Wenceslao Pichl (1741-1805) was he a member of the Bologna Accademia Filarmonica?

When the talented singer, violinist, composer, capellmeister and music historian Vaclav (Wenceslao) Pichl (1741-1805) was born in Bechyne in South Bohemia in 1741, he was entering the political and musical Europe of the Empress Marie Theresa and the Prussian King Frederick II, who were just making the Peace of Breslau. The same year saw the birth of the composers A. M. Gretry, J. G. Krebs, A. L. Tomasini, Jean-Pierre Duport and B. Giacometti. Handel was completing his oratorio The Messiah in 23 days and J. Ph. Rameau finishing his famous harpsichord cycle Pieces de clavecin en concerts. Vitus Bering crossed from Russia into Alaska and Anders Celsius introduced the decimal system for measuring temperature.

When Pichl died aged 64 in 1805, Napoleon was just about to win at Austerlitz and the American expedition of Lewis & Clark was approaching the Pacific. It was the year when Friedrich von Schiller and Luigi Boc-cherini died. Pichl was still alive when the deaf Beethoven conducted his "Eroica" in Vienna, but did not live to see the October premiere of his "Fidelio".

On a visit to Prague in 1809 the Berlin composer and musical traveller Johann F. Reichardt noted that spring came earlier to Bohemia than to Vienna, referred to a much earlier visit in 1773 and quoted Risbek's view that "Bohemia is a promised land and has a wonderful climate". (1) And the musical reputation of Bohemia? In Berlin the composer Reichardt had married the daughter of another Czech, Frantisek Benda, and he knew about the flood of Czech musicians in the orchestras at German courts. He was most probably the "Professore di Musica di Germania" and "il mio amico a Berlino", whom Pichl in a letter recommended for membership in the Bologna Accademia (1781).

We can generally rely on the non-partisan assessment of the development of music "in Germany" (Bohemia was considered a part of Germany) from the pen of the correspondent of the Leipzig newspaper Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Johann K. F. Triest (1764-1810) in 1801. He confirms the claim made by the English musical historian Charles Burney in the early 1780s, that Bohemia was the "conservatory of Europe". Triest asserts that alongside Saxony, Schleswig and Swabia, Bohemia is a province with "a natural disposition for music" and elsewhere adds that "people in Vienna, Dresden, Prague, Leipzig, Munich and in Hamburg ... very much appreciated and supported the art of music". The importance of Prague and the Bohemian Lands for the musical culture of the Austrian monarchy is indirectly illustrated in Oesterreichische National-Encyklopadie of 1835/36, a six-volume encyclopaedia that contains as many as 90 (or respectively 155) entries on musicians born in Bohemia or working there up to 1835/36. According to the Kunstlerlexikon compiled by the Prague Premonstratensian J. G. Dlabacz in 1815, out of 951 professional musicians between the years 1740 and 1810, a total of 409 were already abroad, 360 of whom remained there and 49 returned home. 106 of them worked in Austria, 79 of these in Vienna. The next most frequent destination for Bohemian musicians was Germany (69 names), specifically Dresden and Berlin, followed by the Tsar's capella in St. Petersburg (44). In the Esterhazy Capella under the direction of J. Haydn in the years 1781-1790, 14 out of the 23-30 members were from Bohemia.

Vaclav Pichl's musical career was typical for Bohemia: he gained his musical education from the local choir and cantor in Bechyne, followed by the Jesuit College in Breznice and then Prague University. He studied counterpoint with Josef Seeger and played the violin in the choir of the Tyn Church on Old Town Square in Prague. In a letter of 1782 he wrote, "I am grieving for my first teacher, Mr. Josef Seeger, who died a month ago in Prague. Apart from his great services to musical art he was a cavalier. In Seeger Prague has lost an organist in a class of his own, who played truly excellently ... On the organ he was a pupil of the Minorite P. Bohuslav [Cernohorsky, 1684-1742] and in counterpoint of [J.] Zach and [F.] Tuma." (2) Pichl's letter is the only one that provides evidence for the existence of what is known as the Cernohorsky School, the Prague composing line and the Italian orientation of not only Pichl but also his contemporary J. Myslivecek.

