Betrachtungen der Mannheimer Tonschule

The Betrachtungen der Mannheimer Tonschule [RIPM code BMT] was published by Heinrich Philipp Bossler in Speyer and appeared in three volumes comprising 12 issues each. covering the time between 15 June 1778 and May 1781. Editor and principal author of the journal was Georg Joseph (Abbé) Vogler. Preceded by his studies Tonwissenschaft und Tonsezkunst (1776) and the Kuhrpfälzische Tonschule (1778, including musical tables), the monthly publication served as an instructive continuation supporting Vogler’s theoretical system.

Like the Kuhrpfälzische Tonschule Vogler also published the Betrachtungen der Mannheimer Tonschule in German, consistently avoiding terms in foreign languages and preferring a popular, near-oral style. For this the Berlin critics assailed him with derisive scorn while ignoring the actual subject matter. With the publication of “Der giftathmende Basilisk berstet” (The venomous basilisk bursting) in the ninth issue (15 June 1779), two of Vogler’s pupils, Franz Mezger and L. Kornacher – and eventually Vogler himself as well – responded rather radically to these hostilities. Together, the three essays may be considered to form a comprehensive explication of Vogler’s Tonschule.

In the first number of the BMT Vogler provides a survey of the prospective content of the forthcoming issues and he emphasizes the great influence music exerts on general moral education, commenting on the separation of music theory and performance which has come about over time and which he wishes to reverse again. Mathematics (or combinatorics) is his chosen means to achieve this, as it assures the scholarly aspirations of his texts which are rooted in logical procedures (“Schlusskunst”).

In the main, the journal is composed of essays on music theory; musical pieces and examples for instrumentalists, singers, and composers; as well as questions, assignments, and solutions regarding specific musical issues. The practical treatment of specific styles (concert, opera, and church music) and detailed analysis of famous works may be understood as exercises in the construction of musical periods and as a tutorial in rhetorical composition. In addition, essays on instrumentation and on the performance on musical instruments provide significant insights into Vogler’s teaching methods and those of his Tonschule.

Regarding its length, the BMT deviates slightly from that indicated by the printed page numbers; it amounts to 407 numbered pages (recte: 399 pages, since the pagination skips from 179 to 188) for the first volume (15 June 1778 to May 1779), 370 pages (recte: 374 pp., see the “Nachricht für den Buchbinder” [note to the bookbinder]) for the second (June 1779 to May 1780), and 241, 96 plus 84, i.e. altogether 421 pp. for the third (June 1780 to May 1781).

The Gegenstände der Betrachtungen, an exceptionally large musical appendix with more than 500 music tables, serves to elucidate and illustrate the journal’s aphoristic tenets. In addition to an ample amount of musical examples they comprise numerous compositions – some of which are transmitted in print only here –, among them works by Vogler’s pupils, for example keyboard sonatas by Caroline von Brandenstein, Hugo Franz Alexander Karl Freiherr von Kerpen, Franz Mezger and Friedrich Wilhelm Pixis senior, Deutsche Lieder by L. Kornacher, a string quartet by Peter von Winter and keyboard variations by Philipp Enslin and Hofrat F. L. Classen. Vogler himself is represented, among others, by smaller keyboard pieces, vocal compositions, extracts from his operetta Der Kaufmann von Smyrna, six easy keyboard concertos and a Paradigma modorum ecclesiasticorum. The field of early music is represented by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat mater, and the Berlin School by Johann Philipp Kirnberger’s Lied nach dem Frieden (1779), both analyzed, corrected and in part improved by Vogler’s own new settings.

Significant emphasis is given to contributions on the construction of fugues, the analysis of Pergolesi’s Stabat mater, remarks on the “Voglerisches Tonmaß” (a stringed instrument to measure tonal proportions) and – under a variety of headings – by appeals to reviewers on the modalities of meaningful criticism.

With his Betrachtungen der Mannheimer Tonschule Vogler intended to juxtapose the predominantly empirical approach to musical instruction with a method that was based on scientific method. He describes this approach as a variously shaped deduction of all kinds of harmonies from an elementary basis, a logical procedure that applies mathematical proportions to the most diverse sentiments: „Gegenwärtige Monatschrift zielt blos dahin, um den Geschmack in der Musik zu verfeinern, jede Quelle der Schönheit von ihrer Entstehung an, bis auf den lezten Augenblick, den Tonliebhabern sowohl, als Schülern aufzudecken, und hiedurch eine von der Theorie unterstüzte Praktik zu lehren“ (This monthly journal aims at refining musical taste – at revealing any source of beauty from its origins to its final moment – to music lovers and music students alike, and by this to teach a type of musical practice that is based on theoretical foundations).

This RIPM Index was produced from a copy of the journal held by the Bayrische Staatsbibliothek.