Holy Roman Emperor (b Vienna, 26 July 1678; d Vienna, 17 April 1711). Habsburg ruler and amateur musician. As the eldest son of Leopold I by his third wife Eleanora Magdalena Theresia of Pfalz-Neuburg he became hereditary King of Hungary in Bratislava in 1687 and was crowned King of Rome in Augsburg three years later; he succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor on 5 May 1705. In his youth he received music lessons from J.J. Prinner and played the harpsichord, flute and other instruments. He had a talent for music and dancing and between 1682 and 1699 he took part in many performances at the court theatre in Vienna as a singer, dancer and flautist. His surviving compositions are plainly influenced by the style of Alessandro Scarlatti, yet on the whole they have more individuality than the works of Leopold I; the aria Tutto in pianto, for example, has one of the earliest obbligato parts for chalumeau.
Edition: Musikalische Werke der Kaiser Ferdinand III., Leopold I. und Joseph I., ed. G. Adler (Vienna, 1892)
|
Regina coeli, S, 2 vn, va, vc, org, D-Dlb, A-Wn; ed. R. Ragge (Zürich, 1981) |
|
Alme ingrate, aria, in a sepolcro of 1705, I-Vnm |
|
Più d’ogni stella, aria, in Ziani’s La flora, 1706, Vnm, A-Wn |
|
Si trova in tempeste, aria, in Bonocini’s Endimione, 1706, Wn |
|
Si, cor mio, confida, aria, in Ziani’s Chilonida, 1709, Wn |
|
Non è morta in me la speme, aria, in Chilonida, Wn |
|
Tutto in pianto, aria, in Chilonida, Wn; ed. C. Lawson (London, 1984) |
|
Aria, lute, CZ-Pu |
G. Adler: ‘Die Kaiser Ferdinand III., Leopold I., Joseph I., und Karl VI. als Tonsetzer und Förderer der Musik’, VMw, viii (1892), 252–68
H. Kretzschmar: ‘Musikalische Werke der Kaiser Ferdinand III., Leopold I. und Joseph I., “Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich” und Neudrucke alter Musik überhaupt’, Musikalisches Wochenblatt, xxvi (1895), 1, 13, 25, 37, 53, 65
J. Zuth: ‘Kaiser Josephs I. Aria für die Laute’, Zeitschrift für die Gitarre, v (1926), 105 [with edn]
O. Wessely: ‘Habsburger Kaiser als Komponisten’, Unica austriaca, Notring-Jb 1960, 53
H. Seifert: Die Oper am Wiener Kaiserhof im 17. Jahrhundert (Tutzing, 1985)
R. Clemencic: ‘Gli imperatori compositori’, Danubio: una civiltà musicale, ed. C. De Incontrera (Monfalcone, 1992), 151–72
E.T. Hilscher: ‘ … dedicata alla sacra cesarea maest … : Joseph I. (1678–1711) und Karl VI. (1685–1740) als Widmungsträger musikalischer Werke’, SMw, xli (1992), 95–177
C. Lawson: ‘The Chalumeau in the Works of Fux’, Johann Joseph Fux and the Music of the Austro-Hungarian Baroque, ed. H. White (Aldershot, 1992), 78–94
S. Wollenberg: ‘Vienna under Joseph I and Charles VI’, The Late Baroque Era: from the 1680s to 1740, ed. G.J. Buelow (Englewood Cliffs, 1993), 324–54
OTHMAR WESSELY/STEVEN SAUNDERS