Music in Castles

and at the Seats of the Aristocracy

Preserved in the fortified castle on the Churburg above Schluderns in the Vinschgau region from the time of the famed music-lover Knight Jakob Trapp (1529-1563) is an intricately made positive organ by Michael Strobl of Ammergau in 1559. This so-called canopy organ (Baldachinorgel), conscientiously restored in 1969 by Jürgen Ahrend of Loga (Lower Saxony), is a most rare and precious instrument still able to provide some of the authentic sound of the Renaissance today. This organ was probably intended less for church use than for music making in a domestic setting. The four-part Psalms published in 1538 and 1539 in two Nuremberg collections, Tomus primus and Tomus secundus psalmorum selectorum a praestantissimis musicis [...](RISM B/I 15386, 15399), were possibly sung in the castle chapel, for Jakob Trapp owned a copy of this compendium of works by Josquin Desprez, Adrian Willaert, Heinrich Isaac and many other contemporary composers in 1544.[44] From 1814 on, piano and probably also chamber music was played at the Trapp residence on the Churburg at an elaborately decorated pianoforte (Hammerflügel) made by the Innsbruck piano builder Johann Georg Gröber.[45]
Baron Franz Andreas Sternbach (1675-1755) had an organ built in 1725 for the Mariahilf Chapel of his family seat Grabenstein in Innsbruck-Mühlau by the Swabian organ builder Augustin Simnacher (1688-1757) and another around 1740 for the chapel of Wolfsthurn Castle near Mareit by Ignaz Franz Wörle (1710-1778) of Vils.[46] At Rodeneck Castle (Pustertal) Christoph Freiherr (Baron) von Wolkenstein (1530-1600) collected contemporary books of sacred songs, e.g. from Innsbruck (1588), Cologne, Augsburg and Tegernsee. In 1594 the owner of the castle also had the mastersingers’ (Meistersinger) manuscript later known as the Wilten Manuscript and now kept in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library) in Munich (Cod. germ. 5198) in his possession. Lute and guitar tablatures were kept at Rodeneck and on Annenberg (Vinschgau) in the 17th century.A manuscript miscellany that belonged to the library of the barons of Annenberg around the mid-17th century (RISM B/VII/) and has been in the Tiroler Landesarchiv (Tyrolean Provincial Archive) in Innsbruck (Hs. 533) since 1897, contains anonymous dances as guitar tablatures and ends with a few pieces for a keyboard instrument in modern notation in the piano system. Until 1889 the Wolkenstein-Rodenegg family owned a luxury manuscript probably made at Neustift near Brixen in 1432 containing songs by Oswald von Wolkenstein. The codex, known as Manuscript B, is preserved in the Innsbruck University Library.[47]
The lords of the castles knew how to handle different instruments themselves. For instance, Franz Anton von Enzenberg played the harp so proficiently that he was able to give lessons to Johannes Sigmund von Rost (1653-1729), the administrator (Pfleger) of the Michelsburg above St. Lorenzen. Rost had already learned how to play a bit on the tromba marina in 1676.[48] In aristocratic circles, music served mainly for private entertainment and to enhance an elegant social life. For example, Baron Jakob von Boimont zu Pairsberg held a dance in honor of guests at his Innsbruck residence in 1574.[49] For a midday meal with Maria Amalia, the Duchess of Parma, in Schwaz in 1783 Count Tannenberg summoned Migazzi’s Regimental Band (Regiments-Capelle) expressly for the table music.[50] The family of the well-to-do Bozen merchant and patron of music Anton Melchior von Menz resided in Oberbozen in the summer. Franz Bühler (1760-1823), who worked as the parish organist in Bozen from 1794 to 1801, joined them on the Ritten in those years and provided the music for the Menz household.[51]
Ludwig Count Sarnthein (1792-1867) and his wife Anna Edle von Menz, on the other hand, were able to afford their own singers and orchestra in Bozen.[52] The family of the counts of Khuen-Belasy at Gandegg Castle near St. Michael/Eppan compiled an inventory in 1713 that listed, besides manuscript and printed music, twenty violins, four violas, seven gambas and five trombones, being instruments that were played at concerts in the castle. Franz Knight of Goldegg (1794-1874) also called a collection of music and instruments his own at Spauregg Castle. For chamber concerts he summoned the best musicians from Bozen and Meran, even joining them as a violinist himself. He carried on a lively correspondence with the Tyrolean composer Matthäus Nagiller (1815-1874), who was a great success in France, Germany and Austria. Nagiller finally conducted the count’s orchestra from 1852 to 1854 in Partschins.[53] Count Pius Fidelis Wolkenstein (1749-1826) started organizing musical academies in Palazzo Wolkenstein in Trent in 1771. Johann Baptist Gänsbacher (1778-1844) was a welcome guest of his, and of Baron Josef Hieronymus Freiherr von Taxis and other aristocratic families (Prato, Gaudenti) in Trent, particularly for his “musical ability [...] that was frequently called upon in said homes.”[54]
The Taxis Palais in Innsbruck (Palais Trapp since 1804) was often the scene of sociable musical entertainment. The most memorable musical event there must have been a concert given by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart on 17 December 1769 before the assembled aristocracy. Mozart had stopped in Innsbruck on his first trip to Italy with his father and was invited by Johann Nepomuk Count Spaur to an academy at the home of Franz Count Künigl.[55]
In 1884 the internationally renowned piano virtuoso and composer Sophie Menter (1846-1918), who was teaching at the conservatory in St Petersburg at the time, bought Itter Castle, where she lived from 1887 to 1902. Visiting Itter in September 1884 was one of her teachers, Franz Liszt. On 18 October 1891 she gave a benefit performance in aid of the church and school of Itter and the foundation of the new Wörgl singing society. Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky spent two weeks at the pianist’s castle in September 1892, during which he probably scored the “Ungarische Zigeunerweisen” that she had composed. The Innsbruck Musical Society made Sophie Menter an honorary member.[56]

