Fux was for a long time remembered only as a theorist.
His treatise Gradus ad Parnassum was studied by many important
composers in the 18th and 19th centuries and had an enormous influence
on the preservation of a strict style of composition that could
be traced right back to Palestrina in the 16th century (hence
Fux's nickname, 'the Austrian Palestrina').
Fux was in fact the most distinguished Austrian composer
of his time, and held the highest positions a musician could attain:
he was Hofcompositor at the imperial court, then Vice-Hofkapellmeister,
and finally, from 1715 onwards, Hofkapellmeister. He wrote a great
deal of important church music, some chamber music, and a remarkable
succession of operas, most of which were first performed at the
Hoftheater in Vienna.He was born near Graz, of peasant stock,
and studied with the Jesuits. He probably visited Italy, where
he may have encountered Corelli, or at least may have been influenced
by his music. While in the employ of an Austrian archbishop, he
was noticed by the Emporer Leopold I, who appointed him over the
heads of more likely candidates as Hofcompositor. As well as serving
at the court, Fux was also involved in the provision of music
for St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, becoming Kapellmeister there
in 1712. His fame spread far afield: when J. S.Bach's first biographer,
Forkel, asked Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel which composers
his father admired, Fux came first on the list (and there is possibly
a more direct homage in the fact that the ascending canons of
Bach's Goldberg Variations directly echo those of Fux's remarkable
Missa prolationum).
Fux's contemporary J. A. Scheibe wrote that 'Fux, although
he was the most profound contrapuntalist, nevertheless possessed
the skill of writing lightly, appealingly and naturally, as his
theatrical works show.' His operas are often grand in design,
making use of traditional instruments and quasi-ecclesiastical
textures, but they are magnificent works, which, in their original
productions, must have made a fine impression.
_______________________________________________
K. numbers refer to the Köchel thematic catalogue;
see BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Julio Ascanio, Re d'Alba (Julius Ascanius, King of Alba)
Poemetto drammatico in one act, K. 304
Libretto by Pier Antonio Bernardoni, after Livy's story of
Ascanius and Ovid's story of Euander in Fasti
Premiere 19 March 1708, Vienna
Written for the name day of Emporer Joseph I, the opera's
plot concerns the marriage of Ascanius to Emilia, sister of the
king he conquers, bringing peace and reconciliation. The score
includes such unusual features as two violas da gamba and two
bassoons; in style the opera combines features of French and Neapolitan
opera.
EDITION f.s., Hellmut Federhofer (ed.),
J. J. Fux Samtliche Werke, 5/1,
Bärenreiter, 1961
Costanza e Fortezza Constancy and Fortitude
Festa teatrale in three acts, K. 315 (5 hours, 30 minutes)
Libretto by Pietro Pariati
Premieres 28 August 1723, Hradschin, Prague;
U.S. 7 May 1938 Northampton, Massachusetts
Fux's most famous opera, presented with unparalleled
magnificence to celebrate not only the empress's birthday but
also the Coronation festivities of Charles VI. An open-air theatre
holding 4000 spectators was specially built for the occasion on
the Hradschin next to the Royal Palace in Prague. On the day of
the performance, "Everybody appeared in full court dress
at the royal palace to offer the usual compliments. Towards 11
o'clock all went to Mass and afterwards back to the palace, where
dinner was served. In the afternoon the emporer, the empress and
all their guests went to hear the opera." (Wiener Diarium,
28 August 1723.) The title was the emperor's motto, and the libretto
celebrates his achievements with episodes of Roman constancy and
fortitude. The music, which includes parts for eight trumpets
and four timpani, is on a very large scale. Among the many visitors
to this performance were the composers Johann Quantz and C. H.
Graun, with the lutenist Sylvius Weiss. Quantz described the opera
in detail, noting that its slightly ecclesiastical, bold and simple
style, "which on paper may have looked stiff and dry, sounded
well in the opera, much better even than melodies with many quick
notes would have done".
