[22] History of German Literature (1907).
[23] ‘The Emperor Joseph, who objected to Haydn’s “tricks and nonsense,” requested Dittersdorf in 1786 to draw a parallel between Haydn’s and Mozart’s chamber music. Dittersdorf answered by requesting the Emperor in his turn to draw a parallel between Klopstock and Gellert; whereupon Joseph replied that both were great poets, but that Klopstock must be read repeatedly in order to understand his beauties, whereas Gellert’s beauties lay plainly exposed to the first glance. Dittersdorf’s analogy of Mozart with Klopstock, Haydn with Gellert (!), was readily accepted by the Emperor.’ Cf. Otto Jahn: ‘Life of Mozart,’ Vol. III.
[24] Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758) was, according to Riemann, the first to introduce this contrast. He was one of the most interesting of the minor composers of Bach’s time. Cf. Riemann’s Collegium Musicum, No. 10.
[25] His compositions were chiefly for that instrument, and he achieved lasting merit with his Anweisung die Flöte traversière zu spielen (1752). He was born in 1697 and died in 1773.
[26] Surette and Mason: ‘The Appreciation of Music.’
[27] He was music master to the queen and in a way entered upon the heritage of Handel.
[28] For further details concerning the Mannheim orchestra we refer the reader to Vol. VIII, Chap. II.
[29] The Concerts spirituels, founded in 1725 by Philidor, were so called because they were held on church holidays, when theatres were closed. Mouret, Thuret, Royer, Mendonville, d’Auvergne, Gaviniès, and Le Gros succeeded Philidor in conducting them till the revolution in 1791 brought them to an end. Another series of concerts, though private, is important for us here, because of its early acceptance of Mannheim principles. This was inaugurated by a wealthy land owner, La Pouplinière, who had been an enthusiastic protector of Rameau. ‘It was he,’ said Gossec, ‘who first introduced the use of horns at his concerts, following the counsel of the celebrated Johann Stamitz.’ This was about 1748, and in 1754 Stamitz himself visited the orchestra, after which Gossec became its conductor and developed the new style.
[30] Riemann cites Scheibe in the Kritische Musikus to the effect that symphonies with drums and trumpets (or horns) were already common in 1754, but we may safely assume that they were not symphonies in our sense—orchestral sonatas—for it must be recalled that the word Sinfonia was applied to pieces of various kinds, from a note-against-note canzona (seventeenth century) to interludes in operas, oratorios, etc., and more especially to the Italian operatic overture as distinguished from the French. The German dance-suite, too, from 1650 on, had a first movement called Sinfonia, which was superseded by the overture (in the French style) soon after. In the early eighteenth century the prevailing orchestral piece was an overture, usually modelled after the Italian Sinfonia. Not this, indeed, but the chamber-sonata was the real forerunner of the symphony, as our text has just shown.
[31] Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, II². We are indebted to Riemann for this entire question of Stamitz, whose findings are the result of very recent researches.