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When the Hungarian Bishop Patacic was looking for musicians for his orchestra he sent his capellmeister Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf to Prague as well. Here the director of the Prague theatre orchestra and great admirer of Mozart Strobach introduced him to Vaclav Pichl among other musicians. From 1765 to 1769 Pichl then became violinist and deputy to the capellmeister Ditters in Adam Patacic's episcopal capella.in Velky Varadin in Hungary (today Oradea in Rumania). Dittersdorf and Pichl were close friends. When both fell in love with young girls at the court and Dittersdorf was rejected by the father of the bride, Pichl comforted him. In his Memoirs Dittersdorf also wrote that "the words of this kind and clever young man had more effect on my than the wise advice of the Bishop". Later it was Pichl who took it worst of all when the Bishop decided to dissolve the Varadin Cappella (1769). Before departure Ditters organised the betrothal and wedding of his friend Pichl and Pichl's beloved. They then travelled together to Pest and to Vienna, (3) where Ditters managed to find a position for Pichl as first violinist in the theatre orchestra: "The pay was only 450 guilders, but Pichl took the position with great joy. He was only employed in the evenings, and so he had the whole day free and could earn extra money by private teaching. I was glad that I had managed to settle my friend well with an assured income of 1050 guilders annually." (4) Between the 1st of April 1774 and the 28th of February 1775 Pichl also earned money from the budget of the Vienna Hofburg Theater for transcribing two Vanhal and many other symphonies. (5)

Pichl then helped Dittersdorf negotiate the performance of his oratorio Esther in Vienna to benefit the Institute of Musicians' Widows. This was an institution founded and run by F. L. Gassman (originally from Most in Bohemia) and Ditters actually come to the performance from Silesia with the Bishop of Breslau. The Emperor Josef II attended all the rehearsals before Christmas 1773 as did Pichl, who conveyed to Dittersdorf how much the emperor appreciated his oratorio, liking it even better than Gassman's or Haas's.

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Ditters had been back in his place of work at Jansky vrch (Javornik in Northern Moravia), for six weeks when Pichl wrote to tell him that a place in the cappella in Vienna was free after Gassman's departure and that the emperor definitely expected Ditters to apply for it. But Ditters replied that he was expecting a pay rise from the bishop, and so excused himself from thus reunion of musical friends in Vienna. The emperor was rather annoyed, perhaps because Pichl's negotiations had not been skilful, but he heard Pichl's instrumental pieces including his solo violin sonata in 1784 on a visit to Milan and "they were kindly and warmly received". Breitkopf's publishing house in Leipzig as early as 1773 was offering a piece called Sinfonia da Pichl als Ditters, which shows that as an expression of friendship and a tribute to his musical model Pichl had written a sinfonia in the spirit of Dittersdorf. Ditters made a name for himself with his 12 programmatic sinfonias based on Ovids Metamorphoses and in Pichl's output we also find a cycle of sinfonias with the names of Greek muses: Terpsichore, Euterpe, Uranie, Clio, Melpomene, Calliope, Thalia and Polyhymnia (cca 1764-1769). Non-musical themes of antiquity also appear in other symphonies by Pichl, such as Diana, Apollo, Pallas, Flora, Saturnus and so on, but the programmatic element is much less specific than with Ditters.

Like his friend, Pichl twice refused the offer of a position in the cappella in St. Petersburg. (6) Maria Theresa then recommended him in place of Mozart for the post of chamber capellmeister, composer and chamberlain for the Austrian regent of Lombardy in Milan, the Archduke Ferdinand d'Este. Pichl travelled to Milan in 1777 and stayed in the Archduke's service for twenty years until 1796. First of all he held the title of Doorman and Directeur en Musique (directore of music) and lived in the Casa Lampugnana near the church of S. Protaso ad Monachos. Later in his correspondence he signed himself Wenceslao Pichl direttore di Musica di S[ua]A[Itezza] Reale Arciduca Ferdinando. Music was played in the archduke's chambers daily, especially in the presence of guests, whether from home or abroad. Pichl travelled with the court through Italy (Mantova, Monza) and won respect and friends in centres of music throughout the land, as Vojtech Jirovec wrote in his memoirs: "Pichl achieved great fame as a composer of symphonies, quartets and church music, and at that time was one of the leading European composers." (7) In Milan he also seems to fulfil the role of musical agent for Mikulas Esterhazy. His pieces were copied and performed in Esterhaz by J. Haydn (Pichl called him mio amico) and copies and autographs of them can be found in musical collections all over Europe. Pichl's pieces have often been attributed to other composers. His Missa solemnis for mixed choir, soloists, strings, 2 oboes, 2 trumpets, tympani and basso continuo, for example, was attributed to Haydn. (8) Conversely, three of Vanhal's (9) symphonies were published by Guera in Lyon (1782/83) under the title page "by Misters Haydn and Pichl".

