RISM-Arbeitstagung 2008

Internatioanle RISM-Arbeitstagung 2008

in Neapel

Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider
RISM Head Office Tyrol-South Tyrol & OFM Austria

Results of Current projects for Musicology at RISM Head Office Tyrol-South Tyrol & OFM Austria (Franciscan Province Austria)
Presentation at the RISM Working Meeting in Naples, 26th July 2008

In May 2008 our RISM Working Group in Innsbruck, formerly called the RISM Head Office Western Austria and Department South Tyrol, was renamed in accordance with the RISM Central Editorial Office to RISM Head Office Tyrol-South Tyrol & OFM Austria. This was implemented in consideration of the newly-formed, independent RISM Working Group at the Archives of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, simultaneously with the adaptation of the change in the Franciscan provincial structure in October 2007. The music archives of the Franciscan monasteries in Tyrol, South Tyrol and Austria have collectively become a central field of work in our team since 2002, due to the engaged and committed RISM collaboration with the Franciscan Province Archivist, P. Oliver Ruggenthaler OFM.

Numerous new findings of regional as well as trans-regional significance in music history have been made based on our exposing previously unknown or unregarded Franciscan musical stocks. To a large extent, they pertain to primary evidence of undiscovered compositions, or respectively, the correction of previously attributed works. Moreover, it is about the musical experience of the Franciscans, the differentiation in the cultivation of their music, sparkling in the Recollections (Rekollekten) of the Order and rather humble in their Reformations (Reformaten), which is in the early stages of research. A few examples are given which are taken from the Music Archives of the Franciscan Monastery in Salzburg (A-Sfr) which the musicologist Carena Sangl has been cataloguing since the Fall of 2007.

After Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider’s identification of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s Spaur-Mass with KV 257 in 2007 by means of a disclosed source in the Diocese Archive Brixen (I-BREd, comp. report at the RISM-Congress in Einsiedeln Abbey 2007) during the RISM Cataloguing, it was also possible, again by Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider, to finally prove by means of a manuscript which came to light in the Franciscan Monastery of Salzburg and evaluated in an international context (in: Mozart Studien, in print) that two of Mozart’s Tantum ergo, KV 142 and KV 197 resp. Anh. C3.04 and Anh. C3.05, repeatedly in doubt of their authenticity are now definitely secured works and are again assigned in the main part of the Köchel Catologue. The conjecture about KV 142 (Anh. C 3.04) original authorship by Johann Zach over the decades, to which Mozart was to have joined as an arranger, has now finally been refuted through A-Sfr 73. Our colleague, Franz Gratl, published in the Mozart-Yearbook 2005, based on a broad comparison of sources, that the Tantum ergo Anh. C 3.04 “is probably not from Johann Zach” however the question “but rather from Mozart” need be revisited by Mozart researchers. The systematic RISM cataloguing in A-Sfr had lead the discussion, so to speak, of an irrevocable end, in favour of Mozart.

Early transcriptions of works from the 18th century Salzburg court musicians and court music directors (Kapellmeister), located in the Music Archives of the Franciscan Monastery, are worthy of mention. The involvement of the Salzburg Court copyists gives the sources a high degree of authenticity. Copyists from the Franciscan Convent indicate relations between the monastery and the surroundings of the Salzburg Court music. It is also possible to ascertain from A-Sfr, in addition to the index of works by the court and cathedral organist Cajetan Adlgasser by Christine D. de Catanzaro and Werner Rainer (2000), the directory of works by Michael Haydn by Charles H. Sherman and T. Donley Thomas (1993), expansions of until now unknown compositions, among them a march for orchestra or a Regina coeli. The Tenebrae Sherman-Thomas no. 824 is according to the handwritten manuscript A-Sfr 15 irrefutably a composition of the Salzburg Cathedral music director (Domkapellmeister) Stefano Bernardi (1577-1637), and merely rearranged by Michael Haydn. Actually congruent to the named reference sources of Sherman-Thomas, it would be better if the piece were put in its own unequivocal index category Arrangement(s) of Extraneous Works. A further correction in the Michael-Haydn-Works Catalogue is needed. For example, in no.204, based on copies in the Music Archives of Stams Abbey (A-ST) and in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum (Tyrolian Provincial Museum Ferdinandeum) Music Collections (A-Imf), whose value as a source unanimously outweighs that of Sherman-Thomas’ quoted manuscripts. It now becomes clear that the piece located in the music archives in the Benedictine Convent of Salzburg St. Peter (A-Ssp) in a copy with the authorship “P. Florian [!] Angerer“, whose name Sherman-Thomas ignored, has an explanation: the musical comedy Der Schulmeister (The Schoolmaster) or Die Probe der Gratulation (The Test of Congratulations) is in actuality a composition by the Tyrolian Benedictine Edmund Angerer (1740-1794; comp. CD-Edition Klingende Kostbarkeiten aus Tirol 47, Institut für Tiroler Musikforschung 2008).

