Austin Glatthorn | University of Southampton (original) (raw)
Books by Austin Glatthorn
Cambridge University Press, 2022
Packed full of new archival evidence that reveals the interconnected world of music theatre durin... more Packed full of new archival evidence that reveals the interconnected world of music theatre during the 'Classical era', this interdisciplinary study investigates key locations, genres, music, and musicians. Austin Glatthorn explores the extent to which the Holy Roman Empire delineated and networked a cultural entity that found expression through music for the German stage. He maps an extensive network of Central European theatres; reconstructs the repertoire they shared; and explores how print media, personal correspondence, and their dissemination shaped and regulated this music. He then investigates the development of German melodrama and examines how articulations of the Holy Roman Empire on the musical stage expressed imperial belonging. Glatthorn engages with the most recent historical interpretations of the Holy Roman Empire and offers quantitative, empirical analysis of repertoire supported by conventional close readings to illustrate a shared culture of music theatre that transcended traditional boundaries in music scholarship.
Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era (Middleton, Wis.: A-R Editions), 2020
This is the first critical edition of Georg Anton Benda’s Philon und Theone (1779). Benda is best... more This is the first critical edition of Georg Anton Benda’s Philon und Theone (1779). Benda is best known for his earlier melodramas Ariadne auf Naxos (1775), Medea (1775), and Pygmalion (1779), which are characterized by instrumental music that alternates and occasionally overlaps declaimed text and pantomime. Indeed, these works have come to define the genre and are considered the archetypal eighteenth-century German melodramas. Yet Benda’s little-known Philon und Theone—an orphic story of a voyager searching for his lost beloved—challenges these models, for it embraces not only the instrumental music typical of the genre, but also vocal music. Furthermore, Philon und Theone includes a male, not the typical female, melodramatic protagonist, whose deteriorating cognitive state plays a central role in the story. This one-act work can therefore be understood as among the first “reform” melodramas that have hitherto received little scholarly attention yet can offer fresh insight into the aesthetic intersections of instrumental and vocal traditions around 1800.
Peer-Reviewed Publications by Austin Glatthorn
The Cambridge Companion to the Magic Flute, 2023
This chapter offers an account of the circumstances surrounding the creation of The Magic Flute a... more This chapter offers an account of the circumstances surrounding the creation of The Magic Flute and its earliest performances. Through an examination of the latest research and documentary evidence, alongside established accounts and early iconography, this essay considers how audiences may have experienced the opera in 1791. “The Magic Flute in 1791” thus contextualizes the genesis and earliest stagings of the work not as Mozart’s final opera, but rather as the product of a particular historical moment.
Journal of War & Culture Studies, 2021
The Holy Roman Empire’s final decades were plagued with conflict. While the War of the Bavarian S... more The Holy Roman Empire’s final decades were plagued with conflict. While the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–79) destabilized from within, the Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) posed a threat from abroad. Scholars have long considered the Empire’s kaleidoscopic constitution among its greatest weaknesses, for it could not possess the perceived power of a centralized nation-state and thus (allegedly) made its dissolution in 1806 all but inevitable. But by examining such works as Günther von Schwarzburg (1777), Heinrich der Löwe (1792), Der Retter Deutschlands (1797), and Achille (1801), I posit that there was nothing inevitable about the Empire’s fate in times of conflict leading up to and throughout the Coalition Wars against Revolutionary and Republican France. This paper ultimately argues that, despite claims to the contrary, the Empire understood itself as a complex nation that placed its collective past and present centre stage so as to help ensure its future.
Musik und Musikleben am Hof des Mainzer Kurfürsten Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, 2021
Das Melodram in Geschichte und Aufführungspraxis, 2020
Music & Letters, 2019
Georg Benda's Ariadne auf Naxos (1775) was an immediate success. By the end of the century, not o... more Georg Benda's Ariadne auf Naxos (1775) was an immediate success. By the end of the century, not only was it in the repertory of nearly every German theatre, but it was also one of the few German-language pieces translated for performances across Europe. Central to this melodrama--traditionally defined as an alternation of emotional declamation and pantomime with instrumental music--is its evocation of the sublime. Though scholars have posited Ariadne and its defining aesthetics as a model employed in subsequent Romantic opera, such teleological readings overlook reform melodramas that embraced vocal music and localised sublime moments. I argue that these works, rather than Ariadne, pushed melodrama's generic boundaries to the verge of opera and in the process provided instrumental music with the power to express the sublime without the aid of text. This exploration offers fresh insight into melodrama's music-text relations, generic hybridity, and aesthetic entanglements with opera and symphonic music.
Journal of Musicology, 2018
In July 1786 Prince Carl Anselm of Thurn und Taxis concluded that he had no choice but to dissolv... more In July 1786 Prince Carl Anselm of Thurn und Taxis concluded that he had no choice but to dissolve his Italian court opera. This owed in part to the success of the German theater, which had been established in 1784 to rival the Prince’s Hoftheater and contest his position as the Holy Roman Emperor’s representative to the Reichstag in Regensburg. New evidence challenges the prevailing view that the dissolution of the Taxis’s court opera marked the end of the family’s musical patronage and involvement in Regensburg’s cultural life. In the face of opposition from other Reichstag officials, the Thurn und Taxis continued their investment in music and theatrics, appropriating outdoor spectacles of a kind popular earlier in the century to project imperial power. The prince affirmed his position as the emperor’s representative in such older displays of affluence and standing but updated them to suit contemporary tastes. Carl Anselm’s musico-political theatrics around 1789 demonstrate that although Italian opera failed to articulate the legitimacy he intended to project, his culture of political representation conducted in the name of the emperor endured well into the twilight years of the eighteenth century. To understand the continued musical patronage of this contested and middling prince is to appreciate more fully the methods by which music, spectacle, and politics were negotiated during a transformative period in European history.
