PART II Court Influence: How 18th-Century Vienna Fueled One of Classical Music's Greatest Rivalries7/9/2017 The previous post featured the first part from one of my earlier journal publications on the nature of Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's rivalry and the conditions that bred such an environment. Previously I focused on context and history; today, the conclusion will delve further into analysis on the true nature of their relationship and their contributions to the greater history of Classical music. In the land of musicians, “the composer of a king had to be politically adroit to retain his position at court,” [i] and Salieri was more than adept. Securing prestigious teaching positions among Vienna’s nobility ensured continued financial security in addition to guaranteeing future patronage. In late 1781, the Duke of Württemberg arrived in Vienna with his daughter the princess Elisabeth Wilhelmine. She was betrothed to Joseph II’s nephew and heir, Franz. Joseph II sought a worthy piano teacher to educate Elisabeth for her future status. [ii] At this time, Salieri was already a well-respected instructor and knew the value of such a position. Although Mozart was aware of the tremendous opportunity such a role would bestow, he was inept in the court politics necessary to land the role of the Princess of Württemberg’s musical instructor. His carefree disposition often led to crass or inappropriate public comments about his peers or the Viennese nobility. While still vying for the instructor position, Mozart was quoted as calling the princess an “eighteen-year-old lout, a regular calf.” [iii] This impropriety cost him the job and favor among the courts. Salieri was awarded the role of piano instructor to the princess. By landing the coveted position, Salieri reasserted himself within the royal courts through aligning himself with the wife of the future Holy Roman Emperor.
was not of interest to Salieri, nor did he consider himself competent in the language. [v] Although Mozart’s opera was the only true success of the Nationaltheater experiment, it came all too late. The public’s interest in a national opera was waning. “The Emperor, knowing the restless curiosity of his Viennese subjects, again gave them…an Italian Opera [house].” [vi] With the closing of the Nationaltheater and reopening of the Burgtheatre, all opera was once again to be conducted in Italian. Fortunately for Mozart, he was fluent in Italian in addition to German, French, and Latin. [vii] Once only a peripheral menace to Salieri’s courtly clout and public popularity, Mozart was now an ever present threat with this sudden artistic shift. Competition for supremacy of court favor took a heightened turn. Upon the switch back to Italian opera, Salieri was named director and Kapellmeister. [viii] He was in an evermore influential role, capable of manipulating particular outcomes within his favor. History has not been favorable to Salieri; Academics continue to speculate on the numerous ways he hindered Mozart’s career and prevented him from attaining patrons or financial success. While this has been grossly exaggerated, Salieri did indeed use his cunning and authority to produce particular desired outcomes. When Mozart started writing Le nozze di Figaro, Salieri was involved with numerous clandestine attempts to cease production. The opera spanned over four hours, requiring a great deal of effort from its cast, crew, as well as audience. Salieri utilized the length as he tried to turn Mozart’s cast and royal spectators against him. Mozart and his father grew outraged at the attempts ranging from complaints on arias, to apparent royal prohibitions found within the opera. Mozart’s father, Leopold, complained in a letter to peers and patrons, “The cowardly alliance of undeserving people devoted its entire energy to hating, denigrating and disparaging the art of this immortal artist.” [ix] Nonetheless, Figaro took the stage in October 1785 and was relatively successful showing nine times until the September of the following year. His masterpiece was overshadowed, however, by Salieri’s more popular Grotta di Trofonio, showing an illustrious seventeen times during the same year as Mozart’s Figaro. [x] Mozart’s Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute were to meet similar unfavorable outcomes. Despite his genius, Mozart did not play to the royal Viennese tastes, nor was he given adequate support by Salieri and the aristocratic Italians in his operatic productions. While Mozart’s operas are considered masterpieces today, they were relative failures compared to the more popular contemporary works of Salieri. Mozart’s style was unrivaled, it was daring, and it was unconventional. Yet, there was not a strong enough audience in eighteenth-century Vienna to see the value of operas like Figaro or Don Giovanni. With an audience filled primarily by the royalty and its courts, an opera’s value lie in how closely it aligned with their traditional Italianophile tastes and Mozart’s work never catered to the conventional. Furthermore, it was commonly stated that Mozart’s work was simply “too much” for an audience-- royal or civilian--to absorb. They did not have the time or musical ear to fully grasp the rich beauty of his operas. [xi] The 1984 film, Amadeus, discusses this notion in greater detail, that both the royal and civilian audience were simply not ready for Mozart’s musical innovation. Although Amadeus is a historical dramatization of the encounters between the two men, it captures the essence of their rivalry, works and the Viennese courts in a manner that few scholars can dispute. “I think you overestimate our dear Viennese, my friend,” [xii] states Salieri to Mozart in the film. While Mozart sought to outdo Salieri by creating the greatest operas to ever grace the stage, his rival knew how to out do him in a different manner. Although Salieri’s “artistic individuality was not strong… [or] important enough to impress upon the opera a new character,” [xiii] his operas were tuned perfectly to the ears of the nobility as well as the public. Italian opera was traditional and popular. So too, was Salieri: In other words…Mozart’s operas were less to the taste of the monarch and the public in Vienna than those of Salieri, and it was the same all through Germany. Whatever the appreciative few may have