Other operas: Pulcheria, 1708;Il mese di Marzo, 1709;
Gli ossequi della
notte, 1709; La decima fatica d'Ercole, 1710; Dafne in Lauro,
1714;
Orfeo ed Euridice, 1715 (EDITION facsimile, Garland, 1978); Diana
placata, 1717; Elisa, 1719; Psiche, 1720 (collaboration with Caldara),
1722 (alone); Le nozze di Aurora, 1722; Giunone placata, 1725;
La corona
d'Arianna, 1726; Enea degli Elisi, 1731; 4 other operas, music
lost.
Bibliography Ludwig von Köchel, Johann Joseph
Fux (includes thematic
catalogue and list of works), A. Holder, 1872; reprinted, 1974;
Egon Wellesz, Fux, OUP, 1965`
THE MUSIC FILES
The
Sinfonia to Costanza e Fortezza is features a large ensemble
and was especially heavily
scored by Fux (as was the entire opera) because the work was originally
performed at an
open air concert. The featured instrumental line up appears thus:
The
Sonata a Quattro is scored for four instruments - violin,
cornetto, trombone and fagotto (possibly a 'curtal' or 'dulcian'
in this case) and Organ continuo. The work is a typical church
sonata and might have provided church musicians with a challenging
recreational piece. Even though the cornetto was no longer a very
common instrument in the early 18th century, from the cornett
writing in Fux' Sonata a Quattro and the cornett and mute cornett
writing in his many, many sacred vocal works - it is clear that
expert players still existed!
Although many may find the combination of instruments
in this piece a little odd, it is a very traditional instrumentation.
From the ensemble sonatas of Castello, Valentini, Picchi and Gabrieli
at the start of the 17th century to the later works of Schmelzer,
Weckmann, Kindermann, Horn and Cazzati - the sounds of the violin,
cornetto, trombone and dulcian have been put together in ensembles
by many composers. Perhaps it is because these instruments were
normally played by professional and/or church musicians that these
combinations exist? The standards of writing in these works is
particularly high and amateur or domestic performances were not
envisaged when these works were written? Interestingly, the 'church
sonata' lived on into Mozart's time (the Epistle Sonatas for strings
and organ continuo) - distant echoes of the sounds of Gabrieli,
Priuli, Cazzati, Castello, Rosenmüller and Corelli?
By the end of the seventeenth century, Vienna boasted a court
opera rivalled by few others north of the Alps or, indeed, in
Italy itself. The Hapsburg Emperors Leopold I (reigned 1658 -
1705), Josef I (reigned 1705 - 1711) and especially Charles VI
(reigned 1711 - 1740) all had a passion for Italian opera, which
they indulged by gathering at their court some of the most brilliant
poets, stage designers and musicians of their time. Apostolo Zeno
and Pietro Metastasio both served as poet laureates at the Imperial
court, Giuseppe Galli Bibiena became Charles VI's principal theatrical
engineer and architect, and Antonio Draghi, Marc'Antonio Ziani,
Giovanni Bononcini, Antonio Caldara and Johann Joseph Fux (1660/1661
- 1741) all composed operas for the pleasure of the Emperors.
Thus, by the time Fux was appointed Imperial Kapellmeister by
Charles VI in 1715 - he had already served at court for a number
of years in addition to working at the cathedral of St. Stephan
in Vienna and for the Dowager Empress Wilhelmine Amalie - the
position had become one of the most prestigious in all of Europe.
Fux was worthy of the honour, for he is doubtless the most distinguished
native Austrian composer of the Baroque era, justly famous as
well for his treatise, Gradus ad Parnassum, still one of the most
widely used textbooks for teaching modal counterpoint. Fux demonstrated
his mastery of counterpoint and expressed his admiration for the
composers of the late Renaissance most clearly in his church music
- Masses, vespers, psalms, motets and so on - although even in
those works, as in his oratorios, he also revealed his openness
to newer Italian styles. His operas, needless to say, have little
of the stile antico about them. But though he followed the Italian
operatic fashions in depicting affects and portraying his characters
vividly, he accomplished those ends in characteristic fashion
by working out careful and often contrapuntal string accompaniments,
by using concerto grosso textures, and by devising unusual obbligato
groupings (chalumeau and transverse flute, for example, in Orfeo's
aria on page 60 of the manuscript and two bassoons for Pluto's
aria on page 53). Far from being old fashioned, the choral scene
complex that opens Orfeo ed Euridice (another choral scene complex
closes the work) resembles in some ways music by one of the "reform"
composers of the 1760's and 1770's. In it, Fux writes homophonic
choruses, he slows down the harmonic motion, and he integrates
the chorus with the first aria. Orfeo ed Euridice, on a libretto
by Apostolo Zeno's assistant in Vienna, Pietro Pariati, is a festa
teatrale rather than an opera seria (although it is called a "componimento
da camera" on the title page). That is, it is a theatrical
work written expressly for a festive occasion, in this case the
birthday of the Emporer Charles VI in 1715. Like most such works,
Orfeo ed Euridice consists of a single act (although some have
two), it is based on a mythological subject, it gives the chorus
more to sing than in a typical opera seria, and it ends with a
licenza, explicitly drawing the parallel between the events portrayed
and the occasion being celebrated.
