Empress Marie Therese And Music At The Viennese Court, 1792-1807

John A. Rice

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.

Bibliographic Details

21 b/w illus. 12 tables 22 music examples

Contents

• 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 Thereses musicians
• 3. The empress as soprano
• 4. Private concerts
• 5. Celebrations of Franzs birthday and nameday
• 6. Musical caprice
• 7. Marie Thereses 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 Thereses collection of church music
• Appendix 2: Marie Thereses musical diary, 1801–3
• Appendix 3: Paers letters to the empress
• Appendix 4: Correspondence between Paisiello and Marie Therese
• Appendix 5: Documents pertaining to the development and performance of Paers Il conte Clò
• Bibliography
• Index.