thought of Figaro and Don Giovanni, to the general operatic public, Salieri was certainly the greatest of the living composers. [xiv] Mozart was the genius, but Salieri was the composer of the people. Both men strove to gain what the other held and both men were fatally consumed by their envy to do so. While both musicians respected the other’s works, Salieri was crippled by his jealousy of Mozart’s musical talents. “Mozart’s superior gifts…made Salieri’s lifelong devotion to music meaningless.” [xv] He knew that Mozart’s abilities greatly surpassed his own. Regardless of all his power, prestige and fame, Salieri knew he could not compare to the child prodigy from Salzburg. The film Amadeus illustrates this beautifully through Mozart’s braying laughter, “directed towards all us common mortals who have been spitefully, maliciously denied the fire of creative genius.” [xvi] Salieri felt it was the mocking laughter of the gods, reminding him he could never attain the artistic brilliance he so greatly envied in Mozart. This further explains Salieri’s ever present desire to continually reassert his court influence in a clever and shrewd manner. His power and success stemmed directly from the Emperor, support Salieri had no intention of losing. When another composer of such genius is one’s contemporary, one must do whatever is necessary not to lose favor with the courts or the public. Mozart too was driven by envy, envy of Salieri’s power and success, especially among the nobility. In the final days of his life he was mysteriously commissioned to write The Requiem. Believing the work to be the supreme masterpiece of his career, the piece that would finally provide him with the success and recognition from the aristocracy he so desired. Mozart became consumed, his envy pushing him to madness. Driven to complete the composition for both the pecuniary and personal success he felt it would bring, Mozart worked himself into a state of physical and mental decline. He “began to speak of death and declared that he was writing the requiem for himself.” [xvii] Eerily prophetic, Mozart died weeks later on December 5, 1791. He continued to compose The Requiem while on his deathbed. [xviii]
circulate that Salieri poisoned the genius in order to maintain his position within the Viennese courts. Near the end of his life Salieri attempted suicide and claimed to have “murdered” Mozart, further perpetuating the myth. He had prevented the world from fully embracing the genius and beauty that was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart’s life was his art and his art had never come to full fruition, all due to Salieri. [xix] In a cruel twist of fate, Salieri realized he was living in a world that was slowly forgetting him, but Mozart was continuing to live on. Vienna and its courts no longer knew their most popular composer. The rivalry that consumed the latter portion of both Salieri and Mozart’s lives produced an outcome that neither could have foreseen. At the time of Mozart’s death in 1791, Salieri was the most powerful and popular composer in Vienna, while Mozart was buried in a poor, unmarked grave. Yet today, Salieri’s name is all but forgotten as Mozart is remembered as the pioneering musical genius of Vienna’s classical era. “Can you recall no melody of mine? I was the most famous composer in Europe,” [xx] laments Salieri in the beginning of the film Amadeus. The nature of their rivalry led to this unforeseeable conclusion. Salieri’s popularity was a direct result of playing into the contemporary tastes of the Viennese courts and public. Meanwhile, Mozart’s polarizing works fought tradition and introduced new musical styles. Ultimately, the lack of innovation within his traditional works led to Salieri being forgotten, but Mozart’s avant-garde compositions saw to it that he will always be remembered. Endnotes:
i Borowitz, “‘Murder’ of Mozart,” 284. ii Weber, “Musical Taste,” 180. iii Schenk, Mozart, 307. iv Ibid. v Ibid., 308. vi Braunbehrens, Maligned Master, 114. vii Heartz, “Figaro,” 257. viii Painter, “Mozart at Work,” 200. ix Braunbehrens, Maligned Master,114 x Ibid., 122. xi Braunbehrens, Maligned Master, 124. xii Thayer, Salieri, 97. xiii Schenk, Mozart, 368. xiv Shaffer, Amadeus, Film. xv Thayer, Salieri, 91. xvi Thayer, Salieri, 127. xvii Borowitz, “‘Murder’ of Mozart,” 282. xviii Marshall, “Film as Musicology,” 177. xix Borowitz, “‘Murder’ of Mozart,” 264. xx Ibid., 266
1 Comment
PART I Court Influence: How 18th Century Vienna Fueled One of Classical Music's Greatest Rivalries24/8/2017 The next two weeks will feature writing from one of my earlier journal publications on the nature of Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's rivalry and the conditions that bred such an environment. This week will focus on context and history while the conclusion will delve further into analysis on the true nature of their relationship and their contributions to the greater history of Classical music. From the baroque glories of the Habsburg courts arose a city that became the world’s musical epicenter, Vienna. Ruled by two great patrons of the arts in the eighteenth-century, Maria Theresia and Joseph II, Vienna gave birth to the artistic genius of numerous musical composers including Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Yet, the underlying politics necessary for landing Vienna’s powerful court patrons created an atmosphere of intrigue and fierce competition—a place where mediocrity could rule supreme with proper noble favor and innovative genius overlooked due to royal tastes. For Joseph II’s court composer, Antonio Salieri, and emerging virtuoso, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, this was the world in which they lived. During the ten years of their intense rivalry, success and failure were determined not just by musical ability, but by the power and opinion of Vienna’s royal courts. Despite his comparative lack of musical talent, Salieri was a force in the musical world due to his ability to work within the court systems, while Mozart’s failure to comply led to his lack of success. Thus, it was the musical court politics of eighteenth-century Vienna that cultivated an environment of heightened artistic competition and led to the rivalry between two seemingly disparate composers: Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The emergence of Italian opera in the seventeenth-century was the catalyst responsible for making Vienna the musical capital of the Western world. As opera came to prominence in Naples, it drew the attention of the Austrian monarchy, the wealthy and powerful Habsburgs. The Holy Roman Emperor of Austria and his future successors began to summon Italian court composers to Vienna to start an operatic tradition within the ruling city. [i] Such actions had several powerful consequences that
