Florian Leopold Gassmann

Florian Leopold Gassmann

born on 3/5/1729 in Most (Brüx), Böhmen, Czechia

died on 20/1/1774 in Wien, Austria

Florian Leopold Gassmann

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Florian Leopold Gassmann (3 May 1729 – 21 January 1774[1]) was a German-speaking Bohemian opera composer of the transitional period between the baroque and classical eras. He was one of the principal composers of dramma giocoso immediately before Mozart.

Biography

Gassmann was born in Brüx, Bohemia, and was most likely trained by Johann Woborschil, the local chorus master. His father was a goldsmith who may well have opposed his son's choice of a musical career.

From 1757 until 1762, he wrote an opera every year for the carnival season in Venice, and was also appointed choirmaster in the girls conservatory in Venice in 1757. Many of the librettos he set were by the renowned Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni.

In 1763 he was called to Vienna as court ballet composer, and was held in great affection by Emperor Joseph II. In 1764 he was appointed chamber composer to the Emperor, and in 1772 court conductor.

In 1766 Gassmann met up-and-coming young Antonio Salieri in Venice, invited him return with him to Vienna with him and taught him composition using Johann Joseph Fuxs textbook Gradus ad Parnassum. Salieri remained in Vienna, and succeeded Gassmann as chamber composer to the Emperor on the latter's death in 1774. Another Italian composer, Giuseppe Bonno, succeeded Gassmann as court conductor.

In 1771, he founded the Tonkünstler-Societät (Society of Musical Artists), which was the first group in Vienna to give concerts for the general public, and for the benefit of its members' widows and orphans. He wrote his oratorio La Betulia liberata for that purpose.

In 1774, he died in Vienna from long-term consequences of a carriage accident sustained on his final visit to Italy.

Gassmann's two daughters, Anna Fux and Therese Rosenbaum, were both famous singers trained by Salieri; the younger, Therese, made a particular name for herself as a Mozart interpreter.

Charles Burney, in one of his published accounts of his many European tours surveying the musical scene, recalls, on a visit to Joseph II and his court, meeting Gassmann and finding him very forthcoming. Among the manuscripts Gassmann showed him, he reserved most of his praise for his chamber works. Burney was either not exposed to, or said nothing about, Gassmann's orchestral music.[2]

Johann Baptist Wanhal is described by author Daniel Heartz as Gassmann's "protégé".[3]

Major works

Operas

See List of operas by Gassmann.

Cantatas

  • Amore, e venere (1768)
  • Lamor timido

Oratorios

  • La Betulia Liberata (1772)

Sacred music

  • Five masses

Instrumental music

Includes:

  • 32 symphonies[4]
  • 26 overtures[5]
  • 37 string quartets include: Op. 1 six quartetti (H 4316); Op. 2 (H 4412, 435, 4446); six published posthumously, 1804 (H 4516)[6]
  • 8 string quintets, 6 of which were published as Op. 2 in 1772 (H 501506)
  • string trios
  • 6 trios for flute, violin and viola
  • 10 wind quintets

References

Notes
  1. Michael Lorenz: "Antonio Salieri's Early Years in Vienna"
  2. Heartz, Daniel (1995). Haydn, Mozart and the Viennese School, 1740-1780 at Google Book Search (Norton, 411-2). ISBN 0-393-03712-6.
  3. Heartz, p. 411.
  4. Hill (1981), p. xxvii "32 concert symphonies, ... and 5 questionable [Q] and 8 spurious [S] symphonies and overtures."
  5. Hill (1981), p. xxvii "26 opera overtures, ... and 5 questionable [Q] and 8 spurious [S] symphonies and overtures."
  6. H numbers are those from Hill (1976), Thematic Catalog.
Cited sources
  • Hill, George R.: "Thematic Index" in The Symphony 1720 - 1840 Series B - Volume X, ed. Barry S. Brooks (New York & London, 1981) ISBN ?-???-?????-?
  • Kosman, Joshua: Gassmann, Florian Leopold in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
Other sources
  • Hill, George Robert (1976). A thematic catalog of the instrumental music of Florian Leopold Gassmann, Hackensack, N.J.: J. Boonin.

External links

  • Detailed biography, painting (Czech). Retrieved on 2009-01-09.
  • Free scores by Florian Leopold Gassmann in the International Music Score Library Project
This page was last modified 30.03.2014 09:01:57

This article uses material from the article Florian Leopold Gassmann from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.