Eighteenth-Century Music, 2017
In the autumn of 1790 Mozart undertook the penultimate journey of his life to participate in the ... more In the autumn of 1790 Mozart undertook the penultimate journey of his life to participate in the coronation of Leopold II as Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt am Main. His attendance and performance at this significant imperial gathering were an investment designed to improve his fortunes. But Mozart's gamble failed. Though it was a key political event, and despite its significance as one of Mozart's final sojourns, not much more is known about the music of the Frankfurt coronation. This article offers a new understanding of Leopold II's imperial accession, positing the coronation as a vibrant context for music culture. Contrary to narratives that position Mozart's concert above all others, I argue that this was far from the case according to his contemporaries. During the coronation festivities the city hosted three theatre companies and many celebrated musicians, including Ludwig Fischer, Johann Hässler, Vincenzo Righini, Antonio Salieri and Georg Vogler, among others. Frankfurt was indeed filled with musicians who cooperated with and competed against one another in the hope of attracting substantial audiences comprised of the Empire's elite. Yet for Mozart, whose concert was poorly advertised and unfortunately timed, this competition proved too intense. By investigating the musical and political events of Leopold II's imperial coronation, I assert that Mozart's investment, which had the potential to alter his life forever, was unsuccessful in part because of a rumour that caused his desired audience to leave Frankfurt temporarily the very morning his performance took place.
Mainz und sein Orchester: Stationen einer 500-jährigen Geschichte, 2014
Book, Edition, Recording Reviews by Austin Glatthorn
Eighteenth-Century Music, 2020
Review of Beaurepaire, Bourdin and Wolff, eds. Moving Scenes: The Circulation of Music and Theatr... more Review of Beaurepaire, Bourdin and Wolff, eds. Moving Scenes: The Circulation of Music and Theatre in Europe, 1700–1815. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2018
Eighteenth-Century Music, 2017
Eighteenth-Century Music, 2017
Blogs by Austin Glatthorn
Boxwood & Brass Harmoniemusik, 2018
Teaching Romanticism XXXVI: Romantic Melodrama, 2022
Talks by Austin Glatthorn
86th Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society, 2020
All roads lead to Vienna. Or at least that is the impression conveyed in many studies of eighteen... more All roads lead to Vienna. Or at least that is the impression conveyed in many studies of eighteenth-century German opera, as the emperor’s court opera has long been the benchmark for the evaluation of such works. But when, in 1786, the Mannheim concertmaster Ignaz Fränzl (1736-1811) arrived in the city having traveled those very roads to see “every theater in Germany,” he “considered Vienna…amongst the worst.” If Fränzl is to be believed, this was no small feat, for the Holy Roman Empire was too expansive for a single Nationaltheater and instead contained hundreds of theaters. His contemporaries made sense of their kaleidoscopic operatic landscape in periodicals, such as the Theater-Kalender (1775-1800), in which theaters could share their activities and the latest operatic developments. Scholars have more recently confronted this issue by positioning Vienna as the center of late eighteenth-century German opera. Yet in so doing, not only are they at odds with Fränzl’s estimation, but they also fail to account for the unifying theatrical network to which he alluded in his letter and against which he measured Vienna’s theater.
This paper reconstructs and investigates the realm of German-language music theater during the late eighteenth century. Through an examination of archival documents and periodicals, and aided by digital tools, I reveal that around 330 German-language companies performed in 266 locations throughout Central Europe in the decades leading up to 1800. I argue that this complex theatrical system spread evenly across a vast polity. Facilitated by an efficient postal network, many companies traveled to perform for both court and public audiences, informing one another of their activities in the process. Thus, my investigation not only forces reconsideration of traditional sites of eighteenth-century German opera, but also calls into question supposed divisions between elite and popular cultures. Given this vast and transcendent operatic space, it seems unlikely that Fränzl could have seen every German theater. But he also did not need to: by considering the circulation of theatrical knowledge through missives and periodicals, he—like us—would be able to understand more fully the interconnected music-theatric world of late eighteenth-century Central Europe.
Theatre on the Move in Times of Conflict (1750–1850), 2019
The Holy Roman Empire’s final decades were plagued with conflict. While the War of the Bavarian S... more The Holy Roman Empire’s final decades were plagued with conflict. While the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-1779) posed a threat from within, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1802 and 1803-1815 respectively) threatened the polity from without. Scholars have long considered the Empire’s kaleidoscopic constitution its greatest weakness, for it could not possess the perceived power of a centralized nation-state and thus (allegedly) made its dissolution in 1806 all but inevitable. Yet, the Empire’s fate was far from certain in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars. What is more, although it was not a nation-state, the Empire was nevertheless both a nation and a state, one which composers represented in music and onstage spectacle.
