Giorgio Pestelli ; translated by Eric Cross.

The orchestra at Mannheim

pp. 266-268

Giorgio Pestelli ; translated by Eric Cross., (1987) The age of Mozart and Beethoven Cambridge University Press

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Course of Study: MUSI1261/r1043304 - Historical Studies 1

Title: The age of Mozart and Beethoven
Name of Author: Giorgio Pestelli ; translated by Eric Cross.
Name of Publisher: Cambridge University Press
 Readings
But when, after a series of agreeable arias, they came to those great
expressive pieces that can arouse and describe the disorder of violent
passions, I forgot at every moment the notion of music, singing, and
imitation; I seemed to hear the voice of grief, wrath, and despair; I seemed
to see mothers in tears, deceived lovers, enraged tyrants; and in the emo-
tions I was compelled to experience, I had difficulty in remaining in my
chair. I understood then why this same music that had formerly bored me
now excited me till I was quite carried away; for I had begun to understand
it, and as soon as it could affect me at all, it affected me with all its force.
No, Julie, one is not half-receptive to such impressions: they are excessive
or non-existent, never weak or mediocre; one must remain insensible or
allow oneself to be moved beyond measure; either it is the empty noise of a
language one does not understand, or it is an impetuosity of feeling that
carries one away, and that the soul cannot resist.
I had only one regret, but it did not desert me; namely, that someone
other than you formed sounds by which I was touched, and that I had to see
the tenderest expressions of love come from the mouth of a vile castrato! 0
my Julie! is it not for us to lay claim to everything that pertains to that
emotion? Who shall feel, who shall say better than we what a loving soul
must say and feel? Who shall be able to utter 'cor mio' and 'idolo amato' in a
more loving tone? Ah! how the heart will give force to art if ever we sing
together one of those charming duets that cause such delicious tears to flow!

3 The orchestra at Mannheim

From among the numerous reports concerning the skill and organic
unity that were characteristic of the orchestra established at Mann-
heim by the Elector Carl Theodor of the Palatinate, here is the
evidence of the historian, composer and organist Charles Burney
(1726-1814), published in The present state of music in Germany, the
Netherlands, and United Provinces (London, 1773), i, 92-7 (modern
edition in Dr Burney's musical tours in Europe, ed. P.A. Scholes
(London, 1959), 2 vols.)
I cannot quit this article, without doing justice to the orchestra of his
electoral highness, so deservedly celebrated throughout Europe. I found it
to be indeed all that its fame had made me expect: power will naturally arise
from a great number of hands; but the judicious use of this power, on all
occasions, must be the consequence of good discipline; indeed there are
more solo players, and good composers in this, than perhaps in any other
orchestra in Europe; it is an army of generals, equally fit to plan a battle, as
to fight it.
But it has not been merely at the Elector's great opera that instrumental
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music has been so much cultivated and refined, but at his concerts, where
this extraordinary band has 'ample room and verge enough,' to display all its
powers, and to produce great effects without the impropriety of destroying
the greater and more delicate beauties, peculiar to vocal music; it was here
that Stamitz first surpassed the bounds of common opera overtures, which
had hitherto only served in the theatre as a kind of court cry er, with an '0
Yes!' in order to awaken attention, and bespeak silence, at the entrance of
the singers. Since the discovery which the genius of Stamitz first made,
every effect has been tried which such an aggregate of sound can produce; it
was here that the Crescendo and Diminuendo had birth; and the Piano, which
was before chiefly used as an echo, with which it was generally synonimous,
as well as the Forte, were found to be musical colours which had their shades,
as much as red or blue in painting.
I found, however, an imperfection in this band, common to all others,
that I have ever yet heard, but which I was in hopes would be removed by
men so attentive and so able; the defect, I mean, is the want of truth in the
wind instruments. I know it is natural to those instruments to be out of
tune, but some of that art and diligence which these great performers have
manifested in vanquishing difficulties of other kinds, would surely be well
employed in correcting this leaven, which so much sours and corrupts all
harmony. This was too plainly the case to-night, with the bassoons and
hautbois, which were rather too sharp, at the beginning, and continued
growing sharper to the end of the opera.
My ears were unable to discover any other imperfection in the orchestra,
throughout the whole performance; and this imperfection is so common to
orchestras, in general, that the censure will not be very severe upon this, or
afford much matter for triumph to-the performers of any other orchestra in
Europe.
The Elector, who is himself a very good performer on the German flute,
and who can, occasionally, play his part upon the violoncello, has a concert
in his palace every evening, when there is no public exhibition at his theatre;
but when that happens, not only his own subjects, but all foreigners have
admission gratis.
The going out from the opera at Schwetzingen, during summer, into the
electoral gardens, which, in the French style, are extremely beautiful,
affords one of the gayest and most splendid sights imaginable; the country
here is flat, and naked, and therefore would be less favourable to the free
and open manner of laying out grounds in English horticulture, than to that
which has been adopted. The orangery is larger than that at Versailles, and
perhaps than any other in Europe.
His electoral highness's suite at Schwetzingen, during summer, amounts
to fifteen hundred persons, who are all lodged in this little village, at his
expence.
To any one walking through the streets of Schwetzingen, during summer,
this place must seem to be inhabited only by a colony of musicians, who are
constantly exercising their profession: at one house a fine player on the
violin is heard; at another, a German flute; here an excellent hautbois; there
a bassoon, a clarinet, a violoncello, or a concert of several instruments
together. Music seems to be the chief and most constant of his Electoral
 Readings

highness's amusements; and the operas, and concerts, to which all his
subjects have admission, forms the judgment, and establishes a taste for
music, throughout the electorate.

4 Francesco Algarotti

Francesco Algarotti (1712-64), who became famous in Europe with

a popular little work on the optical laws of Newton (Neutonianismo
per le dame), was one of the most typical representatives of
eighteenth-century culture orientated towards the accumulation of
information and exchange of ideas in the most varied fields. Present
at Paris, at Cirey in the salons of Madame du Chatelet and Voltaire,
at Berlin at the court of Frederick the Great, at the Saxon court of
Augustus Ill, and at Parma with du Tillot, Algarotti took an active
part in the debate on the reform of opera, summarizing these themes
in the successful Saggio sopra l'opera in musica (published in 1755,
with additions in 1762, and translated into English, German and
French between 1767 and 1773). Taken from the third part of the
Saggio (Essay), the following passage confirms two of the funda-
mental points, repeated by the theorists, of a 'literary' opera: the
excellence of the recitative, as an ideal place for a dramatic kind of
music, and the subordinate position that the instruments should
occupy in relation to the voice. This translation is reprinted from
Source Readings in Music History, compiled and edited by Oliver
Strunk, by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd and by permission of
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright 1950 by W. W. Norton
& Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1978 by Oliver Strunk.

After the overture, the next article that presents itself to our consideration ·is
the recitative; and as it is wont to be the most noisy part of an opera, so is it
the least attended to and the most neglected. It seems as if our musical
composers were of opinion that the recitative is not of consequence enough
to deserve their attention, they deeming it incapable of exciting any great
delight. But the ancient masters thought in a quite different manner. There
needs no stronger proof than to read what Jacopo Peri, who may be justly
called the inventor of the recitative, wrote in his preface to Euridice. When
he had applied himself to an investigation of that species of musical imita-
tion which would the readiest lend itself to theatric exhibitions, he directed
his tasteful researches to discover the manner which had been employed by
the ancient Greeks on similar occasions. He carefully observed the Italian
words which are capable of intonation or consonance and those which are
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