According to his own list he wrote as many as 700 compositions! In 1784 he sent the learned Padre Martini his portrait, entrusting it to L. Cherubini. He kept up contacts with the composers he had met in Mantua (1779) and the Bologna Accademia Filarmonica. After starting a correspondence with Padre Martini in Bologna, Pichl became the first Czech composer to grasp the importance of factography and musical historiography, and he then made an active contributor to Martini's project for a history of music. "If some treatise, praise or celebration of the art of music passes into your hands, by any author and on any theme, I humbly beg you to send it to me", wrote Pichl in Latin in his first letter to Bologna in May 1778, and he did not forget to tell Padre Martini that "My Most Royal Archbishop loves you tenderly and values you" (10) In Italy he wrote works on Czech musicians, but these have unfortunately not survived, and nor has his Czech translation of Mozart's Magic Flute. Pichl's bibliographical labours and encyclopaedic thoroughness found further application when he wrote more than 900 entries for Dlabac's Kunstlerlexikon (Prague 1815). No active composers or musicians had ever produced this kind of work on such a scale since the time of Mathesson.

Pichl wrote as many as 150 quartets and his symphonies in frequency of performance and style figured alongside those of Dittersdorf and Haydn (in his middle period). His music was printed from 1779 by publishers in Berlin, Offenbach, Paris, Lyons, Vienna, Amsterdam, Leipzig and Hamburg. Towards the end of the century Pichl had more of a reputation as a composer of church music and violin concertos. In particular his cycle Cento variazioni, op 11, 1787 (A Hundred Variations), dedicated to the virtuoso Pietro Nardini, is considered a perfect anthology of technical tasks for virtuoso violin. It is not surprising that Jirovec (probably wrongly) identified him as a teacher of N. Paganini.

For a friend in Berlin (Reichardt?) Pichl obtained transcriptions of the operas of Leonardo Leo from Padre Martini. In a Latin letter of the 13th of June 1778 he listed four of his operas (Adriano in Siria, Artasserse, Olympiade, II Lucio Vero (11)) as well as 12 Cantate by F. Gasparini and a printed version of psalms Estro Poetico armonico by B. Marcello. He was not satisfied with the mere transcription of arias, but repeatedly asked Martini for copies of the whole opera, i.e. including recitatives.

Pichl showed notable interest in music theory in a letter of the 5th of August 1780, where he referred to a printed letter of P. Giovenal Sacchi [1726-1789] that contained a criticism of Rameau's concept of basso continuo. (12) Pichl expressed doubts as to whether two or more parallel fifths in a composition might not be unpleasant sounding. He turned to the authority Martini and asked him for an opinion on why this was. "According to my feeble knowledge it seems to me that the author [Sacchi] is right, putting more emphasis on metaphysical than on physical and mathematical reasons." (13) T. Strakova's edition of Pichl's correspondence does not, however, give the draft of P. Martini's answer to Pichl, in which he says, "Most honourable and respected Mister Pichl. Just a few days ago I obtained the printed letter of the most honourable P. Giovenal Sacchi, and as yet I have read only half of it. I have gathered from this letter a singular sharpness of mind, and great erudition used to take up the position defended; this position is supposed to cause confusion to all who raise certain proposals, and to ensure that two fifths be forbidden, because they are dissonant. This is a point I know never to have been treated of in full, and someone other than the rare talent of P. Sacchi will be needed to take up such a great task. I beg you to understand this from my side with all respect." (14)

For the moment another two of Pichl's letters have escaped the researchers because they are not in the Bologna collection of Padre Martini, but in the convent archive of St. Francis. The first is addressed to P. Martini and dated the 15th of December 1783. "Your Honour rates me too highly when you wish to exchange your incomparable works for my wretched musical parts, which although they are sought out by the printers, in my view do not deserve to be published. Even less do they deserve to be kept in your celebrated philharmonic collection."

