1

INTRODUCTORY NOTE Subject of the course is a social history of music, with special focus on the 18th and 19th century. In this period, the status of both music and musicians rose to unprecedented heights. The key to understanding the sacralisation of music, which turns music into an alternative religion and brings the musical man of genius into the position of its high priest, is closely related to the development of the public sphere and bourgeois capitalism. The course relies on a book written by the English historian Tim Blanning, an internationally acclaimed expert in the field. It is titled:

The Triumph of Music: Composers, Musicians and Their Audiences, 1700 to the Present (London, 2008) American edition: The Triumph of Music: The Rise of Composers, Musicians and Their Art (Cambridge, Mass., 2008)

The book contains five chapters:

1. Status: You Are a God-Man, the True Artist by Gods Grace 2. Purpose: Music Is the Most Romantic of All the Arts 3. Places and Spaces: From Palace to Stadium 4. Technology: From Stradivarius to Stratocaster 5. Liberation: Nation, People, Sex

Chapter 1 (on Status) will be dealt in depth with. Special topics will be selected from the remaining chapters.

2

Status

3

THE MUSICIAN AS SLAVE AND SERVANT For most of recorded history sharp discrepancy between:

status of music high

status of musician low STATUS OF MUSIC ANTIQUITY Mythology belief that music is of divine origin Egypt: Osiris as composer of the traditional chants any alteration strictly forbidden Ancient Greece: Orpheus, legendary singer and musician:

divine ancestry: Apollo and the muse Calliope alternative version: son of the Thracian king Oeagrus

divine power of his singing and playing charming wild beasts, diverting the course of rivers,

Philosophy music as a main preoccupation Plato (428/427 BC -348-347 BC)

affinity between music and mathematics Harmony of the Spheres (Pythagoras)

music as an essential part of education theory of the ethos music affects the character (soul) good versus bad music

blueprint of the ideal state (totalitarian utopia?) music strictly regulated to avoid anarchy, disorder and moral degeneration only Dorian and Phrygian modes permitted (courage, temperance)

4

MIDDLE AGES Substantial cultural shift

Antiquity: mens sana in corpore sano (a sound mind in a sound body)

Middle Ages:

man as a sinful creature

salvation only through God and a pious life

Evil and the Devil as a permanent threat Persistent influence of the platonic teachings:

strong opposition body-soul, material-spiritual

dichotomy good versus bad music Saint Augustine (354-430):

era of the Church Fathers (early Christian writers)

Confessiones (Confessions)

under the spell of Ambrosian chant in Milan o enjoying the music in itself = mortal sin o music reinforcing the Word of God = divine gift

RENAISSANCE BAROQUE EARLY MODERN EUROPE 15th 18th century Cultural changes:

self-awareness of man

theocentrism (theo-)anthropocentrism

process of secularisation

Antiquity sets the example Growing royal power (absolutism; Louis XIV) development of a court culture:

Italy (Florence, Milano, Mantua,)

Duchy of Burgundy (Brussels, Philip the Good)

Paris Baldassare Castiglione, Il libro del cortigiano (The Book of the Courtier, 1528):

music = a holy matter

harmony of the spheres

soul affected by music Shakespeare , The Merchant of Venice (mid-1590s): the sweet power of music

5

Reformation:

16th century

attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church

establishment of the Protestant Churches

Calvin (1509-1564):

uneasy about power of music

unaccompanied congregational singing of psalms

aversion of instrumental music

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531): total banning of music

Martin Luther (1483-1546): music as magnificent gift of God song of the congregation hymn Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is our God)

Healing qualities of music Robert Burton (1577-1640), Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) Conclusion Blanning, p.11:

In short, with the exception of the grim Franco-Swiss reformers, Europeans have always cherished music especially when performed collectively (whether by Athenians, Jews, medieval monks, Protestant congregations or whomever).

