Swieten Gottfried Bernhard van, *29 October 1733 Leiden, †29 March 1803 Vienna, Austrian patron of the arts and diplomat of Dutch origin, Baron. In 1745, he arrived in Vienna with his father, Gerhard van Swieten, physician to Empress Maria Theresa, and until 1752 was educated at the Ritterakademie Theresianum, a Jesuit school for the children of the aristocracy. In 1755, he began his diplomatic career: he was stationed in Brussels from 1755 to 1757, in Paris from 1760 to 1763, in Warsaw from 1763 to 1764, in England in 1769, and in Berlin from 1770–1777 in Berlin, where, as ambassador to the court of Frederick II, King of Prussia, he looked after, amongst other things, Austria’s interests during the negotiations concerning the First Partition of Poland. His official duties fostered his musical interests; he began to establish contacts with eminent composers and to build up a music collection. During his stay in England, he became fascinated by the works of G.F. Handel, and acquired the scores of several of his oratorios. Whilst in Prussia, he became acquainted with the works of J.S. Bach, and visited his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, in Hamburg; he brought back to Vienna numerous manuscripts and copies of works by both composers (including a copy of J.S. Bach’s Das wohltemperierte Klavier). Between 1777 and 1803, Swieten served as prefect (director) of the Imperial Court Library (German: Kaiserliche Hofbibliothek) in Vienna; furthermore, from 1781 to 1791, he chaired the court commission for education and censorship. In 1786, he founded the Gesellschaft der Associierten Kavaliere, a society bringing together aristocratic music lovers who promoted the works of Bach and Handel and provided financial support to J. Haydn whilst he was working on his oratorios. In the Court Library, Swieten organised Sunday morning music sessions; he persuaded W. A. Mozart to arrange some of Handel’s oratorios and to adapt several of Bach’s fugues for string trio or quartet. He worked closely with Haydn as the author of librettos for his oratorios: The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, The Creation, The Seasons; he also patronised L. van Beethoven, who dedicated his Symphony No. 1 to him.
In his youth, Swieten tried his hand at composition; he wrote two comic operas and ten symphonies (seven of which are known, three of which were published under Haydn’s name), but he did not achieve success in this field. He went down in the history of music as a patron who supported the composers of his time.
Literature: E. Olleson Gottfried van Swieten. Patron of Haydn and Mozart, “Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association” LXXXIX, 1962/63; M. Stern Haydns “Schöpfung”. Geist und Herkunft des van Swietenschen Librettos, «Haydn-Studien» I, 1966; E. Olleson The Origin and Libretto of Haydns “Creation”, HaydnJahrbuch IV, 1968; “The Creation”and “The Seasons”. The Complete Authentic Sources for the Word-Books, ed. H.Ch.R. Landon, Cardiff 1985.