This paper investigates music theatre that portrayed the Holy Roman Empire on the stage during the polity’s turbulent twilight years. By examining such pieces as Holzbauer’s Günther von Schwarzburg (Mannheim, 1777), Stegmann’s Heinrich der Löwe (Frankfurt am Main, 1790), Der Retter Deutschlands (anonymous; unknown, 1797), and Paer’s Achille (Vienna, 1801), I illustrate that, while acknowledging local territories, these works nevertheless championed Imperial unity in times of armed and ideological conflict. Indeed, such pieces reveal a dual-level identity that recognized both Imperial estate and Empire. This paper demonstrates not only that the Holy Roman Empire’s past, present, and future were portrayed on stage, but also that such works communicated how unity in diversity could ensure the preservation of a thousand-year-old empire in the face of defeat.
84th Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society, 2018
When Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos first premiered in 1775, it was an immediate success. This ... more When Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos first premiered in 1775, it was an immediate success. This melodrama—a genre traditionally defined as an alternation of histrionic declamation and pantomime with instrumental music—was so exotic that contemporaries believed it might cause a revolution and dethrone opera as the reigning music-theatrical genre. Indeed, Ariadne auf Naxos ushered in a period during which hundreds of similar works were composed, and, by the end of the century, not only was it in the repertory of nearly every German theatre, but the work was also one of the few German-language pieces translated for performances across Europe. Part of melodrama’s appeal was its evocation of the sublime. Scholars traditionally posit Ariadne and its characteristic sublime aesthetics as a ‘melodrama model’ that was increasingly employed in subsequent Romantic opera. Yet such teleological readings of Ariadne fail to account for the emergence of mixed-genre melodramas that were situated precariously between 'pure' melodrama and opera.
This paper investigates manifestations of aesthetic hybridity between melodrama and opera during a period that has attracted little attention: the years immediately following Ariadne’s premiere (c.1775-1780). I argue Araidne’s legacy as the paradigmatic melodrama has cast a long shadow over the reform movement that sought to bring melodrama closer to opera by including vocal music and localizing moments of the melodramatic sublime, thus raising music theatre to new dramatic heights. Through an examination of critical responses to Ariadne and the melodramas they inspired, including Zimmermann’s Zelmor und Ermide (1779/1782) and Benda’s little-known Philon und Theone (1779), I reveal that works like these, rather than Ariadne itself, pushed the generic boundaries of melodrama to the verge of opera. In so doing, my investigation complicates not only perceptions of how melodramatic moments made their way into opera, but also the very definition of melodrama. By shedding much-needed light on critical reactions to Ariadne and the works composed in response, we might understand not only early melodrama more fully, but also the process through which its defining aesthetics were subsumed into opera, the very genre some once believed it might replace.
Cambridge University Press, 2022
Packed full of new archival evidence that reveals the interconnected world of music theatre durin... more Packed full of new archival evidence that reveals the interconnected world of music theatre during the 'Classical era', this interdisciplinary study investigates key locations, genres, music, and musicians. Austin Glatthorn explores the extent to which the Holy Roman Empire delineated and networked a cultural entity that found expression through music for the German stage. He maps an extensive network of Central European theatres; reconstructs the repertoire they shared; and explores how print media, personal correspondence, and their dissemination shaped and regulated this music. He then investigates the development of German melodrama and examines how articulations of the Holy Roman Empire on the musical stage expressed imperial belonging. Glatthorn engages with the most recent historical interpretations of the Holy Roman Empire and offers quantitative, empirical analysis of repertoire supported by conventional close readings to illustrate a shared culture of music theatre that transcended traditional boundaries in music scholarship.
Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era (Middleton, Wis.: A-R Editions), 2020
This is the first critical edition of Georg Anton Benda’s Philon und Theone (1779). Benda is best... more This is the first critical edition of Georg Anton Benda’s Philon und Theone (1779). Benda is best known for his earlier melodramas Ariadne auf Naxos (1775), Medea (1775), and Pygmalion (1779), which are characterized by instrumental music that alternates and occasionally overlaps declaimed text and pantomime. Indeed, these works have come to define the genre and are considered the archetypal eighteenth-century German melodramas. Yet Benda’s little-known Philon und Theone—an orphic story of a voyager searching for his lost beloved—challenges these models, for it embraces not only the instrumental music typical of the genre, but also vocal music. Furthermore, Philon und Theone includes a male, not the typical female, melodramatic protagonist, whose deteriorating cognitive state plays a central role in the story. This one-act work can therefore be understood as among the first “reform” melodramas that have hitherto received little scholarly attention yet can offer fresh insight into the aesthetic intersections of instrumental and vocal traditions around 1800.
The Cambridge Companion to the Magic Flute, 2023
This chapter offers an account of the circumstances surrounding the creation of The Magic Flute a... more This chapter offers an account of the circumstances surrounding the creation of The Magic Flute and its earliest performances. Through an examination of the latest research and documentary evidence, alongside established accounts and early iconography, this essay considers how audiences may have experienced the opera in 1791. “The Magic Flute in 1791” thus contextualizes the genesis and earliest stagings of the work not as Mozart’s final opera, but rather as the product of a particular historical moment.
Journal of War & Culture Studies, 2021
The Holy Roman Empire’s final decades were plagued with conflict. While the War of the Bavarian S... more The Holy Roman Empire’s final decades were plagued with conflict. While the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–79) destabilized from within, the Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) posed a threat from abroad. Scholars have long considered the Empire’s kaleidoscopic constitution among its greatest weaknesses, for it could not possess the perceived power of a centralized nation-state and thus (allegedly) made its dissolution in 1806 all but inevitable. But by examining such works as Günther von Schwarzburg (1777), Heinrich der Löwe (1792), Der Retter Deutschlands (1797), and Achille (1801), I posit that there was nothing inevitable about the Empire’s fate in times of conflict leading up to and throughout the Coalition Wars against Revolutionary and Republican France. This paper ultimately argues that, despite claims to the contrary, the Empire understood itself as a complex nation that placed its collective past and present centre stage so as to help ensure its future.