6

STATUS OF THE MUSICIAN ANTIQUITY musicians often slaves Aristotle, Politics:

music = essential part of education (moral improvement)

professional performers (payment) = vulgar MIDDLE AGES Boethius ca 480 ca 524 De institutione musica division into three types:

musica mundana

musica humana

musica instrumentalis music as a science:

music = a science of numbers (part of the quadrivium)

true musician = philosopher (clerics!)

performers and composers (!) driven by instinct Lay musicians Jongleurs (jugglers):

perform tricks, tell stories, sing or play instruments

itinerant

precarious living

low status Minstrels:

more specialized musicians (from 13th century on)

itinerant

often employed at court or city

varied backgrounds (former clerics, sons of merchants and craftsmen, knights Troubadours / Trouvres:

poet-composers in medieval France (12th 13th century)

supported by the many castles and courts all over the country

7

Blanning: most came from the margins of polite society Christopher Page: study of 15 troubadours:

5 clergymen

4 poor knights or their sons

3 sons of townsmen

2 former artisans Burkholder, Grout & Palisca on troubadours and trouvres social background:

nobles e.g. Guillaume IX, duke of Aquitaine (1071-1126)

sons of servants at court e.g. Bernart de Ventadorn (ca 1130 ca 1200)

families of merchants, craftsmen, or even jongleurs acceptance into aristocratic circles because of:

accomplishments in poetry and music

adoption of the value system and behaviour practiced at court actual performance often entrusted to jongleur or minstrel German Minnesinger (Minnesnger):

12th 14th century

knightly poet-musicians

e.g. Walther von der Vogelweide (ca 1170 ca 1230)

EARLY MODERN EUROPE musicians growing self-confidence e.g. Josquin des Prez (ca 1450 - 1521):

career in France (Louis XI) and Italy (duke of Ferrara, house of Este)

independent in his behaviour important factor = music print Ottaviano Petrucci (1466-1539), Venice compare to the visual arts:

higher prestige

importance of visual representation

Michelangelo (1475-1564) o Il Divino (The Divine One) o first Western artist whose biography published during his own lifetime

(Giorgio Vasari / Ascanio Condivi)

8

basic problem for musicians fickleness, capriciousness of princely patrons Claudio Monteverdi 1567-1643 music director at the court of Mantua:

1607: Orfeo

1612: Vincenzo Francesco Gonzaga

abrupt dismissal 1613 maestro di capella in Venice, St Marks Basilica 1620 Mantuans try to recover him Monteverdi refuses and makes his point in a famous letter:

income, regularly paid out

permanent appointment (security)

control over his musicians and singers

respect working in a Republic > serving a princely patron? Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750 Weimar 1708-1717:

court organist / Konzertmeister (1714)

no perspective of further promotion (Kapellmeister)

attractive offer by prince of Anhalt-Cthen

gets imprisoned / unfavourable discharge Anhalt-Cthen 1717-1723:

prince Leopold

Kapellmeister (music director)

1721 Leopold x Fredericka Henriette of Anhalt-Bernburg Leipzig 1723-1750:

cantor of the St Thomas Church

employed by the town council

9

moving from West to East examples of artistic despotism Prussia Frederick the Great (1740-1786) Gertrude Elizabeth Mara (1749-1833):

1774: London offer

1780: illness

weight of slavery

O Libert! Russia society:

tsarist autocracy

magnates

serfdom serf = unfree person, bound to the land

musicians:

serf troupes maintained by magnates

position often complicated and ambiguous: o relatively well-paid o emancipation o corporal punishment

Sheremetev family:

> 8,000 km of land compare Belgium: 30,528 km

200,000 registered serfs (approx. one million in real terms)

Saint Petersburg palace (Fountain House) (> 300 servants)

splendid theatre buildings in the summer houses (French opera!): o Kuskovo Palace (east of Moscow)

burns down in 1789 o Ostankino Palace (north of Moscow)

opens in 1795 room for 260 spectators

Conclusion Blanning, p. 15:

the subservient status of even the greatest singers and composers was the rule in courts large and small.

