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Contents:
DDD 38:10 - Recorded: Hardstudios AG, Winterthur, 21 December 2005, 16 August and 6 October 2006
The Music Department of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich (Central Library Zurich) The music department was founded in 1971 and soon established itself as a scholarly collection of European significance. Besides a major holding of printed music and sound storage media, the music department boasts one of the largest Wagnerian collections in the world and has become one of the most important places to preserve Swiss music manuscripts from the past 200 years. The Zentralbibliothek wants everybody to benefit from the material in its possession in many different ways. Thus, it publishes a series of CDs with music from its holding, from sacred songs by Zwingli to the music of the late 20th century. Each programme in their own concert series “Mittagsmusik im Predigerchor” (lunchtime music in the preacher’s choir) also contains at least one piece of work, which is held by the Zentralbibliothek as a manuscript, first or early edition. “Music in Zurich” research project run by the Swiss National Fund at the Institute of Musicology of the Zurich University The cultural life of the town of Zurich, which had always been a special place for cultivating music since the times of the Königspfalz in the 9th century, was neither under the patronage of a court nor the church, and as a result of the reformation had even almost come to a standstill for a long period of time. Despite of this, Zurich repeatedly played an outstanding part in Europe’s music history. It is the goal of the project “Music in Zurich – Zurich in the history of music” to systematically examine and document this complex special case. The research results are presented to the public in various forms and through different media: depending on individual studies or major presentations, the adequate tools for documenting a subject from the history of Zurich’s music will be in printed form, editions, CD productions, concerts, lectures, conferences or exhibitions. MUSIC IN ZURICHIn the summer of 2007, the Zentralbibliothek Zürich will be displaying music manuscripts, music prints and archival papers and documents in the treasure chamber of the Predigerchor from their extensive music stocks under the title “Zwölf Jahrhunderte Musik in Zürich” (Twelve Centuries of Music in Zurich). Like any other comparable institution, the Zentralbibliothek Zürich reflects the course of cultural, scientific and especially musical life in their collections. Thus, with the help of the exhibits, which are explained in their context, significant events and typical phenomena of local musical life are compiled into a kaleidoscope-like stroll through Zurich’s history of music. Famous documents, such as the Mozart autograph, which was created in Zurich, or the fair copy of the libretto of Siegrieds Tod (Siegfried’s death) written by Richard Wagner are on display. Foundation documents and music supplies acknowledge the old Zurich Collegia musica, having characterised the town’s musical life since the 17th century. Various exhibits also illustrate Zurich’s aspiring public music patronage in the 19th century. The Reformation had not only brought public musical life in Zurich to a large extent to a standstill, but also lead to the destruction and disposal of precious medieval music manuscripts. Even so, the pre-reformational period is also represented in the exhibition with outstanding items. Liturgical music manuscripts from the 8th to the 16th century from the library of the Benedictine monastery Rheinau convey an impression of musical practice under the ministration of the churches in Zurich. The Liber Ordinarius of Konrad von Mure is also there, full of references to music – even if without notes – as a script for the liturgy in the Grossmünster of the 13th century a unique testimony for the town of Zurich. With the help of selected examples, the CD lets the listener hear what can be seen in the exhibition. These are representative extracts from other recordings, which have been released as part of the series Musik aus der Zentrabibliothek Zürich - a series mainly released by Guild, which, initiated in 1999, meanwhile comprises 51 CDs. They are almost always first recordings of compositions, which have been created in Zurich since 1500 or have appeared here in print. A detailed discography and a list of references have been included with the following notes relating to the work compiled on this CD. [1-6]: The 16th Century Huldrych Zwingli’s (1484-1531) Zurich Reformation made a radical break with music traditions in the church. In 1524, choral and priestly