Musik und Musikleben am Hof des Mainzer Kurfürsten Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, 2021
Das Melodram in Geschichte und Aufführungspraxis, 2020
Music & Letters, 2019
Georg Benda's Ariadne auf Naxos (1775) was an immediate success. By the end of the century, not o... more Georg Benda's Ariadne auf Naxos (1775) was an immediate success. By the end of the century, not only was it in the repertory of nearly every German theatre, but it was also one of the few German-language pieces translated for performances across Europe. Central to this melodrama--traditionally defined as an alternation of emotional declamation and pantomime with instrumental music--is its evocation of the sublime. Though scholars have posited Ariadne and its defining aesthetics as a model employed in subsequent Romantic opera, such teleological readings overlook reform melodramas that embraced vocal music and localised sublime moments. I argue that these works, rather than Ariadne, pushed melodrama's generic boundaries to the verge of opera and in the process provided instrumental music with the power to express the sublime without the aid of text. This exploration offers fresh insight into melodrama's music-text relations, generic hybridity, and aesthetic entanglements with opera and symphonic music.
Journal of Musicology, 2018
In July 1786 Prince Carl Anselm of Thurn und Taxis concluded that he had no choice but to dissolv... more In July 1786 Prince Carl Anselm of Thurn und Taxis concluded that he had no choice but to dissolve his Italian court opera. This owed in part to the success of the German theater, which had been established in 1784 to rival the Prince’s Hoftheater and contest his position as the Holy Roman Emperor’s representative to the Reichstag in Regensburg. New evidence challenges the prevailing view that the dissolution of the Taxis’s court opera marked the end of the family’s musical patronage and involvement in Regensburg’s cultural life. In the face of opposition from other Reichstag officials, the Thurn und Taxis continued their investment in music and theatrics, appropriating outdoor spectacles of a kind popular earlier in the century to project imperial power. The prince affirmed his position as the emperor’s representative in such older displays of affluence and standing but updated them to suit contemporary tastes. Carl Anselm’s musico-political theatrics around 1789 demonstrate that although Italian opera failed to articulate the legitimacy he intended to project, his culture of political representation conducted in the name of the emperor endured well into the twilight years of the eighteenth century. To understand the continued musical patronage of this contested and middling prince is to appreciate more fully the methods by which music, spectacle, and politics were negotiated during a transformative period in European history.
Eighteenth-Century Music, 2017
In the autumn of 1790 Mozart undertook the penultimate journey of his life to participate in the ... more In the autumn of 1790 Mozart undertook the penultimate journey of his life to participate in the coronation of Leopold II as Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt am Main. His attendance and performance at this significant imperial gathering were an investment designed to improve his fortunes. But Mozart's gamble failed. Though it was a key political event, and despite its significance as one of Mozart's final sojourns, not much more is known about the music of the Frankfurt coronation. This article offers a new understanding of Leopold II's imperial accession, positing the coronation as a vibrant context for music culture. Contrary to narratives that position Mozart's concert above all others, I argue that this was far from the case according to his contemporaries. During the coronation festivities the city hosted three theatre companies and many celebrated musicians, including Ludwig Fischer, Johann Hässler, Vincenzo Righini, Antonio Salieri and Georg Vogler, among others. Frankfurt was indeed filled with musicians who cooperated with and competed against one another in the hope of attracting substantial audiences comprised of the Empire's elite. Yet for Mozart, whose concert was poorly advertised and unfortunately timed, this competition proved too intense. By investigating the musical and political events of Leopold II's imperial coronation, I assert that Mozart's investment, which had the potential to alter his life forever, was unsuccessful in part because of a rumour that caused his desired audience to leave Frankfurt temporarily the very morning his performance took place.
Mainz und sein Orchester: Stationen einer 500-jährigen Geschichte, 2014
Eighteenth-Century Music, 2020
Review of Beaurepaire, Bourdin and Wolff, eds. Moving Scenes: The Circulation of Music and Theatr... more Review of Beaurepaire, Bourdin and Wolff, eds. Moving Scenes: The Circulation of Music and Theatre in Europe, 1700–1815. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2018
Eighteenth-Century Music, 2017
Eighteenth-Century Music, 2017
Boxwood & Brass Harmoniemusik, 2018
Teaching Romanticism XXXVI: Romantic Melodrama, 2022
86th Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society, 2020
All roads lead to Vienna. Or at least that is the impression conveyed in many studies of eighteen... more All roads lead to Vienna. Or at least that is the impression conveyed in many studies of eighteenth-century German opera, as the emperor’s court opera has long been the benchmark for the evaluation of such works. But when, in 1786, the Mannheim concertmaster Ignaz Fränzl (1736-1811) arrived in the city having traveled those very roads to see “every theater in Germany,” he “considered Vienna…amongst the worst.” If Fränzl is to be believed, this was no small feat, for the Holy Roman Empire was too expansive for a single Nationaltheater and instead contained hundreds of theaters. His contemporaries made sense of their kaleidoscopic operatic landscape in periodicals, such as the Theater-Kalender (1775-1800), in which theaters could share their activities and the latest operatic developments. Scholars have more recently confronted this issue by positioning Vienna as the center of late eighteenth-century German opera. Yet in so doing, not only are they at odds with Fränzl’s estimation, but they also fail to account for the unifying theatrical network to which he alluded in his letter and against which he measured Vienna’s theater.