10

Further illustrations Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780) manual for her son Archduke Ferdinand (1754-1806):

table illustrating social hierarchy

musicians at the very bottom (along with beggars and actors) advice to Ferdinand, then governor of the Duchy of Milan, on Mozart (1771):

you dont need a composer or any other useless people (gens inutiles)

it brings service into disrepute when these people roam around the world like beggars (comme gueux)

Joseph Haydn and the Esterhzy family Joseph Haydn(1732-1809):

Rohrau (south east of Vienna)

son of a wheelwright

1740: choirboy in St. Stephens Cathedral (Vienna) Esterhzy family:

Hungarian magnates

main residence: Eisenstadt (50 km south of Vienna)

1761 Haydn is appointed deputy director of music (Vice-Capel-Meister) employment contract between Prince Paul Anton and Haydn detailed enumeration of Haydns duties:

exemplary conduct

strict dress code for performances: o white stockings, white shirt o powdered o wig o identical appearance

servant-composer The said Vice-Capel-Meister shall be under permanent obligation to compose such pieces of music as his Serene Princely Highness may command, and neither to communicate such new compositions to anyone, nor to allow them to be copied, but to retain them wholly for the exclusive use of his Highness; nor shall he compose for any other person without the knowledge and gracious permission of his Highness.

complete unbalance in the clauses regarding the ending of the contractual relation

Haydn: o probationary period of 3 years o 6 months notice before leaving

Prince: free at all times to dismiss him from service

11

relation Haydn - Prince Esterhazy feudal bond between lord and vassal:

personal (moral) relation

paternalism

submissive language

substantial payments in kind (wine, firewood, wheat, beef, candles, cabbages, a pig)

real contract presupposes equality between the parties to the contract music for baryton:

derived from the viola da gamba

cumbersome and difficult to play (Blanning)

favourite instrument of Prince Nicholas (1762-1790)

126 pieces (1765-1778) Farewell Symphony symphony no 45 in F sharp Minor (1772) context:

Esterhza summer palace Versailles of Hungary opera house (500 spectators)

in the middle of nowhere

musicians living there without their families

closing adagio: musicians one by one snuffing their candle and leaving the room

return to Eisenstadt Haydn revolutionary:

good-natured, easy-going (Papa Haydn)

grown up and socialized in the society of the Ancien Rgime (masters and servants)

Haydns greatest frustration = isolation / restrictions on his freedom of movement: frustration grows as time goes on examples of self-pity (1790):

Esterhaza = my wilderness

It really is sad to be a slave, but Providence wills it so.

12

HANDEL, HAYDN AND THE LIBERATION OF THE MUSICIAN HAYDN AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE Haydn 1790 Nicolas Anton = characteristic critical moment of succession:

disbanding of the court orchestra and opera company

Haydn takes advantage: o lifelong, comfortable pension o permission to travel

London journeys, 1791-1792, 1794-1795 offer from the impresario Johann Peter Salomon (1745-1815) England:

collapse of royal absolutism (Stuarts) Glorious Revolution, 1688 Bill of Rights, 1689 constitutional monarchy parliament

free enterprise society of movers and doers dynamism

London:

Blanning: the Eldorado of musicians

one million inhabitants

London Season: o parliamentary sessions o concentration of elites (upper class) and wealth

Haydns situation = ambiguous:

isolation as court servant of the Esterhzys

notoriety, even fame in London Blanning, p. 18:

Haydn was fortunate that his career coincided with a massive expansion of music printing and publishing. Although printing had been possible since the late fifteenth century, not until the middle of the eighteenth did something approaching a mass market begin to develop. This was an integral part of a much wider phenomenon the emergence of a public sphere.

13

elements:

expansion of towns / promotion of urban values

rise of consumerism / commercialisation of leisure

proliferation of voluntary associations (reading clubs, choral societies, masonic lodges,)

improvement of communications and postal services result = a new kind of cultural space into which musical entrepreneurs eagerly moved mushrooming of publishing houses after c. 1750:

1745 Breitkopf (Leipzig) technical innovations (movable type process) commercial techniques

(catalogues, advertising, distribution networks, mail-order) > 100 workers

1767 Artaria (Vienna)

1770 Schott (Mainz) Haydn:

1763 harpsichord divertimento in Breitkopfs catalogue

[] music published and sold in Paris, Amsterdam, London

1779 revision of contract (removal of restrictions)

by the 1780s international reputation:

composing for patrons all over Europe (e.g. 6 Paris Symphonies, ordered by the Loge Olympique)

music readily available for sale across Europe Francisco Goya (1746-1828):

portrait of the Duke of Alba (1795)

holding a Haydn score (Four Songs with Pianoforte Accompaniment) efforts at self-promotion:

flattering portrait by Johann Ernst Mansfeld (1738-1796) (1781)

engraved, reproduced, advertised for sale by Artaria Blanning, p. 24

In short, by the time Haydn really did reach London on New Years Day, 1791, the musical public was ready and waiting.

