Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 - 1787) was born in Bavaria to a long line of foresters. The family moved early on to Eisenberg Chateau in Bohemia, one of the Lobkowitz estates, where the young boy's ears opened up to music and his father's attempts to train a worthy hunting and foresting successor came to naught. This young man would go on to forge an international career of opera reform--with episodes of retrenchment--and ultimately become one of the eighteenth century's most influential composers for the stage.
In 1731 he enrolled at the University in Prague--studying logic and math, never to finish a degree--and supported himself by playing instruments, o.a. cello, violin, and keyboard, and singing at fairs and in churches. In 1735 Bohuslav Cernohorsky, Kapellmeister at St. James Church, familiarized Gluck with the Italian style. It was also in Prague that Gluck first saw opera performed at the Court and aristocratic estates.
Gluck eventually joined the Lobkowitz family as chamber musician in Vienna, probably in 1736, and was invited to become chamber musician in Milan in 1737. There he studied under Sammartini, heard many operas, and composed his own first opera Artaserse in 1741 followed by a number of others, in the opera seria style to librettos of the then popular Metastasio.
In 1745 Gluck accompanied one of the Lobkowitz princes to London probably via Frankfurt and with a stop in Paris (1) where Gluck learned about French opera and the work of Rameau. In London his own operatic endeavors were at first hindered by the second Jacobite Rebellion. He did produce two works using arias from previous works, a quite acceptable practice at the time, to librettos by Francesco Vanneschi/Bartolomeo Vitturi. He met Handel , and the two gave a joined concert. Gluck would later call Handel 'the most inspired master of our art,' and Handel's portrait would hang in Gluck's bedroom as a reminder. (2) A month later Gluck gave a concert for his own benefit where he played 'upon twenty-six drinking-glasses tuned with spring water, being a new instrument of his own invention.'(3)
Gluck left London for Hamburg in 1746 to become conductor of Pietro Mingotti’s traveling Italian opera company. Shortly after his departure a set of Six Trio Sonatas for two violins and continuo, Wq. 53 were published in the city. They were composed in Milan each with Slow, Fast, and Minuetto movements after the old school model. Let's listen to No. 5 in E flat major. The entire set can be found here.
Pietro Mingotti's troupe performed in Hamburg, Leipzig, and Dresden. At the end of 1748 Gluck's father died and he took care of the estate. After a performance in Vienna, he rejoined Mingotti in Hamburg where life and opera momentarily blurred in a notorious escapade involving and Italian singer who was someone else's mistress. (4) The troupe traveled to Copenhagen, but Gluck was incapacited by illness.
Whether Gluck then went to the Netherlands with the troupe is unsure. A few years later, a Liège publisher was the first to print Gluck arias, and this may support a Gluck visit to the region. What is sure is that from this point on Gluck conducted business with Locatelli who lead a rival troupe. Gluck operas were performed in Prague and Leipzig. It is during that time that the composer married Marianne Pergin, a wealthy lady in Vienna, and became a more independent artist.
After a performance in Naples, Gluck joined the orchestra of a Saxon prince in Vienna as leader of the violin section. In addition to being a skilled musician, Gluck was jovial, well-read, and had a good knowledge of the world. According to Dittersdorf who played in the orchestra, 'Gluck let the prince copy many of his compositions, both symphonies and arias, and each piece from the pen of this honourable composer was a new and delectable feast for our ears.'(5) Recent scholarly research has attributed--some definitely, some possibly --fourteen symphonies to Gluck. Most of them were written during 1753-1756. Completely obscured by his operas, Gluck's symphonies remained hidden in various archives for many years. They are not groundbreaking works, but thoroughly enjoyable. The "Weimarer" Symphony in G major (1753), Wq. deest (i.e. without a Wotquenne catalog number), Chen G3, is the most advanced and probably dates from around 1780. (6)
Service in the prince's orchestra led to commissions and festival pieces, and to concerts at the Burgtheater and the Kärntnertortheater. The local press declared him 'a man truly created for the orchestra.' (7)
In 1756 a new opera was performed in Rome, and Gluck was knighted by the Pope. From then on Gluck used the title 'Ritter von Gluck' or 'Chevalier de Gluck.'