This paper reconstructs and investigates the realm of German-language music theater during the late eighteenth century. Through an examination of archival documents and periodicals, and aided by digital tools, I reveal that around 330 German-language companies performed in 266 locations throughout Central Europe in the decades leading up to 1800. I argue that this complex theatrical system spread evenly across a vast polity. Facilitated by an efficient postal network, many companies traveled to perform for both court and public audiences, informing one another of their activities in the process. Thus, my investigation not only forces reconsideration of traditional sites of eighteenth-century German opera, but also calls into question supposed divisions between elite and popular cultures. Given this vast and transcendent operatic space, it seems unlikely that Fränzl could have seen every German theater. But he also did not need to: by considering the circulation of theatrical knowledge through missives and periodicals, he—like us—would be able to understand more fully the interconnected music-theatric world of late eighteenth-century Central Europe.
Theatre on the Move in Times of Conflict (1750–1850), 2019
The Holy Roman Empire’s final decades were plagued with conflict. While the War of the Bavarian S... more The Holy Roman Empire’s final decades were plagued with conflict. While the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-1779) posed a threat from within, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1802 and 1803-1815 respectively) threatened the polity from without. Scholars have long considered the Empire’s kaleidoscopic constitution its greatest weakness, for it could not possess the perceived power of a centralized nation-state and thus (allegedly) made its dissolution in 1806 all but inevitable. Yet, the Empire’s fate was far from certain in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars. What is more, although it was not a nation-state, the Empire was nevertheless both a nation and a state, one which composers represented in music and onstage spectacle.
This paper investigates music theatre that portrayed the Holy Roman Empire on the stage during the polity’s turbulent twilight years. By examining such pieces as Holzbauer’s Günther von Schwarzburg (Mannheim, 1777), Stegmann’s Heinrich der Löwe (Frankfurt am Main, 1790), Der Retter Deutschlands (anonymous; unknown, 1797), and Paer’s Achille (Vienna, 1801), I illustrate that, while acknowledging local territories, these works nevertheless championed Imperial unity in times of armed and ideological conflict. Indeed, such pieces reveal a dual-level identity that recognized both Imperial estate and Empire. This paper demonstrates not only that the Holy Roman Empire’s past, present, and future were portrayed on stage, but also that such works communicated how unity in diversity could ensure the preservation of a thousand-year-old empire in the face of defeat.
84th Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society, 2018
When Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos first premiered in 1775, it was an immediate success. This ... more When Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos first premiered in 1775, it was an immediate success. This melodrama—a genre traditionally defined as an alternation of histrionic declamation and pantomime with instrumental music—was so exotic that contemporaries believed it might cause a revolution and dethrone opera as the reigning music-theatrical genre. Indeed, Ariadne auf Naxos ushered in a period during which hundreds of similar works were composed, and, by the end of the century, not only was it in the repertory of nearly every German theatre, but the work was also one of the few German-language pieces translated for performances across Europe. Part of melodrama’s appeal was its evocation of the sublime. Scholars traditionally posit Ariadne and its characteristic sublime aesthetics as a ‘melodrama model’ that was increasingly employed in subsequent Romantic opera. Yet such teleological readings of Ariadne fail to account for the emergence of mixed-genre melodramas that were situated precariously between 'pure' melodrama and opera.
This paper investigates manifestations of aesthetic hybridity between melodrama and opera during a period that has attracted little attention: the years immediately following Ariadne’s premiere (c.1775-1780). I argue Araidne’s legacy as the paradigmatic melodrama has cast a long shadow over the reform movement that sought to bring melodrama closer to opera by including vocal music and localizing moments of the melodramatic sublime, thus raising music theatre to new dramatic heights. Through an examination of critical responses to Ariadne and the melodramas they inspired, including Zimmermann’s Zelmor und Ermide (1779/1782) and Benda’s little-known Philon und Theone (1779), I reveal that works like these, rather than Ariadne itself, pushed the generic boundaries of melodrama to the verge of opera. In so doing, my investigation complicates not only perceptions of how melodramatic moments made their way into opera, but also the very definition of melodrama. By shedding much-needed light on critical reactions to Ariadne and the works composed in response, we might understand not only early melodrama more fully, but also the process through which its defining aesthetics were subsumed into opera, the very genre some once believed it might replace.
Französische Oper in Wien um 1800, 2018
This paper explores French opera in Vienna around the year 1800 not in terms of productions in th... more This paper explores French opera in Vienna around the year 1800 not in terms of productions in the theatre itself, but rather through arrangements of operatic music for small wind ensembles, known as Harmonien. Long associated with Vienna and its composers, Harmonien and the music designed for them played a significant, yet often overlooked, role in musical life at the turn of the century. These ensembles performed original works as well as arrangements of symphonies, oratorios, and operas in virtually every space that late eighteenth-century audiences could expect to experience music, including at court, in theatres, taverns, streets, gardens, and even at home. Harmonien were thus ensembles that transcended the boundaries of the opera house, capable of disseminating its most popular works throughout Vienna and beyond—not only more frequently, but also at a fraction of the cost of staged productions. And as the French Revolutionary Wars dragged on, princely families who could no longer afford Hofkapellen turned to less-expensive Harmonien to provide the symphonic and operatic music that their orchestras had once performed. Indeed, the regular announcement of new Harmonie arrangements of opera in journals and newspapers such as the Wiener Zeitung in part attest to society’s need of, and preoccupation with, such works. By examining settings of French opera for Viennese Harmonien, especially those by Josef Triebensee (1772-1846), this paper opens a new vista in which to gauge the reception of imported French stage works among Vienna’s public in the tumultuous years around 1800.