14

A NEW HANDEL? Haydn Handel London musical public willingness to embrace German-speaking musicians GEORG FRIEDRICH HNDEL 1685-1759 London period Georg Frederick Handel 1710-1759 Blanning: Handel = an early demonstration of how a musician could become rich and famous through the public sphere

musical entrepreneur

paying public

wealth + social status A Statue in the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens Handel-statue:

Louis-Franois Roubiliac (1738)

homage by Jonathan Tyers

Orpheus-posture Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

c 1660 1859

Kennington (South of the Thames)

free entrance until 1785

food and drink for sale main venue for fashionable society:

to see and be seen

walks

concerts, balls, fireworks

rococo structures (pavilions): o Turkish tent (1744) o chinoiserie style o fashionable drinks: coffee, tea, hot chocolate

15

Jonathan Tyers (1702-1767):

John Barrell, Times Literary Supplement, 25 January 2012:

Vauxhall pleasure gardens, on the south bank of the Thames, entertained Londoners and visitors to London for 200 years. From 1729, under the management of Jonathan Tyers, property developer, impresario, patron of the arts, the gardens grew into an extraordinary business, a cradle of modern painting and architecture, and... music.... A pioneer of mass entertainment, Tyers had to become also a pioneer of mass catering, of outdoor lighting, of advertising, and of all the logistics involved in running one of the most complex and profitable business ventures of the eighteenth century in Britain.

1749: rehearsal of Handels Music for the Royal Fireworks audience of 12,000 Imitations:

Paris (1760s)

Brussels (1781, Parc de Bruxelles) Handel as a national hero to the English Handels tomb in Westminster Abbey, London Statue by Louis-Franois Roubiliac, 1761 Westminster Abbey:

coronation, wedding and burial site for the English (British) monarchs

tombs of famous British subjects Pantheon in Paris

Handels tomb = indication of:

personal status

sacralisation of his art Handel does never fall into oblivion:

first book-length biography devoted to a musician John Mainwaring, Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel (London, 1760)

1784: 5 commemorative concerts o Westminster Abbey / Pantheon (Oxford Street) o main event attended by the royal family (George III)

16

THE BEST OF TWO WORLDS HAYDN IN LONDON 17911792 / 1794-1795 warm welcome:

newspapers invitations for dinner

financially rewarding:

6,000 guilder in 6 months

net profit: c. 15,000 guilder

compare annual salary at Esterhzy court: 1,000 to 1,200 guilder Hanover Square Rooms:

1775

first purpose-built concert hall in London

private enterprise

Sir John Gallini (1728-1805) Swiss-Italian dancing-master mover and doer

Johann Christian Bach / Carl Friedrich Abel subscription concerts

SACRALISATION music:

functional valued for its own sake

religion art sacralisation of music

concert hall church building:

audience seated as if it were a congregation

orchestra in a chancel-like space: o platform fenced off by a rail o organ taking the place of the altar

17

COMMERCIALISATION commercialisation impact on the content of an art form

size of the orchestra: o Esterhzy court: 14-22 players

permanent charge for the prince o London concerts: 50 to 60 players

unique context of the metropolis musicians recruited from a much larger pool hired by the season or even the concert

stimulating interaction between composer and his audience H.C. Robbins Landon: The music reflects the atmosphere of fin de sicle London: assured, disputatious, intriguing, eccentric, open-minded yet sensitive

PUBLIC RECOGNITION Oxford:

honorary doctorate, 7 July 1791

on the proposal of Charles Burney (1726-1814)

Sheldonian Theatre (Christopher Wren)

Symphony no. 92 in G (Oxford) (1789)

emblematic of his emergence as a celebrity HAYDN RETURNS TO THE ESTERHZYS! Advantages ( Monteverdi in Venice):

comfortable income

security

control

prestige In sole command of large musical establishment of high quality:

instruments

space

library

orchestra

unlimited rehearsal time Prince Nicholas Esterhzy, discerning and tolerant:

room for artistic experimentation Sturm und Drang symphonies

(late 1760s early 1770s)

