Historicism and Viennese musical culture of the post-1848 era and the Ringstrasse era

The cultivation of so-called Early (pre-Haydn) Music had a long-standing tradition in Vienna, which at least since the Vormärz era was accompanied by a restorative Early Music movement under the sign of historicism. The revival of Early Music in Vormärz Vienna is especially associated with Raphael Georg Kiesewetter the pioneer of musical historicism. Applied to the post-1848 era and to the Ringstrasse era, this denomination employed by Herfrid Kier appears somewhat paradoxical, however, especially as up to the present day only little is known about the paths of historicism after Kiesewetters death (1850), aside from the frequently discussed Viennese Early Music performances conducted under Johannes Brahms. The projected study will therefore trace the development from the end of the pioneering days around 1850 up to the early 1890s, during which historicism enjoyed increasing institutional support and a new generation of proponents of the Early Music movement entered the scene, represented by Guido Adler and Eusebius Mandyczewski, among others. The project focuses on Early Music itself and its presence in Viennese concert life. Historicism as a concept of style, on the other hand, or, in the strict sense of the word, as a specific church music movement (Cecilianism), moves into the background. The underlying idea of the project is the knowledge of a gradual spreading of Early Music over Viennese music culture, but the historicism of the second half of the 19 th century is not so much to be treated as a purposefully directed development as it is to be treated as a history of problems. The title of the project, Historicism and Viennese musical culture, thus also indicates a relationship of tension, characteristic of the Danubian metropolis, which at the same time distinguished itself as the city of Viennese classicism. The projected habilitation thesis will, on the one hand, reconstruct the Viennese Early Music scene in view of its proponents, its performing sites, and its repertoire, analysing them against the backdrop of the situation before 1850. On the other hand, the characteristic aspects of the Viennese Early Music reception are to be worked out in relation to 19th century performance practice and aesthetic-critical discourse. In particular, its very extensive theoretical reflection brings a new, important feature into play when compared to the Vormärz situation. The project intends to treat the discourse around Early Music as comprehensively as possible, and thus to confirm the hypothesis of a multifaceted involvement with Early Music that goes far beyond the controversy between Eduard Hanslick and Johannes Brahms. Besides the press reports that constitute the studys main source, the project will draw on a number of essays, pamphlets, sheet music scores (recorded mainly in editions), and other supplementary sources such as written correspondence. The study aims to integrate the Viennese musical culture of the post- 1848 and the Ringstrasse era much more firmly into the interdisciplinary discussion around historicism and thus to create the preconditions for a further contextualization, whether by investigating the Early Music Revival in other cities of the monarchy such as Prague or by analysing the historicizing practice of composing in Vienna in the second half of the 19th century.

This research project focused on Vienna's role in the cultivation of early music in the second half of the nineteenth century. Building on Herfrid Kier's work, Raphael Georg Kiesewetter. Wegbereiter des musikalischen Historismus (Raphael Georg Kiesewetter: Pioneer of Musical Historicism, Regensburg 1968), the project traced the development of musical historicism from Kiesewetter's death in 1850 to the early 1890s, when the movement's retrogressive impulse became increasingly institutionalized and a new generation of actors entered the early music scene, including Guido Adler and Eusebius Mandyczewski. The subject of inquiry was the reception of early music at secular music venues in Vienna, with an emphasis on public performances. The project resulted in the habilitation thesis Alte Musik im Wiener Konzertleben 1850-1893 (Early Music in Vienna Concert Life 1850-1893) which is conceived in two parts: In the first part, the early music scene is reconstructed on the basis of its organizers and creatives, performance venues, concert formats and repertoire formation. In the second part, significant features of early music's performative and verbal reception are elaborated against a backdrop of individual repertoire focal points. The study also includes an index of early music concert repertoires in Vienna between 1850 and 1893. The index is sorted by composer and contains performance information, including event title, performance date and location, names of performers, and details on performance practice. The project as a whole was based on source material such as contemporary program leaflets and program booklets, essays and reviews in music published in Viennese daily and specialist press, as well as various types of musical literature and notated music sources (music manuscripts and prints, nineteenth-century editions of musical works). Vienna's early music scene was highly diverse and interconnected. All important actors in concert life of the time endeavored to cater to the epoch's "historical spirit" and to emulate the model of Germany's music capitals of Leipzig and Berlin. The traditions of Vienna Classicism, as well as the cultivation of contemporary (e.g., New German) music production did not hinder the uptake of early music into the concert repertoire. Due to the receptiveness of many of Vienna's early music apologists to the newer music, the early music revival only rarely took on the form of protest. This study contributes not only to research on historicism, but also to the exploration of music life in nineteenth-century Central Europe. It opens up several thematic horizons for further music-historical research, including: the reception of early music in other music centers of the Habsburg monarchy, private and semi-private cultivation of early music in Vienna, as well as the phenomenon of the sacralization of concert life in the nineteenth century.