On 2 October 1775, Duke Ernst II Ludwig of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1745-1804) opened a German-langu... more On 2 October 1775, Duke Ernst II Ludwig of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1745-1804) opened a German-language theatre that would go on to stage approximately thirty-six operas on 211 occasions. Among these performances were the premieres of eight works by Georg Benda, Johann Hönicke, and Anton Schweitzer. To supplement such pieces embracing the forefront of contemporary aesthetics, court librarian and theatre co-director Heinrich August Ottokar Reichard selected foreign-language operas based on their moral and artistic content for production on the German stage. Yet despite its success, the theatre was dissolved after only four years of operation in the autumn of 1779. Nevertheless, Gotha remained at the centre of operatic development, for its actors not only went on to perform and direct at the Holy Roman Empire’s leading theatres in Berlin, Hamburg, Mannheim, Mainz, and Vienna, but Reichard also continued to publish his Theater-Journal für Deutschland (1777-1783) and his Theater-Kalender (1775-1800). Offering critical reports on the actors, musicians, pieces, and repertories of roughly 150 imperial theatres, Reichard’s periodicals were fundamental in the expansion of German-language opera across the Empire.
Studies investigating the German Nationaltheater movement of the late eighteenth century commonly focus on the institutions of larger cultural centres, such as those established in Hamburg (1767), Vienna (1776), Mannheim (1779), and Berlin (1786). However, the crucial role that the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg played in the advancement of opera across Central Europe hardly earns a mention. Indeed, despite commonly being overlooked as a context for culture in narratives of the emergence of German opera, Gotha’s influence on musical theatre was of national importance. This paper investigates Reichard’s theatre periodicals as well as correspondence from actors and directors from throughout the Reich to Gotha-based composers and librettists, such as Georg Benda and Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter, to illustrate Gotha’s prominent involvement in the Holy Roman Empire’s emerging national consciousness and consequent Nationaltheater movement. I shall reveal how, as a central hub in the Empire’s operatic network, Gotha’s theatre was instrumental—to an equal degree, if not more so than the celebrated stages named above—in the development of German-language opera in the years around 1800 and beyond.
In the opening scene of Heinrich von Gemmingen’s (1755-1836) satirical Auch ein Melodram mit Chör... more In the opening scene of Heinrich von Gemmingen’s (1755-1836) satirical Auch ein Melodram mit Chören und Tänzen untermischt: Der Tod der Dido (1780), two poets have been summoned to court, for the local count intends to commission a new piece to celebrate his birthday. The nobleman instructs that the resulting comedy should not include many people to keep costs as low as possible. One of the poets suggests a melodrama. Although the count is not entirely sure what this is, he describes an unfamiliar performance he attended when he last visited the city. Upon hearing the count’s account, the poet responds: ‘Your excellence, that was a melodrama intermixed with music, song, choruses, and dance. It’s the latest fashion’.
Gemmingen’s melodrama was the latest contribution to a new and thriving genre. Originating from Gottschedian critiques of opera, the first German Melodram was conceived, in 1772, as a practical solution to the task of effectively uniting music and text. However, it was not until the appearance of Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea by Georg Benda (1722-1795) three years later that the melodrama began to gain popularity in theatres across the Holy Roman Empire. The rapid proliferation of the young genre was due to performances of these and similar works, printed scores, personal correspondence, and philosophical and aesthetic texts that concerned the melodrama, what the philosopher Johann Gebhard Ehrenreich Maaß (1766-1823) dubbed ‘Germany’s daughter’. Due in part to the unparalleled success of and attention given to Benda’s early melodramas during the eighteenth century, the German Melodram is today largely understood through these works. Yet although Ariadne and Medea often served as a point of departure for contemporaries who explored the melodrama’s capabilities, the trajectory of the developing genre quickly turned away from Benda’s early models, which alternated and occasionally overlapped spoken text with instrumental accompaniment.
This paper examines the stylistic development of the melodrama in the years following its defining works, Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea. As the poet in Gemmingen’s work exclaims, melodramas increasingly began including combinations of spoken text, instrumental music, song, and dance soon after the appearance of Benda’s archetypal works. Benda himself abandoned the melodrama for serious Singspiel after composing Ariadne and Medea, but when he returned to the genre four years later, his Theone included choruses, song, and dance. This little-known melodrama by the composer credited with establishing the genre reveals how Benda deviated from his tried and tested method and engaged with the latest aesthetic debates surrounding the melodrama. By focusing primarily on Johann Karl Wezel’s (1747-1819) Zelmor und Ermide (1779) and Georg Benda’s Theone (1779), I shall illustrate that the Melodram was far more stylistically diverse (in terms of music and topic) than conventional wisdom suggests. Despite Ariadne and Medea’s enduring influence on perceptions of the genre, the melodrama comprised a flexible solution for how to set the German language to music, one which ultimately found its lasting success in opera, the very genre it was designed to challenge.