chanting was abolished, and soon after organ playing was also forbidden. In December of 1527 the organs in the churches in Zurich were finally demolished. The uncompromising way, in which Zwingli removed any kind of musical manifestation in the church, is in strange contrast to the fact that the Reformer himself was not only a great music-lover, but also a talented musician and composer. He had enjoyed a solid musical education at the Berner Stiftsschule St. Vinzens. According to the contemporary chronicle of Bernhard Wyss, he was apparently able to play about a dozen instruments. In particular, he had mastered the lute and the flute, a talent that earned him the nickname of a “luthenschlacher und evangelischen pfyffer” (Bullinger, Reformationsgeschichte) during the Northern Italian campaigns, which he accompanied as an army chaplain. Zwingli’s passion for worldly music repeatedly gave his opponents the opportunity to accuse him of a frivolous way of life. On the other hand, it did not remain without influence on music-making in the home and schools in the region of Zurich. Thus, Hans Vogler, the organist from St. Gallen, was able to establish a school of music in the former Barfüsser Monastery under the aegis of Zwingli. [1] Only three tenor songs among Zwingli’s compositions have been handed down: the plague song “Hilf Herr Gott, hilf in dieser Not” (1519), the setting to the 69th psalm (1525), and the so-called Kappelerlied, intended for use in danger of war “Herr, nun heb den Wagen selb” (1529); however, not one of them is preserved in autograph form. The three verses of the Kappelerlied can be heard in three different versions on the available recording. The version for one voice is taken from the first post-reformational hymn-book for the Zurich church in 1598. It was published by Raphael Egli, archdeacon at the Grossmünster, who had persistently supported the introduction of parish singing, which had been approved in that same year. The print contains 37 psalms set for one voice and translated into German by Ambrosius Lobwasser, in addition 28 Festgesänge (festival songs) and numerous sacred songs, intended for use in churches and the home. [3] The four-voice version originates from the II. part of a print by Johann Jacob Bodmer, which appeared in 1641, containing all 150 psalms. This book was intended for musical activities at school and in the home, for the elaborate, four-voice psalm chant only established itself in churches from approx. 1700 on. [2] In between, one of two four-voice organ movements in the song from a tablature manuscript by Clemens Hör († 1572) is heard alternatim. Hör was a musician and schoolmaster from St. Gallen, who was friends with the circle around Zwingli and Johannes Fries (Frisius), a professor and music teacher at the Schola Carolina. The origin of this movement is unclear; it is possibly the intabulation of the original movement by Zwingli, for, according to Bullinger, he also composed the Kappelerlied for four voices. From Hör’s tablature, which contains more than forty, mainly worldly pieces, which are partly unique, there are also two movements by Ludwig Senfl [4] and Paul Hofhaimer [5], as well as a small dance movement [6]. [7-16]: Social music and music played at home in the 18th century Following the Reformation, Zurich’s musical life was limited to schools and music played privately at home. School music was at a good level. The above-mentioned Johannes Fries, who put singing instruction on a methodical basis with his texts (Synopsis Isagoges Musicae, 1552, and Brevis Musicae Isagoge, 1554) worked at the Schola Carolina. They occupied themselves with musical theory, hymns, and psalms for one and several voices. The hymn-books, required for this, were mainly produced in Zurich. The ministration of sacred music was also in the foreground in the domestic area. Until far into the 18th century, the activities of the Collegia musica, established from 1600 onward (“zum Chorherrensaal”, approx. 1600; “ab dem Musiksaal beim Kornhaus”, 1613; “zum Fraumünster”, later renamed “zur deutschen Schule”, 1679) were of a private nature. They offered the upper middle-classes an opportunity to be musically active within their social circle. Initially the ministration of sacred music also took priority in this case, but soon the latest instrumental and vocal music from the European centres became the focus of public attention. Whilst religious parish singing traditionally was still for one or four voices, it was the basso continuo that forged its way into the worldly area. However, mainly sacred texts were set to music. The most significant representative in the first half of the 18th century was Johann Caspar Bachofen (1695-1755). Bachofen