The Operatic Library of Elector Maximilian Franz (1780-1794)

The philological project "The Music Library of Maximilian Franz" is intended to identify and establish provenance of the surviving music-dramatic sources that originally belonged to Maximilian Franz (1756-1801), the youngest son of Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa and the last Elector of Cologne, as well as to analyze these sources to answer detailed questions about performance practices at his court in Bonn. Max Franz is known to music history primarily in two capacities, as an admirer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the first employer of Ludwig van Beethoven. It is the second of these that the proposed study should most benefit, as the period when the musical life in Bonn was most vibrant, from 1780-1794, directly corresponds with the composer`s formative years. However, the benefits would extend beyond Beethoven studies, since a more detailed portrait of musical life at this court would also provide greater understanding of practices at smaller German courts in general. Additionally, both the geographical proximity of Bonn to important musical centers of Paris, Berlin, and Mannheim, as well as the political ties to Vienna, make it an ideal case study for the cultural transfer or histoire croisée which is often believed to have marked the internationalization of the musical style during this era. We are currently in a better position than ever to deepen our knowledge of the musical practices in Max Franz`s electoral court. Previous research by scholars such as Sieghard Brandenburg and Juliane Riepe have located several of the sources in Modena, but a detailed study of these sources has been thus far lacking. Such a study is long overdue: this period ranks as one of the greatest biographical lacunae in Beethoven studies, and therefore a more precise picture of the musical life in Bonn would form a necessary first step for a modern re-appraisal of his earliest musical experiences. Beyond this, Max Franz`s court was also home to a number of outstanding musicians, whose biographies would also benefit from the results of this study: among others, Christian Gottlob Neefe, Andrea Lucchesi, Nicholas Simrock, and Anton Reicha. The first phase of this project shall be directed at systematically identifying the Modena sources and making the results public in a clear presentation of their extent and nature in form of an open access database. This step being completed, the second phase aims to address broader questions of operatic performance practice at Max Franz`s court, including, among others, an analysis of the musical capacity of the Bonn Hofkapelle, information on the praxis of arrangement at the Bonn court or substitution arias, or the question of in which language the operas were performed. It is also hoped that the first stage will make it possible to identify further sources scattered throughout Europe, e.g. in Vienna or among the estate of Christian Gottlob Neefe.

Archduke and Elector Maximilian Franz (17561801) of Habsburg-Lorraine, was known as a discerning musical patron with an extensive collection of scores, which he made available for court performances as well as for use and study by court musicians. The elector is remembered by music history primarily as the first employer and supporter of Ludwig van Beethoven; his reign marks the period at the Bonn court when musical life was arguably at its most vibrant, which directly corresponds with the composers formative years as court musician. Shortly before French forces occupied Bonn in 1794, the electors music library, encompassing over 3500 works, was moved to safety. At some point after his death, the surviving remnant of this collection was transferred through dynastic connections to Modena, where it is still preserved today in the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, but whose provenance had until recently never been systematically tested.The central goal of this project was to first identify and analyze by strict codicological standards the surviving scores and performance parts that belonged to the electors music-dramatic collection. This way, it was possible not only to reconstruct large parts of the original library and securely attribute several sources with Bonn provenance, but also to discern trends in the adaptation and performance practices at the Bonn opera. Further questions were also addressed, on the origins of the collection, on the personalities that played a role in the court music, on the meaning of the elector in the musical life of Vienna and Bonn, and generally on the development of the Bonn Court Theater as an institution and its context. What emerged was a well-rounded picture of operatic life in Bonn in the late 18th century. Both by establishing the sources and developing a methodology to do this, this project also provided a basis for a further project (The Sacred Music Library of Elector Maximilian Franz, P28895) devoted to studying the enormous collection of sacred music. An overview of the project results can be seen in the website (http://www.univie.ac.at/operaticlibrary), which also contains a source and performance database. Beyond this, the results are presented in several volumes published by the Beethoven-Haus Bonn in a newly-created series for the project teams publications, Musik am Bonner Kurfürstlichen Hof: The Operatic Library of Elector Maximilian Franz: Reconstruction, Catalogue, Contexts is a comprehensive source catalogue, various case studies, and a generous amount of other contextualizing essays as well. A further volume contains the contributions to the international conference that was organized in cooperation with the Beethoven-Haus in December 2015, and yet another will publish the dissertation by Elisabeth Reisinger that was completed during the project.