Around this time Gluck started to write French opéra comiques--stripped, not to offend the Viennese court and public, of all sexual and religious improprieties--, and a series of rather short ballets, used in conjunction with new operas. Over time these galant 'ballets the fables'(8) changed into more serious, dramatic 'pantomime ballets.' In 1761 Gluck, and the Italian composer-choreographer Angiolini, created a sensation with Don Juan ou le Festin de Pierre (Don Juan, or the Stone Guest's Banquet) in D major, Wq. 52, a pantomime ballet for two flutes, two oboes, two horns, two trumpets, strings and continuo.
Starting the following year with Orfeo ed Euridice and in a series of other new works, supported by Count Giacomo Durazzo, the head of the court theatre, and in collaboration with the librettist Calzabigi, Gluck would stir the world of opera. At the same time he would continue to write opéra comiques, and, when it seemed he had gone a bit too far, he would revisit the old opera seria format.
The pantomime ballet Alessandro (Les amours d’Alexandre et de Roxane) (Vienna, 1764) in eight movements, shows French influence and uses horns, bassoons, and trumpets in an appealing way.
Sémiramis (Vienna, 1765), another pantomime ballet, is based on Euripides' tragedy Iphigenia in Tauris. It was composed for the wedding celebration of Joseph II of Austria and Maria Josefa of Bavaria, together with a serenade and the opera in three acts, Telemaco, ossia L'isola di Circe (Telemachus or Circe's Island). The story was popular in Vienna ever since the French Guimond de la Touche's play on the subject was performed in Vienna in 1761. (10) The Sémiramis ballet turned out to be a little too severe for the Viennese taste. To show conciliation, Gluck and Angiolini provided happy endings in their two final ballets. (11)
Frühlingsfeier (Spring Festival) (Vienna/Florence, 1767), is a festive choral ballet suite/cantata, arranged by Mottl from the short opera Il Prologo, composed in honor of the birth of a child to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. The work introduced a much bigger opera, Ifigenia in Tauride of Traetta, at its sole performance during Gluck's lifetime, in Florence. (12)(13)
In the 1770s Gluck set a number of odes and songs for private performance, almost all to poems of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. Gluck who was a trained singer, would sometimes perform them himself. His teenage stepdaughter, Anna Maria "Nanette", would also give them very convincingly and gain Klopstock's admiration during a couple of visits at the poet's home in Karlsruhe. Seven of these works were printed in 1785 as Klopstocks Oden und Lieder beym Clavier zu Singen (Odes and Songs for singing at the keyboard). (14)(15)
The 1890 C.F. Peters edition of the Klopstock songs includes two unrelated songs. Let's listen to Einem Bach der fließt (A flowing brook), a revised setting of the aria Un ruisselet bien clair (A very clear stream) (Act III, Scene 9, No. 31 of La rencontre imprévue (The Unforeseen Encounter) (1764), Wq. 32, a comic opera). This one is a little treasure. The songs of Beethoven and Schubert are just around the corner.
Gluck taught the young Marie-Antoinette in Vienna, and, with her support after she married the French crownprince, entered into a contract to compose six stage works for the Paris Opéra. Gluck's operas would spark a huge controversy between 'Gluckists' and 'Piccinnists' in true Parisian fashion. In 1779 during rehearsals for the sixth of these he had a stroke and went back to Vienna. He died of a second stroke in 1787. A few months later Salieri commemorated his friend and teacher in a concert and conducted Gluck's De Profundis clamavi (From the depths, I have cried) (Vienna, 1787). This work sets text of Psalm 130 and is scored for four-part choir and orchestra. It was published in Paris around 1804 but may have been composed many decades earlier.
