Double Bass Concerto In E-flat Major
Johann Baptist Vanhal
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Browse piano sheets by Johann Baptist Vanhal on Zen Virtual Piano. In the late 1770s, in response to the changing musical tastes of the Viennese public, Johann Baptist Vanhal ceased composing symphonies and, a few years later, string quartets. He began to cultivate the opportunities offered by the fledgling Viennese music publishing industry, which let him control the character and dispersal of his works. Ceasing symphonies while cultivating the Viennese publishing industry can be read as a musician attentive both to how music is written and to the route it travels to listeners. Accounts generally agree that Vanhal was born in bondage to the Schaffgotsch family in the town of Nechanice, in the Hradec Králové area of Bohemia, today’s Czech Republic, where his favourite teacher, Anton Erban, taught him to play the organ. He later called the schooling with Erban his best education. A boy born into bondage whose works later reached places such as France and England suggests how far music could carry a life in his century. In 1758 he worked as a teacher’s assistant, cantor and organist at the parish school in Opočno, and a year later he became rector of the parish school in Hněvčeves and regenschori at the church of St George. There he also learned the viola d’amore, violin and organ, and wrote pieces for solo violin as well as violin and organ concertos. Writing for the instruments he was still learning, alongside his teaching, can be read as a composer growing up within his own craft. Henle calls him a Bohemian composer and violinist whose early compositions still employ Baroque elements, with a transition to Classicism evident over his output, and many publications carried his works to places such as France and England. He was highly regarded by his professional colleagues, including Haydn and Mozart, who both performed his works and on one famous occasion joined him and Dittersdorf to form a string quartet. Being played by Haydn and Mozart, and sitting in a quartet with them, suggests a composer whose peers heard him as one of their own. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s biography says it was alleged that he went mad, burned some of his own compositions and never fully regained his creative powers; some German writers who did not know his music embellished the rumour. He returned to Vienna and, with the help of Count Ladislaus Erdödy, lived for several years as a recluse, travelling sporadically between Vienna and Varaždin in Croatia. His Double Bass Concerto survives only in a copy of a part owned by the double-bass player Johannes Sperger, found in his estate, with many later additions in the solo part. A rumour of madness, set beside a concerto that survives through one player’s estate, leaves much of the story with those who kept and told it.
Browse piano sheets by Johann Baptist Vanhal on Zen Virtual Piano.
In the late 1770s, in response to the changing musical tastes of the Viennese public, Johann Baptist Vanhal ceased composing symphonies and, a few years later, string quartets. He began to cultivate the opportunities offered by the fledgling Viennese music publishing industry, which let him control the character and dispersal of his works. Ceasing symphonies while cultivating the Viennese publishing industry can be read as a musician attentive both to how music is written and to the route it travels to listeners.
Accounts generally agree that Vanhal was born in bondage to the Schaffgotsch family in the town of Nechanice, in the Hradec Králové area of Bohemia, today’s Czech Republic, where his favourite teacher, Anton Erban, taught him to play the organ. He later called the schooling with Erban his best education. A boy born into bondage whose works later reached places such as France and England suggests how far music could carry a life in his century.
In 1758 he worked as a teacher’s assistant, cantor and organist at the parish school in Opočno, and a year later he became rector of the parish school in Hněvčeves and regenschori at the church of St George. There he also learned the viola d’amore, violin and organ, and wrote pieces for solo violin as well as violin and organ concertos. Writing for the instruments he was still learning, alongside his teaching, can be read as a composer growing up within his own craft.
Henle calls him a Bohemian composer and violinist whose early compositions still employ Baroque elements, with a transition to Classicism evident over his output, and many publications carried his works to places such as France and England. He was highly regarded by his professional colleagues, including Haydn and Mozart, who both performed his works and on one famous occasion joined him and Dittersdorf to form a string quartet. Being played by Haydn and Mozart, and sitting in a quartet with them, suggests a composer whose peers heard him as one of their own.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s biography says it was alleged that he went mad, burned some of his own compositions and never fully regained his creative powers; some German writers who did not know his music embellished the rumour. He returned to Vienna and, with the help of Count Ladislaus Erdödy, lived for several years as a recluse, travelling sporadically between Vienna and Varaždin in Croatia. His Double Bass Concerto survives only in a copy of a part owned by the double-bass player Johannes Sperger, found in his estate, with many later additions in the solo part. A rumour of madness, set beside a concerto that survives through one player’s estate, leaves much of the story with those who kept and told it.
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Accounts generally agree that he was born in bondage to the Schaffgotsch family in Nechanice, in the Hradec Králové area of Bohemia, today’s Czech Republic.
In the late 1770s, responding to the changing tastes of the Viennese public, he ceased composing symphonies and later string quartets, and began to cultivate the opportunities of the Viennese music publishing industry.
It survives only in a copy of a part owned by the double-bass player Johannes Sperger, found in his estate, with many later additions in the solo part.