Italian culture. Despite emerging attempts at integrating local German culture into the theaters, the public--and an overwhelming majority of Viennese aristocracy--favored the tradition of Italian operas. Privately, some nobility even promoted Italian culture within their homes. [iii] Not until Emperor Joseph II converted his mother Maria Theresia’s Burgtheatre into the Nationaltheatre in 1776 was there a deliberate and outward embrace of German opera or music.[iv] But thirdly, and most importantly, since the Habsburgs ‘began’ this musical revival, music and opera became the symbol of high society and ultimately a monopoly maintained by the royal courts. Upon the first arrival of Italian composers, the Habsburgs held a court monopoly on all theater production in Vienna. [v] Therefore, nearly all musical creations within the city were dictated by nobility; they were the city’s sole patrons. Musicians could be employed by others as teachers, but their large scale works needed to be commissioned by royalty in order for them to be showcased to the public in Vienna’s theaters. Once again, Emperor Joseph II challenged the norms and lifted the court monopoly in 1776, [vi] opening up the possibility of patronage to other members of Vienna. Nonetheless, Joseph II became the theatre director for the newly minted Nationaltheatre. While there was a new semblance of freedom, there was no escaping the power or control of the Viennese courts. In addition, musical patronage distinguished the wealthy as cultured and worldly among Vienna’s elite. Although music appreciation was now practiced by peasants and the lower middle-class, it was truly the mark of the upper-class bourgeoisie and nobility. The middle-classes still needed time to arise as patrons of prominence following the lift of the court monopoly. Despite the repeal, nobility during the eighteenth-century maintained unofficial control over theatre production. Music “loomed large in the rites and pleasures of the courts” [vii] as royalty continued to use classical music and opera in every aspect of their celebratory events. Aristocrats and ambassadors regularly held private concerts within their homes. [viii] Upper-class civilians hired musical instructors to educate their wives and children. Musicians flocked to the city, and patrons welcomed them with open arms, eager to showcase their status. Thus, Vienna became the “adoptive home of musicians and men of intellect.” [ix] Within an environment flooded with wealthy patrons, classical music, opera, and Italian culture, an aspiring composer arrived to make his indelible mark on the eighteenth-century Viennese Habsburg courts: Antonio Salieri.
Leopold Gassmann. Vienna was not yet the musical epicenter it would become, so Salieri’s decision to leave with Gassmann to Vienna over Naples was quite unusual. Nonetheless, Gassmann took in Salieri as his pupil and the two arrived in Vienna on June 15, 1766. [xii] Joseph II, who maintained a strong affinity for Italian opera, immediately set out to meet the young Italian musician whom his court Kappellmeister now called pupil. [xiii] Thus began Salieri’s swift ascendency within the royal courts of Vienna. He started asserting himself within the royal circles, and a mere ten years after first arriving in Vienna, Salieri was appointed chamber composer and Kapellmeister. Salieri was no longer confined to working within Vienna alone, either. He had over eight operas to his name and showcased them around the world in Munich, Naples and Paris, solidifying his universal reputation. [xiv] In addition to becoming a world-renowned composer, Salieri was a well-respected teacher of singing and composition. His pupils included Austrian soprano Caterina Cavalieri, Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt. [xv] While Salieri ascended swiftly within Vienna’s musical scene, it was his political favor with the emperor that proved of greater importance. “Because of his favor with Joseph II…and of his successive roles as court composer, director of the Italian Opera, and court conductor, Salieri was able to wield powerful influence over the availability of theaters and patronage.” [xvi] This influence would soon prove beneficial. For it was during this time, nearing the peak of his career, that Salieri was introduced to Mozart, the young musical genius who would challenge him artistically throughout the rest of his career. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian born musical genius, renowned for his works by the age of ten. Born in Salzburg on January 27, 1756, he had an extraordinary musical ability from an early age. By the age of three Mozart began playing the clavichord, and at the age of four began writing short compositions. One day when he was six, he was found playing the violin and sight-reading music despite having never received private lessons. [xvii] His father Leopold, who maintained a firm influence over his life, took him on numerous concert tours throughout Germany, England, Italy, and eventually Austria. Mozart made his first appearance in Vienna at the young age of twelve. In 1768, he composed his first opera, the singspiel Bastien und Bastienne, with Joseph II and his then unmarried sister, Marie Antoinette, in the audience. [xviii] These musical feats caught the attention of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg and Mozart began to work under the controlling patron for several years. Mozart’s carefree nature and behavior bordering on impropriety did not bode well with the archbishop, regardless of the musician’s capabilities. Ultimately, the relationship between musician and patron was a disaster. Several years later in 1781, Mozart returned to Vienna to an astounding reception. Believing in his innovative genius and counting on the support of the captivated Viennese nobility, Mozart made a radical and unprecedented decision by