Benedictine abbey in Upper Austria. It was founded in 1056 on the site of a fortress protecting the confluence of the rivers Traun and Ager, and was sanctioned by Emperor Heinrich IV in 1061. The first monks came from the monastery of Münsterschwarzach near Würzburg, and in 1089 the church was consecrated.
Situated on the main west-east trade route, the abbey's wealth grew steadily in the Middle Ages, largely based on the salt trade, but its location also made it vulnerable to attack and occupation by conquering forces from the 13th century to Napoleonic times. Abbot Pabo founded an abbey school towards the end of the 12th century by which time a musical scriptorium was already thriving. Illuminated manuscripts in the hands of two monks, Haimo and Gotschalk, are notable, including a fragment of music in neumatic notation for the Dreikönigsspiel frequently performed at the abbey. Other important medieval manuscripts are two examples of the Lambach Ritual (from the beginning and end of the 12th century), a 14th-century collection of songs (both in monody and in parts) copied by Hermann (now in A-Wn, 4696), and the later Mondsee Liederhandschrift (also in Wn, 2856). Performances of sacred drama with some music took place from at least the 14th century.
A choir school was founded in the middle of the 15th century and the first organ was completed in 1471. The period of the Reformation and, later, the Austrian Peasant Wars saw some retrenchment in the activities of the abbey from which it did not begin to recover until the middle of the 17th century. As often in the history of Austrian ecclesiastical foundations, substantial rebuilding in the Baroque style – in this case directed by the imperial architect, Philiberto Luchese – initiated a period of sustained prosperity and influence. Two new organs were built at this time. Three items of church music by Romanus Weichlein (1652–1706) constitute the first extant compositions by a Lambach monk and other active musicians at the abbey included B.L. Ramhaufsky (d 1694), J.B. Hochreiter (c1668–1731) and Maximilian Röll (fl 1730); Johann Beer (1655–1700), who was to become Konzertmeister at the court of the Duke of Weissenfels, received his education at Lambach.
Lambach had always had close working connections with the Benedictine abbey at Kremsmünster, 20 km to the east. Franz Sparry (1715–67), regens chori at Kremsmünster, wrote a number of works for Lambach, including Latin oratorios and sacred compositions. Under the guidance of Amand Schickmayer, who was abbot at Lambach from 1746 to 1794, musical activity reached a high point. Given the close proximity of Salzburg, it is not surprising that music by composers from that city is strongly represented in the library, including works by Adlgasser (1729–77), J.E. Eberlin (1702–62), Michael Haydn, Leopold Mozart and W.A. Mozart. Michael Haydn performed at the abbey on several occasions and two works were specially commissioned from him: a cantata, Ninfe imbelli semplicette, for a visit in January 1765 by Princess Josepha of Bavaria (en route to Vienna to marry the future Joseph II); and the Missa Sancti Amandi for the 30th anniversary in October 1776 of Schickmayer's tenure as abbot. Leopold Mozart and Schickmayer were close acquaintances, and W.A. Mozart visited the abbey on four occasions, to play the organ and clavichord. During a visit in January 1769 Leopold and Wolfgang presented manuscript copies of two symphonies to the abbey. The so-called ‘Lambach’ (sometimes ‘Old Lambach’) symphony by Wolfgang is a revised version of the symphony in G (ke45a) first written in the Hague in 1765–6, and the ‘New Lambach’, which has sometimes been wrongly attributed to Wolfgang, is a symphony in G by Leopold Mozart.
Secular plays with musical numbers also flourished during Schickmayer's time, especially after the theatre was renovated in 1770. The plays of Maurus Lindemayr (1723–83), who was a monk at Lambach for 13 years, are notable for cultivating a proto-romantic enthusiasm for the representation of Austrian folk life; musical numbers by F.J. Aumann (1728–97), F.X. Süssmayr (1766–1803), Johann Wittmann (1757–1847) and others are featured in the plays.
Under Schickmayer's guidance Lambach remained largely unaffected by the monastic reforms undertaken by Joseph II during the 1780s. However, the Napoleonic period saw a decline in the sacred and secular life of the abbey, exacerbated in the first half of the 19th century by indifferent economic management. During the second half of the century church music at Lambach came under the strong influence of the Cecilian movement, a tradition which, together with the establishment of a well-regarded choir, was maintained until 1941 when ecclesiastical life was severely curtailed. It was reactivated after World War II.
P. Schmieder: Breve chronicon monasterii Beatae Mariae Virginis lambacensis (Linz, 1865)
A. Eilenstein: Die Benediktinerabtei Lambach in Österreich ob der Enns und ihre Mönche (Linz, 1936)
W. Luger: Die Benediktinerabtei Lambach (Linz, 1952, 3/1973)
S. Leidinger: 900 Jahre Lambach: ein Festgabe (Lambach, 1956)
F. Fuhrich: Theatergeschichte Oberösterreichs im 18. Jahrhundert (Vienna, 1968)
G. Lang: Zur Geschichte und Pflege der Musik in der Benediktiner-Abtei zu Lambach mit einem Katalog zu den Beständen des Musikarchives (diss., U. of Salzburg, 1978)
C. Eisen: The Symphonies of Leopold Mozart and their Relationship to the Early Symphonies of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: a Bibliographical and Stylistic Study (diss., Cornell U., 1986)
N. Zaslaw: Mozart's Symphonies: Context – Performance Practice – Reception (Oxford, 1989), 127–45
DAVID WYN JONES