Through his RISM-Cataloguing in A-Imf, Franz Gratl is currently on the trail of a mass falsely attributed to Mozart: KV Anh. 185/C 1.0. He is working on the final proof that the real composer is without a doubt the church organist from Hall, Josef Alois Holzmann (1762-1815). The registering of the music inventory in the parish church in Hall/Tyrol/St. Nikolaus (A-HALn), along with the acquired insights as to Holzmann’s position, naturally benefited both.

Selectively, we have the experience in Tyrol, that the meaning of RISM’s undertaking has become understood by laypersons, that RISM’s work is essential to the conservation of a singular cultural asset. Thus we sometimes receive hints about private sources which also can be integrated into the RISM-Databank. Just as we thought to have finished the cataloguing of the two-and-a-half thousand entry A-HALn, which was reported by Franz Gratl in the daily Tyrolian newspaper Tiroler Tageszeitung (Special section Ferdinandea, May 2008), shortly thereafter someone from the public handed-over 60 valuable music manuscripts and approximately 100 music prints from the parish choir of Hall, which they had secretly hoarded.

In summer 2008, the RISM Head Office Tyrol-South Tyrol & OFM Austria stepped into the public eye with an exceptional appearance at the exhibition “Georg Muffat (1653-1704). A Musical Cosmopolitan at the Salzburg Court” in the Salzburg Museum (Neue Residenz, starting 4. Juli 2008). The world-wide only fully preserved Libretto (from A-Sfr) to Le fatali felicità di Plutone (1687) by the Salzburg Court organist Muffat can be marvelled.

The approximately 150, mainly printed, Libretti in A-Sfr from the 17th and 18th centuries are almost, without exception, rarities, in many cases from Salzburg, however originating in Vienna, Prague, Bavaria or Italy. They take up space in various performance venues in Salzburg like the Residence or the University, the Convent St. Peter and - outright new – the Franciscan Monastery. Primary evidence was found for Antonio Caldara, Leopold Mozart, Nicolò Jommelli or the Librettist and composer Francesco Raffaelini, which are more far reaching than in the submitted Salzburg Music History (Salzburger Musikgeschichte) (2005). Now that text sources of music history can be gathered in the RISM computer program Kallisto, our regional documentation of musical cultural assets has become easier. Finally, interested persons profit from this for their studies through the access of one single portal.

We can also reap the benefits of the new breadth of the cataloguing possibilities at the Music Archives at the Stams Cistercian Monastery (A-ST) in Tyrol. For example, we can finally describe in detail the music treatise Dodecachordon by Heinrich Glarean (Basel 1547) or Erotemata by Ambrosius Wilflingseder (Nürnberg 1563) together with the revealing handwritten notes on provenance memoranda. The scientific cataloguing of the Music Archives of Stams Abbey in Tyrol has meanwhile grown to over 6000 music manuscript titles. At the (19th) Tyrolian Christmas Concert 2007, we were able to present the third program compiled solely of Christmas music from Stams Abbey (Concept: Manfred Schneider, CD-Edition: Musik aus Stift Stams 24, Innsbruck: Institut für Tiroler Musikforschung 2008).

