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3. Musical Life in Giuliani’s Vienna

3.1 The Public Concert

3.1.1 Institutional Concerts

Musical institutions such as the Vienna's Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien (Society for the friends of music, founded 1812) were formed to educate the middle class. They organized concerts, provided teaching (for example the conservatory system is rooted in musical societies) and played a prominent role in establishing music journalism. They usually focused on a

'classical'/serious repertoire, neglecting the lighter music displayed in popular benefit concerts. An ideal concert was 'intellectually stimulating' and based on 'artistic laws' (Hanson 1985, 92). Concerts arranged by the society were technically private, as only the members of the society were allowed to attend them. In reality, they became subscription concerts where the passive members of the society paid the membership to be able to attend the concerts as spectators (Hanson 1997, 104).

Music institutions did not form the core of the concert life of Vienna during the 18th century, unlike in many other German-speaking cities. However, some musical societies emerged there before Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien. One of them was an anonymous society arranging concerts on three successive summers of 1785-1787 at the gardens of the Belvedere Palace. Another one was a society known with multiple names such as Musikalisches Institut and Liebhaber

Concerte or Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. It operated during the 1807-1808 season and had 70 members who could take part to the society's activities as a listener or a performer. This society stated in its regulations the ideals of educating their members “in purifying their taste” through representing “undeniably excellent musical works” (Morrow 1989, 62) and promoting the composers of serious music by “securing the genius from the oppression of intrigue” (Morrow 1989, 62). These types of statements are prominent in the activity of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien and thus the society of 1807-08 season could be seen as the direct

predecessor of it. Despite a relatively large success, the 1807-1808 society did not arrange concerts in the next season due to the occupation of Vienna by Napoleon in the spring of 1809 (Morrow 1989, 62-63).

Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien was founded in 1812 by Joseph Sonnleithner (1766-1835), an Austrian librettist, theatre director, archivist and a lawyer. In 1814 the society declared its primary goal to be “the elevation of all branches of music” (Hanson 1985, 93). In reality, many accounts state their wishes to mainly promote older music and new music that follows the aesthetics of 'art' music. Beethoven was their most famous advocate (Hanson 1985, 93).

The Society arranged annually one large music festival, four society concerts and about 16 smaller concerts, which were called Abendunterhaltungen (Hanson 1985, 93). The festival, named Musikfeste, promoted mainly large oratorios from composers of the past, such as Händel and Stadler (Hanson 1985, 93).

Orchestral program for concerts consisted mainly of the music of older generations such as Mozart and Haydn, and current music by such composers as Beethoven and Cherubini, whose compositional output is closer to the serious end of the stylistic spectrum. Taken from the Hanson’s study Musical life in Biedermeier Vienna, figure 3.1 shows the most frequently performed orchestral and vocal works in the years 1815-1830. As it can be seen from it, no works by Rossini are present in the orchestral section, let alone other famous composers of the popular style such as Paganini. In vocal music, the Italian opera, also the present ones, seemed to be more apparent and we can also find Rossini and Bellini in this example.

Figure 3.1 - Most frequently performed orchestral and vocal works in Geschellschaft der Musikfreunde concerts 1815-1830. Taken from Hanson 1985, 94-95

The concerts of Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien were represented by a mixture of its amateur members and professional musicians. The concert usually featured soloists, an orchestra and choirs of different size. Soloists and conductors were changed from concert to concert in order to provide experience to each of its members. This practice reflected the educative ideology of the society. The society also held annual concerts, where the students of their 1817 founded

conservatory performed. (Hanson 1985, 92, 96). The favoring of amateurs inevitably led to the

occasional poor quality of the concerts. It was not uncommon that players played an entire concert through on sight or with a very limited rehearsing (Hanson 1997, 107).

A typical society concert followed more or less the structure of a typical late 18th and early 19th concert. They started with an orchestral number, usually an overture or part of a symphony by Mozart, Haydn or Beethoven. This was followed by the performance of a vocal ensemble, usually a quartet. Then, another orchestral number was played, usually a movement from a symphony. After this, the vocal ensemble would perform another set of songs. Another orchestral number would follow, usually another overture or symphony movement. The concert usually ended up in a big chorus, sometimes accompanied with the orchestra. A very typical finale of a society concert was Hallelujah chorus from Händel’s The Messiah.

A Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien concert was different from a commercial benefit one in its aesthetics. In commercial concerts, applauding after a touching moment or a technically complex passage was encouraged. The society strictly forbid this in their concerts. The programs of the society’s concerts also avoided virtuosic and flashy numbers whereas commercial concerts encouraged them. While both of the concert types had occasionally vocal numbers from such popular composers as Rossini, the society’s concerts also presented numbers from religious works, such as oratorios and cantatas (Hanson 1997, 106-107).

There are not any mentions of Mauro Giuliani's participation in any society concert in the sources that this study is using. This does not mean that he did not participate in one. However, Giuliani's oeuvre is generally leaning towards popular music of his time and maybe this is the reason why his name doesn't appear in connection to the society. Also, as was mentioned earlier, the popularity of musical societies in Vienna really started only after 1815 and Giuliani left the city already in 1819. Nevertheless, even in Giuliani's time, the presence of such societies was prominent.