3. - Schlösser-Magazin

V.
210
V. Report on the Music Historical Importance: Dr. Bärbel Pelker
In essence, it is the three attainments of the
music at the court of the Elector of the Palatinate
that decisively influenced the historical
development of European music and culture.
These are:
1. the structure and performing culture of the
so-called classical orchestra, which has now
become the established pattern and standard
practice;
2. the advanced level of musical training
(systematic instruction in performance
and composition) which, in combination
with the electoral palatine music school (or
“Tonschule”) founded by the court’s director
of music, Georg Joseph Vogler, in 1776, is
regarded as the prototype that was emulated
by other conservatories and music faculties;
and
3. the training in a classical-romantic orchestral
technique and the important contribution
made to the concert symphony in the history
of composition.
A further particularity about the music at court
was the deliberately programmed distinction
between the opera repertoires played in
Mannheim and Schwetzingen.
Re 1: The development of the court orchestra
The development of the court orchestra into
one that was focused on the quality of its
music and the production of a modern body of
sound began in 1747, when the court returned
from Düsseldorf, where it had spent nearly a
year. The first step involved taking the rather
fragmentary ensemble, comprised of just
sixteen musicians 3 and transforming it into a
fully functioning orchestra again. For several
years at the start of this process, this pioneering
work was handled by the orchestra’s leader,
Johann Stamitz (1717–1757), who came from
Bohemia and who kept on enlarging the violin
section. In summer 1753, Stamitz received
powerful support from Ignaz Holzbauer
3 1746 list of court musicians (vocalists and instrumentalists),
(Munich, Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Geheimes Hausarchiv,
Traitteur manuscript t206 II)
(1711–1783), who came originally from Vienna,
who had worked at the Württemberg court
immediately prior to his new appointment and
who had successfully established himself in
Schwetzingen as a composer with his “favola
pastorale” called “Il figlio delle selve”. As director
of music, he was responsible for all facets of
the court orchestra from the very beginning.
For Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, it was
thus Holzbauer who “contributed most to the
perfection of this large orchestra” 4 . The strategy
underlying this successful improvement work
lay in ensuring that the leading positions in
each of the instrument sections were occupied
by good, even excellent, musicians. The only
way of achieving this at the start was to bring
virtuoso players in from the outside (such as
Jean Nicolas Heroux, Innocenz Danzi, Anton Fils,
the Jean Baptist brothers and Franz Wendling).
Later on, however, as of the middle of the 1760s
with the second generation of students, the best
musicians to replace the original ones came from
the orchestra’s own school (such as the violinists
Wilhelm Cramer, Carl and Anton Stamitz and
the oboists Friedrich Ramm and Ludwig August
Lebrun).
The decisive change in the orchestra’s
transformation into a modern top-quality one
took place in 1758, in other words one year
after Stamitz’ death. At the time, the office of
director of music was shared by two of his
former students, Christian Cannabich and Carlo
Giuseppe Toeschi, and the violin section was by
now comprised primarily of young musicians
from the electoral palatine orchestra school. The
lead positions in each of the instrument sections
were now occupied by specialists, something that
was by no means to be taken for granted in those
days – and certainly not with such consistency.
In addition, two clarinettists, Michael
Quallenberg (c. 1726–1786) and Johannes
Hampel, appeared officially in the
4 Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart: Ideen zu einer Ästhetik
der Tonkunst. Vienna 1806, Reproduced in Hildesheim 1990, p.
131