was a qualified theologian, but exclusively worked as a music teacher and composer. From 1720 on, he held office as a cantor at the lower Latin schools at the Grossmünster and the Fraumünster. In 1742 he succeeded Johann Caspar Albertin as the cantor at the Grossmünster and head of the music college “zum Chorherrensaal”, to which he had belonged since 1711; Bachofen was also a member of the society “zur deutschen Schule“, having held office as a Kapellmeister since 1739. [7-9] Bachofen’s most important work, an extensive collection of sacred songs for one to three voices with basso continuo, appeared in Zurich in 1727 under the title Musicalisches Halleluja Oder Schöne und, geistreiche Gesänge, with a total of eleven editions – the last one appearing in 1803 – was known beyond Zurich and proved to be extremely popular. The examples recorded here, three short and simple song movements, are taken from the extended fourth edition from 1743. Johannes Schmidlin (1722-1772), who came from Wetzikon in the Zurich Oberland studied theology at the Carolinum, and was probably one of Bachofen’s pupils. There is proof that he was a member of the music college “zur deutschen Schule“ in 1734. He was ordained in 1743 and first worked as a vicar in Dietlikon, before becoming a parish priest in Wetzikon in 1754. He established a Singgesellschaft (singing society) there, and founded a Collegium musicum in 1768, which followed the Zurich models and which existed until 1825. From Schmidlin’s extensive work, which, as with Bachofen, consisted mainly of sacred and/or edifying songs, cantatas and odes, his settings of Lavater’s patriotic Swiss songs (Schweizer Lieder mit Melodieen, Berne 1769) should be especially mentioned here, apart from his collection Singendes und spielendes Vergnügen Reiner Andacht, published in 1752, which, having been reprinted several times until the end of the 18th century, enjoyed a wide general circulation. They were the start to a popular orientated, worldly ministration of hymns, which was later continued by Schmidlin’s pupils Johann Heinrich Egli and Johann Jakob Walder, and also consolidated by his “grandchild pupil” Hans Georg Nägeli in the 19th century, who also came from Wetzikon. [10-14] The recording shows extracts from Hymnus oder Lobgesang auf die Allmacht, Weissheit und Güte Gottes (Zurich 1761), a cantata for two sopranos, one bass voice and continuo. The anonymous standard text is based on James Thomson’s Hymn on the Seasons in the German translation by Barthold Heinrich Brockes, whose translation of The Seasons, where the poem is taken from, was very popular in Zurich at that time. Hans Jakob Ott, alderman of Zurich, natural scientist and amateur composer, had already in 1747 melodized the text into a cantata and presented it in print (Lob-Gesang auf die vier Jahres-Zeiten). [15, 16] The so-called Wetziker Schule around Johann Heinrich Egli (1742-1810) and Johann Jakob Walder (1750-1817) is represented by two pieces from the Auserlesene geistliche Lieder, which appeared in 1775. The print contains 37 songs for one to four voices, according to the custom of that time, the authorship remains anonymous, so that a definite allocation is not possible. Egli and the younger Walder worked in Zurich as music teachers and instrumentalists in the orchestra of the Musikgesellschaft “ab dem Musiksaal” from 1760 and/or 1774 on. Numerous prints from both of them appeared, published in Zurich, with songs for one and several voices with continuo or piano accompaniment, and both of them composed New Year pieces for the Zurich Collegia musica, as Bachofen and Schmidlin had also already done. Egli was, among other things, responsible for the general circulation of Lavater’s Schweizer Lieder, which he published in a new, extended edition in 1775, and expanded by a second part in 1787. [17-21]: Zurich around 1800 The fact that Philipp Christoph Kayser (1755-1823) was portrayed in Lavater’s “Physiognomische Fragmente” (vol. 3, Winterthur 1777) as an example of a “musical genius”, is connected with his origin. Kayser belongs to the Frankfurt circle of friends around Goethe, and was regarded by the poet as a gifted composer, with whom he wanted to realise his music plans. Lavater met Kayser in Frankfurt in 1774, and probably as a result of his suggestion and reaffirmed by Goethe, the young composer came to Zurich in 1775, which was to become his adopted place of residence. In Zurich he made a living as a music teacher. His compositions were published here as well, at first mainly settings of the poems by his friends, committed to Sturm und Drang. [17,18] From the second volume of songs (Gesänge mit Begleitung des Claviers, Leipzig and Winterthur 1777) the