Holzbauer, Ignaz (EN)

Holzbauer Ignaz Jakob, *17 September 1711 Vienna, †7 April 1783 Mannheim, Austrian composer. He was largely self-taught in music, as his father wanted him to become a lawyer. He learned singing and playing instruments (harpsichord, violin, and cello) from the choirboys of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and the rules of composition from J.J. Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum. In the 1730s, he stayed in Venice, where he may have met A. Vivaldi, T. Albinoni, and B. Galuppi. After returning to his homeland, he was a Kapellmeister at the court of Count F. von Rottal in Holleschau (now Holešov) in Moravia, where, in 1737 he married the singer, Rosalie Andreides. In the years 1741–44, he stayed in Vienna, where he composed, among other things, ballet music for numerous opera performances. Between 1744 and 1747, he stayed in Italy again, mainly in Venice (in the fall of 1744, his wife performed there in Ch.W. Gluck’s opera Ipermestra) and Milan. Between 1747 and 1750, he worked in Vienna, composing theatrical and instrumental music (especially for the Burgtheater). In the fall of 1751, he moved to Stuttgart to the court of Duke Charles Eugene, where he was appointed Kapellmeister and his wife became a court singer. In 1753, Holzbauer and his wife took up similar positions at the court of Elector Charles Theodore in Mannheim. For 25 years, Holzbauer directed the local opera and its renowned orchestra, working with musicians such as Ch. Cannabich, F.X. Richter, J.V. Stande, and others. During this period, he visited Italy on three occasions: in 1757 he stayed in Rome, in 1758 in Turin (in connection with a performance of his opera Nitetti), and in 1759 in Milan, (where his opera Alessandro nell’Indie was staged). He probably also visited Paris on more than one occasion. In 1778, the elector’s court moved to Munich, but Holzbauer remained in Mannheim, where he spent the rest of his life, continuing to compose.

Holzbauer was among the leading figures active in the Habsburg Empire and southern Germany during the early Classical period. He was one of the creators of the original style of the Mannheim orchestra and contributed significantly to its high level of technical and interpretative excellence. His compositional output includes important church works, especially masses, in which the composer initially refers to the work of Fux, while in his later works he strengthens the role of the orchestra and gradually leads to the symphonization of the genre. W.A. Mozart praised Holzbauer for his skillful handling of vocal and instrumental parts and for his mastery of fugal writing. He also added eight original sections to one of Holzbauer’s Miserere settings (1778, KV 297a = Anh. 1), preparing the work to be staged in the Paris Concert Spirituel series.

Holzbauers main task as the person responsible for theater music at the Mannheim court, however, was to compose operas. Holzbauer’s Italian opere serie did not differ from similar works by other composers. They were performed mainly in Mannheim and Schwetzingen (the elector’s summer residence) and were and were largely limited to local audiences, with most of them not surviving to the present day. German opera, represented by works such as Hypermnestra (1741) and Günther von Schwarzburg (1777), plays a special role in Holzbauer’s oeuvre. The former marked the beginnings of German-language opera in Vienna, while the latter gave impetus to the later flourishing of German national opera. The premiere of Günther von Schwarzburg attracted enormous interest in this work, which in the following years found its way into the repertoire of numerous German theaters. After seeing the Mannheim performance (November 1777), Mozart emphasized the beauty and expressiveness of Holzbauer’s music in a letter to his father. However, it was primarily A. Klein’s libretto, with its historical and national themes and strong patriotic emphasis, that contributed to the opera’s success. Contemporaries also sought German elements in the music. From an architectural standpoint, the work is modeled on Metastasio’s dramaturgical conception, typical of contemporary opera seria. It differs, however, from other Italian operas in the relatively large role of instruments (extensive introductions to arias), a significant number of extensively developed accompanied recitatives (with frequent changes in tempo, tonality, and instrumentation illustrating the drama of the situation and emotions), and the combination of recitatives and arias into grand scenes (as in Gluck’s works). Among his contemporaries, Holzbauer was considered one of the outstanding symphonists. In his symphonies, the three-movement cycle predominates; in the first movement the themes are only weakly contrasted and the thematic development is limited. A four-movement cycle is presented by the Symphony in E-flat major (published in “Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern”), which includes a minuet and an illustrative finale (La tempesta del mare).

Literature: Iganz Holzbauer. Kurzer Lebensbegriff (autobiography), “Magazin der Musik”, ed. C.F. Cramer, Hamburg 1783–86, repr. in 2 vols., 1971–74, also reprinted in the preface by H. Kretzschmar to Günther von Schwarzburg, «Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst» VIII/IX, 1902; thematic catalogue of the symphonies, in: Sinfonien der pfalzbayerischen Schule, «Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern» III, VII/2, ed. H. Riemann, Leipzig 1902, 1906; the thematic catalogue of the chamber works, in: Mannheimer Kammermusik des 18. Jahrhunderts, «Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern» XVI, ed. A. Sandberger, Leipzig 1915; J. Sittard Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Württembergischen Hofe, Stuttgart 1890–91, repr. 1970; F. Walter Geschichte des Theaters und der Musik am Kurpfälzischen Hofe, Leipzig 1898, repr. 1968; E. Bücken Der heroische Stil in der Oper, Leipzig 1924; L. Schiedermair Die deutsche Oper. Grundzüge ihres Werden und Wesens, Leipzig 1930, 3rd ed. 1943; R. Münster Mozart und Holzbauer. Die Miserere-Bearbeitung KV Anh. 1/297 a, Mozart-Jahrbuch IX, 1959; E. Schmitt Kirchenmusik der Mannheimer Schule, Wiesbaden 1982; K. Altmann Ignaz Holzbauer als Messenkomponist, in: Mannheim und Italien. Zur Vorgeschichte der Mannheimer, conference proceedings Mannheim 1982, Mainz 1984; P. Corneilson Die Oper am Kurfürstlichen Hof zu Mannheim, in: «Die Mannheimer Hofkapelle im Zeitalter Carl Theodors», ed. L. Finscher, Mannheim 1992; J. Reutter Die Kirchenmusik am Mannheimer Hof, «Die Mannheimer Hofkapelle im Zeitalter Carl Theodors», ed. L. Finscher, Mannheim 1992; P. Corneilson, E.K. Wolf Newly Identified Manuscripts of Operas and Related Works from Mannheim, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” 47 (1994); B. Pelker Holzbauer, Ignaz (Jakob), in: Die Musik in Geschichte, Kassel 2003; L. Bennett Ignaz Holzbauer and the origins of German opera in Vienna, “Eighteenth-century music” 3/1 (2006); R. Strohm Ignaz Holzbauers „Hypermnestra” (1741): Zur Geschichte und Interpretation des Librettos, “Studien zur Musikwissenschaft” 58 (2014); J. Perutková „Die glückliche Vorbedeutung and Aristheus”: Unknown Libretti of German-Language Operas Performed in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna in 1741, “Musicologica Brunensia” 53 (2018) Supplementum.