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Anthology for Music in the Eighteenth Century, part of the Western
Music in Context series, is the ideal companion to Music in the
Eighteenth Century. Twenty-nine carefully chosen works including a
piano sonata by Anna Bon, liturgical music by Ignacio de Jerusalem,
and movements from Haydn symphonies offer representative examples
of genres and composers of the period. Commentaries following each
score present a careful analysis of the music, and online links to
purchase and download recordings make listening easier than ever."
Between 1796 and 1800 Baron Peter von Braun, a rich businessman and
manager of Vienna's court theaters, transformed his estate at
Schnau into an English-style landscape park. Among several
buildings with which he embellished his garden, the most remarkable
and celebrated was the Temple of Night, a domed rotunda accessible
only through a meandering rockwork grotto that led visitors to
believe that their destination lay somewhere deep underground. A
life-size statue of the goddess Night on a chariot pulled by two
horses presided over the Temple, while from the dome, which
depicted the night sky, came the sounds of a mechanical musical
instrument that visitors likened to music of the spheres. Only the
ruins of the Temple of Night survive, and it has received little
scholarly attention. This book brings it back to life by assembling
the many descriptions of it by early nineteenth-century
eyewitnesses. Placing the Temple within the context of the
eighteenth-century English landscape park and of Viennese culture
in the fascinating period of transition between Enlightenment and
Biedermeier, Rice's book will appeal to anyone interested in the
history of garden design, architecture, theater, and music.
This study uncovers how Saint Cecilia came to be closely associated
with music and musicians. Until the fifteenth century, Saint
Cecilia was not connected with music. She was perceived as one of
many virgin martyrs, with no obvious musical skills or interests.
During the next two centuries, however, she inspired many musical
works written in her honor and a vast number of paintings that
depicted her singing or playing an instrument. In this book, John
A. Rice argues that Cecilia's association with music came about in
several stages, involving Christian liturgy, visual arts, and
music. It was fostered by interactions between artists, musicians,
and their patrons and the transfer of visual and musical traditions
from northern Europe to Italy. Saint Cecilia in the Renaissance
explores the cult of the saint in Medieval times and through the
sixteenth century when musicians' guilds in the Low Countries and
France first chose Cecilia as their patron. The book then turns to
music and the explosion of polyphonic vocal works written in
Cecilia's honor by some of the most celebrated composers in Europe.
Finally, the book examines the wealth of visual representations of
Cecilia especially during the Italian Renaissance, among which
Raphael's 1515 painting, The Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia, is but the
most famous example. Thoroughly researched and beautifully
illustrated in color, Saint Cecilia in the Renaissance is the
definitive portrait of Saint Cecilia as a figure of musical and
artistic inspiration.
Examines the life and compositional oeuvre of prolific eighteenth
century musician, composer, and singer Marianna Martines
(1744-1813). Marianna Martines (1744-1813) was one of the most
accomplished, prolific, and highly honored female musicians of the
eighteenth century. She spent most of her life in a remarkable
household that included celebrated librettist Pietro Metastasio,
who supervised her education and remained a powerful and supportive
mentor. She studied with the young Joseph Haydn, and Vienna knew
her as a gifted, aristocratic singer and keyboard player who
performed for the pleasure of the Empress Maria Theresa. The
regular private concerts she held in her home attracted the
presence and participation of some of Vienna's leading musicians;
Mozart enjoyed playing keyboard duets with her. She composed
prolifically and in a wide variety of genres, vocal and
instrumental, writing church music, oratorios, Italian arias,
sonatas, and concertos. Much of that music survives, and those who
study it, perform it, and listen to it will be impressed today by
its craftsmanship and beauty. This book, the first volume fully
devoted to Martines, examines her life and compositional oeuvre.
Based largely on eighteenth-century printed sources, archival
documents, and letters [including several by Martines herself, most
of them published here for the first time] the book presents a
detailed picture of the small but fascinating world in which she
lived and demonstrates the skillfulness and creativity with which
she manipulated the conventions of the gallant style. Focusing on a
limited number of representative works, and using many musical
examples, it vividly conveys the nature and extent of her
compositional achievementand encourages the future performance of
her works. The late Irving Godt was Professor of Music at Indiana
University of Pennsylvania. John A. Rice, independent scholar, is a
member of the Akademie fur Mozart-Forschungin Salzburg.
The study of opera in the second half of the eighteenth century has
flourished during the last several decades, and our knowledge of
the operas written during that period and of their aesthetic,
social, and political context has vastly increased. This volume
explores opera and operatic life of the years 1750-1800 through a
selection of articles intended to represent the last few decades of
scholarship in all its excitement and variety.