recording has two Goethe settings, among them a piano version of the aria “Ein Schauspiel für Götter”, which followed from Kayer’s occupation with Goethe’s draft of the Singspiel Erwin and Elmire. [19] Merely two sonatas for piano, violin and two horns were published as instrumental music (around 1784), the first of which is introduced here with the first movement. The pieces would have been intended for the musical edification within a private upper middle-class environment. After 1790, Kayser’s creative powers were severely impaired by continuous melancholic moods, not least as a result of the problems, which came about during the mutual work on various Singspiel projects, initiated by Goethe, and which were so serious that their friendship was at times exposed to major endurance tests, and finally was to end after the Singspiel “Scherz, List und Rache”, completed in 1787, failed, although it never got to the stage of being performed. Kayser led a withdrawn life in Zurich until his death. He gave lessons and was occasionally involved as a violist at the concerts given by the Gesellschaft “ab dem Musiksaal”. He was especially committed to the Zurich Freemasons’ lodge Modestia cum libertate, which he had joined in 1775 and in the meantime served as a secretary. After a quarter of a century of severely reduced activities, Kayser played a leading role in solemnly re-establishing the Lodge. Meanwhile he had continued dealing with the business, and was appointed honorary member. On the occasion of this revival, a cantata especially written for this purpose by Anton Heinrich Liste (1772-1832), a brother mason, who, like Kayser came from Germany, was played. From Hildesheim by birth, Liste had been appointed to the Musikgesellschaft “ab dem Musiksaal” in Zurich as a music director in 1804. He had perfected his compositional craft with Georg Albrechtsberger in Vienna, and is also to have been a pupil of Mozart – although this can no longer be verified. On the grounds of personal incompatibilities, especially with regard to Hans Georg Nägeli, who had initially recommended him for the office of Kapellmeister in 1804, Liste resigned in 1807, but remained in Zurich, where he established himself as a piano and singing teacher. Liste had a lifelong connection with the Musikgesellschaft “ab dem Musiksaal” as well as the Allgemeine Musik-Gesellschaft (AMG), which was founded by incorporating the Collegia musica in 1812, as a musician and conductor. Of great significance for Zurich’s musical life was the Listesche Singinstitut, a mixed choir, which the composer had established in 1805, probably modelled on Nägeli’s Singinstitut. This society not only performed their own events in public, but also joined ranks with the AMG on several occasions to perform major chorus work and operas. As Zurich did not have a theatre at that time, these concert performances gave the public an, opportunity for the first time to become acquainted with the contemporary repertoire of operas (among others Mozart’s Magic Flute, Rossini’s Mose in Egitto or Weigl’s Swiss Family). In Ernst Ludwig Gerber’s Lexikon der Tonkünstler (1813) it says about the composer Liste, who was well-known during his lifetime: “According to the opinion of several experts, his more recent piano work belongs to the most excellent with regard to its original and correct movement, as well as its attractive style”. Liste’s small preserved oeuvre consists of solo and chorus songs, cantatas, piano sonatas and two piano concertos, which he only had printed during his time in Zurich. In 1804, Nägeli included two of his piano concertos in his reputable series Repertoire des Clavecinistes, in which, among others, five of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, also appeared - three of those as first editions (op. 31). [20] Liste’s only piece of chamber music, the Grande Sonate pour le Piano Forte con Accompagnement de Basson ou Violoncelle obligé, whose second movement can be heard here, was also published by Nägeli. In contrast to the conventional title, the bassoon is treated as an equal duet-partner. Liste dedicated this piece of work to Heinrich Escher, who was the leading bassoonist and vice-Kapellmeister at the foundation of the AMG in 1812. [21] The “Neujahrslied” is taken from a small collection, which Liste published in Zurich as op.1 with the title Sechs fröhliche zweystimmige Chorlieder und Canon, and which, as it says in the introduction, was intended for his young singing students. [22-27]: Richard Wagner’s circle of friends When during his escape from Germany in 1849, Richard Wagner had found his temporary exile in Zurich, a group of equal-minded composers and artists soon formed around him. Apart from