severing ties with his patron, the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg. [xix] Typically, such a move meant the certain death of one’s future artistic career. Mozart, however, was more confident. “You are altogether wrong if you imagine that I shall be thought the less of by the nobility and the Emperor,” Mozart wrote to his father. “The Archbishop is hated here, by the Emperor most of all.” [xx] He was correct, as he immediately gained a commission by Joseph II to create a German opera for the Nationaltheatre. Upon this break with his former patron and a new royal commission, “there was no trace of the popular to be found in his compositions, no further concessions.” [xxi] Mozart was a free man. This new transition marked the beginning of Mozart’s Viennese period and the most artistically creative phase of his career. While his innovative works were indeed polarizing, Mozart’s talent could not be ignored. It was declared by some that, “When the young man of twenty-five, [sic] settled in Vienna, he needed but the opportunity and he would utterly cast all other composers in Vienna into the shade.” [xxii] Therefore, Mozart presented a tremendous threat to existing musical foundations of Vienna, most notably to those who were prospering greatly within the current system. Mozart’s genius was a direct imposition to the success and lifestyle of court composer Salieri. As a result, Salieri cunningly wielded “his adroitness in Viennese opera politics and his prestigious position” within the courts as a weapon against the music of Mozart. [xxiii] And so began one of music’s greatest rivalries. ENDNOTES
[i] Marboe, Book of Austria, 109. [ii] Link, “Theatrical and Musical Life,” 223. [iii] Ibid. [iv] Heartz, “Figaro,” 256. [v] Link, “Theatrical and Musical Life,” 230. [vi] Ibid. [vii] Weber, “Musical Taste,” 190. [viii] Link, “Theatrical and Musical Life,” 210 [ix] Marboe, Book of Austria, 359. [x] Braunbehrens, Maligned Master, 14. [xi] Ibid., 16. [xii] Ibid., 17. [xiii] Ibid., 23. [xiv] Schenk, Mozart, 311. [xv] Borowitz, “‘Murder’of Mozart,” 270. [xvi] Ibid., 272. [xvii] Marboe, Book of Austria, 113. [xviii] Ibid. [xix] Schenk, Mozart, 291. [xx] Ibid. [xxi] Heartz, “Figaro,” 256. [xxii] Marboe, Book of Austria, 113 [xxiii] Thayers, Salieri, 96. "Barely concealed beneath the surface of Expressionist [opera]… runs a feeling of horror that sometimes bursts out in an agonized cry."[i] Schoenberg’s Student: The Artistic Development of Alban Berg Alban Berg was an Austrian born student of the influential musician, Schoenberg. Born in 1885 to an affluent family, Berg had a tumultuous childhood when the family grew financially destitute following the death of his father. Berg struggled with school, having to repeat several grades and got into serious trouble when he had an affair with a kitchen maid at the age of seventeen that resulted in an illegitimate daughter.[ii] Despite the hardship of these early years, Berg learned how to play piano from his governess—igniting his passion for musical composition. By the time Berg was a teenager, he began composing and performing musical works for friends and family.[iii] Recognizing their brother’s love and talent for music, Berg’s brother and sister responded to a newspaper advertisement posted by a man named Arnold Schoenberg looking for musical pupils. Shortly thereafter, Berg began his formal musical training under Schoenberg in 1904.[iv] The two would develop a highly influential and extremely volatile student-teacher relationship over the next eleven years. Berg’s musical ability developed rapidly under Schoenberg’s tutelage. He was a constant presence during the creation of Schoenberg’s radically innovative atonal period. This ground-breaking musical style, which lacked a focal tone or key, helped shape the music of Berg’s future work. It was also during this time that Schoenberg created his gesamtkunstwerk, the Expressionist Opera: Die Glückliche Hand. Although the opera was not performed until 1924, it was conceived and written in 1908 when Berg was studying under the musical innovator. The influence of both Schoenberg’s atonal period and Die Glückliche Hand on Berg’s artistic development cannot be overlooked. In fact, early into their relationship Schoenberg openly criticized Berg’s initial lack of imagination. Regarding his student, Schoenberg stated that Berg’s “imagination could not work…he was absolutely incapable of writing an instrumental movement or inventing an instrumental theme.”[v] As a result, Berg was pushed creatively during this period by his mentor who was breaking every established rule found in Classical music. Within a few years, Berg wrote a musical composition that was later developed and used for his Expressionist opera, Wozzeck.[vi] Despite experiencing this artistic growth, Berg saw little work or success in his earlier career (1911-1915). Although he was no longer Schoenberg’s student he devoted much of his time towards the musical endeavors of his mentors rather than his own.[vii] He did earn notoriety, however, during a very controversial performance in March of 1913 when he composed a musical arrangement to the modernist poet Peter Altenberg’s scandalous poems. His mentor Schoenberg conducted the performance, but it resulted in a riot and fisticuffs that led to police action.[viii] From this point on, Berg’s desire to shock the bourgeoisie increased, as did his interest in new artistic styles. He fell in love with the avant-garde and befriended many of its leading artists including fellow Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) and painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). In 1914, Berg went to Vienna to see the first stage production of Georg Büchner’s (1813-1837) Woyzeck. Immediately upon seeing the play Berg exclaimed, “Someone must set this to music!”[ix] Later that year he began developing the opera that would become Wozzeck. While doing so, “Berg… [was] torn between awareness of his debt to Schoenberg and the need to assert his personal and artistic independence.”[x] He had yet to fully embark on an independent musical pursuit and Berg also knew that his volatile father-like relationship with his mentor was now inhibiting his creativity. By 1915, Berg decided to cease all communications with Schoenberg. His progress on Wozzeck the opera was still to be delayed when he was later called to serve in the Austrian Army the same year.