Representatives of Brandenburg-Prussia signed the Peace of Basel on 5 April 1795, thus bringing a... more Representatives of Brandenburg-Prussia signed the Peace of Basel on 5 April 1795, thus bringing an end to three years of hostilities with Republican France. Although the might of Prussia would remain neutral until the autumn of 1806, the war raged on in the western Estates of the Holy Roman Empire. Hundreds of musicians were employed in these territories, including those active in the ecclesiastical electorates and other key imperial centres such as Cologne, Wetzlar, and Frankfurt am Main. As a result of continued hostilities and the dissolution of Hofkapellen and touring theatre companies that ensued, musicians fled these war-torn areas in search of employment far from the front. With its location on the other side of the Reich, as well as its neutrality, Berlin offered an ideal refuge.
This paper focuses upon the Hofkapelle of Brandenburg-Prussia during the decade of peace afforded by the Peace of Basel. Many court musicians directly affected by war sought employment in Berlin. The most notable of these was Vincenzo Righini (1756-1812), who escaped the French occupation of Mainz to become the Berlin Kapellmeister. Berlin was an ideal destination for musicians like Righini because it was far from the fighting, and therefore its music ensembles also enjoyed a period of relative prosperity in comparison to those imperial Hofkapellen affected by war. Although during this period the number of musicians in the employ of the royal court of Brandenburg-Prussia fluctuated between about seventy-seven and ninety-five, the Hofkapelle remained more stable then those forced to succumb to war debts. This paper considers imperial court music in the context of the French Revolutionary Wars to demonstrate that a search for security from the crisis in the Rhineland led musicians to seek political and artistic sanctuary in Berlin. In doing so, I shall show that the Peace of Basel facilitated a period of tranquility that helped preserve Berlin’s musical traditions at a time when the cost of war necessitated the dissolution of a number of the Holy Roman Empire’s other Hofkapellen.
On 21 October 1792 French Republican troops marched into the Residenz city of Mainz. This signal... more On 21 October 1792 French Republican troops marched into the Residenz city of Mainz. This signaled the beginning of the end for the musical ensembles that once flourished in this key electoral capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Indeed, contemporary critics considered the elector’s Hofkapelle and Nationaltheater—which staged over 400 performances of 69 different operas between 1788 and 1792—among the best in the vast Empire. Yet, despite their renown and importance, Mainz’s ensembles in the years of revolution remain almost unknown. This paper investigates Mainz's court music during the French occupation of 1792-93 to shed new light on German musical life at the crossroads of the Old and New Regimes.
Archival documents, including a collection of letters written by Mainz musicians in the autumn of 1792, help to explain this significant, yet little-understood moment in music history. Earlier that summer, the Mainz Nationaltheater and Hofkapelle performed opera as well as the Masses for Emperor Franz II’s imperial election and coronation, just as they had for those of Leopold II in 1790. Consequently, the elector’s musicians enjoyed the honor and prestige of having been part of these national celebrations. However, at the height of the ensembles’ renown, the tide of war had swung in favor of the French, whose troops advanced deeper into the Rhineland. After the court fled in haste, Mainz’s musicians were now faced with the decision to remain or to seek employment elsewhere as the enemy approached their city. This paper explores the effects of the French conquest of Mainz on musicians whose livelihood depended on the now-absent court and illustrates that, for musicians, the arrival of the French Revolutionary Army constituted occupation rather than liberation. I argue that the abrupt installation of a new democratic government led to a musical (e)migration and the subsequent collapse of the ensembles that had once prospered in the city under the Old Regime. By exploring music in Mainz at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, we may better understand this crucial period of transformation in European (music) history.
Despite the participation of some of the best-known composers of the late eighteenth century, the... more Despite the participation of some of the best-known composers of the late eighteenth century, the music of Leopold II’s imperial coronation in Frankfurt am Main (1790) remains almost unknown. Most inquiry into late eighteenth-century coronations focuses on Leopold’s Prague installation as king of the Bohemians (1791), where Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito premiered. The Prague ceremony, however, shares little with and pales in comparison to the political, cultural, and musical grandeur of his earlier coronation. Deemed ‘our great national drama’ by the poet Christian Schubart, ruling elite, aristocrats, politicians, intellectuals, and artists flocked to Frankfurt to witness the greatest display of representational theatre the aging Empire had to offer. Among those who sojourned in the city were some of the eighteenth century’s most famed musicians and ensembles; the result was a strikingly intense period in the history of western music.
Abundant primary sources, manuscript and printed, as well as public and private archives help explain this brief—yet culturally significant—time of concentrated musical activity. The music of the state election and coronation was composed by Vincenzo Righini and Antonio Salieri and was performed by a collaboration of their respective Hofkapellen (Mainz and Vienna). More publicly, Friedrich Dülon, Ludwig Fischer, Carl Franz, Johann Hässler, W.A. Mozart, and Abbé Vogler produced concerts that were attended by the Reich’s elite. Furthermore, these musicians complemented three theatre companies that were temporarily in residence. Competition for audiences was strong: Mozart’s performance did not attract a substantial crowd. Framed within a Holy Roman Imperial (as opposed to a Habsburg-Austrian) context, an exploration of the coronation’s musical scene places into perspective Mozart’s failed concert and calls for a broader consideration of the Empire as a context for musical culture. Investigating the repertory and relative successes and failures of these concerts, this paper demonstrates that between September and October 1790, Frankfurt witnessed a prolific period of musical activity unlike any other in late eighteenth-century Empire.