The existing score, in Fux's highly legible handwriting,
exists in the Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 17231.
These notes are adapted from those in the Garland facsimile edition
of the entire opera.
Synopsis of Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo laments the loss of Euridice and announces his
intention of visiting the underworld. Meanwhile, Euridice, in
Hades, rejects the advances of Aristeo (a suitor who had killed
himself so that he might remain with Euridice). In response to
Euridice's assertions of fidelity to Orfeo, Aristeo asks her why
Orfeo did not also follow her in death. Amore seeks out Proserpina
in Hades. Proserpina voices her fear that her husband Plutone
is in love with Euridice, but Amore reassures her that Orfeo and
Euridice remain true to each other. Plutone asks Amore for advice
on how to begin his conquest of Euridice; Proserpina responds
that he has no real love for Euridice at all. Orfeo and Euridice
are reunited, but Euridice laments, believing that Orfeo must
be dead. Orfeo reassures her and relates how, by playing his lyre,
he persuaded the boatman of the Lethe to allow him to enter the
underworld. With Amore'shelp, he hopes to persuade Plutone to
restore Euridice to him. Orfeo and Euridice ask Amore and Proserpina
for their assistance. Orfeo begs Plutone for the return of his
bride. Aristeo intervenes and maintains that for Plutone to accede
to this demand would undermine his prestige. Amore argues that
Plutone's acquiescence would honour Zeus on his birthday. Plutone
seeks advice from his underworld spirits.
They reply that he should free Euridice. Plutone assents. In the
licenza, Amore draws the
obvious analogy between the birthday of Zeus and that of the Emperor
The Ouverture
The
Ouverture to Orfeo ed Euridice is simply marked "Ouverture"
next to the bass stave. The piece is for four unspecified instrumental
lines, between the two treble lines is the word "Tutti".
The first 12 bars are somewhat reminiscent of a Lullian Overture
- Grave - with dotted rhythms. The following 17 bars are in a
semi fugal style. Next is a short Adagio which features the word
"violini" between the two treblestaves and "senza
fagotti" on the bass line. The final part of the
Ouverture is in 3/4 and has the word "Menuette" written
between the treble (violino) and C alto clef (viola?) lines. The
'Menuette' collapses the the work down three lines - treble, alto
and bass. (see Handel's minuet in the overture to his opera Rodelinda
- which is also in three parts) I have chosen to divide the work
into the following parts:
Oboe I
Oboe II
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Violoncello
Bassoon
Contrabass
Harpsichord
The two oboes play in unison with the two violin parts
except in the Adagio - where the bassoon is silent as well. The
violoncello, bassoon, contrabass and harpsichord (the manuscript
does not feature a figured bass in the Ouverture) play in unison
or octave unison - in the case of the contrabass. I figured that
all the violins and the oboes should play on the treble line of
the Minuet. The Sibelius score features all the repeats - first
and second time bars - but the midi file doesn't repeat the movements
and both 1st & 2nd time bars are heard after each other.
As far as I know, Orfeo ed Euridice has not been recorded
or performed in modern times and there is certainly no modern
printed edition of this work as yet. Although hearing it through
midi is inadequate at least we can hear the opening sinfonia to
this work. I am preparing four other Fux 'Ouvertures' at the moment
- which range in style from the Corellian Concerto Grosso style
(with solo and tutti string "choirs") to a more 17th
Century style of composition - complete with antiphonal trumpet
choirs - reminiscent of Biber, Hofer and Buxtehude.