Biographie eines Hofkapellmeisters
Studien und Materialien zur Musikwissenschaft Band 137
265pp. €39
ISBN 978-3-487-17157-9 (Print) 17158-6 (ePDF)
Georg Olms Verlag
This excellent volume should be required reading for anyone interested in music in 18th-century Germany. Beate Sort has long been recognised as a specialist on Graupner’s music, and this beautifully illustrated, detail-rich study reveals just how deep her knowledge goes.
Using three contemporary bibliographical sources – and quoting them throughout the chronological narrative – she provides a comprehensive assessment of the composer’s life, and shines a light on the places where he studied and worked, and the people with whom he mixed in each of them. The appendix includes a list of those people, nine pages of bibliography, a very useful list of abbreviations along with explanations of 18th-century weights and measures from Hessen-Darmstadt (where Graupner spent the vast majority of his adult life as Hofkapellmeister), and valuable information on older forms of language used in the original documents.
All in all, this book is packed with information. It is unlikely that you would want to read it in one sitting. Still, the fact that Sorg has broken it into chapters broadly divided by decades and concentrates on different musical genres at various points makes it an extraordinarily handy resource.
Congratulations on an excellent piece of work!
Brian Clark