In this paper I explore the role of the archbishop-elector of Mainz’s Nationaltheater during the ... more In this paper I explore the role of the archbishop-elector of Mainz’s Nationaltheater during the election and coronation ceremonies of Emperor Leopold II in 1790. The members of this ensemble performed the election Mass and later joined fifteen musicians of the Viennese Hofkapelle to provide the music for the coronation Mass. When not performing in the church, the Mainz national theatre staged opera for the Frankfurt public. I investigate their repertory and compare it with that of the elector of Trier’s opera company, their primary rival in Frankfurt during the coronation. This study reveals that the Mainz Nationaltheater played a crucial and varied musical part in the imperial coronation of 1790.
This paper explores the context and performance of Theodor von Schacht's music for winds and voic... more This paper explores the context and performance of Theodor von Schacht's music for winds and voices. I pay particular attention to his dramatic scene 'Vulkans Musik' (1789), scored for Harmonie and voices. While operatic music arranged for Harmonien was rather common, this work is a rare example of originally composed dramatic music for wind ensemble. I explore the performance of Schacht's Vulkans Musik to show that it was an allegorical festa teatrale composed for Harmonie.
Scholars who investigate German music often come across terms such as the Holy Roman Empire, the ... more Scholars who investigate German music often come across terms such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Austrian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Habsburg Empire. It is clear even from a handful of specialist studies on music of the German-speaking world that there is great confusion between these polities. In this paper, I offer examples of the varied way that the Holy Roman Empire (800AD-1806AD) is described in musicology to show that it is often confused or used synonymously with subsequent Central European empires. I argue that this uncertainty is part of a larger historiographical tradition of marginalising the Holy Roman Empire and conclude that, in turn, the Holy Roman Empire has been too hastily dismissed as a significant context for music culture.
This paper investigates the wind music of the princely family of Thurn und Taxis, a small court w... more This paper investigates the wind music of the princely family of Thurn und Taxis, a small court with strong ties to Vienna. Their music for winds spanned an eighty-year period from c.1750 until 1830 and included a pair of violas in well over half of these works. By examining the Thurn und Taxis’ music for winds, this paper calls into question our understanding of eighteenth-century Harmoniemusik and illustrates that its instrumentation, music, and use was much more varied than previously recognised.
Visualizing Operatic Fame is a graph database displaying how operatic fame was genera... more Visualizing Operatic Fame is a graph database displaying how operatic fame was generated in the German-speaking realm from 1750-1815. The tool uncovers networks of relationships not only between individuals (composers, opera singers, music publishers) but also objects related to operatic renown (performance calendars, scores, reviews, images of actors, court and publishers’ catalogues). The data model (and choice of neo4j as framework) is informed by Latour’s Actor Network Theory, which accommodates objects and people as equally capable of effecting change; this reconfiguration allows for a nuanced and more holistic ‘picture’ of how operatic fame was generated.
My PhD thesis, entitled 'The Theatre of Politics and the Politics of Theatre: Music as Representa... more My PhD thesis, entitled 'The Theatre of Politics and the Politics of Theatre: Music as Representational Culture in the Twilight of the Holy Roman Empire', investigated music in Central Europe during the waning years of the Old Regime. I examined music in the hitherto neglected political context of the Holy Roman Empire ('Reich') to shed new light on music's role as representational culture in the years around 1789. Using Joachim Whaley's recent study of the Empire as a point of departure, my thesis comprised a series of case studies which explored representations of the Reich in music theatre in addition to music's role in spectacles that projected the power of institutions crucial to the political fabric of the Holy Roman Empire.
Chapter 1 explored how opera from across the Empire allegorically represented contemporary political figures and events. I used Ignaz Holzbauer's Günther von Schwarzburg (Mannheim, 1777), W.A. Mozart's Idomeneo (Munich, 1781), Carl David Stegmann's Heinrich der Löwe (Frankfurt am Main, 1792), and Ferdinando Paer's Achille (Vienna, 1801) to show how princes articulated their position in the Reich through imperial-political opera. My next chapter investigated music in Regensburg, the city of the Reichstag. I argue that the emperor's representative to this parliamentary institution, the prince of Thurn und Taxis, attempted to control opera and failed in the face of opposition from Reichstag envoys. Chapter 2 has shown that in an attempt to legitimise his contested political position, the prince reverted to older styles of outdoor spectacle to communicate his sovereignty as an imperial agent. Subsequently, Chapter 3 investigated the rise and fall of the Mainz Nationaltheater, one of the Empire's most renowned theatres. I have concluded that when French troops captured this leading residence city in 1792, the new form of government they brought with them could not support the musicians and ensembles that once flourished under the electoral government. Finally, I turn to Frankfurt am Main and the imperial coronations of Leopold II (1790) and Franz II (1792). This concluding chapter investigated the state and public music of the Empire's greatest display of representational culture. I have reconstructed the music of these Frankfurt coronations and have placed Mozart's (failed) concert into the wider context of political and musical theatrics to show that the coronation was a significant display of imperial culture.
My thesis explored the music of political institutions which, although marginalised today, were fundamental to the Holy Roman Empire. I have shown that princes relied on a wide variety of music to project their sovereignty and allegiance to the Reich, rather than other subsequent or non-existent empires (e.g. Austrian, Austro-Hungarian, and Habsburg Empires) in the years surrounding 1789. By leaving traditional sites of eighteenth-century music and focusing on the Holy Roman Empire, this thesis is an initial step in a new understanding of a familiar--yet narrowly defined--period of music history.