18

Haydn manages to have the best of both worlds: aristocratic + public cultural icon of the Habsburg monarchy:

national anthem Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser (God Save Emperor Francis) God Save the King 1797 threat of revolutionary France

27 March 1808, University of Vienna gala performance oratorio The Creation birthday present Prince von Trauttmansdorff reception committee: Prince Lobkowitz, Prince Esterhzy, Beethoven orchestra conducted by Antonio Salieri

Blanning, p. 29:

At the beginning of his career, Haydn became famous because he was the Kapellmeister for the Esterhzys; by the time he died, the Esterhzys were famous because their Kapellmeister was Haydn.

19

MOZART, BEETHOVEN AND THE PERILS OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 1756-1791 painful struggle for recognition and emancipation Biography:

1756-1773: childhood / travelling as child prodigy

1773-1781: employment at the Salzburg court

1781-1791: freelance composer-performer in Vienna SALZBURG PERIOD Salzburg Court of archbishop Hieronymous Count von Colloredo relation patron-servant bad luck

Colloredo = narrow-minded and unappreciative

chain of humiliations e.g. eating with the valets and cooks

Mozarts revolt Mozart Haydn:

generation younger

extensive travelling as a child prodigy

encouraged in social aspirations by his ambitious father Leopold

lively temperament June 1781 Count Arcos notorious kick on the arse servant freelance composer and performer revolutionary step:

socially: leap in the dark, or at least the unknown

personally: sharp conflict with his father Leopold

20

VIENNA 4 sources of income:

commissions for new works

ticket sales from concerts as a pianist

royalties from publishers

music lessons 1787: appointment as imperial chamber composer (800 guilders annually) Mozart, gifted and energetic, lives well in Vienna:

comfortable accommodations

horse and carriage

wardrobe of an aristocrat Major flaw in his condition dependency on the (high) nobility:

private concerts in their palaces

main presence at public concerts: o Academies o subscription concerts

noble connoisseurs:

exceptionally high level of musical education

receptive to innovative music of high quality

Countess Thun Count Cobenzl Prince Galitzin Archduke Maximilian Franz (brother of Joseph II)

nobility diplomatic corps Gottfried Freiherr van Swieten ( 1733 Leiden 1803 Vienna):

son of Maria Theresas personal physician

Jesuit college

diplomatic career

prefect of the Imperial Library (1777)

Councillor of State under Joseph II

freemason 1786 Gesellschaft der Associierten:

society of music-loving nobles

veneration for the old masters

silence

21

one of Mozarts main patrons:

salon of Countess Thun

conductor at the Gesellschaft (1788) financial support

introduces Mozart to the music of Bach and Handel counterpoint

late 1780s Mozart confronts financial problems:

moves 4 times in 18 months

loans from friends explaining elements:

1786: Le Nozze di Figaro

1788: illness Constanze

1787-1790: war with the Turks:

exodus of noble army officers

contraction of cultural life in Vienna

Europe-wide economic recession from 1790 on recovery

1791: La Clemenza di Tito / Die Zauberflte

international reputation invitations from London to St. Petersburg

1791: Mozart dies of rheumatic fever Caution! Mozarts alleged poverty and falling into oblivion to a large extent the product of romantic imagination creation of a legend financial problems = shortage of liquid assets (short term) recovery had started achievement recognised in public and private memory venerated

22

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770-1827 builds on the achievement of Haydn and Mozart raising the status of both music and the musician to unprecedented heights PUBLIC SPHERE COMES TO AGE 19th century breakthrough of a substantial market for music:

improvements in music print: use of steam engines

manufacturing industry of musical instruments (piano)

middle class demand in cities Beethoven to Franz Gerhard Wegeler 29 juni 1801:

My compositions earn me a great deal, and I can say that I have more orders than is possible for me to fulfill, and for every piece, I have 6, 7 publishers and more if I wanted to, and one does not negotiate with me, anymore, I demand and one pays, you see, that this is a beautiful situation,