[xi] Nonetheless, following the end of the Great War, Berg returned to his magnum opus, Wozzeck—the masterpiece that introduced Expressionism to the operatic stage. Wozzeck Wozzeck is an opera that personifies the Expressionist social conscious during the Interwar period. Based on Büchner's nineteenth-century play, the story describes the life and tragic fate of simple Wozzeck. Throughout the opera, he hovers on the brink of madness as he is subjected to both his lover’s infidelity and horrific experiments by the Doctor. Wozzeck is a soldier oppressed by poverty, brutally exploited by his superiors and humiliated by his unfaithful lover, Marie. Eventually, Wozzeck is driven insane, murders Marie and, ultimately, commits suicide. Berg's Wozzeck “embodies…the fullness of the torment of the soul that constituted Expressionism as a ‘worldview.’”[xii] The main character is isolated from society as he fails to make connections to those around him; Wozzeck waivers in and out of lucidity as hallucinations and reality become harder to separate. Berg created a “world without normality or humanity and peopled by grotesques, a haunted world of strange hallucinatory voices and visions of natural phenomena indifferent to the human tragedy being played out.”[xiii] German citizens identified with Wozzeck’s pain for they, too, felt the world was indifferent to their suffering—that the deaths of WWI had been rendered meaningless. Although Berg was inspired to write the play prior to the war, he did not finish composing the score or the libretto until 1921.[xiv] Thus, the bleak existence that constituted post-war society in Germany and Austria profoundly influenced the violent and tortured themes found throughout Wozzeck. As a result, it resonated powerfully with Berlin audiences when it premiered in December of 1925.[xv] Berg's introduction of Schoenberg's atonal and twelve-note system in Wozzeck allows the social commentary found within the opera to come to its full fruition. Berg fully conveys his Expressionistic worldview through the score’s jarring atonal sounds and ritualistic twelve-note progressions. The atonal language of Wozzeck, “constantly hovering on the edge of tonal confirmation, becomes a perfect metaphor for the emotional state of the opera’s chief protagonist” and post-war German society.[xvi] Citizens were still searching for meaning after the war, and many were left in broken emotional states that resembled Wozzeck or Kirchner in his Self-Portrait as an Invalid. The musical dissonance, created by the atonal score’s lack of an over-arching key or tone, symbolized the German people’s existential struggles at this time just as much as it represented Wozzeck’s emotional turmoil. Berg continued his social commentary on German Society in Wozzeck through another innovative musical device: the twelve-tone technique. As all notes are treated equally in the twelve-tone progression, it creates a sense of repetition, a feeling that the music will continue, but never evolve or reach resolution. The ritualistic nature of this musical style plays into the sense of fatalism that was so prevalent within Expressionism. Berg paints the tale of a society so consumed with moral decay, that the “disease is too far gone to remedy.”[xvii] Wozzeck is a good man, but the corrupt people within his life drive him into sharing their loathsome existence; the depravity is inescapable. Just like the musical notes being continuously repeated, so too will their actions. Society keeps marching on, but never changes, never evolves. During this time, many Germans felt that the new Weimar Republic was no different than the previous Wilhelmine Monarchy. Only a radical change could restore Germany to its former glory, but as Berg highlighted in Wozzeck, perhaps the opportunity for change was too late. All this had happened before, and it was probably going to happen again. “On We Go!”[xviii] Wozzeck declares ominously. Like the Expressionists before him, Berg proved to be eerily prophetic as Germany would continue in the footsteps of the past and march on towards another World War. Watch a later 20th-century rendition of Bergs masterpiece below Endnotes: [i] Padmore, “Expressionist Opera,” 47. [ii] “Alban Berg,” New Grove Dictionary of Music,” 312 [iii] Ibid. [iv] Ibid. [v] Ibid., 313. [vi] Ibid. [vii] Ibid., 314 [viii] Ibid., 315. [ix] Ibid., 316. [x] Ibid., 314. [xi] Ibid., 314-16. [xii] Biel, Total Expressionism, 40. [xiii] Douglas, “Alban Berg,” New Grove Dictionary, 317. [xiv] Biel, Total Expressionism, 40. [xv] Douglas, “Alban Berg.” New Grove Dictionary, 318. [xvi] Ibid., 317. [xvii] Padmore, “Expressionist Opera,” 44. [xviii] Ibid. Over the next couple months we will be closely examining the lives and works of various women throughout history. Today's post will conclude our discussion on one of the first: Hildegard von Bingen. Having looked at her early life and religious works, we will complete our examination of her contributions to the church and the full manifestation of her theology as seen through her various works. Following the completion of Scivias and the death of her beloved secretary, Richardis, Hildegard began the most prolific and ambitious period in her life. In 1154, King Frederick I Barbarossa, the Holy Roman emperor of Germany, invited Hildegard to meet him at Ingelheim. Following the successful meeting, he granted unlimited royal protection to the cloister at Rupertsburg.[i] Even during the great Schism of 1159,[ii] when Hildegard chastised the emperor for electing an anti-pope, the two maintained a mutually beneficial relationship.[iii] Several years later, in 1165, Hildegard established a daughter monastery at Eibingen [iv] (Figure1). Following yet another debilitating illness and near death, Hildegard received a revelation. God had asked her to travel and preach, to spread his word throughout the continent. Such an undertaking by a woman was unprecedented. In 1158, Hildegard began the first of four long preaching journeys that took her as far south as Switzerland and as far east as Paris.[v] She traveled by horseback, foot and ship[vi] speaking to the entirety of the Christian community: clergy, laity, monks, nuns and ecclesiastical officials.[vii] Plagued throughout this time by bodily weakness and further illness, Hildegard's preaching journeys were spread out over the course of thirteen years.