| This is the first full-length study of Viennese chamber music with obligato keyboard before 1780. Ten Viennese composers, including Joseph Haydn, Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Joseph Anton Steffan, Leopold Hofmann, Johann Baptist Wanhal, and Anton Zimmerman, cultivated this genre, with the trio (harpsichord, violin or flute, and bass) and the quartet (harpsichord, two violins, and bass) as the most common scorings. Part One examines the manuscript and printed sources for the ninety-three presumed authentic Viennese accompanied divertimenti located for this study (including sixty-six little known works by Haydn's contemporaries), concentrating on questions of scoring, authenticity, chronology, and definition of the repertory. Part Two is devoted to analysis of the forms, textures, and styles of the various scorings and composers, and concludes with an evaluation of the historical and aesthetic significance of the genre. Volume II contains a complete thematic catalogue of sources, as well as full editions or excerpts of fifteen previously unedited Viennese accompanied divertimenti.;This study shows that the Viennese accompanied divertimento, at least until the early 1770s, was an intrinsically Viennese genre, growing out of the native traditions of solo sonata, concerto, trio sonata, and string trio, with minimal outside influences. The Viennese trio was essentially different from its foreign counterparts in its almost exclusive preference for concertante dialogue between keyboard and violin. The quartet divertimento, by contrast, was a sonata for dominating keyboard and subsidiary strings, aimed primarily at the dilettante. This knowledge furnishes the historical and stylistic context for Haydn's early accompanied keyboard divertimenti lacking in previous studies. Haydn's works surpass those of his contemporaries in lucidity, expressiveness, and formal sophistication, making him, if not the single-handed creator of the Viennese genre, at least its most distinguished founder. |
