One obvious piece of advice I can offer to the novice reader is to familiarize himself with Quantz's biography and keep it in mind when studying the "Versuch".
An indispensable tool is the autobiography that Quantz wrote in 1754 at the request of Friedrich Marpurg. This document was extensively summarised by Charles Burney in his famous 1775 Diary and constitutes a relevant part of Reilly's Introduction to his English translation. |
Today practical musicians (and particularly instrument teachers) experience a pleasant familiarity with the contents of "Versuch", much of which are still directly applicable in real-life situations. Unlike other musician-writers like Mattheson, Marpurg, or Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Quantz did not have a university academic background, so his own experience is the main source of his inspiration.
Burney had the privilege of meeting him a year before his death in 1773. Before portraying his biography, he describes him as an "industrious musician" showing an imposing appearance and possessing a vivid intelligence, whose existence had passed through "troublesome mazes." |
Quantz was born on January 30, 1697, in Oberscheden, a small village in the Hanover region. His father, Andreas, was a blacksmith, the profession to which his son was destined, despite his early strong inclination toward music making. His premature death in 1707, which Quantz does not hesitate to describe as "providential," led the young boy to be sent to Merseburg, to relatives who ran a company of Stadtpfeifer. These were professional musicians who performed in civil and religious events, as well as private celebrations, with a diverse repertoire of instrumental music in all the styles of the time, from French dances to traditional German music. In this guild Quantz had to learn to play, often by heart or improvising, a multitude of instruments, with the violin, oboe, and trumpet as his favourites.
|
Through the violin, he met the virtuosic music of Biber and Schmelzer, with the iconic Sonatas op. 5 of Corelli, and, above all, with the recent Venetian music of Albinoni, Marcello, and Vivaldi. The publication in 1711 of Vivaldi's concertos op. 3, L'Estro armonico, had caused a sensation in the European musical world, sparking passionate interest in composition within Quantz.
His fluctuating fortunes as a Stadtpfeifer gradually led him to Saxony. Its capital, Dresden, was one of the main European cultural centres, often referred to as the "Florence of the Elbe." |
|
The transverse flute was still a relatively new instrument, popularized in France by the chamber musicians of Versailles, such as Hotteterre, Philidor, or De La Barre. In Dresden, the brilliant talent of Pierre Gabriel Buffardin had firmly established the figure of the professional flutist in the orchestra, ending the Versailles custom where oboists occasionally also played the flute. Seeing that a flutist position might become available, Quantz intensively studied this instrument under the guidance of Buffardin himself. Buffardin instructed him in its technical peculiarities, the original French repertoire, and, above all, its possibilities for the shining Italian concertante style.
|
|
His first contact with Italian opera occurred in September 1719 during the celebrations for the wedding between Prince Frederick Augustus (future Augustus III) and Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria. For the occasion, a large theatre, the largest in Germany, was built in Dresden by Daniel Pöppelmann. Its premiere was performed by the Venetian company of Antonio Lotti with his opera "Teofane", featuring the soprano Santa Stella Lotti and the famous castrato Senesino, among others. The event attracted personalities such as Telemann and Handel, who was looking for singers for his productions in London.
|
Between 1724 and 1727, Quantz was able to embark on a formative journey to Italy, France, and England, sponsored by the court for its young most talented musicians. Its detailed account occupies a significant portion of his autobiography and can be compared, in terms of places, people, interests, and critical judgments, to the famous musical diaries of Charles Burney. Quantz became known as a flutist and composer during this period and matured his ideas about style and interpretation.
His observations on the singers he heard in Italy and London are of particular interest, including Farinelli, Carestini, Anna Maria Strada, Vittoria Tesi, Faustina Bordoni, and Francesca Cuzzoni, among others. In addition to their documentary value, his systematic application of criteria such as timbre quality, intonation, musical and acting style, precision of ornamentation, diction, and suitability for the theatrical role is noteworthy. |
In February of that same year, 1728, Prince Frederick of Prussia visited the Dresden court with his father, King Frederick William. The musical splendour, the distinction of the performers, and the brilliance of Quantz and Buffardin with their preferred instrument decisively impacted the 16-year-old prince's heightened sensitivity. Within a few months, the Dresden court returned the visit to Berlin, bringing along, at Frederick's express request, their finest musical gems: the two flutists Quantz and Buffardin, the violinist Pisendel, and the lutenist Sigismund Leopold Weiss. From then on, Frederick would spare no effort to make music one of his daily routines and to elevate Berlin to the same musical status as Dresden.
This was the first of many stays in Berlin that Quantz would make in response to the prince's insistent requests that he remain by his side. Meanwhile, in 1734, Quantz officially debuted as a composer with the publication of his first collection of sonatas, dedicated to Augustus III, who had succeeded his father to the throne the previous year. In 1739, he also began making instruments according to his own design, with the second key to fix enharmonic differences between sharp and flat notes pairs. |
|
The 1754 autobiography of Quantz concludes praising the "sensible, mixed, and appealing" Berlin music style, which he considers the culmination of musical taste improvement. We know that the last twenty years of his life were dedicated to supervising his royal student's evening concert and composing its huge repertoire. He occasionally participated in the lively intellectual atmosphere of the city, taught flute classes, and promoted the dissemination and reissue of his treatise.
It was on July 12, 1773, when death surprised him in Potsdam while he was finishing his last concert, the 300th on Frederick's famous list. Haydn had just premiered his Symphony "The Farewells," Mozart was seventeen years old, and Beethoven was only three. |
Resuming the whole picture, we can say that Quantz was an outstanding musician proficient at many instruments, becoming a virtuoso flutist in a first-class ensemble only after having gained a rich experience in all musical fields, from dance to opera. He was an experienced teacher, as soon as from his years as a professional Stadtpfeifer up to such a demanding and dedicated student as Frederick of Prussia. He was a prolific composer: his huge contribute to the flute repertoire can be only compared to Tartini’s one for the violin and D. Scarlatti’s for the keyboard. He was a fine flute maker, worried about its technical improvement. Finally, he was a fine and critical observer of his world, detailing it in his "Versuch" and Autobiography. |