Fussnoten

[44] Oswald Graf TRAPP, Ritter Jakob Trapp auf Churburg (1529-1563): Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte Tirols (Schlern-Schriften 127), Innsbruck 1954, p. 24ff;
Bruno OBERHAMMER, “Drei Baldachinpositive im Alpenraum: Ein Vergleich,” Orgel und Orgelspiel im 16. Jahrhundert, ed. Walter Salmen (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 2), Neu-Rum near Innsbruck 1978, p. 167ff;
Alfred REICHLING and Istvan GOLARITS, Orgellandschaft Südtirol, Bozen 1982, p. 34ff;
Baldachin-Orgel Churburg 1559, CD booklet with texts by Johannes J. Graf Trapp, Peter Waldner, Egon Krauss and Jürgen Ahrend, ed. ORF Landesstudio Tirol, Innsbruck [1997];
Cf. Peter WALDNER, “Vier Musikdrucke des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts im Oberen Vinschgau,” Musica vocalis: Singen in Südtirol - einst und jetzt, Bozen 1989, p. 21f.
 
[45] Maria Elisabeth NUSSBAUMER-EIBENSTEINER, Johann Georg Gröber: Tiroler Klavier- und Orgelbauer 1775-1849, Diploma thesis, Hochschule Mozarteum Salzburg: Abteilung X Musikerziehung in Innsbruck, Innsbruck 1992, p. 93ff.
 
[46] Alfred REICHLING, “Die Orgel der Schloßkapelle Wolfsthurn,” Der Schlern 53 (1979) p. 534. - Simnacher died in Brixen; Wörle lived in Bozen from 1743 on.
 
