Original scientific paper
WORKS BY JAN KŘTITEL VAŇHAL / JOHANN BAPTIST WAŇHAL IN CROATIAN MUSICAL COLLECTIONS
STANISLAV TUKSAR
orcid.org/0000-0002-7171-2801
; Odsjek za muzikologiju, Muzička akademija, Sveučilište u Zagrebu
Abstract
The composer, violinist and musical teacher Johann Baptist Wanhal/Jan Křtitel
Vaňhal (1739-1813) was a Czech master active within the Central-European musico-cultural
circle, whose works are kept – as far as it is known at present – in eleven musical
collections in seven cities in Croatia. These are: Franciscan monastery in Cres (1 item);
Benedictine nunnery in Cres (2); Franciscan monastery in Osijek (2); the Politeo collection
in Stari Grad on the island of Hvar (2); Parish church of St Nicholas in Varaždin
(2); Franciscan monastery in Košljun (island of Krk)(3); Croatian Music Institute in
Zagreb (4); Croatian State Archives (the Kuhač collection)(4); Franciscan monastery in
Dubrovnik (6); Ursuline nunnery in Varaždin (9); the Udina-Algarotti collection (Krk/
Zagreb)(16, respectively 18). Thus Vaňhal ‘s works are kept in four Franciscan monasteries,
one Benedictine and one Ursuline nunnery, one parish church and four secular
collections, in 53 items containing at least 78 compositions in the form of 45 manuscripts
and eight printed editions. Their provenance and context of reception, except for Varaždin where Vaňhal was active at the Erdödy estates, remain largely a topic for
future research.
Among Vaňhal’s preserved works in Croatia there are 44 items belonging to secular
music (sonatas, sonatinas, duets, capricios, concerts and variations for keyboards,
marches, symphonies and quartets) and nine belonging to church music (offertories,
motets, Salve Regina, Tantum ergo, Pangue lingua). Among manuscripts the most valuable
seem to be 2-6 supposed autographs from the Ursuline nunnery in Varaždin,
and among printed matter three rare editions kept in the Franciscan monastery in Dubrovnik
(one world unique copy and one third and one fourth preserved copy in the
world of their respective editions). All manuscripts and all printed editions belong to
the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, only some of them being
precisely dated (in Varaždin and Cres). All printed items were published by the Viennese
publishers Sauer, Artaria and Hoffmeister, and one item (the world unique copy)
by the less-known Kunstverlag der Sieben Schwestern.
Although preserved in a smaller number than works by other Central-European
masters of the Classicism, such as W.A. Mozart, F.J. Haydn or I. Pleyel, Vaňhal’s legacy
in Croatia makes both an important part of it and a certain value for European musical
culture in itself. It also supplies evidence on the dissemination of Viennese musical
Classicism in the south-east of Europe and another proof of purchasing and performing
the then contemporary Classicist music repertoire in Croatian areas along the Adriatic
coast and in the interior parts of the country.
Keywords
Jan Křtitel Vaňhal; musical collections in Croatia; secular music; church music; music manuscripts; printed music; 18th century
Hrčak ID:
131818
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2014.
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