Kantorei under the direction of Niklas Krombsdorfer; Hofhaimer was appointed organist in 1478. Although it appears that under the Emperor Maximilian I there was only a small resident Kantorei in Innsbruck, he visited the city with the Reichskapelle, under the direction of Georg Slatkonia. At that time the parish church was also the court church, and the emperor had organs installed there; the most important was built by Jhan Behaim from Dubrau (1512–15).
Under Maximilian's successor, Archduke Ferdinand, there was no Hofkapelle, and the organists at St Jakob also worked at the court as music teachers; however, the reign of Archduke Ferdinand II (1567–95) was a period of musical splendour. The musicians were divided into two groups of between 33 and 47 members: the Vokalkapelle, with singers, organists and lutenists; and the Hofmusik, to which the instrumentalists belonged. The singers were mainly from the Netherlands, whereas most of the instrumentalists were from Italy. Wilhelm Bruneau was Kapellmeister until 1584, and was succeeded by Regnart. The many members of the Kapelle who, like Regnart, were known as composers included Alexander Utendal, Christian Hollander, Giovanni, Giorgio and Jacobus Flori, Franz Sales and Tiburtio Massaino. The monarch collected valuable musical instruments for his gallery at Schloss Ambras: these included a cittern by Girolamo de Virchis (Brescia, 1574), an ivory lute by Georg Gerle of Innsbruck, violins by Gasparo da Salò and Dorigo Spilmann and chamber organs with intarsia embellishments. The Kapelle was dispersed in 1595.
The next ruler, Archduke Maximilian of Austria (1602–18), had had a Kapelle in Bad Mergentheim since 1586, from which 16 performers accompanied him to Innsbruck. From 1607 to 1648 Johann Stadlmayr was his Kapellmeister. The next ruling prince, Archduke Leopold V (d 1632), also arrived in Innsbruck with his own Kapelle, and his predecessor's musicians, with the exception of Stadlmayr, were dismissed. In 1632 the Kapelle had 45 singers, including four castratos, and instrumentalists. Between 1629 and 1631 the archduke had the Ballspielhaus to the north of the castle converted into a theatre.
Both music and the theatre flourished under Archduke Ferdinand Karl (1646–62). The Hofkapelle consisted of three groups: that for church music, under the direction of Ambrosius Reiner (1648–72); the court trumpeters, mainly for open-air music; and the chamber musicians (virtuoso singers and instrumentalists), who were directed by Antonio Cesti (1652–8, 1661–5). Cesti also composed several operas for the prince, including L'Argia, which was performed in 1655 for the official conversion to Catholicism of Queen Christina of Sweden. The Kapelle's celebrated members included the bass viol player William Young (before 1652 until 1662). The prince had a Komödienhaus built in the Venetian style (1652–4); it was the first self-contained opera house in a German-speaking country and was the first German stage to have a permanent company for opera, drama and Singspiel (fig.2).
With the death of Archduke Siegmund Franz (1665) the Tyrolean line of the House of Habsburg came to an end. The province fell under Emperor Leopold I, who disbanded the court at Innsbruck, and with it the Hofkapelle, although in 1666 some of the musicians were reinstated to form the Kaiserliche Hofmusik, serving any royalty temporarily residing at Innsbruck. In addition, the governor Duke Karl Philipp of the Palatinate (1707–17) maintained a private orchestra under the Kapellmeister Jakob Greber; its Konzertmeister was Gottfried Finger, who, like Greber, had returned from London. When Karl Philipp left Innsbruck his musicians followed him to Neuburg, Heidelberg and Mannheim, where they formed the nucleus of the orchestra that was to achieve international fame under Stamitz and his successors. The Kaiserliche Hofmusik declined and was dissolved in 1748.
The last of the court opera performances was the first performance of Hasse's Romulo ed Ersilia, on the occasion of the wedding of Archduke Leopold and the Infanta Maria Ludovica (1765). In subsequent years the theatre was leased to outside contractors, the first of which was known as the Kaiserliches und Königliches Hoftheater, and, after 1785, the Nationalhoftheater and Nationaltheater; its repertory consisted mainly of plays, but operas and Singspiele were also performed. From 1852 to 1918 the theatre's leaseholders were not obliged to perform operas; these became the domain of Italian and, after 1866, German companies. The old theatre was used until 1844, and a new classical-style building was opened in 1846 on the same site. In 1886 the theatre came under the control of the town, becoming the Stadttheater and in 1939 the Tiroler Landestheater. It had a permanent opera company from 1918. The rebuilt theatre (1961–7) seats 801, with 250 seats in the Kammerspiele, and its season runs from September to the beginning of July.
