21 March 1789

A comparison with Mozart in a review of four-hand sonatas by Baron Münchhausen

Gothaische gelehrte Zeitungen, 23. Stück, 21 Mar 1789, 199–200

[199]
                                              Paris.

⁣     Deux Sonates à quatre Mains pour le Clavecin ou le Forte
Piano, composées par Mr. le Baron de Munchhausen, Chambel-
lan de sa Majesté le Roi de Prusse. Oeuvre II. (6 Livr. 1 rthlr.
12 gl.) Chez Cesar Editeur de Musique. fol. obl.
     Une Sonate à quatre Mains pour le Clavecin ou le Forte
Piano, composée par Mr. le Baron de Munchhausen, Chamb. de S.
M. le R. de Pr. & Gentilhomme de son Alt. Roy. le Pr. Henry.
Oeuvre III. (3 Livr. 18 gl.) Chez Cesar. fol. obl.
     Jeder Musikfreund weiß es, welchen Beyfall seit einiger Zeit
Klavierstücke für vier Hände gefunden haben, und wahr ist es
allerdings, daß sich in diesen Stücken Modulationen und Ausfüh=
rungen hervorbringen lassen, welche ein Spieler unmöglich vor=
tragen kann. Man hat aber auch dieser Gattung von der andern
Seite schon die Vorwürfe gemacht, daß dadurch die ursprüngliche
wahre Art, das Klavier zu spielen, leide, indem sich jetzt viele Kla=
vierspieler genöthigt sehen, beynahe ununterbrochen mit ihren
Schülern vierhändige Sachen zu spielen, wodurch der Lernende al=
lerdings verliert, indem er nie ein Stück selbst ganz vollendet.
Von der andern Seite prägt sich aber auch dagegen die Haltung
des Takts sehr gut ein, und das gesellschaftliche musikalische Ver=
gnügen gewinnt. In den gegewärtigen Sonaten findet man
zwar die große Bearbeitung, die künstlichen Nachahmungen und
die verwebten Modulationen, welche vorzüglich Mozart und zum
Theil auch Sterkel in ihren vierhändigen Stücken angebracht ha=
ben, nicht, aber sie haben dagegen das Verdienst sehr leicht zu seyn,
und da man in jeder derselben nicht nur sehr faßliche, gute Melo=
die, reine Harmonie, und richtigen Rhythmus findet, auch über=

Gothaische gelehrte Zeitungen, 1789, 199

[200]

haupt einen gebildeten Liebhaber kennen lernt, so werden diese
Stücke gewiß ausgebreiteten Beyfall finden.

Gothaische gelehrte Zeitungen, 1789, 200

[translation:]

⁣                                              Paris.

[...]

     
Every friend of music knows that keyboard works for four
hands have been quite popular for some time now, and it is
certainly true that in these pieces modulations and elaborations
can be produced that are impossible for one player. On the other
hand, the charge has been made against this genre that the original
true art of playing the keyboard suffers, in that now many keyboard
players find it necessary to play four-hand pieces with their students
nearly continuously, whereby the pupil certainly loses, in that he
never entirely finishes a piece himself. On the other hand,
in contrast, maintaining a beat is very well inculcated, and the social
enjoyment of music is increased. In the present sonatas, one indeed
does not find the grand working out, the artful imitations, and the
interweaving modulations which Mozart, especially, and in part also
Sterkel have brought to their four-hand works; but they have
the merit of being very easy, and because in each of them one
finds not only good, coherent melodies, pure harmonies, and
correct rhythms, one also in general recognizes a cultured amateur
[Liebhaber]; thus these pieces will certainly find widespread approval.