the German pianist, conductor and composer Alexander Müller (1808-1863), a pupil of Johann Nepomuk Hummel, who had been active in Zurich since 1834 and was on friendly terms with Wagner, having taken him in during the first months of his involuntary stay, Johann Carl Eschmann (1826-1882) from Winterthur in Switzerland also belonged to this circle. Following the initial period of lessons with Alexander Müller, he was permitted to study at the conservatory in Leipzig as a piano and composition pupil, first with Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and then with Ignaz Moscheles. Back in Switzerland he taught piano and composition for three years in Zurich from 1847 on, before shifting his area of activity to his home-town Winterthur for a further ten years. His friendship with Wagner occurred during this post-study period, and the work recorded here was created during the same period of time. [22] Representative for his piano music, which forms the most substantial part of his oeuvre, the choice was made to use the Neujahrslied für das Pianoforte (1852), which Eschmann had dedicated to his bride in the autograph. As op.15 No. 1 this piece was published with the note “Nicht zu langsam” as the first of four Lyrische Blätter in the same year, but is now dedicated to the pianist Clara Schumann. [23] Next to a considerable number of chorus pieces, chamber music takes up relatively little space in Eschmann’s catalogue of works. The 1st movement has been recorded from the only string quartet, which is not dated, but was probably created early on, and was still exposed to Mendelssohn’s compositional influence. [24] From the compositions for horn and piano Im Herbst op.6, named Fantasiestücke, the last character piece with the title Zur Weinlese was finally selected. This opus possibly belongs to those pieces of work, which, regarding its year of origin of 1849, already belongs to the stage when he had met the German exile musician Wagner. Although the last three tracks [25-27] on this CD also belong to the music from the Wagner circle, they can be more aptly titled as Musik für Fanny Hünerwadel (1826-1854): the three recordings are in fact dedicated to this lady from Lenzburg, who came from a music-loving doctor’s family, and from the age of 20 was given the opportunity by her generous uncle and Zurich banker, Johann Jacob Speerli, to consolidate her musical abilities in the “Limmatstadt” Zurich. Alexander Müller, who was also known as the esteemed piano teacher of, among others, Wilhelm Baumgartner (1820-1867), and the already mentioned Johann Carl Eschmann, supported her talents and enabled her to perform in various concerts in Zurich. There followed many and diverse contacts to musicians working locally and internationally. The young musician made the most of this network by methodically compiling a musical album from April 1852 to July 1853, in which she requested autograph entries from altogether 15 male and one female musician on mapped out sheets of music surrounded by plant arabesques. [25] On the first sheet of the autograph collection, which is privately owned – dated 25 April 1852 – there is a bold mazurka, produced in delicate fair copy by Fanny’s mentor, Alexander Müller. [26] In 14th place in the album we find the second piece in this selection: a year later, on 30 April 1853, Fanny Hünerwadel received an entry from Richard Wagner (1813-1883), who had already been known to her since the beginning of his exile, entitled “was Neues aus Siegfried”, and dedicated to “liebe Fanny”. In contrast to Müller’s specially prepared composition, Wagner took his music text from the draft manuscript (August 1850) from the “prelude” to Siegfrieds Tod. It could no longer be used for the tetralogy, which had to be newly composed, but was still suitable for an entry into the album. [27] Although the third piece was not taken from the above-mentioned album, but even so belongs to the series of dedicated compositions for Fanny Hünerwadel. Wilhelm Baumgartner, already returned from Germany to Zurich during the time of Fanny Hünerwadel’s education with his former teacher Müller, certainly met the young woman from Lenzburg on the occasion of the concerts of the Allgemeine Musik-Gesellschaft. He entitled the print of his Sechs kleine Lieder op. 4 for one voice and piano “Fräulein Fanny Hünerwadel gewidmet” (dedicated to Miss Fanny Hünerwadel), after he had already once before dedicated a song to her in 1849, on the occasion of an AMG concert. Baumgartner composed a charming love-song for the text of the poem “Wenn die Sonne lieblich schiene” by Joseph von Eichendorff. Dr. Urs Fischer and Dr. Bernhard Hangartner
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