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Bookpresentation: 23 May, University of Vienna
We happily announce the public presentation of our new book series “Musik am Bonner kurfürstlichen Hof”: 23 May 2018, 19h, Campus-Pavillon, University of Vienna (Campus, Hof 1) Information here.
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Announcement: Project Publications
We are happy to announce that the results of the “Operatic Library” project will be published in the forseeable future. Moreover, they will appear in a new series that the Verlag Beethoven-Haus has created for our project’s publications: Musik am Bonner kurfürstlichen Hof, ed. Birgit Lodes (= Veröffentlichungen des Beethoven-Hauses Bonn. Reihe IV – Schriften zur Beethoven-Forschung, ed. Christine Siegert), Bonn: Verlag Beethoven-Haus: Vol. 1: Birgit Lodes, Elisabeth Reisinger und John D. Wilson (ed.): Beethoven und andere Hofmusiker seiner Generation….
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New Project on Maximilian Franz’ Sacred Music Collection
The research on the music library of Elector Maximilian Franz is heading into its next phase. A new project has been granted by the FWF and just recently started at the Department of Musicology/University of Vienna. Under the direction of Birgit Lodes, Elisabeth Reisinger and John D. Wilson are going to consider the sacred music repertoire in Maximilian Franz’s collection of musical materials. Building organically on the results of “The Operatic Library of Elector Maximilian Franz”, the new project hopes…
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Conference Report (updated 07-2017)
From Dec. 3rd to Dec. 6th, 2015, the international conference “Beethoven and the Last Generation of Court Musicians in Germany” took place in Bonn, organized by the project team, Birgit Lodes, Elisabeth Reisinger and John Wilson in cooperation with the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, represented by Christine Siegert and Malte Boecker, and with financial support from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. During four intensive days, international experts discussed processes in musical life during the late 18th and early 19th century and their significance for…
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Exhibition opening II: Radio interview
German media are excited about the new exhibition in the Beethoven-Haus Museum. Yesterday the WDR (West German Radio) sent a very interesting interview with John David Wilson and Michael Ladenburger. Follow this link.
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Exhibition opening
On occasion of the opening of the exhibition “Operatic Life in Bonn During Beethoven’s Youth” (Beethoven-Haus Bonn Museum), yesterday (Oct. 22nd) the local newspaper “General Anzeiger Bonn” published a nice article. Follow this link. The picture shows a reconstruction of how the court theater in 1789 may have looked like, based on the painting of François Rousseau and the description alterations in several sources.
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New Exhibition: Operatic Life in Bonn During Beethoven’s Youth
A new special exhibition curated by John D. Wilson will explore the Bonn opera from 1779-1794. The major figures in Bonn music life, the changes in repertoire, performance practices, and architecture, the influence on Beethoven and his fellow court musicians, and the social contexts that underlie all of these will be the main focus. The exhibition will draw on multiple items from Elector Maximilian Franz’s music library now held in the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria in Modena, which for the first time in…
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Conference: Program now available!
The detailed program for our conference “Beethoven and the Last Generation of Court Musicians in Germany” is now available! Follow this link
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A Game of Power
Elisabeth Reisinger presented one chapter of her dissertation at a summer school, organised by Vanina Kopp and Pascal Firges, at the Institut historique allemand Paris (June 23th-26th 2015), that is also represented on the web by a blog (in French and German). The participants of this workshop, entitled “Jeux et enjeux de pouvoir à l’époque prémoderne”, discussed political and social aspects of games and festivities in premodern courtly societies as well as forms of ‘games’ of political power and diplomacy….
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Article in “Die Presse”: Networking in the 18th century
Today you could find an article about Elisabeth Reisinger’s research in the Austrian daily newspaper “Die Presse” (follow the link below). It gives an overview over her questions on networking in musical life in late 18th century Vienna, the role music played in social life and how Maximilian’s musical collection can be viewed as a result of this. Netzwerken im 18. Jahrhundert, in: Die Presse, April 18th 2015.
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“Hier brauche ich die Spart”
Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748-1798), known to music history as Beethoven’s teacher, was also a central figure in the Bonn court opera, where he acted as its music director from 1779 to 1784 and stage director from 1789 until 1793, when the court was dispersed. Neefe’s personal fortunes at the Bonn court, for better or worse, were intimately tied up with those of the theater. In December 1779, then theater director Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann invited him to Bonn to act as…
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Preview: Papers and Participants, Conference 2015
Have a first look at the papers and participants of the conference Beethoven and the last generation of court musicians in Germany, Bonn, Dec. 3-6/2015 – follow this link.
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Poster Presentation
As opening event of the annual conference of the Austrian Society for Musicology (Klagenfurt/Carinthia, Oct. 15th-18th 2014) many third party funded projects located in Austria, Germany and other countries presented their work during a poster presentation. Elisabeth Reisinger represented The Operatic Library of Elector Maximilian Franz. This was a great chance for a very interesting and productive exchange with colleagues – for example the FWF-project Transferprozesse in der Musikkultur Wiens 1755-1780 (Cultural…
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How to run an electoral court theatre
In Maximilian Franz’s estate, which is preserved in the HHStA Wien (Vienna State Archive), there is a wealth of largely untapped documents concerning musical and theatrical life as well as organization of the court theatre and its people. Among these, there are three that merit special attention. They contain suggestions to the elector on how to organize his theatre, balancing financial concerns on the one hand, but keeping a high level of performances on the other. None of them is…
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Some new facts on the life of Heinrich Ferdinand Möller
Heinrich Ferdinand Möller (1745-1798) is known as a German actor and theatre director. Just like Christian Gottlob Neefe and Gustav Friedrich Großmann, he was a member of the troupe of Abel Seyler in the 1770s that performed several times during the year 1778 in Cologne and Bonn. When Seyler’s troupe dissolved in 1779, Neefe went to Bonn and Möller to the margrave’s court at Braunschweig-Schwedt. Little else is known about the rest of his life, only that he was in…
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Previously on The Operatic Library…
2014 started with the visit of Juliane Riepe in Vienna for an intensive workshop, especially abut one fact brought to light by John’s research in Modena and Riepe’s work on the operas performed in Bonn: We have to distinguish between two repertories (although there is a certain intersection between them): operas that were really performed at the Bonn theatre on the one hand, and the elector’s collection on the other. That raises a lot of new questions: Was there a…
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Previously on The Operatic Library…
We’d like to start our blog with a little retrospective of the last 1½ years. In January 2013, John Wilson started work on the project almost on his own, supported by Birgit Lodes. At that time a lot of things, especially concerning the sources, had not been clear, such as the detailed situation at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, where much of the music library of Elector Maximilian Franz is kept, and the existence of Maximilian Franz’ estate, which was…
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The Operatic Library of Elector Maximilian Franz
The research project The Operatic Library of Elector Maximilian Franz based at the University of Vienna plans to shed light on the operas performed in Bonn during the reign of Elector Maximilian Franz (1784-1794), promising to provide a fundamental contribution to the neglected area of Beethoven’s earliest musical experiences and his education as a court musician. Supported by a three-year grant (from January 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2015) from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), this project is being carried…
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