Mannheim school refers to both the orchestral techniques pioneered by the court orchestra of the Elector Palatine in Mannheim in the latter half of the 18th century and the group of composers of the early classical period, who composed for the orchestra of Mannheim. The father of the school is considered to be the Bohemian composer Johann Stamitz. [1] Besides him, two generations of composers wrote compositions for the orchestra, whose reputation was due to its excellent discipline and the individual skill of its players; the English traveler Charles Burney called it "an army of generals". [2] Their performance style included new dynamic elements, crescendos and diminuendos. Composers of the Mannheim school played an important role in the development of the classical period's genres and of the classical symphony form. [3]
The origins of the Mannheim school go back to the court of the Elector Charles III Philip, who moved from Heidelberg to Mannheim in 1720, already employing an orchestra larger than those of any of the surrounding courts. The orchestra grew even further in the following decades and came to include some of the best virtuosi of the time. Under the guidance of Kapellmeister Carlo Grua, the court hired such talents as Johann Stamitz, who is generally considered to be the founder of the Mannheim school, in 1741/42, and he became its director in 1750.
The most notable of the revolutionary techniques of the Mannheim orchestra were its more independent treatment of the wind instruments, and its famous whole-orchestra crescendo. Contemporary musicians mentioned the high level of the orchestra, among them, Leopold Mozart in 1763, and W. A. Mozart in his letters in 1777/78, [4] and the English music historian Charles Burney. [2]
The role of the Mannheim school's composers in the evolution of the classical symphony is thus significant, although most scholars now agree that these changes occurred nearly simultaneously at various other centers, e.g. in Berlin and Vienna. [2] Their influence on the evolution of the classical music period is due to the reputation of the ensemble at one hand, and on the other hand to the fact that the compositions of the Mannheim school's composers were published in Paris and London.
Members of the Mannheim school included Johann Stamitz, Franz Xaver Richter, Ignaz Holzbauer, Carl Stamitz, Franz Ignaz Beck, Ignaz Fränzl, and Christian Cannabich, and it had a very direct influence on many major symphonists of the time, including Joseph Haydn and Leopold Hofmann. (Cannabich, one of the directors of the orchestra after the death of J. Stamitz, was also a good friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the latter's visit to Mannheim in 1777 onwards.)
Johann Stamitz visited Paris, and the Mannheim school had an influence on the Concert Spirituel Sacred Concert since 1754. When Joseph Legros took over the Parisian concert series Concert Spirituel, the relationship with the Mannheim School flourished and the music of Haydn became extremely popular in Paris. Prominent concerts in Paris during the 1770s were the Concert de la Loge Olympique (Concert of the Olympic Lodge) and the Concert des Amateurs (Concert for the Fans) which may have been part of the Concert Spirituel. [5]
Claude-François-Marie Rigoley (the Comte d'Ogny) commissioned Joseph Haydn's six "Paris Symphonies", Nr. 82–87, for performance by Concert de la Loge Olympique. Chevalier de Saint-Georges conducted their world premiere. The influence of the Mannheim school is evident in these symphonies.
Composers of the Mannheim school introduced a number of novel ideas into the orchestral music of their day: sudden crescendos – the Mannheim Crescendo (a crescendo developed via the whole orchestra) – and diminuendos; crescendos with piano releases; the Mannheim Rocket (a swiftly ascending passage typically having a rising arpeggiated melodic line together with a crescendo); [2] the Mannheim Roller (an extended crescendo passage typically having a rising melodic line over an ostinato bass line); the Mannheim Sigh (a mannered treatment of the Baroque practice of putting more weight on the first of two notes in descending pairs of slurred notes); [6] the Mannheim Birds (imitation of birds chirping in solo passages); the Mannheim Climax (a high-energy section of music where all instruments drop out except for the strings, usually preceded by a Mannheim Crescendo); and the Grand Pause where the playing stops for a moment, resulting in total silence, only to restart vigorously. The Mannheim Rocket can be a rapidly ascending broken chord from the lowest range of the bass line to the very top of the soprano line. Its influence can be found at the beginning of the fourth movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 and the start of Eine kleine Nachtmusik , and the very start of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1.
Members of the Mannheim school abandoned quickly the praxis of the basso continuo in their compositions, which was almost universal in the Baroque era, and they used the minimum of contrapuntal elaboration. One of their chief innovations is the four-movement symphony form, introducing the menuet as its third movement, which was originally one of the Baroque suite's movements. The Mannheim school played an important role in the development of the sonata form, which is generally the form of the classical symphony's first movement. In their orchestration practice, the clarinet appears both as part of the woodwind section and as a solo instrument. [3]
The Classical Period was an era of classical music between roughly 1750 and 1820.