[viii] Despite traveling across the continent, Hildegard continued to evolve her feminine theology and expand her artistic abilities. Hildegard's gifts knew no bounds. "God's plentitude expressed itself in her seemingly endless variety of projects and writings"[ix] as she pursued illustration, music, poetry, medicine and other secular writings. She wrote two biographies of saints, both the patron saints of her cloisters: St. Rupert and St. Disibode.[x] In addition to her three theological writings (Scivias, De Operatione Dei and Liber Vitae Meritorum), Hildegard published six secular writings on medicine, nature and healing. Included among these books was Liber Simplicis Medicinae, which offers pharmaceutical advice on the healing properties of plants and elements from nature. The other was entitled Liber Composital Medicinae, a book that discusses symptoms, causes and cures of numerous physical ailments.[xi] Aside from her place as a historical visionary and author, over seventy-six songs were written by this Renaissance woman. Hildegard is the only composer in the history of Western music who was also a respected Theologian and has more monophonic chants attributed to her name than any other composer in the medieval time period.[xii] Although her music was primarily written for the offices and masses of her convent,[xiii] her music is still widely recognized and played today in the twenty-first century. Hildegard's "unrhymed, unmetrical songs, wholly unpredictable…follow the rhythms of thought alone. Their content belongs to the twelfth-century, but their form anticipates the twentieth."[xiv] Her most ambitious musical undertaking was a morality play, Ordo Virtutum (Play of Virtues), which has no medieval parallel [xv] as the first and only morality play set to music.[xvi] Hildegard concluded this prolific artistic career with her last theological and artistic undertaking, a book of visions and images called De Operatione Dei. De Operatione Dei (Book of Divine Works), was completed in 1173 and is regarded as Hildegard’s finest creation.[xvii] The book is also known as Liber Divinorum Operum. Her visions and accompanying illustrations within the text demonstrate "the consistency of Hildegard's thought in creating a female divinity."[xviii] Caritas is one Hildegard's most inspired and progressive theophanic images. Standing in the center of the illustration is a commanding female representation of divine love, Caritas (Figure 2). She stands holding the divine Lamb of God as a "male godhead erupts"[xix] from the top of her being (Figure 3). Lying underneath the feet of Caritas, crushed and vanquished is the personification of evil. To the bottom right of the image is an attached illustration of Hildegard herself, eyes lifted to heaven and seated with Volmar transcribing the revelation as it appears before her (Figure 4). Initially, the image appears as a rather traditional depiction of the Holy Trinity: God the Father with Christ the slain Lamb. Yet, the anthropomorphic rendering of the Holy Spirit as a female of divine love[xx] is a theology unique to Hildegard. Furthermore, the female figure is the most prominent in the manuscript. God the father exists not of His own accord, but sprouts from the head of the female Holy Spirit. "The generation of God the Father from the Holy Spirit's head explicitly implies that male’s dignity derives from female intellect."[xxi] In Caritas, Hildegard created a theophany dependent upon a feminine ideology. This theological view directly challenged the centuries-old perception of a male centered faith and creation story. If God arose from the wisdom of a female Holy Spirit, then woman, not just man, was created in the true image of God. Neither superior, but both equal before the eyes of God. With the completion of her final book and the preaching tours coming to an end, Hildegard remained at her cloister until her final days. Upon the publication of De Operatione Dei, in 1173, Hildegard's beloved secretary Volmar passed away. A new monk, Gottfried, was Volmar's replacement until his death in 1176.[xxii] During his short time as Hildegard's secretary, Gottfried composed Vita, the first biography of Hildegard of Bingen along with another monk, Theodoric.[xxiii] Hildegard's final secretary, a highly educated monk named Wibert, edited her works more than she desired, thus creating a high level of friction up until her death on September 17, 1179[xxiv]. Despite the subsequent Gregorian reforms which limited the active roles of women within the church,[xxv] Hildegard was quickly venerated as a saint. The canonization process began in 1233, set forth by Pope Gregory IX. Sadly, her beatification was never concluded. There have been three attempts to canonize Hildegard of Bingen as a saint, but due to the lack of evidence in recording her miracles, it is unlikely she will ever be declared an official saint.[xxvi] Nonetheless, her works have not been overlooked by the Church, or its leaders. During his reign, Pope John Paul II called Hildegard an "outstanding saint …[who was] a light to her people and her time [who] shines out more brightly today."[xxvii] Hildegard provided a light for God and the arts that will never be diminished. Hildegard of Bingen was not just one of the greatest women of her time, but one of the greatest theologians and artists of the Middle Ages. "Her movement beyond just the textual into the text and image makes it hard to find peers with whom to compare her."[xxviii] Meanwhile, her musical compositions were centuries ahead of their time and her morality play has yet to find an equal nearly a thousand years later. In addition, Hildegard was one of the first women to openly challenge the patriarchal domination of the Church and infuse it with a feminine theology all her own. Hildegard must not be forgotten or overlooked, nor can she only be discussed in the context of female artists; a trap many of today’s art historians and scholars have fallen into. Rather, she must be compared with the greatest men of her time. When this comparison is made in greater depth, the world will finally see that Hildegard of Bingen has no comparison, even among men. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 [i] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 107.