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(1) Alfred Einstein, "Gluck." Translated by Eric blom, London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1936, p. 22, University Digital Library. (https://archive.org/details/gluck001839mbp (09/01/2014))
(2) Patricia Howard, "C. W. Von Gluck: Orfeo." Cambridge University Press, Aug 20, 1981, p. 92. (http://books.google.com/books?id=2CY8OTaIElQC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=gluck+and+handel&source=bl&ots=kjgrPqC-ym&sig=Z64eW8KlsB-oX6GFhe4bH05qAG0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vAsFVLTwONOXgwSu2IHgCw&ved=0CG8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=gluck%20and%20handel&f=false (09/01/2014))
(3) Alfred Einstein, ib., p. 24.
(4) The subsequent claim that Gluck contracted venereal disease from this episode and as a result remained childless, is hard to judge 300 years hence. Although he doesn't mention Gluck in particular, Jonathan Noble, a retired orthopedic surgeon, preaches caution on medical claims about composers in general in Malady Makers, an article in the August 2014 issue of BBC Music magazine.
(5) Alfred Einstein, ib., p. 37.
(6) More information can most surely be found in Jen-yen Chen, "The Sachsen-Hildburghausen Kapelle and the Symphonies of Christoph Willibald Gluck." Bologna, Italy, Ad Parnassum, 2003, Vol. 1 No. 2, Ut Orpheo Edizione. (http://www.adparnassum.org/issues_contents.php?num=2 (09/03/2014)) I did not have access to this article. It would involve a trip to the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.
(7) David Charlton, Review of Gluck and the French Theatre in Vienna by Bruce Alan Brown, Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 73-79. Published by: Cambridge University Press. (http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/823582?uid=2&uid=2134&uid=3&uid=3739808&uid=2473869753&uid=3739256&uid=60&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=63&uid=2473869743&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21104651395233 (09/03/2014))
(8)Les amours de Flore et Zéphire (1759) is one example.
(9) David Hurwitz, "Gluck’s Bold Move. The composer’s Don Juan bridged the Baroque and Classical periods in explosive fashion. " (http://www.listenmusicmag.com/unsung/glucks-bold-move.php?page=1 (09/02/2014)). Listen with Classical Music website, Sept/Oct 2009.
(10)Iphigénie en Tauride, Libretto. Wikipedia page. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphig%C3%A9nie_en_Tauride (09/04/2014)) In 1779 Gluck would come back to this story to create his fifth work for the Paris stage, Iphigénie en Tauride.
(11) Thomas Bauman, Marita Petzoldt McClymonds, "Opera and the Enlightenment." Cambridge University Press, Apr 20, 1995, p. 189.
(12)"GluckWV 1.37, Prologo, Genese." Gluck Gesamtausgabe website. (http://www.gluck-gesamtausgabe.de/gwv/werkregister/eintrag/prologo.html (09/05/2014))
(13)"Disco Archivia 1011, Rare Cantatas by Gluck and Weber + a Bruckner bonus." CD Review, Musicinthemail.com. (http://www.musicinthemail.com/classicalconducting/product2.html (09/04/2014))
(14) Around 1760 Gluck adopted his late sister's baby daughter Maria Anna "Nanette." Two sources describe Klopstock's high admiration for Nanette's talents. See Walter de Gruyter, Briefe 1776-1782 (2) Apparat-Kommentar, Issues 1-131, New York, Helmut Riege Publisher, Dec 1, 1982, p. 375. (http://books.google.com/books?id=cCVVl0zL5mUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false (09/05/2014)) Unfortunately, the young girl died a year after the visit to Klopstock.
