SHORT ESSAYS ON COMMUNITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, AND THE PERFORMING ARTS
l 65 l
Vienna, 1800
Vienna was a large city in 1800, but hardly the largest in Europe. The city was just under 272,000 souls in 1793 living, for the most part, within city walls that could be traversed in well under a half-an-hour. Greater London at the time was home to somewhere around a million residents; Paris, about 600,000. Amsterdam, Milan, Moscow and St. Petersburg were about the same size; Naples was nearly twice as large. Once a frontline city in Europe’s wars with the Ottoman Turks, Vienna had remained relatively peaceful since the Austrians and various allies broke an Ottoman siege in 1683 and drove the Turks back towards the Balkans. Vienna had been resident city to the Habsburgs and, as de facto capital of the Holy Roman Empire, attracted a steady stream of newcomers. The city’s diversity was particularly evident within its musical community, which long included a significant Italian presence. The Italians were so omnipresent, in fact, that factions formed at court around “Italian” and “German” musical cultures. Writing about the 1824 premiere performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in his book First Nights (2000), Thomas Forrest Kelly notes, “Vienna, as a cultural and artistic crossroads, had a rich influx of musicians from countries such as Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Germany, and Italy. The orchestra certainly consisted of players who used a variety of bows and reflected the styles of many different teachers. Even among those who regularly played together in the theater orchestras, such a diversity of styles was entirely normal.”21 The court dominated musical life in seventeenth century Vienna. Proudly Roman Catholic, the Hapsburgs celebrated major events in the religious calendar with operas and concerts. Major family events similarly gave cause for musical celebration. Opera lavishly legitimated their regime by celebrating virtues and values that were thought central to the Hapsburg dynasty. Religious music constantly carried the court through overlapping cycles of court life. Under Emperors Leopold I, Joseph I, and Karl VI (1657 – 1740), music in various forms stood at the core of court life. The imperial household supported between 44 and 98 musicians during these years as well as an extensive company of designers, constructors, composers, librettists and managers to support their work. Employment was for life, with stipends often continuing after age-related infirmities set in. Performances of operas were private to the court, with this large musical entourage moving among the Hapsburgs’ formal residences
