Musicologica Brunensia (Dec 2014)
K výzkumu výměny hudebnin mezi hrabětem z Questenbergu a jeho aristokratickými přáteli
Abstract
The importance of Count Johann Adam Questenberg for musical culture in Central Europe lies mainly in his acquiring and providing of music, especially opera scores. This issue is very broad and not sufficiently explored yet, especially given the fragmentation, lack or incompleteness of sources; particularly striking is the small degree to which his correspondence with numerous European aristocrats has been investigated. -- Information from Questenberg sources clearly illustrate the fact that the relations among music-loving aristocracy in Central Europe and the related movements of sheet music were very intense. The paper focuses attention on Questenberg's aristocratic friends and acquaintances who served as significant sources for obtaining copies of scores or even printed librettos for him. This issue was partially opened in the author's earlier works, especially in her book František Antonín Míča in the Service of Count Questenberg and the Italian Opera in Jaroměřice (Praha: KLP, 2011). In the present study, however, the topic is dealt with more comprehensively, using mainly previously unpublished quotes from the letters of Questenberg's Vienna Hofmeister Georg Adam Hoffmann from the years 1729–1740, which are currently stored at the Moravian Provincial Archive. Questenberg's music-loving friends from aristocratic circles of imperial Vienna included a leading scholar Conrad Adolph von Albrecht and a number of members of the Althann noble family. His contacts in the field of music are documented primarily with Count Michael Johann von Althann, but Questenberg also knew Michael Friedrich von Althann, who was the viceroy of Naples. He apparently secured copies of several opera scores in Naples for him, like some other nobles holding this post (Alois Thomas Raimund Count Harrach and Giulio Visconti Borromeo Arese, with whom Questenberg was in touch as well). -- Other Viennese nobles with whom Questenberg shared sheet music included Count Emanuel Michael von Starhemberg, Count Salaburg, Count Auersperg ad., Questenberg's documented musical contacts from the Styria region include Johann Ernst, the provincial governor, Count von Herberstein, and Count Ignaz Maria von Attems-Heiligenkreuz. Some aristocrats who lived in rent in Questenberg's palace in Vienna at Johannesgasse also procured scores for him (e.g. Countess Coronini or Duke de Lanti). -- Of the members of the Hungarian aristocracy, Questenberg's contacts with the Archbishop of Esztergom and the Primate of Hungary Emmerich Esterházy de Galántha are known. Questenberg received at least two oratorio librettos from Esterházy, authored by Friedrich Sebastian Syhn, engaged in the service of the archbishop. Syhn's libretto was set to music by Joahnn Matthias Schenauer, and a year after the premiere in Pressburg, František Antonín Míča (1729, 1730) wrote a composition to the same text. Questenberg's ownership of at least one piece of sheet music previously owned by Prince Paul Anton von Esterházy has also been documented. -- Count Questenberg was also in touch with German aristocrats; envoys in Vienna sometimes served as mediators delivering the sheet music (e.g. envoys from Munich, Nuremberg). Correspondence and other sources document exchange of music and librettos with Anton Ulrich, Duke von Sachsen-Meiningen, who lived in Vienna for long stretches of time. -- It is also known that the earl was trading sheet music with Malta, namely with the Knights of Malta. The contact was presumably mediated by the Spanish diplomat Earl Joaquin Fernando Almenara, the viceroy of Naples for a time, and a member of the Order of Malta. -- Questenberg had numerous contacts in aristocratic society in Prague, which undoubtedly dated back to his legal studies at the Charles-Ferdinand University. His circle of music-loving friends and acquaintances included mainly Joseph Franz von und Würben Freudenthal, Johan Anton von Losy Losynthal, Johann Hubert Hartig and Franz Anton Sporck. A copy of the oratorio Sant'Elena al Calvario by Antonio Caldara was donated by Questenberg to the Knights of the Cross in Prague. -- Over time, Questenberg's contacts with the aristocrats who had their estates in Moravia intensified significantly. Aristocratic art-loving society in Moravia was quite homogeneous; in the winter, they stayed mostly in Brno, the seat of the provincial authorities, while in the summer and fall, they visited each other at their premises for various pastimes. Opera, staged in Brno by the Italian impresario Angelo Mingotti since 1732 (from 1733 in the newly built opera house in today's Zelný Trh) was a common denominator of the Moravian music-loving aristocracy. -- Art-related contacts of Count Questenberg with the Moravian nobility took place on many levels. Some nobles performed in comedies and operas staged in Jaroměřice: Maria Maximiliana Wilhelmine, daughter of Znojmo Governor Carl Joseph de Souches, Baron Johann Nepomuk Podstatzky, Joseph von Guyard, Count von Saint-Julien, Count Johann Nepomuk Ugarte (a nephew of Franz Anton Schrattenbach, the Bishop of Olomouc), Count Konstantin Joachim Gatterburg, and members of the Kaunitz family: Wenzel – future chancellor to Empress Marie Therese – and his siblings Maria Ludwig and Eleonore, and others. Gatterburg borrowed musicians from Questenberg at least in 1745, and it can be assumed that Questenberg provided his artists to help in this way more often. Productions of numerous musical dramas, especially by František Antonín Míča in Brno and Olomouc, were also very significant for the dissemination of music staged by Count Questenberg. -- Some Míča's works were owned by Johann Matthias Thurn and Vallsassiny, the Olomouc canon and provost of the Brno chapter, and are stored in the inventory of Collalt's Brtnice, which also contains compositions by Questenberg's second home composer, Carl Müller. -- Questenberg sources reveal rather little of his specific contacts and exchanges of sheet music with the nobles who had their seats in Moravia. The same applies to Czech and Moravian members of the ecclesiastic aristocracy. This is probably because he often dealt with them in person, so the information did not find its way to Hoffmann's letters or to correspondence with his administrators. One of the exceptions is Josepha von Stomm, daughter of Baron Franz Joseph Stomm, who acquired at least one opera score for Questenberg. -- Despite not entirely satisfactory treatment of this broad issue, it is evident from these examples that the "network" of aristocratic friends from whom Earl Questenberg obtained information about music and especially sheet music (mainly opera scores) was indeed very wide. In the future, it will be necessary to better map the impact of musical life in Questenberg's Jaroměřice on other Moravian sites. Possibilities include relations with the nobles owning estates near Jaroměřice, with whom the Count demonstrably associated. These include, in addition to some of the abovementioned (Gatterburg, St. Julien, members of the Kaunitz family), for example Baron Joseph Ignaz von Kotulinsky von Kotulin, who owned Tavíkovice estate, Countess Waldorf née Bořitová from Sádek u Třebíče, or Count Franz Wenzel von Wallis from Moravské Budějovice. It will also be necessary to investigate Questenberg's contacts with aristocratic bureaucracy linked to Brno. The guideline for research will be the names of aristocrats in the dedications in printed librettos from the Brno City Opera, headed by Questenberg's longtime friend and later father-in-law, provincial governor Maxmilian Ulrich von Kaunitz. Questenberg's relations with Blížkovice, Nové Syrovice, Hodonín, and with the monasteries in Louka, Nová Říše, Žďár nad Sázavou and Hradiště u Znojma, or other locations, also come into consideration.
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