XI. The German Preclassics (1700-1760)
XIB. At the Court of Frederick the Great
Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great)
(1712 - 1786)
In former times it was no rare thing for
a king or emperor to be a composer. Rulers who also composed
included
Alfonso el
Sabio, King of Castile,
Thibault IV, King
of Navarre,
Richard Coeur de
Lion
and
Henry VIII of
England, Eric of Sweden, Louis XIII of France and, in uninterrupted
succession, the Habsburg Emperors Ferdinand II, Leopold I,
Joseph I and Karl VI.
Frederick II - Frederick the Great - of
Prussia shared the musical gifts of his sisters Wilhelmine
and Anna Amalia. His court musical establishment, whose
members included such prominent musicians as
C. P. E. Bach,
J. J. Quantz,
C. H. Graun
and
F. Benda, was for a time a centre of German musical life. After early
years of great promise, signs of stagnation and conservatism
soon became evident. There were several reasons for this: the
state duties which prevented Frederick from devoting so much
of his attention to music as he had previously, the tendency
of many court musicians to get into a rut and ignore progress
elsewhere, and the over-emphasis placed at Frederick's Court
on purely instrumental music with flute (Quantz composed 296
flute concertos for the King!).
Frederick the Great himself is known to
have composed 121 flute sonatas, four flute concertos, a
"Symphony" in G major, a March in E flat major, various
arias, and an overture to "Il Re pastore." Apart from the
wholly Italianate arias, Frederick's works were written in
the "mixed style" advocated by Quantz, an attempt to blend
"Italian music of the senses" with "French music of reason".
Remnants of baroque pathos are also intermingled with
galant and "touching" elements. The three-movement
sonatas are generally in the sequence slow - quick - quick,
while the concertos are in the more customary form quick -
slow - quick. The slow movements are characterized by
"controlled singing." "If the first Allegro is serious, the
last can be gay" (Quantz). In the fast movements of the
concertos the solo episodes blossom in ever more brilliant
arpeggios and passage work.
Frederick the Great is said to have
played his instrument "respectably". His execution of slow
movements was highly praised, but in fast movements he is
said to have been apt to take undue liberties with the tempo.
Supplemental Materials
The Composers
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