Nazarenes and the Early Music Revival

The research project focuses on the group of painters called the Brotherhood of St. Luke (Lukasbrüder; later called the Nazarenes because of their long haircuts), who settled in Rome in 1810 in order to work on a renewal of art. The works of old Italian and old German masters, who still had an uncorrupted relation to religion, served as their models. The Nazarenes relation to religion as well as to poetry has often been addressed in past research. The importance of music, however, remains as yet unclarified. Letters, theoretical writings, and especially the Nazarene works of art indicate that music, more specifically the music of older epochs, occupied an undeniable place in the lives and works of these artists. This becomes even more remarkable once one conciders that the Nazarenes became an important source of inspiration for backward-looking tendencies in the musical culture of the second half of the 19th century. This can be proven by the example of Vienna, where the revival of early music in the 1860s and 1870s was decisively influenced by Nazarene artistic ideals. The research project intends to shed light on this hitherto entirely overlooked background of the Early Music Revival in Vienna, while also determining wholly anew the status of music for the Nazarenes. The Nazarenes relation to (early) music will be examined by means of their theoretical writings, letters, and memoirs. Moreover, the project will use sources on musical life in Rome from 1810 to 1835 in order to trace all the ways in which the Nazarenes came into contact with music, especially with early music. The projects concern is, on the one hand, with reconstructing the repertoire which influenced the Nazarenes, and, on the other, with documenting their activities as practising piano/organ players or singers. The question concerning the influence of Nazarene artistic ideals on the Early Music Revival in Vienna in the second half of the 19th century will be treated mainly on the basis of art reviews penned by the musical writer August Wilhelm Ambros (18161876), as well as of art reviews and art essays published in the journal Blätter für Musik, Theater und Kunst, edited by Leopold Alexander Zellner (1823 1894). The projecttakes thefollowing hypothesesas itsstartingpoint: 1) The idea of a renewal of art by returning to the old masters not only surfaces in the art works of the Nazarenes, but is also reflected in their musical interests and, consequently, in Romes musical life. 2) The revival of early music a typical phenomenon of the second half of the 19th century in Vienna was especially influenced by Nazarene artistic ideals. The project thus intends to disclose new horizons both for musicology and for art history: the musical or music-historical side of Nazarenism becomes apparent to art history, whereas to musicology it is the art-historical contexts of the Early Music Revival that come into views.

This project represents the first analysis of the Nazarene painters as a subject of music history, resulting in a redefinition of the role of music in the Nazarene artistic programme. A total of five integral studies were produced, dedicated to the reception of music in Nazarene circles and to the reception of Nazarene art and their artistic ideals in a music-historical context. My examination of the thus far mostly unexplored musical affinities of the Nazarenes was narrowed to so-called early (pre-Classical) music and to the period between 1810 and 1830, the heyday of the Nazarene sojourn in Rome. The hypothesis underlying the project was fully corroborated: The artistic life of the Nazarenes in Rome was definitively shaped by their musical interests, which in turn were influenced by an already existing movement devoted to the revival of early music. As the evidence demonstrates, the Nazarenes did not merely play a passive role in this revival, as performing musicians and singers they were active protagonists. One consequence of tracing the Nazarene painters' musical activities in Rome was to rescue from obscurity the German musician and composer Johann Gerhard Georg (1802-1833), who directed the Nazarene Singverein (choir) in Rome from 1826-1828. Investigating the Nazarene reception of music in Rome likewise revealed many previously unknown social and professional networks, such as Nazarene contacts to the director of the Sistine Chapel Choir Giuseppe Baini and to the Roman music collector Fortunato Santini. This research project confirms, by specifically looking at Nazarene depictions of angelic music, that the Nazarene painters' involvement with early music directly affected their pictorial works. Indeed, the Nazarene reception of early music must be considered one of several essential antecedents informing their artistic programme. Vienna in the second half of the nineteenth century was selected as an illustrative example of the impact of Nazarene art and ideas on historicist currents in music culture, with a specific emphasis on the reception of Nazarene art in the writings of August Wilhelm Ambros. The insights gleaned from Ambros's art-historical criticism and essays clearly reveal that the orientational paradigm for Vienna's early music revival in the second half of the nineteenth century was not so much musical as art-historical (i.e. Nazarenism). This exploration of the Nazarene background to contemporaneous music trends in Vienna also served to lay the groundwork for my follow-on project 'Historismus und die Wiener Musikkultur des Nachmärz und der Ringstraßenzeit' (Historicism and Viennese Music Culture in the Post-March and Ringstrasse Eras). Finally, the interdisciplinary structure of the present project establishes a nexus for further art-historical research by providing a basis to more fully evaluate the aspect of musicalisation in Nazarene painting.