Zur Frage der Tempi in den Orgelwerken Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys

Mendelssohn versah seine sechs Orgelsonaten op. 65 mit Metronomangaben und lieferte damit aufschlussreiches Informationsmaterial bezüglich seiner auf die Orgel bezogenen Tempoauffassung. Alle anderen Orgelwerke sind dagegen vom Komponisten nicht metronomisiert worden. Bei der Wahl eines angemessenen Tempos für die Orgelwerke Mendelssohns ohne Metronomangaben folgt aus der vorhandenen Instrumentenspezifik des Tempos die besondere Autorität der Angaben aus den Sonaten op. 65 - sie sind am ehesten geeignet, Anhaltspunkte zu liefern. Ein Vergleich der Auffassungen von Friedrich Wilhelm Schütze und Johann Nepomuk Hummel sowie Adolf Bernhard Marx auf der einen Seite und Mendelssohns Angaben in op. 65 auf der anderen zeigt, dass sich Mendelssohns Metronomangaben in einem durchaus zeittypischen Rahmen bewegen. bms online (Cornelia Schöntube)

ANTONIO SALIERI PEDAGOGICAL SCHOOL

The article deals with the pedagogical school of Antonio Salieri, which was formed in the last quarter of the eighteenth – first quarter of the nineteenth centuries. This school was an artistic phenomenon, given that A. Salieri taught not only one instrument, but a whole set of musical disciplines (composition, counterpoint, conducting, solo and choral singing, harpsichord, stringed instruments, etc.). A. Salieri's School is also unique because of the highest professional level preparation of a whole plaid of talented and even brilliant musicians - Ludwig Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johann Nepomuk Gummel Franz Xaver Süsmayr, Anselm Hüttenbrüsner, Ignaz Carlethal Moscheles. Cavalieri, Anna Milder-Hauntmann, Anna Kraus-Vranitsky, etc. Based on sources and scientific works, the author of the article argues that the contribution of A. Salieri to the music pedagogy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is invaluable. Antonio Salieri's pedagogical legacy is a unique phenomenon – he taught composition, instrumentation, instrument, vocals, counterpoint, homophony, polyphony, and most importantly - musical thinking. Many ingenious composers have left a unique legacy, but not many of them can boast of such a large number of students who have shown themselves in all spheres of musical life in the European world. We will not be mistaken when we say that Antonio Salіeri was unique in this. It is unlikely that the pedagogical legacy of another great musician will include pedagogue and methodologist Johann Nepomuk Hummel, the genius composer of all ages L. Beethoven, one of the first romantics – F. Schubert, vocalists - "opera stars'' Catherine Valba-Kanz, Fortunate Franquette, Amalia Josef-Mozatta. And this list can go on and on because the total number is over sixty.

Liszt and the introduction of the new piano

The Erards realised that as brilliant as the double-escapement action was, it required an equally brilliant pianist to introduce it to the public. The Erards first thought to ask the Austrian pianist and composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837), but soon found another pianist to promote their invention: a musician whose talents eclipsed not only those of Morel, but also those of all other living pianists. Franz Liszt (1811–86), then only twelve years old and largely unknown outside of Vienna, arrived in Paris and became the leading advocate for Erard’s new invention. Liszt’s relationship with the Erard family quickly became advantageous to both parties. For the Erards, Liszt’s arrival was a godsend, as his superhuman technique demonstrated the advantages of their invention. Similarly, Erard’s new piano became an essential part of Liszt’s early success, as its magnificently responsive action and powerful tone allowed the pianist to push his virtuosity to new heights.