STATUS 1809 Beethoven gets an attractive offer from Jerome, king of Westphalia (Kassel) 3 aristocrats coalesce to keep Beethoven in Vienna lifelong annual income of 4,000 guilder prince Lobkowitz prince Kinsky archduke Rudolph (brother Francis I) Observations:

Beethoven clearly recognised as a man of genius

relation more akin to friendship than patronage Beethoven only wants to be treated on equal terms

dedications as friend, not as supplicant e.g. archduke Rudolph (piano concerto no 5, Archduke trio, Missa Solemnis)

Beethoven thinking of himself as being the son of Frederick II

23

Beethoven has attitude

appearance

behaviour

deafness first musician to become the centre of a cult, a legend in his own time Beethoven worshipped by fans all over Europe (fanatic) admirers want to know how their hero looked like unprecedented visual access

Franz Klein life mask 1812 portrait bust

Blanning: passionate, indomitable, exciting, untamed, above all original BEETHOVENS DEATH AND FUNERAL artists standing manner in which his death is marked Mozart 1791 anonymous grave Beethoven 1827 Beethoven 1827: sense and awareness of an historical moment:

autopsy locks of hair drawing and death mask by Josef Danhauser (1805-1845) last words: Pity, pity too late!

(Schade, schade, zu spt) funeral: grand and formal event:

formal invitations

school holiday declared by the authorities

funeral procession: o 36 torch bearers (Schubert) o 10,000 30,000 onlookers

Whring cemetery: o oration written by dramatist Franz Grillparzer o only deity recognised = music per se

Beethoven as its high priest sacralisation of music

24

BEETHOVEN AND 19TH-CENTURY STATUOMANIA Bonn Beethoven-monument (1845) Ernst Julius Hhnel (1811-1891) Mnsterplatz Involvement of Franz Liszt Vienna Beethoven Monument (1880) Kaspar von Zumbusch (1830-1915) Beethovenplatz RELATION TO THE MUSICAL PUBLIC Beethoven:

sense of aristocracy

distanced from the general public developments

noble connoisseurs (Lichnowsky, Lobkowitz) subject to substantial financial pressures: o wars 1787-1815 o dissolution of their musical establishments

growth of population emerging public sphere (middle classes) larger musical public cultural participation as social pressure keeping up appearances public concerts impresarios profit

Blanning p. 44

These paying audiences were given what they wanted, and that was easy listening in the form of plenty of variety, good tunes, regular rhythms and pieces that were not too long or demanding.

pot-pourris popular overtures, operatic arias, dance tunes at best a single movement of a symphony or concerto Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven Italians complex music simple enjoyment complaint of vulgarisation Beethoven: It is said vox populi, vox dei- I never believed it

25

ROSSINI, PAGANINI, LISZT THE MUSICIAN AS CHARISMATIC HERO GIOACCHINO ROSSINI 1792-1868 Stendhal (1783-1842) Vie de Rossini (1824)

Light, lively, amusing, never wearisome, but seldom exalted Rossini would appear to have brought into this world for the express purpose of conjuring up visions of ecstatic delight in the commonplace soul of the Average Man

stupendous success popular adulation middle classes in Italy even popular among layers of the working class public sphere has come of age musician enters spheres previously reserved for kings and generals Stendhal:

Napoleon is dead; but a new conqueror has already shown himself to the world; and from Moscow to Naples, from London to Vienna, from Paris to Calcutta, his name is constantly on every tongue. The fame of this hero knows no bounds save those of civilisation itself; and he is not yet thirty-two! The task which I have set myself is to trace the paths and circumstances which have carried him at so early an age to such a throne of glory.

In the rich mans world 1829 Rossini retires 1855 Rossini settles in Paris:

protagonist of Paris society

jours cultural, diplomatic, financial elite

atmosphere of luxury, fashion and opulence gourmand tournedos Rossini (foie gras, truffle)

26

Rossini as charismatic musician charisma:

original meaning: gift from God

19th century secularisation purely internal quality derived exclusively from the personal qualities of the individual

archetype of the modern charismatic leader = Napoleon Bonaparte extraordinary force of his personality, charm, authority, sense of destiny, self-assurance 1804 places the imperial crown on his own head power of personal myth in the cultivation of public opinion