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts.
Carl Philipp Stamitz was a German composer of partial Czech ancestry. He was the most prominent representative of the second generation of the Mannheim School.
Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz was a Bohemian composer and violinist. His two surviving sons, Carl and Anton Stamitz, were composers of the Mannheim school, of which Johann is considered the founding father. His music is stylistically transitional between the Baroque and Classical periods.
Sinfonia concertante is an orchestral work, normally in several movements, in which one or more solo instruments contrast with the full orchestra. It emerged as a musical form during the Classical period of Western music from the Baroque concerto grosso. Sinfonia concertante encompasses the symphony and the concerto genres, a concerto in that soloists are on prominent display, and a symphony in that the soloists are nonetheless discernibly a part of the total ensemble and not preeminent. Sinfonia concertante is the ancestor of the double and triple concerti of the Romantic period corresponding approximately to the 19th century.
Johann Christian Innocenz Bonaventura Cannabich, was a German violinist, composer, and Kapellmeister of the Classical era. A composer of some 200 works, he continued the legacy of Johann Stamitz and helped turn the Mannheim orchestra into what Charles Burney described as "the most complete and best disciplined in Europe.". The orchestra was particularly noted for the carefully graduated crescendos and diminuendos characteristic of the Mannheim school. Together with Stamitz and the other composers of the Mannheim court, he helped develop the orchestral texture that paved the way for the orchestral treatment of the First Viennese School.
Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer was an Austrian composer of symphonies, concertos, operas, and chamber music, and a member of the Mannheim school. His aesthetic style is in line with that of the Sturm und Drang "movement" of German art and literature.
FranzXaver Richter, known as François Xavier Richter in France was an Austro-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theoretician who spent most of his life first in Austria and later in Mannheim and in Strasbourg, where he was music director of the cathedral. From 1783 on, Haydn's favourite pupil, Ignaz Pleyel, was his deputy director.
Anton Thadäus Johann Nepomuk Stamitz was a German composer and violinist. He was born in the Holy Roman Empire.
Franz Ignaz Beck was a German violinist, composer, conductor and music teacher who spent the greater part of his life in France, where he became director of the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. Possibly the most talented pupil of Johann Stamitz, Beck is an important representative of the second generation of the so-called Mannheim school. His fame rests on his 24 symphonies that are among the most original and striking of the pre-Classical period. He was one of the first composers to introduce the regular use of wind instruments in slow movements and put an increasing emphasis on thematic development. His taut, dramatic style is also remarkable for its employment of bold harmonic progressions, flexible rhythms and highly independent part writing.
London Mozart Players (LMP) are a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. LMP are the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom. Since 1989, the orchestra has been Resident Orchestra at Fairfield Halls, Croydon.
Ignaz Fränzl was a German violinist, composer and representative of the second generation of the so-called Mannheim School. Mozart, who heard him at a concert in November 1777, wrote of him in a letter to his father: He may not be a sorcerer, but he is a very solid violinist indeed. Fränzl carried the Mannheim violin technique, established by Johann Stamitz, one step further to real virtuosity. Mozart, quite a good violinist himself and thoroughly acquainted with the instrument, praised Fränzl's double trill and said he had never heard a better one.
Rose Cannabich (1764–1839) was a German classical pianist. Mozart dedicated a piano sonata to her when he was her teacher in Mannheim, where her father led the well-known orchestra.
The New Dutch Academy (NDA) is an international Dutch Baroque orchestra based in The Hague, the Netherlands. It is composed of 40 international, early music, specialist musicians, who gather in The Hague to explore 18th-century music in all of its forms, including symphonic, chamber, opera and ballet. It performs exclusively on authentic instruments.
Simon Francis Murphy is a Dutch-based, Australian conductor and viola player with a focus on the music of the 18th and early 19th centuries. He is originally from Balmain, Sydney, Australia.
Johann Baptist Wendling was a flute player and composer of the Mannheim School. He held the position of principal flute in the Mannheim and Munich court orchestras under directors Johann Stamitz and Christian Cannabich, and was acknowledged as one of the finest virtuosos of his time.
Jean-Georges Sieber was a German born French musician and music publisher.
The Symphony in D minor, Opus 34 by the Viennese composer Anton Eberl (1765-1807) was written during the course of 1804. The premiere took place in Vienna, Austria on January 25, 1805. It is classical in style. The performance time is about 30 minutes. It is scored for 2 clarinets, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.