Pichl collected compositions of the Miserere from important composers. He already had pieces from L. Leo, Palestrina, G. Allegri [!] and J. A. Hasse and asks Martini for others from his music collection. He promises to send more of his own vocal pieces and a portrait of Josef Haydn! It is not clear whether he owned the portrait or was able to get a copy made for Martini, but it is another confirmation of Pichl's relationships. He sends thanks on behalf of Padre Sacchi, his friend, who in Bologna learned various finesses and diversions that Pichl himself is now exploiting.

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The second unknown Pichl letter is to M.R.P. Stanislav Mattei (1750-1825). This Minorite, Martini's pupil and friend, had been chosen in 1776 as his successor at St. Francis's in Bologna. The letter is undated, but given the content of the letter to P. Martini (20th December 1783) it was written and sent before the end of 1783. Pichl writes about music "which was once my profession, and is not my entertainment and passion." He sends Mattei a Gloria Pastorale for two choirs and two organs for a judgment: "It will not be unknown to your V.P.R. that the famous Accademia di Bologna wishes to honour me with membership in the Philharmonic with the title compositore; in order to deserve this honour, I have been working on a Magnificat for eigh parts and I shall send it to the learned academics." It seems that the questions to Martini about the interest of a "German friend" may have been Pichl's way of finding out about the procedure with a view to making a successful application of his own. In the end he made the application by letter, while Josef Myslivecek or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had still had to take written examinations in Bologna in person. We do not have any information on the course of his application. Furthermore, in 1784 Padre Martini died without having finished the fourth volume of his history of music. At any rate, Pichl's letter to Stanislav Mattei shows that he could not have been a member of the Accademia Filarmonica before 1783, as Allan Badley has suggested, referring to 1782. (15)

Pichl's letter of the 27th of July 1782 containing news of Seeger's death.

(1) Reichardt, J. F.: Vertraute Briefe geschrieben auf einer Reise nach Wien ... 1808-1809, Amsterdam 1810, Vol. 21, p. 198

(2) Strakova, T.: Vaclav Pichl a jeho vztah k Giov. Bat. Martinimu, CMM XLVII (1962), p. 184

(3) Vzpominky hudebnika XVIII. stoleti ... diktoval K. Ditters z Dittersdorfu, SNKLHU Praha 1959, p. 115 and following ..

(4) Ibid. p. 130

(5) Bryan, P.: Johann Wanhal, Viennese Symphonist, His Life and His Music Environment. Pendragon Press, NY 1997, p. 24

(6) Strakova, T., p. 166

(7) The autobiography of Vojtech Jirovec, ed. F. Bartos, Topic edition in Praze 1940, p. 56

(8) HAGELE, F., Mario Schwarz: "Vorwort / Preface". Joseph Haydn. Missa solemnis fur 4-stg. gem. Chor, Soli, Streicher, 2 Oboen, 2 Trompeten, Pauken und Basso continuo. Hrsg. von ~ und Mario Schwarz (Adliswil: Kunzelmann, 2003), S. [1-2].

(9) Bryan, p. 112

(10) Strakova, p. 170

(11) Strakova, p. 171 reads the name of the last opera as Lucio Papirio

(12) Tammaro/R, F.: Sacchi, Giovenale, Italian mathematician, music theorist and writer. From 1758 he taught rhetoric at the Collegio dei Nobili in Milan. He was in contact with Gerbert, Mattei,. Sacchi's printed letter Delle quinte successive nel contrappunto e delle regole degli accompagnamenti was published in Milan in 1780.

(13) Strakova, p. 180

(14) Museo civico, Bologna, Raccolta P. Martini, sign. I.19.I.152a

(15) Badley, A.: Wenzel Pichl, www.artaria.com/Composer/FullBios/BioPichl.htm [20.9.2005]