(15) Daniela Philippi, "Oden und Lieder."Gluck-Gesamtausgabe (Gluck Collected Works), Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main. (http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/44660889/odenundlieder? (09/05/2014))
In 1731 he enrolled at the University in Prague--studying logic and math, never to finish a degree--and supported himself by playing instruments, o.a. cello, violin, and keyboard, and singing at fairs and in churches. In 1735 Bohuslav Cernohorsky, Kapellmeister at St. James Church, familiarized Gluck with the Italian style. It was also in Prague that Gluck first saw opera performed at the Court and aristocratic estates.
Gluck eventually joined the Lobkowitz family as chamber musician in Vienna, probably in 1736, and was invited to become chamber musician in Milan in 1737. There he studied under Sammartini, heard many operas, and composed his own first opera Artaserse in 1741 followed by a number of others, in the opera seria style to librettos of the then popular Metastasio.
In 1745 Gluck accompanied one of the Lobkowitz princes to London probably via Frankfurt and with a stop in Paris (1) where Gluck learned about French opera and the work of Rameau. In London his own operatic endeavors were at first hindered by the second Jacobite Rebellion. He did produce two works using arias from previous works, a quite acceptable practice at the time, to librettos by Francesco Vanneschi/Bartolomeo Vitturi. He met Handel , and the two gave a joined concert. Gluck would later call Handel 'the most inspired master of our art,' and Handel's portrait would hang in Gluck's bedroom as a reminder. (2) A month later Gluck gave a concert for his own benefit where he played 'upon twenty-six drinking-glasses tuned with spring water, being a new instrument of his own invention.'(3)
Gluck left London for Hamburg in 1746 to become conductor of Pietro Mingotti’s traveling Italian opera company. Shortly after his departure a set of Six Trio Sonatas for two violins and continuo, Wq. 53 were published in the city. They were composed in Milan each with Slow, Fast, and Minuetto movements after the old school model. Let's listen to No. 5 in E flat major. The entire set can be found here.
Pietro Mingotti's troupe performed in Hamburg, Leipzig, and Dresden. At the end of 1748 Gluck's father died and he took care of the estate. After a performance in Vienna, he rejoined Mingotti in Hamburg where life and opera momentarily blurred in a notorious escapade involving and Italian singer who was someone else's mistress. (4) The troupe traveled to Copenhagen, but Gluck was incapacited by illness.
Whether Gluck then went to the Netherlands with the troupe is unsure. A few years later, a Liège publisher was the first to print Gluck arias, and this may support a Gluck visit to the region. What is sure is that from this point on Gluck conducted business with Locatelli who lead a rival troupe. Gluck operas were performed in Prague and Leipzig. It is during that time that the composer married Marianne Pergin, a wealthy lady in Vienna, and became a more independent artist.
After a performance in Naples, Gluck joined the orchestra of a Saxon prince in Vienna as leader of the violin section. In addition to being a skilled musician, Gluck was jovial, well-read, and had a good knowledge of the world. According to Dittersdorf who played in the orchestra, 'Gluck let the prince copy many of his compositions, both symphonies and arias, and each piece from the pen of this honourable composer was a new and delectable feast for our ears.'(5) Recent scholarly research has attributed--some definitely, some possibly --fourteen symphonies to Gluck. Most of them were written during 1753-1756. Completely obscured by his operas, Gluck's symphonies remained hidden in various archives for many years. They are not groundbreaking works, but thoroughly enjoyable. The "Weimarer" Symphony in G major (1753), Wq. deest (i.e. without a Wotquenne catalog number), Chen G3, is the most advanced and probably dates from around 1780. (6)
Service in the prince's orchestra led to commissions and festival pieces, and to concerts at the Burgtheater and the Kärntnertortheater. The local press declared him 'a man truly created for the orchestra.' (7)
In 1756 a new opera was performed in Rome, and Gluck was knighted by the Pope. From then on Gluck used the title 'Ritter von Gluck' or 'Chevalier de Gluck.'
