A discussion of radically different views of the French lute manuscript "La Rhétorique des dieux,... more A discussion of radically different views of the French lute manuscript "La Rhétorique des dieux," its provenance and repertory, with commentary on the manuscript, handwriting, and the lute manuscript tradition. Published in The Journal of the Lute Society of America 25 (1992), 25-37.
Perhaps the most frequently heard baroque lute duet is a suite by William Lawes found in an autog... more Perhaps the most frequently heard baroque lute duet is a suite by William Lawes found in an autograph manuscript in Oxford, The Bodleian Library. The suite is suspiciously French in style and thus stands apart from the rest of Lawes's compositions. Despite the fact that Lawes signed his name in several different places on the page, the suite is not entirely his own work. Published in The Journal of the Lute Society of America 16 (1983), 12-14.
A detailed study of texture in French Baroque lute music, and its relationship to contemporary en... more A detailed study of texture in French Baroque lute music, and its relationship to contemporary ensemble writing.
A study on the sources of the theme in Sor's Op. 9 Variations. Revised as chapter 20 in Estudios ... more A study on the sources of the theme in Sor's Op. 9 Variations. Revised as chapter 20 in Estudios sobre Fernando Sor, ed. Luis Gásser. Madrid: Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales [2003], 353-7.
The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access... more The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact
THE lutenist-composers of the third decade of the seventeenth century began to develop a new repe... more THE lutenist-composers of the third decade of the seventeenth century began to develop a new repertory for the solo lute. By the end of the century some writers and composers concerned with transferring the repertory or its style to the keyboard acknowledged that this music had certain idiomatic features. The subject of the present essay is to investigate the terms and concepts used to describe this body of music and to clarify exactly which terms were employed in the period and which terms are of modern origin. Since the lute repertory had a profound influence on seventeenthcentury keyboard composers, an investigation of these concepts might prove helpful in our understanding of what the French solo instrumental style meant to early Baroque musicians.
This article will show the results of analysis of previously neglected primary sources, particula... more This article will show the results of analysis of previously neglected primary sources, particularly composer autograph scores for operas commissioned at Emanuel Schikaneder\u27s Theater auf der Wieden in the 1790s. The analysis reveals evidence of musical collaboration by composers at the theater, and it supports reports of Schikaneder\u27s musical contributions to scores for his librettos, particularly Mozart\u27s Die Zauberflote. The question of whether Schikaneder\u27s musical ideas were original or derived from the music of others is another matter. He certainly recycled his own work and Leopold Mozart observed that he freely borrowed the work of others
Even in an age when the concept of celebrity was as devalued as it is in our own time, the 'celeb... more Even in an age when the concept of celebrity was as devalued as it is in our own time, the 'celebrated' performer Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen certainly deserved the accolade. What so astonished audiences in Paris and London was not that she was a woman musician, a high-profile performer with published compositions to her credit, but that she was a professional violinist, a rare exception to the convention that bowed string playing on the concert platform was an exclusively male preserve. The shock of seeing her was all the greater because even in the privacy of the home violin-playing was rare among women in polite society throughout the eighteenth century. This gender stereotype proved an extremely durable one, and the only other woman violinist of comparable stature at this period in London was Madame Gautherot, a refugee from the French revolution, who pursued her career there in the early 1790s. This short biography is a collaboration between Jane Baldauf-Berdes, who did much of the original archival research, and Elsie Arnold, who brought the project to fruition following the untimely death of her co-author. It is written in a lively, direct manner, with telling use of contextual detail. We follow the development of Sirmen's career from her childhood years in the Ospedale dei Mendicanti, where she came to prominence as a member of its orchestra (regarded by visitors as something of an exotic Venetian tourist attraction), through to her marriage and an international career which peaked during the early 1770s with concerts in Paris and London. One disappointment for the authors is that none of Sirmen's personal correspondence appears to have survived, and as a result their subject's personality remains rather elusive. Her professional career, however, is plentifully documented in newspaper reports and reviews, and accordingly the bulk of this study is devoted to her activities on the concert platform. In 1773 Sirmen made a brief and rather unsuccessful attempt to enter the lucrative world of Italian opera in London as a 'second' singer. She was perhaps offered this position at the King's Theatre by the novelist and manager Frances Brooke, herself a woman making her way in a man's world. It was not a successful move, and it could have ended her career as a violinist when, ascending to the heights as Venus, she fell six feet from an unsteady machine and had to be carted off stage, badly shaken, by an attendant lamplighter. Sirmen's attempt to establish herself as an opera singer is perhaps a sign that she was aware that her status as the latest celebrity violinist was on the wane. It was exceptionally difficult, even for top players like Cramer and Salomon, to sustain a career in London for any length of time, and Sirmen had the added disadvantage that tastes in violin playing were changing. A fascinating report in the