CD Tyrolian Christmas Concert 2007 (Tiroler Weihnachtskonzert 2007) (= Musik aus Stift Stams 24), Inlay; A-ST: Karl Constanz (1747-1817), Weihnachtsoffertorium Quem vidistis, Copy around 1775, Title sheet (Photos: HHS, 2007)

Of all the countless current, highly differentiated novelties in the collections which our team are now working on, one last one from an extraordinary partial inventory of the Archdiocese of Brixen (I-BREd) needs to be mentioned. We owe it to the far-sightedness of the Brixen clergyman and Cathedral music director (Domkapellmeister) Angelo Alverà (1905-1978), that we have won, based on about 100 manuscripts with well-preserved scores of brass band music from the mid-19th century, an excellent and unmistakeable insight into the past playing practice of the traditional Brixen brass band orchestra. The striking sonorous body was portrayed shortly after 1800 by the artist and etcher Josef Weger (1782-1840). Because cathedral concertmaster Alverà sometimes also headed the Brixen brass band, he probably stored the consortia music scores which were no longer in use for safe-keeping. Thus after his death and clearing of his estate, they were bequeathed to the Diocese Archives of Brixen.

It is of importance that the representative sample of Brixener primary sources be given a fundamental place in the still incomplete research of brass music in Tyrol, which over the centuries has been acknowledged highly by all population strata and has benefited from public funding as well. Generally, these works were sorted out and discarded as superfluous consumer goods as soon as they had lost their contemporary taste and usage, unlike that of the most church music. However, remaining relicts allow for clear answers with regard to repertoires which were typical for that time (which differ greatly from today), to the deliverance modalities, and finally, to a few brass instruments which are no longer played. In addition to the interweaving of church and military music, Brixen Specifics have a certain mark of distinction because of the regional connections to upper Italy, across the entire k. and k. Monarchy, and all the way to Prague.

Current information about our RISM projects, status of the archival work, and a list of publications in various media is available on the RISM link to the website of the Institute for Tyrolian Music Research Innsbruck (Institut für Tiroler Musikforschung Innsbruck) www.musikland-tirol.at.

On April 22nd, 2008 we delivered 16 CDs (specimen copies) with Debut Recordings of Tirolensien (collection of Tyrolean works) to the Bibliothèque nationale de France (F-Pn) which resulted from 1998 to 2002 through the cooperation between the RISM Tyrol-South Tyrol, the Tyrolian Provincial Museum Ferdinandeum (Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum) (7 CDs), the Institute for Tyrolian Music Research (Institut für Tiroler Musikforschung) (8 CDs), the Brixen Initiative Music and Church (Brixner Initiative Musik und Kirche) (1 CD) and the music collection of the National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France). The following is showcased in these CDs: 1) Music from composers who came from Tyrol and worked in Paris (Ignaz Anton Ladurner, Silvio Lazzari, Matthäus Nagiller); 2) Music according to prints made in Innsbruck, which are only handed-down complete in F-Pn worldwide (works by Ambrosius Reiner, Christoph Sätzl, Johann Stadlmayr); 3) Music according to the print Sonatae XII, op. 1 by Gottfried Finger (1688) in F-Pn, which shows the only portrait of Finger, concertmaster of the Innsbruck court band from 1707 to 1717.

A sound sample to the presentation:
Johann Baptist Gänsbacher (1778 Sterzing/South Tyrol – Vienna 1844)
Symphony in D-Dur, Brunnersdorf/Bohemia 1807
(according to the Autograph in the stock of the Innsbruck Music Association (Innsbrucker Musikverein) in the Tyrolian Provincial Music Conservatory (Tiroler Landeskonservatorium) A-Ik, RISM A/II 651.□)
2. Movement: Scherzo. Presto – Trio
CD Tiroler Symphonie (= Klingende Kostbarkeiten aus Tirol 51),
Innsbruck: ITMf 2008, Track 2 (6 : 11, fades out at 1 : 32)

Das Autograph of this symphony by the renowned Tyrolian composer and Vienna cathedral concertmaster has been accessible as a facsimile since 1984 in the series The Symphony (vol. B V), and it has been available for use in digital format since 2007 in the music collection of the Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck, along with the entire estate of works in A-Ik by Johann Gänsbacher.

Translation: Silvia Skelac

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