Music at German Courts serves to illustrate the extraordinary diversity of eighteenth-century German court music establishments without losing sight of what theseKapellen had in common.

Music at German Courts serves to illustrate the extraordinary diversity of eighteenth-century German court music establishments without losing sight of what these Kapellen had in common.

What was musical life at German courts really like during the eighteenth century? Were musical ensembles as diverse as the Holy Roman Empire's kaleidoscopic political landscape? Through a series of individual case studies contributed by leading scholars from Germany, Poland, the United States, Canada, and Australia, this book investigates the realities of musical life at fifteen German courts of varied size (ranging from kingdoms to principalities), religious denomination, and geographical location. Significant shifts that occurred in the artistic priorities of each court are presented through a series of "snapshots"- in effect "core sample" years - which highlight both individualand shared patterns of development and decline.
What emerges from the wealth of primary source material examined in this volume is an in-depth picture of music-making within the daily life of individual courts, featuring acast of music directors, instrumentalists, and vocalists, together with numerous support staff drawn from across Europe.Music at German Courts serves to illustrate the extraordinary diversity of eighteenth-century German court music establishments without losing sight of what theseKapellen had in common.

SAMANTHA OWENS is Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. BARBARA M. REUL is Associate Professor of Musicology at Luther College, University of Regina, Canada. JANICE B. STOCKIGT is a Principal Fellow of the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Contributors: DIETER KIRSCH, URSULA KRAMER, MICHAEL MAUL, MARY OLESKIEWICZ, SAMANTHA OWENS, RASHID-S. PEGAH, BÄRBEL PELKER, BARBARA M. REUL, WOLFGANG RUF, BERT SIEGMUND, JANICE B. STOCKIGT, MICHAEL TALBOT, RÜDIGER THOMSEN-FÜRST, ALINA ZORAWSKA-WITKOWSKA, STEVEN ZOHN

Foreword by Michael Talbot
'Das gantzeCorpus derer...musicirenden Personen': An Introduction to GermanHofkapellen
'Das gantzeCorpus derer...musicirenden Personen': An Introduction to GermanHofkapellen - Barbara Reul
The Court of Saxony-Dresden - Janice Stockigt
The Saxon Court of the Kingdom of Poland - Alina Zorawska-Witkowska
The Court of Brandenburg-Prussia - Mary Oleskiewicz
The Palatine Court in Mannheim - Bärbel Pelker
The Court of Württemberg-Stuttgart
The Court of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg - Bert Siegmund
The Courts of Saxony-Weissenfels, Saxony-Merseburg and Saxony-Zeitz - Wolfgang Ruf
The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst - Barbara Reul
The Court of Sondershausen - Michael Maul
The Court of Würzburg - Dieter Kirsch
The Court of Hesse-Darmstadt - Ursula Kramer
The Court of Baden-Durlach in Karlsruhe - Rüdiger Thomsen-Fürst
The Court of Brandenburg-Culmbach-Bayreuth - Rashid-S Pegah
'Die vornehmste Hof-Tugend': German Musicians' Reflections on Eighteenth-Century Court Life -