The Kapellmeister Network and the Performance of CommunityHummel, Moscheles, and Mendelssohn

Chapter 2 concerns the free fantasy and its relationship to the public concert life that emerged after 1815. Its main protagonists are Johann Nepomuk Hummel, the undisputed master of improvised free fantasia in this period, and his rival Ignaz Moscheles. Hummel’s free fantasias were admired for hybridizing the learned style of the kapellmeisters with the popular style associated with modern virtuosi, modeling a solution to one of the period’s major problems: the gap between experts and laypersons. In private circumstances Hummel improvised in a different way addressed to the values of connoisseurs alone, and some critics objected to his more “popular” public fantasies on given themes. Moscheles’s approach to free fantasies accented the hedonistic values of the genre, and in his reception we find the first stirrings of the improvisation imaginary. This chapter considers how improvisation served as a performance of authority and learnedness rooted in the kapellmeister network, a network that includes Mendelssohn, the little-known Carl Maria von Bocklet, and Hummel’s most celebrated student, Ferdinand Hiller.

Anton Weidinger and the Emergence of His Voice: The Keyed Trumpet

This paper examines Anton Weidinger, the 18th- and early 19th-century keyed trumpet player for whom Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel composed their trumpet concerti. As the most successful of many attempts to chromaticize the trumpet in the late 18th century, during which the Baroque clarino style of trumpet-playing was waning, Weidinger’s keyed trumpet enjoyed a short-lived period of prominence from about 1800 to 1804, the period during which Weidinger premiered these two concerti. Subsequently, the keyed trumpet declined in popularity, and eventually it was replaced by the valve trumpet. Both concerti emphasize the chromatic capabilities of the new instrument. A detailed examination of some passages from the third movements of the two concerti suggests a deliberate attempt on the part of Hummel (perhaps under Weidinger’s influence) to “quote” and outdo the most virtuosic passages in the Haydn concerto and to cast the new instrument as capable of playing in a “singing” operatic style. Musical quotation from Luigi Cherubini’s opera Les Deux Journées further cements the implicit connection Hummel draws between the keyed trumpet and opera (and, by extension, the human voice). The paper concludes that Weidinger and Hummel sought, in Hummel’s concerto, to announce to the musical world that the trumpet was ready to move beyond its Classical status as a tutti instrument. Though the success of Weidinger and his keyed trumpet was transient, the two concerti composed for him today stand as cornerstones of the solo trumpet literature.

Saving Improvisation

This chapter surveys improvisation in the western classical tradition during a period of transition ca. 1800–1830. It considers not only why improvisational practices declined in this period, but also how they were preserved and revalidated in accordance with new musical values. It examines the free fantasies of Johann Nepomuk Hummel, an exceptionally famous composer-virtuoso of this period who was renowned for his improvisational brilliance. Critical responses and public reactions suggest that Hummel’s free fantasies were valued for their capacity to bridge the gap between connoisseurs and dilettantes, as well as the gap between public and private spheres. The chapter reflects on solo improvisation and its relationship to the social significance of improvisation.

Forging “Paganinis of the Piano” in the 1830s

Musical artists in the 1830s were intrigued by Niccolò Paganini, with pianists being especially interested in transferring his music and style to their instrument. This article focuses on Paganini-inspired compositions by Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and Ignaz Moscheles, which focus on various aspects of the violinist’s artistry, including his performance style, his flair for the dramatic, pathetic, and unexpected, and his technical wizardry. Altogether these and other such works from the early 1830s provide a deeper context — arguably even a tradition — for Franz Liszt’s experimental compositions from the 1830s, particularly the “Clochette” Fantasy and the first version of the “Paganini” Etudes. Not only technically and performatively brilliant, these pieces also help establish the medium of mimesis as artistically valid. Liszt argued that this type of orientation was indispensable for the “artist of the future,” in which “virtuosity is a means, not an end.” Somewhat paradoxically then, after his death Paganini becomes the benchmark by which the transcendent artistry of composer-pianists is measured, and a baseline for further artistic experimentation. Thus Liszt’s return to Paganini in the 1840s and 1850s constitutes an ongoing effort to refine virtuosity in order to bring about artistic unification among musicians, regardless of instrumental specialty.