[ii] Following the death of Pope Adrian IV, the Papal election of 1159 resulted in the election of Pope Alexander III. Several Cardinals, however, refused to recognize him and elected Ottaviano de Monticelli, who took the name Victor IV. The Church sought out King Frederick I Barbarossa’s support, then Holy Roman emperor of Germany. He did not side with the Church majority, but rather supported Victor IV. [iii] Newman, Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine, 13. [iv] McGuire, "Monastic Artists and Educators of the Middle Ages," 4. [v] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, 8. [vi] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 25. [vii] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, 8. [viii] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 25. [ix] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 26. [x] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, 6. [xi] Ibid. [xii] Fassler, "Music for the Love Feast: Hildegard of Bingen and the Song of Songs," 355. [xiii] Wilson and Margolis, Women in the Middle Ages, 701. [xiv] Newman, Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine, 25. [xv] Wilson and Margolis, Women in the Middle Ages, 701. [xvi] Fassler, "Music for the Love Feast: Hildegard of Bingen and the Song of Songs," 356. [xvii] Storey, "Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau and Herrad of Landsberg," 17. [xviii] Ibid. [xix] Ibid. [xx] Ibid. [xxi] Ibid. [xxii] Newman, Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine, 14. [xxiii] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 26. [xxiv] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, 8. [xxv] Storey, "Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau and Herrad of Landsberg," 19. [xxvi] Newman, Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine, 15. [xxvii] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, 8. [xxviii] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 30. Over the next several months we will be closely examining the lives and works of various women throughout history. Today's post will continue our discussion on one of the first: Hildegard von Bingen. Having looked at her early life in the church, we will now take a closer look at the evolution of her theology as manifested in Scivias. "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy" -Acts 2:17-18 Completed over ten years, 1141-1151, Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias was an opus containing over thirty-five visions with accompanying images "set among a frenzied prophetic sense of peril…[for] the church."[i] Scivias, was shortened from three Latin words, scito bias domini, meaning "know the ways of the Lord."[ii] Hildegard’s spiritual revelations in Scivias all had three primary components: 1.) The ability to see the hidden things within our world or the world of God 2.) The actual experience of 'seeing' and 3.) The content of the vision itself.[iii] Thus, when Scivias was written it focused on both a detailed explanation of the dream itself, in addition to Hildegard's actual experience of seeing the hidden truths revealed. The publication signified that women were just as receptive to divine revelation as were men.[iv] Hildegard was called a female prophet, likened to the Old Testament prophets Deborah, Judith and even Jeremiah.[v] Yet, Hildegard only criticized the present, believing it would bring about a greater future for the Church, its leaders, servants and community; she did not believe she was prophesying. "She taught that now a woman would prophesy for the scandal of men and in her two most severe images of the demonic, patriarchy is itself pictured in the league of the devil."[vi] Although those may be Hildegard's most scathing images found within Scivias, her most profound illuminated manuscripts illustrate that men and women are both partner's in God's work,[vii] while highlighting the irreplaceable role of women within the Church. For the twelfth-century, Self-Portrait in Scivias is a unique blend of art and personal self-expression. The manuscript shows a building with Hildegard to the left under descending tongues of fire licking the surface of her face. She holds a tablet with a stylus in her hand for writing or drawing. Volmar is witness to the revelation, as he stands to her right. Little is known regarding how involved Hildegard was in the actual manufacture of the miniature illustrations found within Scivias. Nonetheless, most scholars believe that while receiving her visions, Hildegard drew rough sketches onto clay or wax tablets.[viii] These images then served as the inspiration for the completed images of Scivias, in which Hildegard directly supervised the execution.[ix] Therefore, this image depicts Hildegard in the act of receiving and illustrating her vision. Referencing the flames of the Holy Spirit from the Pentecost in the Book of Acts, the image marks the beginning of Hildegard’s missionary journey. Her beginnings mirror the apostles of the early Christian Church. "She was awakened by the parted tongues of fire that makes sense of babble and allows deep communication to happen among peoples."[x] Even after Papal approval of Hildegard's visions, she was deemed as insane. When he spoke in foreign tongues during the feat of Pentecost, Peter, the 'founder' of the Christian Church, was also viewed as unstable or disillusioned. Not only is Hildegard depicting herself as a recipient of God's divine revelation in Self-Portrait, but she is aligning herself with one of the two most powerful men of the early Christian Church, Saint Peter. Hildegard is the new apostle. In her biography, Vita, written by one of her later secretaries, Gottfried and the monk Theodoric, she is said to have received the "sting of divine punishment and become sick"[xi] due to her hesitance in writing down her visions from an early age. Self-Portrait portrays a woman who is now fully awakened and receptive to the ways and words of God. Hildegard compared wisdom with being awake and foolishness with being asleep. She will remain silent or asleep no more. As the flames kiss her face, Hildegard's eyes open, waking up to the Holy Spirit, aware of the message that is being presented to her and ready to present it to the Church and its peoples. Self-Portrait was one of the first images to be completed for Scivias. Taking nearly ten years to complete, Scivias is a fascinating examination on the evolution of Hildegard of Bingen's theology. During the following years of completion, however, Hildegard and the women of St. Disibode underwent several major upheavals. Shortly after the death of Jutta, pilgrims came to St. Disibode to visit her body, seeking miracles and intercession. The visitors were so frequent and noisy, the sisters had difficulty in practicing their silent prayers and offices.