Journal for Eighteenth-century Studies, Mar 1, 2010
Così fan tutte. Dramma giocoso und deutsches Singspiel: Frühe Abschriften und frühe Aufführungen.... more Così fan tutte. Dramma giocoso und deutsches Singspiel: Frühe Abschriften und frühe Aufführungen. By Claudia Maurer Zenck. Schliengen: Edition Argus. 2007. 465 p. €59 (pb). ISBN 987-3-931264-29-1. Ian Woodfield's book is the result of a long and intense investigation of the primary sources of Così fan tutte. The musical analysis is excellent, and the labour required to create an inventory of scribal errors, variants, anomalies and all page-and linebreaks (compiled to demonstrate the connection between sources and to serve as the basis of hypotheses) is admirable. Woodfield offers insights into the peculiarities of Mozart's autograph score, for example the arias 'Donne mie' and 'Per pietà'. He also provides copious detail in his appendices; while these details sometimes do not relate to the discussion in the main body of the text, specialists will be grateful for them. Unfortunately, however, the book has some pronounced weaknesses. Woodfield's principal argument, concerning a putative lost 'conducting score', is fragmented among widely separated chapters, which tends to disguise its deficiencies. While failing to give the provenance of most of the musical sources he discusses, Woodfield claims to have established the existence of this lost 'conducting score', a source he requires as the root of a hypothetical line of manuscript transmission. This line contains variants that he would like to attribute to Mozart, even though the variants are today found only in secondary copies that cannot be directly linked to the composer. Failing to provide compelling evidence for this lost source, he insists that the copying of two scores was regular practice in the Viennese court theatre at this time, even though an abundance of archival documents and the pattern of survival of materials in the collection of the court theatre show quite clearly that it was standard practice to copy only a single score (and this only if the opera was locally commissioned; most operas purchased from other theatres were not newly copied unless the changes to them were very extensive). Woodfield should be well aware of these practices, as he repeatedly cites Dexter Edge's magisterial dissertation (from 2001) on Mozart's Viennese copyists, which gives a meticulously documented account of the standard operating procedures of the copy shop of the court theatres. Although original orchestral parts for Così fan tutte apparently do not survive, Woodfield fails to take into account (or even mention) the preserved parts from the revivals at the court theatre, catalogued with a later Viennese copy of the score (O.A.328). I was particularly troubled by the manner in which Woodfield occasionally begins a discussion by acknowledging the speculative nature of his argument, only to express increasing (but unjustified) certainty as the discussion proceeds. For example, after explaining that there is no proof that Mozart was involved in the Prague production of
and Magnus Olausson, 'Freemasonry, Occultism and the Picturesque Garden towards the End of the Ei... more and Magnus Olausson, 'Freemasonry, Occultism and the Picturesque Garden towards the End of the Eighteenth Century', in: Art History, 8 (1985), 413-33. These authors base their arguments on the assumption that the decoration and imagery in Die Zauberfl?te dire almost entirely Masonic.
A discussion of radically different views of the French lute manuscript "La Rhétorique des dieux,... more A discussion of radically different views of the French lute manuscript "La Rhétorique des dieux," its provenance and repertory, with commentary on the manuscript, handwriting, and the lute manuscript tradition. Published in The Journal of the Lute Society of America 25 (1992), 25-37.
Perhaps the most frequently heard baroque lute duet is a suite by William Lawes found in an autog... more Perhaps the most frequently heard baroque lute duet is a suite by William Lawes found in an autograph manuscript in Oxford, The Bodleian Library. The suite is suspiciously French in style and thus stands apart from the rest of Lawes's compositions. Despite the fact that Lawes signed his name in several different places on the page, the suite is not entirely his own work. Published in The Journal of the Lute Society of America 16 (1983), 12-14.
A detailed study of texture in French Baroque lute music, and its relationship to contemporary en... more A detailed study of texture in French Baroque lute music, and its relationship to contemporary ensemble writing.
A study on the sources of the theme in Sor's Op. 9 Variations. Revised as chapter 20 in Estudios ... more A study on the sources of the theme in Sor's Op. 9 Variations. Revised as chapter 20 in Estudios sobre Fernando Sor, ed. Luis Gásser. Madrid: Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales [2003], 353-7.