The first public concerts took place in the Redoutengebäude, built in 1772–3 at the request of the Empress Maria Theresa. The municipal halls were erected on the same site (1888–90); these were destroyed in 1944, but in 1955 they were restored on the original plan. Only the larger of the two halls (cap. 919) is used for concerts. A further concert hall (cap. 259) is in the Musikverein (now the conservatory), built in 1912. The castle theatre was also destroyed in 1944, but was restored as a congress building, completed in 1973; it has two halls (cap. 1479 and 223) which are also used for concerts.
In the theatre (from the 18th century) and at public concerts (19th century) an orchestra played, which included professional or amateur musicians according to circumstances. A permanent ensemble, the Städtische Musikkapelle, was founded in 1893; after 1900 it was known as the Städtisches Orchester and, later, the Innsbruck SO.
Innsbruck's choirs have included the male-voice Innsbrucker Liedertafel (1855), Deutscher Männergesangverein (1901) and Wolkensteiner (1911), and the internationally renowned mixed choirs ‘Walther von der Vogelweide’ and ‘Mentlberg’ (both 1947).
The first public concerts were organized by the Kasinoverein (1787–c1840). From the early 19th century music was cultivated more thoroughly by the Musikverein, whose orchestral, choral and solo concerts continued to 1939 and under the title Konzerte der Stadt Innsbruck from 1947. Since 1979 they have been held in the Kongresshaus (containing three halls, the Dogana, cap. 1200; the Saal Tirol, cap. 1500; and the Saal Innsbruck, cap. 256). The Ambraser Schlosskonzerte, founded in 1963 to mark the 600th anniversary of the unification of the Tyrol and Austria, are held in July and August in the Renaissance Schloss Ambras near Innsbruck, with music of the 13th to the 18th centuries played on period instruments. As an educational pendant to these concerts, the Internationale Sommerakademie für Alte Musik was founded in 1972; from 1977 a concert series, the Festwochen der Alten Musik, complemented the lectures. Productions of Baroque oratorio and opera began at the same time, notable for the revival of the operas of Cesti. Since 1958 the Innsbrucker Orgelwochen have taken place at Whitsun (annually since 1965). The triennial Paul Hofhaimer organ competition (from 1972) uses historic organs. A triennial Radiopreis für Alte Musik was established in 1996 by the Tyrolean studio of Österreichischer Rundfunk (ÖRF) and the city of Innsbruck.
The Musikverein also founded a music school, whose directors were conductors. After the dissolution of the society in 1939 the school continued as the Städtische Musikschule, becoming the conservatory in 1957 and the Tiroler Landeskonservatorium in 1990. At the university (established 1669) a musicological institute was opened in 1920 whose foundation may be attributed to Rudolf von Ficker; from 1994 it was directed by Tilman Seebass. The library of the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum contains historic manuscripts and printed works as well as many sound recordings. There are valuable musical instruments of the 16th to 18th centuries in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Schloss Ambras. The Tyrolean studio of ÖRF, which devotes many concerts and talks to contemporary music, played a leading part from 1950 in the Österreichische Jugendkulturwochen, which in 1969 became the Musikprotokoll of the Steierische Herbstfestival.
Music printers were active in Innsbruck from the mid-16th century, when hymnals were printed, including the Innsbrucker Gesangbuch (1586), printed by the court printer Johann Baur. In the 19th century the firm of Johann Gross printed the first editions of several of Bruckner's choral works. The Edition Helbling firm publishes early music and facsimilies as well as works on musicology and music teaching. A Tyrolean cultural journal, Das Fenster, is published several times a year in Innsbruck, and also covers subjects from the South Tyrol. Builders of organs and makers of violins and wind instruments have been active in the city since the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries respectively.
GroveO (H. Goertz, W. Senn)
MGG2 (M. Fink, W. Senn)
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Orgel und Orgelspiel im 16. Jahrhundert: Innsbruck 1977
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