The Sacred Music Library of Elector Maximilian Franz

Maximilian Franz of Austria (1756-1801), the youngest son of empress Maria Theresia and the last acting elector of Cologne, was known in his own day 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. Remembered by music history primarily as an admirer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the first employer and supporter of Ludwig van Beethoven, the Habsburg electors reign marks the period at the Bonn electoral court when musical life in was arguably at its most vibrant, which directly corresponds with the composers formative years as assistant organist in the court chapel. Shortly before French forces occupied Bonn in 1794, the electors music library, containing over 3400 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 still is preserved today in the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, but whose provenance had until very recently never been systematically tested. Building organically on the results of The Operatic Library of Maximilian Franz (http://www.univie.ac.at/opernbibliothek/), the current project hopes to identify the sacred music sources in Modena that originally were used in Bonn, as well as to analyze these and other documents pertaining to sacred music at the Bonn court to arrive at a renewed and deepened understanding of musics role in courtly religious practices. The projects first phase encompasses a systematic identification of the musical sources, their paper types and copyists, which will be made accessible in an online database. A second level of inquiry will then address broader questions of this musics adaptation and context within religious services in Bonn, especially with regard to the liturgical reforms of Joseph II and their implications for the performance of concerted masses, but also with an eye toward smaller liturgical genres and the influence of local traditions and possible transfer with other ecclesiastical courts in Mainz and Trier. Finally, what was the impact these sacred repertoires made on its court musicians? Beethovens lifelong fascination with sacred music has long been well known. To what degree was this influenced by his early experience in the court chapel, and what lessons might he and his peers (such as Anton Reicha, Bernhard and Andreas Romberg, and Ferdinand Ries) have learned from the music they played and the attitudes towards worship under which they were educated and socialized?

Maximilian Franz of Austria (1756-1801), the youngest son of Maria Theresia and the last acting Elector of Cologne, was known in his own day 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. Remembered by music history primarily as an admirer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the first employer and supporter of Ludwig van Beethoven, the Habsburg elector's reign marks the period at the Bonn electoral court when musical life was arguably at its most vibrant, which directly corresponds with Beethoven's formative years as assistant organist in the court chapel. Shortly before French forces occupied Bonn in 1794, the music libraries of the electoral court, which at their height contained close to 4,000 works divided among various collections, were bundled together and moved to safety. At some point after his death, the surviving remnant of this collection was transferred through dynastic connections to Modena, where it still is preserved in the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, but whose provenance had until very recently never been systematically tested. Building organically on the results of "The Operatic Library of Maximilian Franz," this project successfully identified the sacred music sources in Modena (amounting to 459 shelf marks) that originally were used in Bonn, as well as analyzed these and other documents pertaining to sacred music at the Bonn court to arrive at a renewed and deepened understanding of music's role in courtly religious practices. The project's first phase encompassed a systematic identification of the musical sources, their paper-types and copyists, which have been made accessible in an online database (http://www.univie.ac.at/muwidb/sacredmusiclibrary). A second level of inquiry addressed broader questions of this music's trans-European ties and its adaptation and context within religious services in Bonn - especially with regard to the ecclesiastical reforms of Joseph II and their implications for the performance of concerted masses, but also with an eye toward smaller liturgical genres. Beethoven's lifelong fascination with sacred music has long been well known. To what degree was this influenced by his early experience in the court chapel, and what lessons might he and his peers (such as Anton Reicha, Bernhard and Andreas Romberg, and Ferdinand Ries) have learned from the music they played and the attitudes towards worship under which they were educated and socialized? The resulting nuanced picture of sacred music at the Bonn Electoral Court offers valuable food for thought backed by extensive data: it shows a rich, varied repertoire of some of the era's most challenging music, fully in line with the excellence of the court music witnessed in previous studies.