Commentary

August Diedrich Friedrich Wilhelm Baron von Münchhausen (14 Feb 1756–5 Aug 1814), born 18 days after Mozart, was a skilled amateur composer with several musical publications to his credit, including the three sonatas under review here (on Münchhausen, see principally Ottenberg & Sellack, 2016). From around 1787 to 1798 Münchhausen was chamberlain at the Rheinsberg court of Prince Heinrich of Prussia, younger brother of Frederick the Great, and himself a great music lover. Münchhausen is said to have taken composition lessons in Rheinberg from Prince Heinrich’s Kapellmeister, Johann Abraham Peter Schulz—although these lessons were probably not extensive, as Schulz left Rheinberg to take up the position of court Kapellmeister in Copenhagen in 1787. Münchhausen’s travels in the early nineteenth century brought him to Paris in 1808, and he subsequently became an ambassador for the King of Westphalia, Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, youngest brother of Napoleon. When the Kingdom of Westphalia was dissolved in 1813, Münchhausen was left without a position, and he committed suicide in 1814.

Münchhausen’s known works include 8 symphonies, 2 piano concertos, several chamber works (most with keyboard), and a small amount of keyboard music, notably the three sonatas for piano four-hands discussed in this review: the Sonatas in G major and E-flat major, published as Münchhausen’s op. 2, and the Sonata in C major, op. 3.

The reviewer states that Münchhausen’s sonatas do not show the musical sophistication of Mozart’s works in the genre and some of Sterkel’s, but are nevertheless tuneful and harmonious. All of Mozart’s mature four-hand sonatas had been published by the time of this review: K. 381 in D major and K. 358 in B-flat major, first published by Artaria in Vienna in 1783; K. 497 in F major, first published by Artaria in 1787; and K. 521 in C major, first published by Hoffmeister in Vienna in 1787. Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel (1750–1817) published several four-hand sonatas over the course of his career; those that appeared in the 1780s include his op. 21 (2 sonatas), op. 23 (a single sonata in F major), and op. 28 (4 sonatas).

One suspects that the reviewer’s phrase “die ursprüngliche wahre Art, das Klavier zu spielen” (“the original true art of playing the keyboard”) is an intentional reference to the title of C. P. E. Bach’s famous treatise, Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen.

For another reference to Mozart’s four-hand sonatas, see our entry “A four-hand piano sonata by Mozart in a story by Musäus” (1788).


Notes

Münchhausen’s music appears to have been little studied. The complete RISM listings for Münchhausen are here. The article in MGG Online (Ottenberg & Sellack, 2016) incorrectly places the publication of Münchhausen’s op. 2 and op. 3 in 1793; but the review in the Gothaische gelehrte Zeitungen in Mar 1789 shows that both were in print by that point. Both were originally published by Cesar in Paris.

There are two other references to Mozart in this volume of the Gothaische gelehrte Zeitungen. An advertisement by Breitkopf in the issue for 11 Mar 1789 (172) lists:

⁣                                                         Mozart, W. A. Over-
tura per Clavicemb. del Opera Il D. Giovanni, qu. Folio.
Vienna. 7 Gr.

A long review in the issue for 25 Mar 1789 (202–207) of Boßler’s Musikalischer Realzeitung for 1788 includes (on page 206) a list of the contents of the “musikalische Beylage” for the Realzeitung. Among them is “... eine Aria buffa mit obligater Mandoline, vom Capellmeister Mozart in Vienna …” (“Deh vieni alla finestra” from Don Giovanni).


Bibliography

Fischer, Joachim. [n. d.]. “Sterkel-Werkverzeichnis.” [pdf]

Ottenberg, Hans-Günther, and Ingolf Sellack. 2016. “Münchhausen, August Diedrich Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von.” In: MGG Online, ed. Laurenz Lütteken. Accessed 29 Jan 2018.


Credit: DE

Author: Dexter Edge

Search Term: mozart

Categories: Reception

First Published: Tue, 3 Apr 2018


Print Citation:

Edge, Dexter. 2018. “A comparison with Mozart in a review of four-hand sonatas by Baron Münchhausen (21 March 1789).” In: Mozart: New Documents, edited by Dexter Edge and David Black. First published 3 April 2018. https://www.mozartdocuments.org/documents/21-march-1789/

Web Citation:

Edge, Dexter. 2018. “A comparison with Mozart in a review of four-hand sonatas by Baron Münchhausen (21 March 1789).” In: Mozart: New Documents, edited by Dexter Edge and David Black. First published 3 April 2018. [direct link]