Mayr, Simon (EN)

Mayr, Mayer, Johannes Simon, Giovanni Simone, *14 June 1763 Mendorf (Bavaria), †2 December 1845 Bergamo, Italian composer of German origin. He was initially taught to play the harpsichord and organ by his father, who was an organist. From 1781 Mayr studied theology and canon law at the University of Ingolstadt, and also learned to play almost all string and wind instruments; in 1786 he published 12 songs in Regensburg. With the help of Baron Th. von Bassus, he studied musical subjects from 1789 under C. Lenzi, the maestro di cappella at the cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, and later, with the financial support of Count C. Pesenti, a canon of that cathedral, he studied composition under F. G. Bertoni in Venice. Until Pesenti’s death (1793), he composed almost exclusively sacred music – oratorios and cantatas. At the urging of N. Piccinni and P. von Winter, he turned to operatic composition. In 1794 his first opera, Saffo, was staged at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. After several subsequent successes, Mayr was ranked among the leading Italian opera composers of the time. For over 20 years beginning in 1797, he wrote an average of three to four operas a year, initially commissioned by Venetian theatres (La Fenice, San Benedetto, and San Moisè), and from 1800 also by the most famous opera houses in Italy. At the beginning of the 19th century, Mayr’s works were already being performed in other European cities, including Vienna, Munich, London, Warsaw, and Saint Petersburg, as well as in the United States. In 1802, he took over from Lenz as maestro di cappella at Bergamo Cathedral, and in 1805 he became director of the cathedral’s children’s choir and founded a free music school called Lezioni caritatevoli di musica.  Mayr’s most outstanding pupil was G. Donizetti, who held him in respect and gratitude throughout his life. Absorbed in his work, Mayr declined the lucrative position of conductor offered to him at the court of Napoleon I. In 1822, he founded the Unione filarmonica in Bergamo, an institution through which he presented works by Haydn, Beethoven, and P. von Winter, that were previously unknown in Italy. After 1828, having gone blind (cataract), he devoted himself to sacred music. Among Mayr’s most frequently performed and highly esteemed works were the operas listed below (see the list of compositions).

Mayr’s prolific output represents, in stylistic terms, a transitional stage between the fading Neapolitan school and the music of the generation of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, which had already grown out of Romantic ideas. His activity and legacy represent a rare early-19th-century example of a composer of German origin being assimilated into the Italian milieu, which ultimately led to the transplantation of newer ideas into the rigid and routine-bound language of Italian opera. In his operas (seria, buffa, and one-act musical farces), Mayr combined elements of diverse provenance: the aesthetic espoused by Gluck (whose works he knew well and held in high esteem) with the fundamental techniques and harmonic language of the Neapolitan school, as well as with an early-Romantic sensitivity to instrumental timbre, adopted from German music. He appreciated the expressive potential of wind instruments, which he often used in extreme registers to achieve a particular mood or characterise events on stage. Harmony, as well as dynamic contrasts and crescendos, rarely used in Italy before Rossini, served the same purpose. In addition to the overture, Mayr’s operas feature other independent orchestral passages. The emphasis shifts from the aria as an isolated form to a series of musically and dramatically interrelated segments, whose order and arrangement are determined by the meaning of the action and the libretto, rather than simply by conventional operatic practice. Mayr sometimes broke up the two-part aria form, with its slow-fast sequence, with ensemble or choral interludes. He eventually rejected recitativo secco in favor of the more dramatic recitativo accompagnato. He also abandoned the traditional Abgesangarie (the “exit aria”), after which, according to the convention adopted in Metastasio’s librettos, the singer would leave the stage. Instead, Mayr introduced impressive arias at the beginning of Act I as part of the character exposition, after which the singer remained on stage and took part in the further course of the action; this custom was later adopted by other 19th-century opera composers. After 1800, Mayr limited the showpiece arias of secondary characters, but he paid careful attention to outlining the psychological profiles of the main characters through musical means, imbuing their solo parts with deep emotional expression. Mayr’s creative approach should, however, be described as that of a searching eclectic; this is indicated by his extensive borrowings in melody (e.g., from Mozart and contemporary Italian composers), in his treatment of choruses (from Gluck), and by the lack of consistency in reforming opera.