[xii] In addition, Hildegard began fighting for independence from the overly protective male monastery; thus leading her to seek a new cloister for the sisters. Then one day in a divine revelation, she was shown the location of where she and her fellow sisters were to take up residence: Rupertsburg in Bingen, along the Rhine River.[xiii] Abbott Kuno, however, fiercely opposed the move. Upon this refusal, Hildegard grew deathly ill. She solicited the help of the Archbishop Henry of Mainz and Countess von Stade, the mother of her secretary, Richardis.[xiv] In 1148, word was received from the archbishop that Abbott Kuno must let Hildegard and the women leave the cloister for Rupertsburg (Figure 1). Once Kuno's consent was finally given, Hildegard miraculously recovered from her mysterious illness.[xv] The new cloister at Rupertsburg, built on the holy grounds of Saint Rupert's former home, was state of the art for the mid-twelfth-century. It included a scriptorium, space for up to fifty nuns and running water in every room.[xvi] Volmar followed Hildegard to Rupertsburg and helped her establish the new cloister while still remaining her trusted secretary. Sadly, her other secretary and sister, Richardis von Stade, was offered the position of abbess at another monastery shortly after the move. After significant disagreement and unrest, Hildegard authorized Richardis' move, but Richardis died within weeks of the transfer.[xvii] It was in this environment that Hildegard completed and began her largest undertakings in addition to evolving her distinct feminine theology. In the midst of these events, Hildegard continued the production of Scivias, including one of her most unique and fascinating illuminated manuscripts, Ecclesia with Virginitas and Her Companions (Figure 2). The image contains Ecclesia wrapping her arms around numerous figures representing the monastic community. Ecclesia (the church) is depicted in the Hellenistic fashion as a crowned angelic figure maintaining a formal pose and holding numerous figures in her arms. Most notably, Ecclesia is female and the central figure of the image. Based on a hieratic scale, Ecclesia is the largest figure with the church community held within her arms depicted in a much smaller fashion. Standing prominently in front of Ecclesia's enclosed arms is a virginal orant in a red tunic. Behind her, are numerous virgins and a few priests and monks. Ecclesia is a statement about the various roles of the Church and its community of believers. Although the image’s hieratic scale emphasizes the Church's importance, its greater purpose is to illustrate the size of the Church as a whole. Hildegard is stating that the Church is a large entity which encompasses a worldwide community of believers. The illumination that was a trademark of such illustrated manuscripts, highlights the transcendent imagery within Ecclesia.[xviii] Furthermore, the three primary colors of the image's composition are symbolic of various aspects of the Christian community. White is symbolic for the priesthood, purple represents the monastic community of men and women while blue stood for the married laity.[xix] Three colors representing the totality of the Christian community, just as three beings comprise the totality of the Holy Trinity. Although Hildegard regards the entire Christian community and Church, her greater emphasis in Ecclesia is on the female religious community, more specifically, the virgins.[xx] For Hildegard, the woman's soul was the greatest expression of the image of God;[xxi] therefore her theological emphasis in the image was on the roles of the virgins within the Church. All the virgins in the image are crowned, some have even been martyred.[xxii] These women were most important element of the Christian church in the eyes of Hildegard.[xxiii] By doing so, a strong parallel has been drawn to all the nuns who have taken a lifetime vow of chastity to better serve God and glorify Christ. These nuns and virgins are the heart of Ecclesia. Strong women, she is saying, are the wisest ones and the most courageous workers. Virginity is not being celebrated as holier than sexual experience, but for producing wise and courageous workers. It is a fruitful virginity that is celebrated here, one of independence from patriarchy's dark shadow.[xxiv] Hildegard's insights challenged traditional medieval thinking not only for venerating the female members of the church more greatly than the men, but for celebrating virgins for their fruitful works, and not for their 'untainted virtue.' Figure 1 Figure 2 [i] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 29.
[ii] McGuire, "Monastic Artists and Educators of the Middle Ages," 5. [iii] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 33. [iv] Storey, "Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau and Herrad of Landsberg," 16. [v] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen , 10. [vi] Ibid., 14. [vii] Ibid. [viii] Emmerson, "The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias: Image, Word, Commentary, and Visionary Experience," 95. [ix] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 33. [x] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen , 27. [xi] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 44. [xii] McGuire, "Monastic Artists and Educators of the Middle Ages," 4. [xiii] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 38. [xiv] Ibid., 107. [xv] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 27-28. [xvi] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 107. [xvii] Ibid., 108. [xviii] Storey, "Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau and Herrad of Landsberg," 17. [xix] Ibid. [xx] Ibid. [xxi] Ibid., 19. [xxii] Ibid., 17. [xxiii] Ibid. [xxiv] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen , 72 |
AuthorScholar. Student. Unadulterated lover of all art forms. Archives
September 2017
Categories
All
|