3. - Schlösser-Magazin

all occasions, must be the consequence of good
discipline; indeed there are more solo players,
and good composers in this, than perhaps in
any other orchestra in Europe; it is an army
of generals, equally fit to plan a battle, as to
fight it” 16 . What Burney, with his keen sense of
observation, was referring to with the metaphor
of an “army of generals” was the fact that there
was no other court orchestra at the time with
more composers and virtuoso players in one and
the same person than in that of the Electoral
Palatinate. The members of the orchestra
acquired their skills as composers, primarily
mastering counterpoint, through theoretical
tuition in their young years, in accordance with
the knowledge acquired up to then by Johann
Stamitz, Ignaz Holzbauer, Christian Cannabich
and Georg Joseph Vogler. Concerts and opera
performances at the electoral court then gave the
students further opportunities for intensifying
their knowledge of all types of music and of the
best composers of the time though the works
performed. The Prince Elector granted additional
stipends to particularly talented students to
spend some time studying in Italy, preferably
under Padre Martini in Bologna. The earliest
documentary evidence referring to the school
as one for composers is to be found in the
text written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in
dedicating his six violin sonatas (KV 301–306)
from 1778 to the Electress Elisabeth Augusta. In
this he makes the obvious distinction between
the “orchestra” (“chapelle”) and the “school”
(“école”) and goes on to emphasise “the large
number of excellent teachers playing for it”
and the “splendour of so many masterpieces
to have come out of this famous school” 17 .
There were other schools for composers in
the German-speaking world in the eighteenthcentury
which had certain basic characteristics
and compositional details in common with
Schwetzingen/Mannheim, for instance in
16 Charles Burney: The Present State of Music in Germany, the
Netherlands and United Provinces, vol. 1 London 1773, pp.
92ff.)
17 Gertraut Haberkamp: Eine bisher unbekannte Widmung
Mozarts an die Kurfürstin Maria Elisabeth von Bayern zur
Erstausgabe der Sonaten für Klavier und Violine KV 301–306.
In: Musik in Bayern, 1979, vol. 18–19, Facs. p. 7, translated p.
11
V. Report on the Music Historical Importance: Dr. Bärbel Pelker
Berlin, Dresden and Vienna, but it was only
in the Palatinate that there was this distinct,
characteristic double function of a combined
orchestral and composers’ school.
In the spirit of the Enlightenment, Prince Elector
Carl Theodor had plans that as of 1776 at the
latest “all children from the palatine lands” who
were interested in lessons in acting, dancing and
music would not only be taught free-of-charge
by the court musicians but would also receive
ten guilders of monthly support 18 . In was in
this context that the court’s director of music,
Georg Joseph Vogler, established his palatine
music school (“kurpfälzische Tonschule”),
which was opened on the Prince Elector’s
name day, 4 November 1776. In addition to the
daily tuition, which was comprised of public
lectures, harmony teaching, counterpoint,
exemplary analysis of printed works and
composition exercises in various types of music
(concerto, symphony, aria, choral and fugue),
a kind of colloquium was held on Saturdays
for discussing questions and the students’
homework 19 . Between 1776 and 1781 Vogler
published the lectures and lessons along with
practical examples of compositions, including
those by the students themselves, in a unique
model curriculum, more thoroughly prepared
in a didactic sense than anything musicology
had ever experienced before 20 . The basic
characteristics of the training schemes practised
by our music conservatories and faculties right
through to the present day are derived from this
training model.
18 Felix Joseph Lipowsky: Karl Theodor, [...], wie Er war, und wie
es wahr ist, oder dessen Leben und Thaten. Sulzbach 1828, p.
98
19 Pfälzischer kleiner Kalender, 1778, F3v–F4r
20 Tonwissenschaft und Tonsezkunst, Mannheim 1776; Stimmbildungskunst,
op. cit. 1776; Kuhrpfälzische Tonschule, op. cit.
1778; Gründe der Kuhrpfälzischen Tonschule in Beispielen, op.
cit. 1778; Betrachtungen der Mannheimer Tonschule, op. cit.
1778–1781. Vogler’s most famous students included Carl Maria
von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer
V.
213