Literature: F. Alborghetti, M. Galli Gaetano Donizetti e G. Simone Mayr: notizie e documenti, Bergamo 1875, e-book 2015; H. Kretzschmar Die musikgeschichtliche Bedeutung Simon Mayrs, “Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters” XI, 1904; L. Schiedermair Beiträge zur Geschichte der Oper um die Wende des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Simon Mayr, 2 vols., Leipzig 1907–10, repr. 1973; A. Gazzaniga Il Fondo musicale Mayr della Biblioteca cívica di Bergamo…, Bergamo 1963; M. Carner Simon Mayr and His “L’amor coniugale”, “Music and Letters” LII, 1971, repr. in: Major and Minor, New York 1980;   J. Freeman Johannes Simon Mayr and His “Ifigenia in Aulide”, “The Musical Quarterly” LVII, 1971; J.S. Allitt Mayr’s “L’amor coniugale” and The Notebooks of Giovanni Simone Mayr, “Donizetti Society Journal” I, 1974; N. Jenkis Giovanni Simone Mayr’s “Medea in Corinto”, “Donizetti Society Journal” I, 1974; V. Gibelli Twórczość operowa Simona Mayra i jego poglądy na dramat muzyczny, «Pagine» IV, ed. M. Bristiger and J. Stankiewicz, 1980; H. Bauer Simon Mayr 1763–1845, Meister der italienischen Oper aus der bayerischen Oberpfalz, Munich 1983; J.S. Allitt Johann Simon Mayr. Father of the 19th Century Italian Music, Shaftesbury 1989; S. Balthazar Mayr, Rossini and the Development of the Early Concertato Finale, “Journal of the Musical Association” CXVI, 1991; J.S. Allitt: Giovanni Simone Mayr: Vita, musica, pensiero, Villa di Serio (near Bergamo) 1995; Werk und Leben Johann Simon Mayrs im Spiegel der Zeit: Beiträge des Internationalen musikwissenschaftlichen Symposions 1995 in Ingolstadt, ed. F. Hauk, I. Winkler Munich 1998; Johann Simon Mayr und Venedig : Beiträge des Internationalen Musikwissenschaftlichen Symposions in Ingolstadt 1998, ed. F. Hauk, I. Winkler, Munich 1999; G. Calvi Di Giovanni Simone Mayr, introduction P.A. Pelucchi, Bergamo 2000; U. Schaumberg Die opere serie Giovanni Simone Mayrs, 2 vols., Munich 2001; I. Winkler Giovanni Simone Mayr in Venedig, Munich 2003; Johann Simon Mayr und Wien : Beiträge des Internationalen Musikwissenschaftlichen Symposions in Ingolstadt 2001, ed. F. Hauk, I. Winkler, Munich 2005; A. Morgenstern Die Oratorien von Johann Simon Mayr (1763-1845) : Studien zu Biographik, Quellen und Rezeption, Monachium 2007; Il carteggio Mayr, ed. P. Fabbri, Bergamo 2008; I. Winkler Napoleons Traumrollen: Alexander und Trajan im Werk des Komponisten Giovanni Simone Mayr : Musik und Kulturpolitik im napoleonischen Venedig und Mailand, Munich 2014; Mayr e la didattica della musica : atti della Giornata di studi in occasione del 250. anniversario della nascita di Giovanni Simone Mayr, Bergamo 2013, ed. L. Aragona, Bergamo 2016; Simon Mayr: der bayerische Komponist im europäischen Kontext: Beiträge des musikwissenschaftlichen Symposiums in Ingolstadt 2006: John Stewart Allitt und Siegfried Hofmann in memoriam, ed. F. Hauk, I. Winkler, Munich 2016; Simon Mayr mal drei: Beiträge der Symposien München, Ingolstadt, Bergamo 2013, ed. C. Bockmeier, D. Hofmann, I. Winkler, Munich 2017.