The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access... more The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact
THE lutenist-composers of the third decade of the seventeenth century began to develop a new repe... more THE lutenist-composers of the third decade of the seventeenth century began to develop a new repertory for the solo lute. By the end of the century some writers and composers concerned with transferring the repertory or its style to the keyboard acknowledged that this music had certain idiomatic features. The subject of the present essay is to investigate the terms and concepts used to describe this body of music and to clarify exactly which terms were employed in the period and which terms are of modern origin. Since the lute repertory had a profound influence on seventeenthcentury keyboard composers, an investigation of these concepts might prove helpful in our understanding of what the French solo instrumental style meant to early Baroque musicians.
This article will show the results of analysis of previously neglected primary sources, particula... more This article will show the results of analysis of previously neglected primary sources, particularly composer autograph scores for operas commissioned at Emanuel Schikaneder\u27s Theater auf der Wieden in the 1790s. The analysis reveals evidence of musical collaboration by composers at the theater, and it supports reports of Schikaneder\u27s musical contributions to scores for his librettos, particularly Mozart\u27s Die Zauberflote. The question of whether Schikaneder\u27s musical ideas were original or derived from the music of others is another matter. He certainly recycled his own work and Leopold Mozart observed that he freely borrowed the work of others
Even in an age when the concept of celebrity was as devalued as it is in our own time, the 'celeb... more Even in an age when the concept of celebrity was as devalued as it is in our own time, the 'celebrated' performer Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen certainly deserved the accolade. What so astonished audiences in Paris and London was not that she was a woman musician, a high-profile performer with published compositions to her credit, but that she was a professional violinist, a rare exception to the convention that bowed string playing on the concert platform was an exclusively male preserve. The shock of seeing her was all the greater because even in the privacy of the home violin-playing was rare among women in polite society throughout the eighteenth century. This gender stereotype proved an extremely durable one, and the only other woman violinist of comparable stature at this period in London was Madame Gautherot, a refugee from the French revolution, who pursued her career there in the early 1790s. This short biography is a collaboration between Jane Baldauf-Berdes, who did much of the original archival research, and Elsie Arnold, who brought the project to fruition following the untimely death of her co-author. It is written in a lively, direct manner, with telling use of contextual detail. We follow the development of Sirmen's career from her childhood years in the Ospedale dei Mendicanti, where she came to prominence as a member of its orchestra (regarded by visitors as something of an exotic Venetian tourist attraction), through to her marriage and an international career which peaked during the early 1770s with concerts in Paris and London. One disappointment for the authors is that none of Sirmen's personal correspondence appears to have survived, and as a result their subject's personality remains rather elusive. Her professional career, however, is plentifully documented in newspaper reports and reviews, and accordingly the bulk of this study is devoted to her activities on the concert platform. In 1773 Sirmen made a brief and rather unsuccessful attempt to enter the lucrative world of Italian opera in London as a 'second' singer. She was perhaps offered this position at the King's Theatre by the novelist and manager Frances Brooke, herself a woman making her way in a man's world. It was not a successful move, and it could have ended her career as a violinist when, ascending to the heights as Venus, she fell six feet from an unsteady machine and had to be carted off stage, badly shaken, by an attendant lamplighter. Sirmen's attempt to establish herself as an opera singer is perhaps a sign that she was aware that her status as the latest celebrity violinist was on the wane. It was exceptionally difficult, even for top players like Cramer and Salomon, to sustain a career in London for any length of time, and Sirmen had the added disadvantage that tastes in violin playing were changing. A fascinating report in the
Journal for Eighteenth-century Studies, Mar 1, 2010