Around this time Gluck started to write French opéra comiques--stripped, not to offend the Viennese court and public, of all sexual and religious improprieties--, and a series of rather short ballets, used in conjunction with new operas. Over time these galant 'ballets the fables'(8) changed into more serious, dramatic 'pantomime ballets.' In 1761 Gluck, and the Italian composer-choreographer Angiolini, created a sensation with Don Juan ou le Festin de Pierre (Don Juan, or the Stone Guest's Banquet) in D major, Wq. 52, a pantomime ballet for two flutes, two oboes, two horns, two trumpets, strings and continuo.
Classical proportions and the direct expression of human emotion became paramount considerations. In ballet, this translated as fewer unmotivated dance sequences and a more dynamic process of storytelling through movement and gesture. - David HurwitzThe final Larghetto and Chaconne movements starting @ 37.35, set in a graveyard, are especially grim storytelling, far removed from the charming dances of the Baroque or the galant style. (9)
Starting the following year with Orfeo ed Euridice and in a series of other new works, supported by Count Giacomo Durazzo, the head of the court theatre, and in collaboration with the librettist Calzabigi, Gluck would stir the world of opera. At the same time he would continue to write opéra comiques, and, when it seemed he had gone a bit too far, he would revisit the old opera seria format.
The pantomime ballet Alessandro (Les amours d’Alexandre et de Roxane) (Vienna, 1764) in eight movements, shows French influence and uses horns, bassoons, and trumpets in an appealing way.
Sémiramis (Vienna, 1765), another pantomime ballet, is based on Euripides' tragedy Iphigenia in Tauris. It was composed for the wedding celebration of Joseph II of Austria and Maria Josefa of Bavaria, together with a serenade and the opera in three acts, Telemaco, ossia L'isola di Circe (Telemachus or Circe's Island). The story was popular in Vienna ever since the French Guimond de la Touche's play on the subject was performed in Vienna in 1761. (10) The Sémiramis ballet turned out to be a little too severe for the Viennese taste. To show conciliation, Gluck and Angiolini provided happy endings in their two final ballets. (11)
Frühlingsfeier (Spring Festival) (Vienna/Florence, 1767), is a festive choral ballet suite/cantata, arranged by Mottl from the short opera Il Prologo, composed in honor of the birth of a child to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. The work introduced a much bigger opera, Ifigenia in Tauride of Traetta, at its sole performance during Gluck's lifetime, in Florence. (12)(13)
In the 1770s Gluck set a number of odes and songs for private performance, almost all to poems of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. Gluck who was a trained singer, would sometimes perform them himself. His teenage stepdaughter, Anna Maria "Nanette", would also give them very convincingly and gain Klopstock's admiration during a couple of visits at the poet's home in Karlsruhe. Seven of these works were printed in 1785 as Klopstocks Oden und Lieder beym Clavier zu Singen (Odes and Songs for singing at the keyboard). (14)(15)
The 1890 C.F. Peters edition of the Klopstock songs includes two unrelated songs. Let's listen to Einem Bach der fließt (A flowing brook), a revised setting of the aria Un ruisselet bien clair (A very clear stream) (Act III, Scene 9, No. 31 of La rencontre imprévue (The Unforeseen Encounter) (1764), Wq. 32, a comic opera). This one is a little treasure. The songs of Beethoven and Schubert are just around the corner.
Gluck taught the young Marie-Antoinette in Vienna, and, with her support after she married the French crownprince, entered into a contract to compose six stage works for the Paris Opéra. Gluck's operas would spark a huge controversy between 'Gluckists' and 'Piccinnists' in true Parisian fashion. In 1779 during rehearsals for the sixth of these he had a stroke and went back to Vienna. He died of a second stroke in 1787. A few months later Salieri commemorated his friend and teacher in a concert and conducted Gluck's De Profundis clamavi (From the depths, I have cried) (Vienna, 1787). This work sets text of Psalm 130 and is scored for four-part choir and orchestra. It was published in Paris around 1804 but may have been composed many decades earlier.