Presenting a fresh approach to Mozart's achievements as a composer
for the stage, John A. Rice outlines the composer's place in the
operatic culture of his time. The book tells the story of how
Mozart's operas came into existence, following the processes that
Mozart went through as he brought his operas from commission to
performance. Chapters trace the fascinating series of interactions
that took place between Mozart and librettists, singers, stage
designers, orchestras, and audiences. In linking the operas by
topic, Rice emphasizes what Mozart's operas have in common,
regardless of when he wrote them and the genres to which they
belong. Overall, the book demonstrates how Mozart's entire operatic
oeuvre is the product of a single extraordinary mind and a single
pan-European operatic culture.
Many know Antonio Salieri only as Mozart's envious nemesis from the
film "Amadeus," In this well-illustrated work, John A. Rice shows
us what a rich musical and personal history this popular stereotype
has missed.
Bringing Salieri, his operas, and eighteenth-century Viennese
theater vividly to life, Rice places Salieri where he belongs: no
longer lurking in Mozart's shadow, but standing proudly among the
leading opera composers of his age. Rice's research in the archives
of Vienna and close study of his scores reveal Salieri to have been
a prolific, versatile, and adventurous composer for the stage.
Within the extraordinary variety of Salieri's approaches to musical
dramaturgy, Rice identifies certain habits of orchestration,
melodic style, and form as distinctively "Salierian"; others are
typical of Viennese opera in general. A generous selection of
excerpts from Salieri's works, most previously unpublished, will
give readers a fuller appreciation for his musical style--and its
influence on Mozart--than was previously possible.
This is a study of the musical activities of Empress Marie Therese,
one of the most important patrons in the Vienna of Haydn and
Beethoven. Building on extensive archival research, including many
documents published here for the first time, John A. Rice describes
Marie Therese's activities as commissioner, collector and performer
of music, and explores the rich and diverse musical culture that
she fostered at court. This book, which will be of interest to
musicologists, historians of artistic patronage and taste, and
practitioners of women's studies, elucidates this remarkable
woman's relations with a host of professional musicians, including
Haydn, and argues that she played a significant and hitherto
unsuspected role in the inception of one of the era's greatest
masterpieces, Beethoven's Fidelio. Other composers discussed
include Domenico Cimarosa, Joseph Eybler, Michael Haydn, Johann
Simon Mayr, Ferdinando Paer, Antonio Salieri, Joseph Weigl and Paul
Wranitzky.
Empress Marie Therese, second wife of Emperor Franz II, devoted much of her life to music. She played piano and sang, compiled a large music library and supported professional musicians and composers. This comprehensive survey of the Empress as musician and patron is based upon John Rice's discovery and analysis of extensive unpublished material from her private collection. In this work Rice introduces readers to the musical and cultural worlds of the Viennese court at the end of the eighteenth century.
This is the first book to be devoted to Mozart's opera, La clemenza
di Tito. Rice considers the opera from a variety of historical and
critical viewpoints. Tito is a political opera. The author examines
its origins in the politically unstable Habsburg Empire of 1791,
interpreting it as a response to revolutionary threats both inside
and outside the empire. Tito is also a literary opera: much of its
dramatic power lies in its libretto. Rice analyses Metastasio's
libretto and the revised version that Mozart set. The volume
explores aspects of Mozart's compositional process, the premiere in
Prague, and subsequent critical reception through the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. In a concluding chapter, Rice reviews
recent performances as well as scholarly research that sheds light
on the interpretation of the opera. The volume, which contains
illustrations of recent productions, a discography, and a
bibliography, will be of interest to students, scholars and
opera-goers.
Presenting a fresh approach to Mozart's achievements as a composer
for the stage, John A. Rice outlines the composer's place in the
operatic culture of his time. The book tells the story of how
Mozart's operas came into existence, following the processes that
Mozart went through as he brought his operas from commission to
performance. Chapters trace the fascinating series of interactions
that took place between Mozart and librettists, singers, stage
designers, orchestras, and audiences. In linking the operas by
topic, Rice emphasizes what Mozart's operas have in common,
regardless of when he wrote them and the genres to which they
belong. Overall, the book demonstrates how Mozart's entire operatic
oeuvre is the product of a single extraordinary mind and a single
pan-European operatic culture.
This is the first book to be devoted to Mozart's opera, La clemenza
di Tito. Rice considers the opera from a variety of historical and
critical viewpoints. Tito is a political opera. The author examines
its origins in the politically unstable Habsburg Empire of 1791,
interpreting it as a response to revolutionary threats both inside
and outside the empire. Tito is also a literary opera: much of its
dramatic power lies in its libretto. Rice analyses Metastasio's
libretto and the revised version that Mozart set. The volume
explores aspects of Mozart's compositional process, the premiere in
Prague, and subsequent critical reception through the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. In a concluding chapter, Rice reviews
recent performances as well as scholarly research that sheds light
on the interpretation of the opera. The volume, which contains
illustrations of recent productions, a discography, and a
bibliography, will be of interest to students, scholars and
opera-goers.
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