[47] Anton DÖRRER, “Hundert Innsbrucker Notendrucke aus dem Barock: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters in Tirol,” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 14 (1939) p. 255;
Anton DÖRRER, Tiroler Volksgut auf dem Heideboden (Burgenländische Forschungen 17), Eisenstadt 1951, p. 53;
Anton SCHWOB, Oswald von Wolkenstein, Boten 1977, p. 240;
Walter NEUHAUSER, “Ich, Wolkenstein,” Vom Codex zum Computer: 250 Jahre Universitätsbibliothek Innsbruck, exh. cat. Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum 1995/96, Innsbruck 1995, p. 50, 171.
Kurt Drexel, “Eine Tabulaturhandschrift aus dem ehemaligen Bestand der Schloßbibliothek Annenberg (Südtirol) im Tiroler Landesarchiv,” Neues Musikwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch 5 (1996) p. 51ff.
 
[48] Rudolf HUMBERDOTZ, ed., Das Tagebuch des Johannes Sigmund von Rost zu Kehlberg und Aufhofen (Schlern-Schriften 114), Innsbruck 1956, p. 36.
 
[49] Max P. STRAGANZ, “Beiträge zur Geschichte Tirols II: Die Autobiographie des Freiherrn Jakob von Boimont zu Pairsberg (1527-1581),” Programm des k.k. Ober-Gymnasiums der Franciscaner zu Hall [...] 1895-1896, Innsbruck 1896, p. 60.
 
[50] Franz Carl ZOLLER, Geschichte und Denkwürdigkeiten der Stadt Innsbruck und der umliegenden Gegend, vol. 2, Innsbruck 1825, p. 268.
 
[51] Giuliano TONINI, “Franz Bühler (Bihler): 1760-1823,” Il Cristallo 30 (1988), p. 54ff;
Giuliano TONINI, “Il Salotto musicale a Bolzano fra Settecento e inizi Novecento,” Il Cristallo 31 (1989) p. 117ff;
Giuliano TONINI, “Salonkultur in Bozen,” Musica vocalis: Singen in Südtirol einst und jetzt, ed. Südtiroler Sängerbund, Bozen 1989, p. 45ff;
[Hildegard HERRMANN-SCHNEIDER], [catalog entry for Franz Bühler, XII. Allemandes Nouveaux pour la grande Salle des Redoutes a Boulzaine, Munich circa 1828] Bayerisch-tirolische G’schichten ... eine Nachbarschaft. exh. cat. [Tiroler Landesausstellung Kufstein 1993], Innsbruck 1993, p. 386.
 
[52] Anton DÖRRER, Tiroler Umgangsspiele (Schlern-Schriften 160), Innsbruck 1957, p. 171;
Anton DÖRRER, Bozner Bürgerspiele (Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart 291), Leipzig 1941, p. 217.
 
[53] Karl Franz ZANI, 150 Jahre Musikkapelle Girlan, Festschrift, Girlan 1983, p. 9, 115;
Elmar TSCHÖLL, “Zum 150. Geburtstag des Komponisten Franz Schöpf aus Girlan,” Der Schlern 60 (1986) p. 603;
BOTE für Tirol und Vorarlberg (15.01.1874) p. 76.
 
[54] Johann GÄNSBACHER, Denkwürdigkeiten aus meinem Leben, ed. Walter Senn, Thaur 1986, p. 59.
 
[55] Clemente LUNELLI, “Le Accademie Musicali del Conte Pio Fedele Wolkenstein a Trento nel secondo Settecento,” Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche 68 (1989) p. 533ff;
Franz Carl ZOLLER, Geschichte und Denkwürdigkeiten der Stadt Innsbruck und der umliegenden Gegend, vol. 2, Innsbruck 1825, p. 357;
Walter SENN, “Mozarts Innsbrucker Aufenthalt im Dezember 1769,” Tiroler Heimatblätter 52 (1977) p. 124ff;
Manfred SCHNEIDER, Mozart in Tirol, exh. cat. Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck 1991, p. 8f.
 
[56] Kaspar Schwarz, Tirolische Schlösser, Heft I: Unterinntal 1. Teil, Innsbruck 1907, p. 58f;
André LISCHKE, Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovski, [Paris] 1993, p. 294f.