Andrea Luchesi

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Available here in audio versions only. Orchestral scores of these symphonies listed below and their instrumental parts are NOT currently available to members of this website. They are available here as AUDIO files only and are provided to you free of charge by ItalianOPERA © 2006. These audio versions can be shared with other persons free of charge, according to our copyleft. Any interested parties who wish to instrumentally perform/record these Modena versions are invited to first contact us here at ItalianOPERA for more information.

(Thanks to Robert Newman for his oversight in making the English version of the following article available) -

THE ‘ANONYMITY PRACTICE’ IN 18TH CENTURY MUSIC CHAPELS

The conventions and practices of 18th century musical society were very different from today. The 18th century was a time when composers and musicians were frequently subjected to servile conditions of work and when copyright for composers as we know it today did not exist.

In music chapels of Europe (of which there were some 23 in Germany alone in the late 18th century) masters often wrote their music anonymously as a routine convention. They rarely, if ever, wrote their own names on compositions at the chapel. Take a famous example – at Leipzig its Kapellmeister Johann Sebastian Bach (2685-1750) wrote several hundred church cantatas during his time in that city. But few of his manuscripts are signed with his name and those which are have either been loaned or performed externally. It was at such times that these chapel works were attributed to their composer. The norm was definitely for a Chapel Master NOT to sign his own work. And there were good reasons, as we shall see. In practice the composer of a given piece was named only after retirement or death, or in the event that an individual manuscript was performed externally or a copy was requested to be made for external use. Chapel Masters (Kapellmeisters) knew and understood this convention very well. Those employed to copy music, ‘copyists’, understood it too and they never credited copies to the composer on the cover of the score or on its musical parts. Only with ancient composers or works intended for sale outside chapels were works actually given the name of their composer at the time of inventory.

Part of the reason for this practice was that Kapellmeisters reserved the right to vary or alter the content of their works, to improve them continuously, often over the course of their whole careers. The definitive version of a composition may be that which a Kapellmeister produces just before he retires. Or, of course, that which exists at the time when he dies. Up until retirement or death if was therefore remarkably common for productions to be held anonymously in the archives of their chapels. This was certainly the case at the Bonn Chapel as for all music chapels of Germany, Italy and all other countries of Europe.

A Kapellmeister could and often did compose works for clients outside the chapel as a purely commercial transaction but, in practice, this meant he did so only using the name of another musician. His terms of employment for the chapel made his music property of his employer. So he would use a ‘pen-name’ or ‘nom de plume’ for sale of secular music or for supplying external works. This too was common practice. Such commissions supplemented the incomes of many official composers. But productions for the chapel remained unsigned in the chapel archives and the Kapellmeister was not paid extra money for writing them.

Chapel masters could and often did sell original music to noblemen, for example, and even to other composers/musicians. (The latter would, on receipt of the music, become its ‘legal author’). Such was the nature of these transactions and they too were remarkably common. We see examples right across Europe. Literally thousands of secular works were created and sold including symphonies. Noblemen thus attributed to their own resident musicians works which, in actual fact, were creations of other composers. This fake paternity was not viewed as immoral at the time. It served to increase the status of a noblemen’s court and of his own musical establishment.

It can be understood, therefore, how important it is that we appreciate these 18th century musical conventions. Works we today call ‘musical forgeries’ were remarkably common objects of musical commerce. The ‘legal author’ received music for cash from its true composer, recopied it in his own hand and normally destroyed the original. From that time onwards the piece was legally his own work. The true composers could and often did sell music written by them for different occasions or music no more in use. Or it could be attributed to other students to help them in their careers. Works could even be composed and sold to third parties in exchange for money or favours.

In other musical manuscripts of the 18th century we find that only a small part of the work contains a famous melody (whose true composer is named) with all other contents being anonymous creations by other, lesser composers.

It can therefore happen that a given composer is attributed dozens, even hundreds of works by the purchase of his employer which he, the supposed ‘composer’ never actually composed. And there are various examples of this occurring in 18th century archives. To society of the 18th century these were not scandals provided that conventions were respected.

It is easy to see, therefore, that reconstructing the actual achievements of specific 18th century composers is often not as simple or straightforward as we might suppose. The existence of a signature on a manuscript or the fact that it may always have been traditionally attributed to a specific composer is not, in itself, definitive proof of paternity.To achieve a high degree of certainty we must bring to bear all sorts of evidence from all available angles to establish this for each and every piece.

To establish the true paternity of a piece it is also increasingly clear that we must also take in to account the motives of those involved in these processes. The history of music in the 18th century is a particular case in point. For extra-musical, political, social, economic and even sometimes religious motivations were often involved. It can also be shown that attributing music to other composers has often inflated the supposed achievements of composers or has done real damage to others by obscuring their real achievements.

