Benedictine abbey in Upper Austria. It was founded in 777 by Duke Tassilo of Bavaria to provide a Christian mission and to protect the area from the neighbouring Slavs and Hungarians. Plainchant was sung according to the Beneventan rite, which, along with the educational system, was modified according to the rules of Benedikt von Aniane of Aachen in 828. From that time until the 17th century there was an inner and an outer school: the latter was enlarged in 1549 into an Öffentliches Gymnasium. The abbey library has a rich collection of manuscripts, one of the most important in Europe. The Millenarius Minor Manuscript, a collection of gospels dating from the end of the 9th century, contains one of the earliest examples of neumatic notation; a number of manuscripts containing sequences and tropes give evidence of musical practice from the 11th century to the 14th. Polyphonic music found acceptance under the abbot Friedrich von Aich (abbot from 1274 to 1325) but contemporary manuscripts have not survived. The first organ was built before 1490; a splendid new organ was built in the abbey church by Gregor Ennser in 1515. The repertory by the end of the 16th century was dominated by Netherlanders and composers such as Lassus, Hassler and Regnart.
A wave of Italian influence, introduced by Alexander a Lacu from Lugano (abbot from 1601 to 1613) affected all artistic activity at Kremsmünster. The Ennser organ was replaced in 1623 by a more italianate instrument built by Andreas Puz of Passau, which in turn was replaced by an instrument made by Leopold Freundt in 1685. Alessandro Tadei (c1585–1667) became Kapellmeister in 1630; he was overshadowed by his successor Benedikt Lechler (1594–1657), who compiled several volumes of scores which give some insight into the progressive nature of the music collection (the Regenterei): the Mass repertory consisted primarily of works by Austrians (Stadlmayr, Straus, Lechler, Fux) and Italians (Valentini, Grandi, Banchieri, Verdina). Theatrical music can be traced from 1647, when a Stiftstheater was built. Incidental music for allegorical scenes, ballets and final choruses connected with Latin school dramas and dialogues became increasingly elaborate until these forms were banned in 1765. Such performances were given for visiting nobility, for the prelate and at the cloister school or, from 1744 to 1789, the Ritterakademie. Although personnel, including poets and composers, were usually drawn from the abbey's community, the influence of the Salzburg University theatre was strong from the beginning. Musical drama flourished between 1747 and 1783 under the direction of Franz Sparry (1715–67), a pupil of Leo, and Georg Pasterwiz (1730–1803), a pupil of Eberlin and a prolific composer. After 1771 the repertory was expanded to include Italian opere buffe and opere serie along with German operettas and Singspiele, some of the latter composed by Pasterwiz. This brilliant period faded with the reforms of Emperor Joseph II, and finally the Baroque theatre itself was demolished in 1804 to make room for a boarding school.
In place of opera a series of oratorio performances was initiated by music director Beda Plank (1794–1830) with Haydn's The Creation (1800) and The Seasons (1805); the last of these took place in 1914 with Rheinberger's Christophorus. Under Abbot Thomas Mitterndorfer (1840–60) a new organ with 61 stops was built by Ludwig Mooser (1854). Both Schubert and Bruckner maintained significant connections with Kremsmünster.
After World War II music was revitalized under the direction of the composer and musicologist Altman Kellner (1902–81) who succeeded Benno Feyrer, regens chori from 1908 to 1951. On Kellner's death Father Alfons Mandorfer (b 1933) was appointed regens chori. Johann Pirchner of Steinach, Tyrol, was commissioned to rebuild the great church organ along the lines of the Freundt instrument of 1685 and also to provide a new organ for the abbey's Marienkapelle (1972). A new 311-seat Stiftstheater was erected in 1956–7. Numerous manuscripts, including church music by Mozart and Michael Haydn and lieder by Schubert in contemporary copies, apparently stolen from Kremsmünster at the end of World War II, were returned to the abbey by the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990. The Regenterei now contains some 16,000 prints, autographs and manuscripts, making it the most significant monastic collection in Austria.
GroveO (R.N. Freeman)
MGG2 (R.N. Freeman, A. Kellner)
T. Hagn: Das Wirken der Benediktiner-Abtei Kremsmünster für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Jugendbildung (Linz, 1848)
G. Huemer: Die Pflege der Musik im Stifte Kremsmünster: Culturhistorischer Beitrag zur eilften Säcularfeier (Wels, 1877)
W. Neumüller and K. Holter: Die mittelalterlichen Bibliotheksverzeichnisse des Stiftes Kremsmünster (Linz, 1950)
A. Kellner: Musikgeschichte des Stiftes Kremsmünster (Kassel, 1956)
W. Lipphardt: ‘Musik in den österreichischen Klöstern der Babenbergerzeit’, Musicologica austriaca, ii (1979), 48–68
F.W. Riedel: ‘Die Bedeutung der Musikpflege in den österreichischen Stiften zur Zeit von Joseph und Michael Haydn’, KJb, lxxi (1987), 55–63
ALTMAN KELLNER/ROBERT N. FREEMAN