Empress Marie Therese and Music at the Viennese Court, 1792–1807

Study of Empress Marie Therese as music patron in the Vienna of Haydn and Beethoven.

John A. Rice (Author)

9780521047371, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 November 2007

408 pages, 21 b/w illus. 12 tables 22 music examples
23.5 x 15.5 x 2 cm, 0.579 kg

'…devoted to filling in the extensive gaps in our knowledge of one of music's best-known periods … full of … fascinating details and of illuminating glances into some dark corners of Viennese musical life … raises some interesting issues about our changing musical standards and awareness …' Music and Letters

This is a study of the musical activities of Empress Marie Therese, one of the most important patrons in the Vienna of Haydn and Beethoven. Building on extensive archival research, including many documents published here for the first time, John A. Rice describes Marie Therese's activities as commissioner, collector and performer of music, and explores the rich and diverse musical culture that she fostered at court. This book, which will be of interest to musicologists, historians of artistic patronage and taste, and practitioners of women's studies, elucidates this remarkable woman's relations with a host of professional musicians, including Haydn, and argues that she played a significant and hitherto unsuspected role in the inception of one of the era's greatest masterpieces, Beethoven's Fidelio. Other composers discussed include Domenico Cimarosa, Joseph Eybler, Michael Haydn, Johann Simon Mayr, Ferdinando Paer, Antonio Salieri, Joseph Weigl and Paul Wranitzky.

Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
List of tables
List of musical examples
List of abbreviations
Two intertwining family trees: the Habsburg-Lorraines of Austria and the Bourbons of Spain and Naples
A note about quotations and transcriptions of documents
Introduction
1. The empress as collector of music
2. Marie Therese's musicians
3. The empress as soprano
4. Private concerts
5. Celebrations of Franz's birthday and nameday
6. Musical caprice
7. Marie Therese's influence on music in the public sphere
8. The empress as conceiver, commissioner and shaper of musical works
9. Il conte Clò: a birthday cantata from inception to performance
10. Joseph Haydn and Beethoven between court and nobility
Epilogue
Appendix 1: Marie Therese's collection of church music
Appendix 2: Marie Therese's musical diary, 1801–3
Appendix 3: Paer's letters to the empress
Appendix 4: Correspondence between Paisiello and Marie Therese
Appendix 5: Documents pertaining to the development and performance of Paer's Il conte Clò
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4]