Luca Bianchini and Ann Trombetta

THE MUSICAL WORKS OF ANDREA LUCHESI AT ESTENSE LIBRARY IN MODENA

To appreciate the musical legacy of Andrea Luchesi now at Estense Library in Modena it may be useful to first consider the history of the chapel from which most of his musical works came - Bonn. The Chapel at Bonn had a long history of music. Its archives are known to have been inventoried many times during the course of the 18th century. For instance, in 1723, an inventory took place after the death of the Prince Elector Joseph Clemens. Another was made in 1766 during the time when Ludwig van Beethoven senior was in charge of the chapel music.

Records show that during the time Kapellmeister Luchesi was away in Venice (May 1784) another inventory was ordered in his absence by the new incoming ruler of the Bonn Principality, Max Franz. Appointed to conduct the inventory was the court organist Christian Gottlob Neefe. (Neefe himself had no experience in such matters and had only recently been appointed temporary Kapellmeister during the time of Luchesi’s travel to Italy, prior to which he was the court organist). To sanction and approve the results the Court Notary Fries was appointed. At this time (May 1784) not all music in the Bonn chapel was inventoried. Work was limited to theatrical, instrumental and sacred works for orchestra and to works deemed to be anonymous or by different un-named authors. Thus, there was much music in Bonn in 1784 that was never part of the inventory that year. The results of Neefe’s work were written down and submitted to Max Franz. This document still exists.

We also know that in the 10 years of his regency (1784-1794) Max Franz added his own personal music library to the Bonn music archives. This included manuscripts he had purchased and works produced for him by his own Kapellmeister Luchesi. All of these made up the musical assets of the Bonn chapel with its headquarters in Bonn.

By 1794 the effects of the French Revolution and threat of occupation by Napoleon’s armies made it necessary for Max Franz to remove himself from Bonn. He arranged before departure for the music archives of Bonn (which were of course property of the Principality and not of himself) to be evacuated from the chapel. As property of the Principality these archives should, of course, have been returned at the end of occupation to the chapel. But they never were.

Documentary evidence shows that at the time of his death in 1801 Max Franz, of the Habsburgs, wrongly bequeathed these archives as his own property to relatives in Modena, Italy. He did so, most probably, because he did not wish them to fall in to the hands of enemy Prussian control. These manuscripts, after a period in Vienna, eventually made their way to Modena. The ‘Luchesi Folder’ at Modena is therefore part of the great music archives of Bonn.

We are able to reconstruct in some detail what happened. 60 crates of manuscripts left by river from Bonn headed for Ruhrort during 1794. On arrival at Ruhfort they were transported by wagons to the headquarters of the Teutonic Knights at Mergentheim. To avoid risk of capture by invading French troops these archives were first divided into 3 parts. Part was sent directly to Vienna. Another part went to Nuremberg and a third part went to Dresden. As the French threat extended even to Vienna the Prince decided to send all 3 parts to Prague. In the confusion of those times it was then decided it would be best if the entire archive was returned to Max Franz’s official residence at Bad Mergentheim. And there they remained until September 1801.

The death of Max Franz in that year of 1801 would normally have caused these musical treasures to be returned to Bonn. But, as said, Bonn was now in Prussian control. (Prussia had taken control of the Bonn area after the Restoration). Soon, questions would be asked about delay in their return. So, once again, these Bonn archives traveled, this time to Vienna, where they arrived on 13th September that same year.

We know that the ‘Luchesi Folder’ arrived at Modena after 1814. We also know that at the library in Modena only part of the archives arrived. And we see that various frontispieces and covers of these works have been tampered with – making the job of identity and attribution specially challenging. So, in summary, we know that the works catalogued by Neefe in 1784 (which was the last official inventory at Bonn) included works, only part of them arriving in Modena. We also know that the Habsburgs arranged for these works to be sent to the Grand Duke Ferdinand in Modena – well away from publicity. And, finally, we know that the ‘Luchesi Folder’ was mysteriously identified only in 1851.

The examples of covers and frontispieces being removed (sometimes also involving deleting writing on the remaining pieces) is highly suggestive of manipulation of these documents. It is further suggestive of these documents being sent to Modena, far away, for the purpose of safeguarding the huge reputation of both Mozart and Haydn in respect of the pieces attributed to them now at Modena.

Less controversial parts of the Bonn archives have remained, in fact, in Vienna and elsewhere. It is very likely that after the end of the Habsburg dynasty these other works were dispersed between the Austrian National Library and the library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.

(Derived from research writings of George Taboga)

Bibliography

Giorgio Taboga, Andrea Luchesi l'ora della verità, Ponzano Veneto (Treviso) 1994;
Giorgio Taboga, Andrea Luchesi e la cappella di Bonn, Restauri di Marca n.3;
C.Valder-Knechtges, Die weltliche Werke A.Luchesis, Merseburger 1984;
T.A. Henseler, Andrea Luchesi der letzte Bonner Kapellmeister zur Zeit des jungen Beethoven, Bonn 1937.