_____________________________________________________________________
(1) Alfred Einstein, "Gluck." Translated by Eric blom, London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1936, p. 22, University Digital Library. (https://archive.org/details/gluck001839mbp (09/01/2014))
(2) Patricia Howard, "C. W. Von Gluck: Orfeo." Cambridge University Press, Aug 20, 1981, p. 92. (http://books.google.com/books?id=2CY8OTaIElQC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=gluck+and+handel&source=bl&ots=kjgrPqC-ym&sig=Z64eW8KlsB-oX6GFhe4bH05qAG0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vAsFVLTwONOXgwSu2IHgCw&ved=0CG8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=gluck%20and%20handel&f=false (09/01/2014))
(3) Alfred Einstein, ib., p. 24.
(4) The subsequent claim that Gluck contracted venereal disease from this episode and as a result remained childless, is hard to judge 300 years hence. Although he doesn't mention Gluck in particular, Jonathan Noble, a retired orthopedic surgeon, preaches caution on medical claims about composers in general in Malady Makers, an article in the August 2014 issue of BBC Music magazine.
(5) Alfred Einstein, ib., p. 37.
(6) More information can most surely be found in Jen-yen Chen, "The Sachsen-Hildburghausen Kapelle and the Symphonies of Christoph Willibald Gluck." Bologna, Italy, Ad Parnassum, 2003, Vol. 1 No. 2, Ut Orpheo Edizione. (http://www.adparnassum.org/issues_contents.php?num=2 (09/03/2014)) I did not have access to this article. It would involve a trip to the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.
(7) David Charlton, Review of Gluck and the French Theatre in Vienna by Bruce Alan Brown, Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 73-79. Published by: Cambridge University Press. (http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/823582?uid=2&uid=2134&uid=3&uid=3739808&uid=2473869753&uid=3739256&uid=60&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=63&uid=2473869743&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21104651395233 (09/03/2014))
(8)Les amours de Flore et Zéphire (1759) is one example.
(9) David Hurwitz, "Gluck’s Bold Move. The composer’s Don Juan bridged the Baroque and Classical periods in explosive fashion. " (http://www.listenmusicmag.com/unsung/glucks-bold-move.php?page=1 (09/02/2014)). Listen with Classical Music website, Sept/Oct 2009.
(10)Iphigénie en Tauride, Libretto. Wikipedia page. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphig%C3%A9nie_en_Tauride (09/04/2014)) In 1779 Gluck would come back to this story to create his fifth work for the Paris stage, Iphigénie en Tauride.
(11) Thomas Bauman, Marita Petzoldt McClymonds, "Opera and the Enlightenment." Cambridge University Press, Apr 20, 1995, p. 189.
(12)"GluckWV 1.37, Prologo, Genese." Gluck Gesamtausgabe website. (http://www.gluck-gesamtausgabe.de/gwv/werkregister/eintrag/prologo.html (09/05/2014))
(13)"Disco Archivia 1011, Rare Cantatas by Gluck and Weber + a Bruckner bonus." CD Review, Musicinthemail.com. (http://www.musicinthemail.com/classicalconducting/product2.html (09/04/2014))
(14) Around 1760 Gluck adopted his late sister's baby daughter Maria Anna "Nanette." Two sources describe Klopstock's high admiration for Nanette's talents. See Walter de Gruyter, Briefe 1776-1782 (2) Apparat-Kommentar, Issues 1-131, New York, Helmut Riege Publisher, Dec 1, 1982, p. 375. (http://books.google.com/books?id=cCVVl0zL5mUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false (09/05/2014)) Unfortunately, the young girl died a year after the visit to Klopstock.
(15) Daniela Philippi, "Oden und Lieder."Gluck-Gesamtausgabe (Gluck Collected Works), Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main. (http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/44660889/odenundlieder? (09/05/2014))