Così fan tutte. Dramma giocoso und deutsches Singspiel: Frühe Abschriften und frühe Aufführungen.... more Così fan tutte. Dramma giocoso und deutsches Singspiel: Frühe Abschriften und frühe Aufführungen. By Claudia Maurer Zenck. Schliengen: Edition Argus. 2007. 465 p. €59 (pb). ISBN 987-3-931264-29-1. Ian Woodfield's book is the result of a long and intense investigation of the primary sources of Così fan tutte. The musical analysis is excellent, and the labour required to create an inventory of scribal errors, variants, anomalies and all page-and linebreaks (compiled to demonstrate the connection between sources and to serve as the basis of hypotheses) is admirable. Woodfield offers insights into the peculiarities of Mozart's autograph score, for example the arias 'Donne mie' and 'Per pietà'. He also provides copious detail in his appendices; while these details sometimes do not relate to the discussion in the main body of the text, specialists will be grateful for them. Unfortunately, however, the book has some pronounced weaknesses. Woodfield's principal argument, concerning a putative lost 'conducting score', is fragmented among widely separated chapters, which tends to disguise its deficiencies. While failing to give the provenance of most of the musical sources he discusses, Woodfield claims to have established the existence of this lost 'conducting score', a source he requires as the root of a hypothetical line of manuscript transmission. This line contains variants that he would like to attribute to Mozart, even though the variants are today found only in secondary copies that cannot be directly linked to the composer. Failing to provide compelling evidence for this lost source, he insists that the copying of two scores was regular practice in the Viennese court theatre at this time, even though an abundance of archival documents and the pattern of survival of materials in the collection of the court theatre show quite clearly that it was standard practice to copy only a single score (and this only if the opera was locally commissioned; most operas purchased from other theatres were not newly copied unless the changes to them were very extensive). Woodfield should be well aware of these practices, as he repeatedly cites Dexter Edge's magisterial dissertation (from 2001) on Mozart's Viennese copyists, which gives a meticulously documented account of the standard operating procedures of the copy shop of the court theatres. Although original orchestral parts for Così fan tutte apparently do not survive, Woodfield fails to take into account (or even mention) the preserved parts from the revivals at the court theatre, catalogued with a later Viennese copy of the score (O.A.328). I was particularly troubled by the manner in which Woodfield occasionally begins a discussion by acknowledging the speculative nature of his argument, only to express increasing (but unjustified) certainty as the discussion proceeds. For example, after explaining that there is no proof that Mozart was involved in the Prague production of
and Magnus Olausson, 'Freemasonry, Occultism and the Picturesque Garden towards the End of the Ei... more and Magnus Olausson, 'Freemasonry, Occultism and the Picturesque Garden towards the End of the Eighteenth Century', in: Art History, 8 (1985), 413-33. These authors base their arguments on the assumption that the decoration and imagery in Die Zauberfl?te dire almost entirely Masonic.
Among the forgotten but highly popular operas of the late eighteenth century, Der dumme Gärtner a... more Among the forgotten but highly popular operas of the late eighteenth century, Der dumme Gärtner aus dem Gebürge oder Die zween Anton (The Dumb Gardener from the Mountains or The Two Antons, Vienna, 12 July 1789) seems particularly worthy of reexamination. The Antons (as Mozart called it) was the subject of much commentary and praise; it was performed in almost every German theatre over the next two decades, and it was translated into Czech. The success of the opera inspired six sequels and secured the place of its author, Emanuel Schikaneder, in the popular imagination of the Viennese public. This success also made possible the series of fairy-tale operas that included Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (1791). Die zween Anton was also the first original opera of Emanuel Schikaneder produced the Theater auf der Wieden after he had taken over its direction; the music was a collaborative composition by Franz Xaver Gerl, Benedikt Schack, Johann Baptist Henneberg, and probably Schikaneder himself. With the recent recovery of a Viennese manuscript copy of Die zween Anton in Hamburg’s State and University Library, we can now investigate this opera in detail.
Sample pages fro,m Yuval Music Series 9. Jerusalem: The Jewish Music Research Centre, 2012. Revie... more Sample pages fro,m Yuval Music Series 9. Jerusalem: The Jewish Music Research Centre, 2012. Review in Music & Letters
Sample pages from Recent Researches in the music of the Classical Era 81. A-R Editions: Middleton... more Sample pages from Recent Researches in the music of the Classical Era 81. A-R Editions: Middleton, WI, 2010 [a fairy-tale singspiel by Emanuel Schikaneder, music by B. Schack, F. X. Gerl, J. B. Henneberg]. Orchestral and piano-vocal score. CD: Boston Baroque, Martin Pearlman, Telarc, CD-80573.
Sample pages from Recent Researches in the music of the Classical Era 92-93. 2014. 4 Vols. Orches... more Sample pages from Recent Researches in the music of the Classical Era 92-93. 2014. 4 Vols. Orchestral and piano-vocal score.
Sample pages. Dance and Music Series 7. Pendragon Press, 1994. Reviews: Dance Research 14 (1996)... more Sample pages. Dance and Music Series 7. Pendragon Press, 1994. Reviews: Dance Research 14 (1996), 91-3, The Musical Times 137/1844 (1996), 33.
Sample pages from Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era 62. Madison, WI: A-R Edition... more Sample pages from Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era 62. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1990. Reviews: Early Music 29 (1991), 293-6, MLA Notes 49 (1993), 1253-5.
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