Janice B. Stockigt

A musician at court: An autobiography of Franz Benda

Abstract The autobiography of Frantisek [Franz] Benda (1709-86) presents one of the most fascinating accounts we have of the life of an eighteenth-century musician. Versions of the life story, written when Benda over the age of fifty, were twice published by Johann Adam Hiller, first in 1766 (Charles Burney used this source for his account of Bendas life in 1773), and again 1784. The original manuscript, however, was not published until 1856, when it appeared in the Neue Berliner Musikzeitung. In the mid-twentieth century Paul Nettl made a translation available to English readers in his volume Forgotten Musicians (New York, 1951). Douglas Lee now provides a new translation, with commentary.

Szenen in Zelenka’s Vespers psalm settings

Abstract Of all liturgical texts, the psalms (especially those required for Vespers) might be considered among the texts ideally suited for the study required to identify themes and topoi of Baroque music. At specific points of settings of certain psalm texts, Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) includes a section whose musical-dramatic plan is built upon smaller musical-rhetorical gestures. In these sections, or Szenen, Zelenka appears to have followed an established tradition since, beginning with Monteverdi, extraordinarily similar patterns are evident at precisely these points in the settings of a great many composers. Places at which common traditions of setting occur are at verses 5, 6, and 7 of the frequently-required opening Vespers psalm Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109), but especially at settings of verse 9 of Confitebor tibi Domine (Psalm 110) and settings of verse 9 of Beatus vir (Psalm 111).

Records of Catholic Musicians, Actors and Dancers at the Court of August II, 1723–32: the Establishment of the Catholic Cemetery in Dresden

In 1724 a cemetery was established at Neustadt Ostra (today Friedrichstadt, Alt Dresden) for the burial of Catholic members who served at the Dresden court of Saxon Elector Friedrich August I (‘der Starke’: as King of Poland known as August II). Between 1723 and 1732 annual lists were compiled of these Catholic employees, their family members and servants, by the Royal Polish and Saxon Electoral office of the Court Marshal. These chronicles, which function as a type of census, give details of Catholic artists affiliated with the Dresden court. Listed are those who were eligible to be buried in the Catholic cemetery. Included are complete lists of the families and households of Catholic members of the Italian and French ensembles of actors, dancers and musicians (the Italienische Comoedianten and Französische Comoedianten und Tänzer), of the Catholic musicians of Dresdens outstanding Capelle (also known as the Hofkapelle), and of the young choristers (mostly from Bohemia) who performed the usual music in the Catholic court church of Dresden. Additional information becomes available about the throng of outstanding performing artists from throughout Europe who came to serve at the court of a charismatic ruler, one whose taste made Dresden one of the most brilliant artistic centres of the age.

TWO MORE NEW VIVALDI FINDS IN DRESDEN

Two further unknown sacred vocal compositions by Vivaldi, a Dixit Dominus and a Lauda Jerusalem , have turned up in a collection that has already witnessed two similar discoveries in recent decades: that of the former Saxon Hofkapelle, today in the Sachsische Landesbibliothek / Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek Dresden. Like their predecessors, the newly discovered works were acquired between the mid-1750s and early 1760s from the copying shop of Iseppo Baldan in Venice, who falsified the attribution on the title page to make the composer Galuppi instead of Vivaldi. Whereas the Lauda Jerusalem is an arrangement by Vivaldi of an anonymous stile antico setting of the same psalm in his own collection (and in turn the model for his own Credidi propter quod , rv 605), the Dixit Dominus , scored for choir, soloists and orchestra, is an entirely original composition of outstanding musical quality that dates from the composer’s late period. This article explores the background to the Hofkapelle’s purchases from Baldan and provides a description of the new compositions, together with several arguments (based on musical concordances, general stylistic features and notational characteristics) for their attribution to Vivaldi.

‘This rare and precious music’: Preliminary findings on the catalogue of the music collection of the dresden catholic court church (1765)

Abstract This study provides an overview of composers and works listed in the earliest known thematic inventory of the music library of the Dresden Catholic court church, the ‘Catalogo (Thematico) [sic] della Musica di Chiesa (catholica [sic] in Dresda) composta Da diversi Autori-secondo l ‘Alfabetto 1765.’ The ‘Catalogo’ is the only complete, currently accessible inventory of what is arguably the most important library ofCatholic liturgical music assembled in Saxony between c. 170865. Surviving items of the collection reveal the development of Saxon Catholic musical taste during the first half of the eighteenth century. Contributors to the collection are identified, the general purpose of musical items is outlined and reworkings ofthe repertoire are discussed. Problems inherent in the ‘Catalogo’ and considerations of assembly of the collection, musical fraud, losses to the collection and transmission and dissemination are also addressed.