2 results
Chapter One - Carl Czerny and Post-Classicism
-
- By Otto Biba
- Edited by David Gramit
-
- Book:
- Beyond <i>The Art of Finger Dexterity</i>
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 10 March 2023
- Print publication:
- 01 April 2008, pp 11-22
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
“What would have happened, if …” is not a question that meets scholarly standards. But nevertheless, permit me to begin this scholarly contribution with the following question: What would have happened if Schubert had completed the symphony he drafted in October and November of 1828—in other words, immediately before his death? Even more: what if it had then immediately become musical common property? How would the history of music in the nineteenth century have progressed?
Pointless questions. Schubert did not complete this symphony, whose drafts anticipate almost everything of importance in the development of nineteenthcentury music up to Gustav Mahler. It did not become musical common property; the existence of these drafts has only become known since 1978. The history of music was thus spared this radical leap from Schubert to Mahler; it was able to develop slowly, and the question as to what would have happened with Schumann or Brahms is superfluous.
All the same, this pointless and unscholarly question can point out one fact quite clearly, and that is why we allow it here: the chain of individuals who championed (often radical) innovation in music in Vienna from preclassicism to Franz Schubert, and who were allowed to do so because they were thanked rather than blamed for those innovations, was broken with Schubert's sudden death. Like nowhere else, for some three generations, exponents of the avantgarde had lived in Vienna—although naturally not everything that was composed here belonged to the avant-garde. Experiments were made; new things were done. But only up to Schubert's last symphonic draft.
The last two exponents of the avant-garde were Beethoven and Schubert— despite all their differences, we name them together here. By the 1820s at the latest, Beethoven became a monument whose oeuvre was respected as a whole, even if individual works were not always understood. Although Schubert was performed much more frequently and was much more present on the musical scene than we have long been led to believe, those of his works that were too unusual were not able to find acceptance. To give only one example: the first public performance of his “Great” C-Major Symphony on March 12, 1829, at a “Concert Spirituel” in Vienna (after a private performance in 1827) was effectively ignored; it was passed over in such silence that to this day the legend can still circulate that this symphony was only discovered by Robert Schumann.
Appendix - Musical Autographs by Carl Czerny in the Archiv der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien: A Checklist
-
- By Otto Biba
- Edited by David Gramit
-
- Book:
- Beyond <i>The Art of Finger Dexterity</i>
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 10 March 2023
- Print publication:
- 01 April 2008, pp 245-262
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
This list includes all the music autographs by Carl Czerny held as of spring 2006, including complete scores or fragments, without any distinction between autographs coming into the holdings of the Archives as a part of Czerny's estate and autographs bought or donated later on. If there is no other indication the autographs are scores. Not included are manuscripts by copyists just signed by Czerny or manuscripts by copyists with only a few corrections by Czerny.
1. 2te Solenne Messe
Komponiert 1830, revidiert 1842
[Score of the revised version]
C Major
S, A, T, B (soloists and choir), strings, 1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns,
2 trumpets, timpani
2. Mass in C Major
[First version, 1830, of second Solenne Messe, no. 1 above]
S, A, T, B (soloists and choir), strings, 1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns,
2 trumpets, timpani
3. 3te Solenne Messe
Komponiert 1831, revidiert 1842
[Score of the revised version]
E-Flat Major
S, A, T, B (soloists and choir), strings, 1 flute, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns,
2 trumpets, timpani
4. 4te Solenne Messe
1832
[Score of a later revised version; on the basis of its paper perhaps also from 1842]
B-flat Major
S, A, T, B (soloists and choir), strings, 1 flute, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns,
2 trumpets, timpani
5. 4te Messe
Angefangen im Juli 1832. Geendet d[en] 14. August [1]832
[Score of an early version of the fourth Solenne Messe, no. 4 above]
B-flat Major
S, A, T, B (soloists and choir), strings, 1 flute, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns,
2 trumpets, timpani
Bound with:
5te Messe
Angefangen im Juli 1832
B-flat Major
S, A, T, B (soloists and choir), strings, 1 flute, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns,
2 trumpets, timpani
6. 8te Messe
1839 May
C Major
S, A, T, B (soloists and choir), strings; ad libitum: 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2
horns, 2 trumpets, timpani
Supplement:
Gloria. Statt der letzten 8 Takte. [Gloria. Substitute for the last eight measures.]
Den 10 Dec[ember] 1840 angefang[en] u[nd] vollendet [Begun and completed
on December 10, 1840.]
7. Missa
1837
E-flat Major
S, A, T, B (soloists and choir), strings, 1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons,
2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani