The Symphonie Concertante: Its Musical and Sociological Bases

Author(s): Barry S. Brook

Source: International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 25, No. 1/2 (Jun.
- Dec., 1994), pp. 131-148
Published by: Croatian Musicological Society
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B. S. BROOK,THESYMPHONIE IRAMDA25/1,2 (1994)131-148
CONCERTANTE, 131

THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE:

ITS MUSICAL AND SOCIOLOGICALBASES

BARRYS. BROOK UDC:78.067

OriginalScientificPaper
Centerfor Music Researchand Documentation, Izvorniznanstvenidlanak
City University of New York, Firstpublishedin: / Prvi put objavljenou:
33 West 42nd St., NEW YORK CITY, InternationalReview of the Aesthetics
and Sociology of Music,
NY 10036-8099, U.S.A. Vol. VI, No. 1, 1975

Abstract - Resumc*

Around 1770 a new genre called symphonie
concertante came into fashion. There have been
preserved close to 600 largescale, multi-move-
ment orchestral works bearing the name sym-
sinfoniaconcertante
phonieconcertante, or concer-
tantewritten by 209 composers between 1770 and
1830. The symphonie concertante is a sympho-
nic genre (with mostly French emphasis) for
two up to nine solo instruments and orchestra,
and represents a fusion of elements from the
divertimento forms (serenade, concertino, cas-
sation), the symphony and the solo concerto.
The genre played a significant role in the chan-
ge of musicians' function and status during the
last years of the ancien regimein France, declin-
ing after 1825 with the new 19th-century vir-
tuoso cult.

>...the thoughtful historian<, Fritz Stem once wrote, >>mustalways proceed

from the how to the why, from the external course to the internal cause and his
most intricate task is to explain without explaining too much. The how and the
why, of course, are inseparable, and here as everywhere the historian must have
both a sense of the complexity of human life and the belief that this complexity
is comprehensible.<<
On previous occasions when I have written about the symphonie concer-
tante, I have sought answers to typical musicological questions concerning what,
where, when, and how.2 These writings dealt with biographical facts, dates, lists

1 Fritz
STERN, ed., TheVarietiesof History,from Voltaireto thePresent,World, Cleveland 1956;
rev. ed. Vintage, New York 1973, p. 29 (editor's introduction).
2 See B. S. BROOK,La
frangaisedans la secondemoitiddu XVIIe si'cle, Institutde
Symphonie
musicologie de l'Universitd de Paris, Paris 1962, 3 vols; >>TheSymphonie Concertante: An Interim

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132 B. S. BROOK,THESYMPHONIE IRAMDA25/1,2 (1994)131-148
CONCERTANTE,

of works, analyses; they contained previously unpublished scores, and attempted

to rectify some national bias found in earlier literature. In this paper, I will explore
problems, only touched upon previously, involved in the why.
Why, around 1770, did a new genre called symphonie concertante come
into fashion so precipitously, why did it flourish so brilliantly, and why, comet-
like, did it virtually bum itself out in a few decades? These are aesthetic and
sociological questions as well as >thoughtful< historical ones. They concern the
function of a genre in the musical life of the time, the status of the composer,
and the changing nature of concerts and concert audiences; on the specific ques-
tion of why the symphonie concertante became popular so suddenly, I shall
postulate, as a contributing cause, an acceleration of change in how the artist
thought about himself in relation to society.
First, some historiographical background. Neither the sociology nor the so-
cial history of musical genres has occupied scholars very much. The few excep-
tions to this statement may be found in such fields as folk music, light music,
and the hit-song. The valiant effort by the Gesellschaft fdir Musikforschung at
its Kassel Congress of 1962 to focus socio-historical attention upon major art-
music genres has thus far remained without progeny.3 As for the genre under
discussion, its basic history - as well as its social bases - has been neglected.
If one asks persons reasonably knowledgeable about music what the term
symphonie concertante means and what compositions in that genre they are
familiar with, the usual answer is a fuzzy definition and a reference to one or
two pieces by Mozart, perhaps one by Haydn. The genre has, indeed, until quite
recently, been given short shrift by lexicographers, musicologists, and biogra-
phers. In English-language literature, for example, one need only consult the
fifth edition of Grove's or the second of Apel's Harvard Dictionary to see how
the symphonie concertante has been maltreated - and not even under its own
full name but under the adjectival term >>concertante<<; Donald Grout, in the first
edition of his comprehensive music history text, ignores the genre's existence
entirely; Charles Sanford Terry, in his biography of Johann Christian Bach, con-
tributes only a carefully itemized muddle. Monographic and reference sources
in other languages are not very different. With such inadequate help from schol-
ars to begin with, most 'musicographers', program annotators, etc. have outdone
themselves in confounding facts and compounding fictions, while conductors
and record producers - with a few exceptions - have managed to avoid contact
with the genre altogether.

Report<, Musical Quarterly,1961, XLVII/4, pp. 493-516; Addenda: 1962, XLVIII/1, p. 148; >>Symphonie
Concertante<<, Die Musik in Geschichteund Gegenwart,1965, Vol XII, cols. 1899-1908.
3 >Die musikalischen Gattungen und ihr sozialer Hintergrund< was one of the two General
Themes of the Congress. Included were two principal papers, by Hans Engel and Walter Wiora and
seven brief Spezialreferateby Georg von Dadelsen, Gilbert Reaney, Franklin B. Zimmerman, Jaroslav
Buiga, Percy M. Young, Friedrich W. Riedel, and Ludwig Finscher. See: Berichtuiberden Internationalen
MusikwissenschaftlichenKongressKassel 1962, Georg Reichart and Martin Just, eds., Birenreiter, Kassel
1963, pp. 3-39.

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B. S. BROOK,THESYMPHONIECONCERTANTE,
IRAMDA25/1,2 (1994)131-148 133

On the more positive side, there is a single printed dissertation on the sym-
phonie concertante, that by Franz Waldkirch, published in 1931, in Ludwigs-
hafen. It deals only with Mannheim composers and, although it explores
unknown terrain, it was written in the Hugo Riemann tradition: by which I
mean an uncritical championing of Mannheimers coupled with a cavalier treat-
ment of dates.4 There is also a single major printed article: Edwin J. Simon's >>A
Royal Manuscript: Ensemble Concertos of J. C. Bach<<,5 in which the author re-
dresses many of the bibliographic wrongs perpetrated by Terry.Another article,
soon to be published by Andrew McCredie of the University of Adelaide, sheds
new light on the >Symphonie Concertante and Multiple Concerto in Germany
(1780-1850). Problems and Perspectives for a Repertory Study.<<6 Three special-
ized American dissertations, by Joseph A. White, James M. Stoltie, and Janet
Winzenburger, remain unpublished.7
The skeptic might argue that if the symphonie concertante has been so
meagerly treated thus far, except by a very few specialists, it must deserve no
better. Why does it warrent study? One answer, >Because it is there<<,famous in
another context, will make only musicological mountain climbers happy. This
is hardly a satisfactory response despite the fact that there are close to 600 large-
scale, multi-movement orchestral works bearing the name symphonieconcertante,
sinfonia concertante,or concertantewritten by over 200 composers between 1770
and 1830. A related and of itself an even less adequate response might be prof-
fered by the desperate Ph. D. candidate: >Nothing has ever really been done on
the subject.< In the language of Sherpa guides, this could be translated thus: 4I
hope it has never been climbed before.< A third and more valid justification, ac-
ceptable to all but the diehards who insist ad nauseum that >>forgottenmusic
deserves its oblivion<<is this: >>Sincemost of this abundant repertory, written for
a refreshing variety of solo combinations with orchestra, has never been scored,
published, or performed in our time, it may well be that further study will un-
cover a number of works that will enrich our concert repertoire.<
If the foregoing seem obvious to an audience of the converted, please bear
with me. Our skeptic's question cannot be dismissed out of hand; it is of a kind
that is often asked of musicologists and that musicologists must continually ask
of themselves. There is a fourth answer, the one that this paper is about, to wit:

4 Franz WALDKIRCH, Die Konzertanten Sinfonien der Mannheimer im 18. Jahrhundert,Julius

Waldkirch, Ludwigshafen 1931. In this Heidelberg dissertation, the author makes unfounded claims
of Mannheim primacy and supremacy in the concertante genre.
5 Journal of the AmericanMusicological Society, 1959, XII/2-3, pp. 170-185.
6 MiscellaneaMusicologica, Adelaide 1975, 8, pp. 115-147.
7 Joseph A. WHITE, Jr., The ConcertedSymphoniesby Johann Christian Bach, Ph. D. diss., U. of
Michigan, 1958; James M. STOLTIE,A SymphonieConcertanteType. The Concertofor mixed woodwind
ensemblein the ClassialPeriod,Ph. D. diss., U. of Iowa, 1962;Janet B. WINZENBURGER, The Symphonie
Concertante:Mannheim and Paris, M. A. thesis, U. of Rochester. 1967. Other dissertations in the form
of monographs on individual composers, e. g. Dittersdorf, Pichl, Carl Stamitz, Vanhal, Wagenseil,
often include valuable material on their concertante pieces.

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134 B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148

>The symphonie concertante as a genre is no Mount Everest, and none of its

600 potential additions to the concert repertoire will revolutionize the programs
of the Berlin, Zagreb, or New York Philharmonics. However, beyond the con-
siderable intrinsic merit of many of its examples, the genre warrants study be-
cause an understanding of its unanticipated vogue in its own time may provide
us with some small insight into the nature, history, and culture of man. The rise
of the symphonie concertante is an exceptional example of 'the influence of social
structures on the change and birth of forms and styles'.<<
Some definitions, plus a few pertinent facts and figures are now in order.
(I will be quoting freely - with adaptation - from my articles for M. G. G. and
the new Grove.)To put it briefly first, the symphonie concertante is a symphonic
genre for two, three, or four - occasionally up to nine - solo instruments and
orchestra, that flourished in the high classic and early romantic eras, say 1770-
1830. It was usually, although not necessarily, intended for public concert halls
and virtuoso soloists. It only superficially resembles the Baroque concerto grosso
to which it is often inaccurately compared. The concerto grosso, a direct descen-
dant of the Venetian polychoral tradition, follows the concertato principle. Its
tutti and solo group represent sonorous adversaries in an equal contest. In the
symphonie concertante, the forces are usually unequal;the solo group is master,
maintaining itself in the forefront much of the time, hoarding the important
thematic material, and performing extended cadenzas. The orchestra provides
the (often meagre) accompaniment, a background for the solo group, and a frame
out of which the soloists may glitter. The symphonie concertante is more closely
related to genres of the classical era. To some extent, it represents a fusion of
elements from the divertimento forms (serenade, concertino, cassation), the sym-
phony and, especially, the solo concerto.
The symphonie concertante did, however, develop a character and function
of its own. For example, while the concerto grosso is frequently in minor keys,
and the symphony and solo concerto are sometimes - if rarely - so, the sym-
phonie concertante is virtually never in minor (only one example is known to
me). The number and variety of solo instruments is often greater in the sym-
phonie concertante than in the concerto grosso; the number of tutti-solo alter-
nations fewer; and the solo instruments play more themes that are unrelated to
the orchestral material. Melodic variety is a hallmark of the symphonie concer-
tante. Although it may sometimes include a poignant andante, its mood is usu-
ally relaxed, gracious, and happy. Rarely is it very dramatic, never somber or
intense. The structure of its first movement is similar to the classical concerto,
except that there tends to be less motivic development or bold modulation. Its
composer would often introduce a pretty new tune in the development section
rather than exert the intellectual effort to manipulate thematic material. The sym-
phonie concertante, in slightly more than fifty percent of its examples, has only
two movements. Otherwise, it has three, almost never four or five. Two-move-
ment works dispense with the slow movement. But even in the three-movement

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B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148 135

works, andante is usually as slow as the tempo is permitted to go; an adagio is

almost unheard of. The last movement of both two- and three-movement works
is most often a Rondo, although at times it may be a Mineut-and-Trio or a Theme-
and-Variations, all three forms providing ample opportunity for solo display.
From my thematic index of symphonies concertantes, reflecting two decades
of sporadic exploration of libraries, catalogue references, RISM files, etc., I can
present the following inaccurate statistics: about 210 composers wrote approxi-
mately 570 works specifically entitled symphonie concertante, sinfonia concer-
tante, or simply, concertante. About 70 French composers (including a few
permanently-settled foreigners) wrote about half of these, while approximately
140 composers from the rest of Europe produced the other half. This French
emphasis is even greater than the figures indicate. For one thing, some of the
most prolific non-French composers of symphonies concertantes wrote their
works in the 1770's and 1780's while sojourning in, or passing through, Paris.
They often wrote specifically for French publishers and Parisian concert audi-
ences. This is true of Anton and Carl Stamitz, who came to Paris from Mannheim
in 1772 and helped foster the vogue for the new genre. Anton became Ordinaire
de la Musique du Roi, while Carl was the concert master to the Duc de Noailles.
J. C. Bach, whose output of symphonies concertantes is exceeded only by Cam-
bini's and Carl Stamitz', undoubtedly had Paris in mind for some of them. In
fact, of the approximately 260 compositions specifically named symphonie con-
certante composed between 1770 and 1790, over two-thirds were written for Paris
by French and non-French composers. (There are, in addition, some 44 works
bearing the abbreviated title concertante, all by non-French composers.) In short,
the genre, in the first two decades of its existence, was primarily a French and
specifically a Parisian product with some potent insemination from resident
second-generation Mannheimers. Its popularity spread fairly quickly to other
large cities in westernmost Europe, more gradually to German towns and courts.
In Paris, the two movement form was preferred by a two to one ratio; the
reverse was true in other musical centers. As for the solo group, at first two
principal violins constituted the most common combination, then mixed string
pairs or pairs of winds; three or four instruments soon also became prevalent,
with steadily increasing winds. The genre began to die out in the 1820's, al-
though there are a number of isolated multiple concerti from the 19th century
that do not employ the term as title (Beethoven, Brahms). Contemporary com-
posers, by contrast, have occasionally employed the term - in ignorance of its
original meaning - for works with but a single solo instrument and orchestra
(Enesco, Jongen).
It is clear that the symphonie concertante must be examined as a genre in
its own right and not looked upon as a bastard created out of a misalliance of
other forms. Its name was used with sufficient frequency and consistency in the
18th and early 19th centuries to warrant that it be re-established, and that it be
carefully defined and clarified rather than discarded. Attempts to replace it with
terms that were never or rarely used l'apoque
A are misguided in my opinion

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136 B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148

and only add to the terminological confusion. To be avoided are: 'Koncert-sym-

phonie' (used by Scheibe in his CritischerMusicus as meaning a symphony with
obligato rather than >>filler(winds), 'sinfonia concertata' (used by Koch and Schil-
ling in their 19th century lexica but hardly ever found elsewhere), 'concerted
symphony' or 'ensemble concerto' (used by Joseph A. White and Edwin J. Simon,
see footnotes 5 and 7), 'Gruppenkonzert' (Blume, Syntagma Musicologicum, p.
694), 'Konzertierendes' or 'Concertantes Quartett' (Mozart, Gesamtausgabe,Breit-
kopf and Hirtel, K. Anh. C 14.01 = Anh. 9). Carl Stamitz, J.-B. Breval, J. C.
Bach, Cambini, Mozart and some 200 other composers all knew what they meant
when they named a work 'symphonie concertante' and they did so almost 600
times. The term is as historically valid as are the terms concerto grosso or di-
vertimento for which no one seems to wish to find substitutes. On the other
hand, it is equally wrong to add anachronism to misnomer by renaming an earlier
work, originally bearing a title such as 'concerto grosso', 'concertone' or 'concerto
a piu stromenti', a 'sinfonia concertante' - as has been done with works of Hin-
del, Sammartini and Pergolesi (e. g. Pergolesi, Sinfonia Concertante,Eb major,
Eulenburg miniature score, 1935).
On the question of whether to use the Italian or French form of the name
when discussing the genre today, there is little room for choice; the French name
was given it at birth; it was known as such all over Europe and it appeared
(sometimes with the other French spellings such as 'simphonie concertant' or
'sinfonie concertante') infinitely more frequently that the Italian version 'sinfonia
concertante'.
Even Mozart preferred the French spelling, a fact obscured by current prac-
tice. The Italian spelling commonly employed for his two completed symphonies
concertantes (K. 297B for four winds and K. 320d = K. 364 for violin and viola)
is highly questionable. In both instances the autographs, and with them Mozart's
own titles, are lost. However, in the case of K. 297B, there is solid evidence from
his correspondence that the French form is correct. In his letters to his father
(April 5, May 1, July 9, July 20, Oct. 3, 1778), Mozart makes six spelled-out ref-
erences to this work. In all but one he uses the then common French spelling,
>>SinfonieConcertante< (three other references are abbreviated, obscuring na-
tionality). In Leopold's response of June 11, 1778, he too uses a French form:
>>SynfonieConcertante< (In her translation of the letters, Emily Anderson erro-
neously transforms all spellings and abbreviations of the term into the single
homogenized Italian orthography). The proper title, therefore, for this piece, writ-
ten in Paris for flute, oboe, bassoon, and horn, with orchestra is (using Mozart's
own spelling, modernized) SymphonieConcertante.Although the sixth edition of
Kdchel retains the unjustifiable Italian spelling, it does clarify the numbering by
assigning a capital B, 297B, to the lost work and correctly listing it without in-
cipits; this is a slight but useful alteration of the chronologically-correct K6chel-
Einstein third edition number, 297b, which did not distinguish between the lost
original and the presumed revision formely referred to as K. Anhang 9. Another
number entirely, K. Anh. C14.01, has been assigned, among the doubtful works,

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B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148 137

to this mysterious, untitled piece for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and orchestra
found by Otto Jahn in the nineteenth century and, without any now-ascertainable
proof, assumed by him to be a revision of the lost K. 297B.
There are no references in the letters to the violin and viola masterwork, K.
320d=364. The French title would also make sense here although a good case
for the Italian spelling can be made. The autograph of the fragment K. 320e=Anh.
104 written shortly after K. 320d=364 - in the summer or fall of 1779 after Mozart
had returned to the Italianate atmosphere of Salzburg - is entitled, Sinfonia
Concertantea tre stromenti Violino, Viola e Violoncello.
Most attempts at defining the term >>symphonieconcertante<<fully and pre-
cisely - admittedly no easy task - have floundered on two counts: 1) on the
confusion between the adjective, concertante, and the noun-complex, symphonie
concertante, and 2) on the difference between works called symphonie concer-
tante and those, also with more than one solo instrument, called concerto. On
the first question, the adjective was loosely employed in a variety of ways
throughout the eighteenth century, while the noun-complex was consistently
and specifically applied to the genre under investigation. However, as a substi-
tute for the two-word grouping, the word concertante has been used by itself
as a noun, especially in England and Germany after about 1790. For example,
Pleyel's Sinfonie Concertantea'neuf instruments, Paris 1788, was later put out by
Preston in London as A FavoriteConcertantein E flat. Samuel Arnold, in his col-
lected edition of Hindel's works, London c. 1790, used the then-popular term,
Concertante,as the title of the C major Concerto Grosso (for oboes, strings and
continuo, Hiindel GesellschaftVol. 21: 63). Haydn, following English practice,
called his sole symphonie concertante, Concertante(Hoboken I, 105). (The English
also perversely called concerti grossi, symphonies; symphonies, overtures; and
overtures, symphonies). A typical German example may be seen in Simrock's
publication (Bonn c. 1795) of Joseph Reicha's Concertantepour violon et violoncelle
avec toutes les parties d'orchestreOe. l"e.
As an adjective, applied to the name of an instrument, the word 'concertante'
cannot be easily distinguished from such related and overlapping terms as 'solo',
'obligato', 'recitant', and 'principale'. If we examine the symphonies of Haydn,
we find that in at least forty of them, significant and various-labeled concertante
passages occur.8 The word 'solo' is the most flexible term of all; its use ranges
from a passage emerging from the tutti only slightly (by range, tone color, or
dynamics) without really differing in substance from the surrounding orchestral
material, to an extended virtuoso section or movement which differs considerably
and stands out in high relief. When an instrumental part or passage is marked
'obligato', it is not necessarily virtuoso in character; it may simply mean that
the part is needed to fill in the harmony and cannot be dispensed with. In com-
parison, parts marked 'concertant', 'ricitant', and 'principale' tend to be more

8 See Baird HASTINGS, ConcertanteElements in the Symphoniesof JosephHaydn, M. A. thesis,

Queens College of the City Univ. of N. Y., 1967.

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138 B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148

demanding technically. 'Concertant' and 'recitant' often imply the presence of

more than one solo instrument; 'principale' is used to designate an important
solo instrument clearly differentiated from the tutti. To illustrate how compli-
cated all this can be, here is a manufactured, but not inconceivable title: Simphonie
Concertantea'deux violons principaux,alto ricitans, deux hautboisobligeset concertans,
avec l'accompagnementde deux violons, alto, et basse, et deux cors ad libitum.
The second terminological difficulty arises when one attempts to distinguish
between a symphonie concertante and a concerto for two or more instruments
from the high classical era. At first glance, there seems to be little or no difference.
The terms were sometimes interchanged. Most multiple concertos, whatever title
they may have been given by their (foreign) composers, were almost inevitably
called 'symphonie concertante' by the French, and well into the 19th century (Fitis
did so consistently). In Germany and England, the terms concertante or concerto
(for 2 or more instruments) became increasingly prevalent. The previously-men-
tioned thematic card catalogue also contains entries for 166 little known works
from 1770-1830, with titles like Concertofor 2 (3, 4,...) instruments. Almost all of
these were written outside France. A full-fledged analytical and historical com-
parison between this corpus of 166 'multiple concertos' and the 570 pieces bear-
ing the name 'symphonie concertante' would be necessary to clarify stylistic and
national differences, or lack thereof. Mendel in his Conversationslexikon(II, p. 537
and IX, p. 264-65) attempts to define both terms, but without shedding much
light on the distinctions between them (see Andrew McCredie's article referred
to in footnote 6). Mozart, however, made a clear-cut distinction when he chose
to call the two works of this type that he completed in Paris in 1778 by different
names. The ill-fated masterpiece he wrote for four visiting Mannheim wind vir-
tuosi, designed for public performance at the Concert Spirituel, was called Sin-
fonie Concertante(K. 297 B); the salon piece written for the Duc de Guines and
his daughter, both amateurs, and intended for private audition, was referred to
as a Concertofor Flute and Harp (K. 297c=299). Mozart's distinction does not always
hold, unfortunately, but it has intriguing sociological implications.
We will not discuss the origins and antecedents of the symphonie concer-
tante in this paper,9but it is undeniable that around 1770, this new type of public
concert genre, assuming a name of its own, began, with extraordinary rapidity,
to enjoy enormous popularity. Not only were large numbers of symphonies con-
certantes written, performed, and published, some in many editions and arrange-
ments, but in Paris, at least, this concertante output soon exceeded that of the
solo concerto and of the conventional symphony. The most popular Parisian
works, e. g. Jean-Baptiste Davaux's from the 1770's and Ignaz Pleyel's from the
1780's and 90's, were soon reprinted - pirated in most cases - in Amsterdam
and London, later in Offenbach, Berlin, and elsewhere. Pleyel's previously-men-
tioned Sinfonie Concertantea' neuf instruments, originally published by Imbault,
exists, according to Rita Benton's thematic catalogue,'0 in no fewer than 45 dif-

9 See literature in footnote 2 for an investigation of this subject.

10
Pendragon Press, Hillsdale, New York 1977, ISBN 0-918728-04-05.

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B. S. BROOK,THESYMPHONIE IRAMDA25/1,2 (1994)131-148
CONCERTANTE, 139

ferent editions, including nine in its original state (but sometimes named Serenata,
Divertisement [sic], Concertante, CelebratedSinfonie Concertante) and the rest in
transcriptions for quintet, quartet, trio, duo, and solo keyboard. Some composers
wrote chamber pieces >>dansle goiat de la simphonie concertante<<(e. g. Jean-
Jacques Charpentier, Sonates,ca. 1775). Others arranged opera airs or ballet scores
into symphonies concertantes (e. g. Carl Andreas G6pfert's arrangements of
Weigl's Die Schweizerfamilie,and Gossec's of his own Ballet de Mirza). In 1794
Davaux, employing several famous revolutionary tunes, fashioned a three move-
ment piece entitled Sinfonie ConcertanteM6le d'Airs Patriotiquespour deux violons
principaux....Two years later, Cambini wrote a similar work, for large orchestra in-
cluding a trombone, called La Patriote,sinfonieconcertante....
Already in 1772 the popularity of the genre in Paris caused it to be listed before
that of the symphony in an announcement of a competition in composition:
Prix de musique - MM. les Administrateurs de
l'Ecole Royale gratuite de Dessin adjugeront une
medaille d'or de la valeur de 300 livres a la
meilleure symphonie concertante, ou symphonie
a grand orchestre, qui sera couronnre au premier
concert que donnera cette Ecole...u

Cannabich and Eichner were declared co-winners, demonstrating a com-

mendable absence of national prejudice. Unfortunately, we do not know which
specific compositions won the prize, nor whether they were symphonies or sym-
phonies concertantes.
What is the explanation for the symphonie concertante's meteoric career? Hi-
storians have shown - Arthur Schlesinger just recently and most brilliantly - that
in the last three hundred years the velocity of history has been accelerating at an
astonishing rate. The time between one great scientific achievement and another,
between one major political upheaval and the next, and between one profound
social or cultural transformationto the following, has been decreasing dramatically.

... the mounting velocity of history has infused the modern consciousnesswith a
new and passionate awarenessof time, mutability,novelty and change... that con-
sciousness has thereforesought new modes of understandingand creationin phi-
losophy, including the philosophy of science, in the social sciences and in the arts.
Forpersonalityfound its easiest integrationin relativelystaticsocieties,where roles,
expectations,values and identitieswere formedby immemorialtraditionsand con-
trolledby unchangingstructures.Theworld of changehas liberatedmen and women
from such traditionsand structures.At the same time, to a greaterdegree than ever
before in history,it has sent individuals out on their own to constructfrom their
own resourcestheir roles, expectations,values and identities.12

11 Mercure de France, March 1772, p. 171.

12 Arthur
SCHLESINGER,Jr., TheModern Consciousnessand the WingedChariot,City University
of New York, 1973, p. 15. (Tenth Anniversary Convocation pamphlet).

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140 B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148

Where the >winged chariot< of history will carry us, in our time, may well
fill us with awe and send us right back to the year 1770,13when, it seems to me,
the mounting velocity of history underwent an increased acceleration in the rate
of change of the musician's relationship to society.
May I now attempt to put this hypothesis into more specific terms and ex-
amine its implications: at the outset of the high classical era, the rate of change
in musical style, both operatic and instrumental, increased perceptibly; there
was an unusual expansion of public concert and opera activities and a marked
increase in the dissemination of manuscript and especially printed music; con-
comitantly, after a preceeding period of relative stability between musician and
environment, there was a new concern for, and awareness of, the musician's
function and status. The symphonie concertante played a significant role in this
change for it served as a vehicle, a new vehicle, by which the instrumental com-
poser (and performer) could dramatize and profit from his increased inde-
pendence.
Curiously, this period around 1770, which saw the birth of the light-hearted
symphonie concertante and its rapid conquest of the concert rooms of Europe,
saw, simultaneously, the intense emotional outburst in all the arts known as the
Sturm und Drang, which expressed itself in several countries. Two such diverse
phenomena could hardly be reconciled by any Zeitgeist, surely. The Sturm und
Drang, which was nurtured in enclosed Germanic lands, was somber, turbulent,
and introspective - and always in minor keys. The symphonie concertante, which
flourished in accessible metropolises such as Paris and London, was light, deco-
rative, and extroverted - and always in major keys.
I suggest, nonetheless, that these phenomena are related. They were caused
by confluence of social forces already in motion and acting catalytically upon
a
one another to create that special acceleration of change in the musician's role
in society mentioned above. This was a time when the composer was feeling
and thinking about himself in a new light. It was not so much that he was liber-
ating himself at last - to use a tired cliche - ?from the shackles of aristocratic
patronage< in order to become a ?free spirit<. He was, rather, reaching out to
become part of the bourgeoisie - by expressing its malaise with Sturm und Drang
symphonies, by catering to its taste with symphonies concertantes, and by ex-
ercising, increasingly, a variety of commercial functions in a growing music in-
dustry that made him an independent human being.
This transformation did not occur overnight. A musician would often have
to combine various methods of making his living. Within a single year, 1775 for
example (to change things slightly), while earning a modest stipend as part-time
Kapellmeister in a small German court, a composer could write an opera on a

13 If I seem to have a fixation about this date, it is in full realization, I trust, of the
dangers of
the >telescopic fallacy<<which ))makes a long story short. It appears in interpretations which reduce
an extended trend to a momentary transformation<<.See David Hackett FISCHER,Historian'sFallacies:
Towarda logic of historical thought, Harper and Row, New York 1970.

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B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148 141

contractual basis - by >>scrittura<- for a peregrinating Italian opera company;

he could send three symphonies in MS copies for the exclusive use of the Bene-
dictine archbishop of an Austrian monastery, and then turn around and resell
the very same symphonies to publishers in Amsterdam and Paris; he could send
sets of trios and quartets - in half-dozens - to a Polish prince and to the exiled
Queen of Sweden and, in return for flowery dedicatory pages to be published
with the works, receive a bejeweled snuff box and fistful of golden coins respec-
tively; if he chose, he could buy some thirty tin engraving plates, hire an engraver
to incise the notes, get the plates run off by a local printer, and be prepared to
sell the resultant book of his own keyboard works out of his own parlor; he
could also give private lessons to the town physician's daughter, play in the
municipal orchestra, perform in a concert for his own benefit in a distant city,
or open a shop selling instruments, music paper, and other composers' music
on commission. These were common activities for musicians of the 1770's, for
the kleinmeister as well as the grand maitre. What made this era an exciting one
for many was the increasing freedom of choice. Just a few decades earlier, within
more stringent societal restraints, only the rare individual (usually one associated
with opera - Farinelli, or Hindel, for example) had been able to master his own
fate. By the 1770's, any composer could, if he desired, free himself from the con-
straints of patronage and appeal to >>ananonymous community of audiences<<.14
Jacques Barzun, who decades ago was one of the first to argue against the
then-popular Zeitgeist approach, suggested:

...as an explanationof the internalunity of culturalperiods that it came not from

the ideas and forms themselves, but from the problems to which these ideas and
forms offered answers. On that view, it becomes obvious how liberals like Byron
and Hazlitt can be Romanticistsequally with conservativeslike Scott and Joseph
de Maistre;they radiatefrom one center,which is to them no matterof choice, but
of time's compulsion. And this explanation,if true, also helps to mark off the part
in culturaleffortthat is individualand creativefromthatwhich is >>given<<, a product
or resultantof anonymous forces.
...As it stands, the source of unity I have suggested is abstract.Retracingit helps us
to understand the convergenceof opposites in science, philosophy, and political
thought. It may even be stretchedto cover the technicalproblems of the fine arts.
In either realm, it presupposes the intellectualability to find and state what these
problems are. But what is it that gives to the productsof an age their common feel
and texture - the quality I have called their family likeness, which has nothing to
do with intellect,cuts across genre, and unites things strictlynot comparable?...In

14 The entire foregoing paragraph is quoted from the author's

previously written paper The
Dissemination of Music in the Eighteenth Century, scheduled to be published in the Charles Warren
Fox Festschrift. The concluding five-word phrase is from the new introduction by Malcom
Bradbury
and Bryan Wilson to the second edition, in translation, od Robert ESCARPIT's Sociology of Literature,
London, Frank Cass, 1971, p. 16. N. B.: Interesting light is shed on the nature and decline of patronage
in a number of satirical French comedies that were written during this period. See Judith TICK,
>>Musicand M&cene:Some observations on patronage in late 18th-century France,<<InternationalRe-
view of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 1973, IV/2, pp. 245-56.

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142 B. S. BROOK,THESYMPHONIE IRAMDA25/1,2 (1994)131-148
CONCERTANTE,

short, is style explicableor arbitrary?...I submit that style, too, is an answer to a

common want; but not so much to formulatedproblemsas to felt difficultiesof an
emotional kind. Style will vary, of course, with the materialsthat give it body, but
forget the stuff of verse or dress or chairs and an attitude remains:style is funda-
mentallya pose, a stance,at times a self-delusion,by which the people of any period
meet the peculiardilemmas of their day.15

Using Barzun's phrase, I suggest that the musical Sturm und Drang on the
one hand, and the symphonie concertante, on the other, represent just such a
>>convergenceof opposites<<,one that reflects, in some measure, the internal unity
of this cultural period. As I have discussed the musical Sturm und Drang in a
previous paper,16I will limit myself here to pointing out that as in literature its
flame burned so briefly because it burned so fiercely. Like most revolutionary
actions, the student uprising of 1968 for example, this one subsided when it had
had its say and when its powerlessness to effect further change became evident.
It is not possible to maintain the unrelenting emotional intensity of, say, the
Haydn Trauersymphonie for too long. The solution for Goethe's Werther, after his
quixotic revolt against society proved futile, was suicide.
The problem of identity facing a composer of the 1770's, in a society in
which the old regime had outlived its usefulness, was acute. The musical Stiirmer
und Dringer, such as Haydn, Mozart, Dittersdorf, Simon Leduc, etc., reacted to
that problem, perhaps unconsciously, with a violent flareup that lasted only five
or six years, and although it was centered in Vienna, it was manifest elsewhere
in Europe as well, at about the same time. The symphonie concertante, by con-
trast, was a more conscious and practical attempt to face the identity crisis. This
problem is most clearly in focus and most effectively met in Paris. Before de-
scribing developments there, let us have a glance at symphonie concertante ac-
tivities elsewhere in Europe. Mannheim in this period, although it had lost the
powerful creative momentum engendered by the elder Stamitz, was still a lively
musical town. Mannheim composers were among the first to write in the new
genre. Many travelled to Paris to perform and to be performed, some remaining
for lengthy periods or settling permanently. They wrote most of their symphonies
concertantes in the French manner and for French markets. Major composers

15 See Jacques BARZUN, >>Cultural History as a Synthesis<, in Fritz Stem, ed., The Varietiesof
History from Voltaireto the Present, World, Cleveland 1956, pp. 401-02.
16 Sturm und Drang and the Romantic Period in Music<<,Studies in Romanticism, 1970, IX/4,
pp. 269-84. The Sturm und Drang is defined there in terms of >the widespread distress, disenchant-
ment and melancholy that were in the air in Europe at the time. The characteristics of the Sturm
und Drang in music which, taken together, differentiate it from other music of the decade may be
summed up as follows: stress on the minor mode, driving syncopated rhythms, melodic motives
built on wide leaps, harmonies full of tension, sharp dissonances, extended modulations, greater
breath of dynamics and accentuation, and a fascination with (usually pseudo) contrapuntal devices,
canons, fugatos, etc.<
It may be added that in the brief period when the musical Sturm und Drang was at its height,
the period of the >true Sturm und Drang<, ca. 1768-1774, these characteristics pervaded not
only
individual movements but entire symphonies, e. g. the Trauersymphonieof Haydn and the A minor
of Dittersdorf, and overtures, such as that to Mozart's Betulia Liberata.

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B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148 143

include Cannabich, Holzbauer, the brothers Stamitz, and Danzi (who wrote one
for flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon in Eb which bears resemblances to K. Anh.
C 14.01 in the same key). All were published regularly in the 1770's and 1780's
by Chevardiere, Sieber, and other Parisian publishers. Carl Stamitz wrote as many
as 30 (38 according to M. G. G.), more than anyone except Cambini; his third
work in the genre, in D Minor, is the only known symphonie concertante in a
minor key.
In London, the scene is dominated by Johann Christian Bach. His fifteen or
possibly sixteen symphonies concertantes were written for his own Bach/Abel
concerts and for the Concert Spirituel in Paris. His choice of solo instruments
is often imaginatively varied; it includes one unique grouping of nine concer-
tizing instruments: two violins, two violas, two oboes, two horns and violoncello,
plus orchestra of course. The dating of Bach's A Major Symphonie Concertante,
for violin and cello, is significant to our argument that genre is related to function
and that, for this reason, the symphonie concertante, as such did not come into
being until the late 1760's at the earliest. In his introduction to the Eulenburg
score (no. 765), of this work Alfred Einstein suggests the year 1763 as its probable
date of composition, but offers no proof. He adds that it may even have been
written while Bach was still in Italy, i. e., before 1762! Joseph A. White and Edwin
J. Simon repeat the 1763 date - also without any hard evidence. Simon, in the
one area in which I must differ with him, presents vague supporting testimony
?on stylistic grounds< of the kind I find totally unacceptable. Dating (and iden-
tification) by style analysis is still in its infancy; not only is it almost invariably
more subjective than scientific, but it has been proven wrong all too often, em-
barrassing a host of experts in the process. White, in his dissertation, argues for
the same date but on curious logical grounds: ?The presence of only two move-
ments in both [symphonies concertantes] No. 2 and No. 8 further indicates that
these works are from the same (early) period.o<Similar reasoning might also
place Schubert's Unfinisheda bit early! What facts do we have? The first reliable
dating for this particular piece is 1773, when it was published by Sieber. Its
incipit also appears in the Breitkopf catalogue of 1775. Other than that, the pro-
grams of the Concert Spirituel show performances of unidentified symphonies
concertantes by J. C. Bach in 1772, 1773, and 1774; one or more of these may
have taken place while he was visiting Paris, for he had to pass through the
French capital on his trips between Mannheim and London. It is hardly possible
that Bach would have written a symphonie concertante in Italy in 1762-1763
because he had no earthly reason to do so, either for performance, or publication.
There were, of course, local orchestras in Italy, as Guglielmo Barblan has shown
in his article on Le Orchestredi Lombardiaall' Epocadi Mozart published in 1956.
However, there is no evidence that the performing groups he refers to (in Cre-
mona, Mantua and in Milan where Bach worked) were - as today's argot puts
it - into the symphonie concertante. On the other hand, in 1771 or 1772, Bach had
every reason to compose in a genre that was just then becoming fashionable, one
for which the impresarios and publishers of Paris and London were ready to pay
handsomely and - as noted previously - to hold contests with handsome prizes.

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144 B. S. BROOK,THESYMPHONIE IRAMDA25/1,2 (1994)131-148
CONCERTANTE,

The total Italian contribution to the development of the symphonie concer-

tante was very limited - for economic, demographic, and operatic reasons. Not
only were very few such works actually published there, but the number of
concertante manuscripts to be found in Italian libraries is almost negligible. Ital-
ian composers writing in the genre worked and published mainly outside their
homeland; this explains why they also preferred the French title for the genre.
Major figures include Ricci, Fiorilli, Cauciello, Viotti, and especially Boccherini
and Brunetti (Cambini, who spent most of his life in Paris, must be considered
with the French group).
Composers in Hapsburg lands produced a modest number of significant
works; e. g., the Bohemians Myslive'ek, Ko'eluh, Wranitzky and Gyrowetz, and
the Viennese Vanhal, Dittersdorf, Pichl, etc. As has already been pointed out,
Joseph Haydn's role in the development of the concertante principle in classical
music was unique. His originality is everywhere apparent; e. g., in his Sei Di-
vertimentiConcertanti,Op. 31 (Artaria 1781) and in more than a third of his sym-
phonies. However, his only full-fledged Concertante,Op. 84 in B flat, for violin,
viola, flute, oboe and bassoon principaux, was written in 1792 for the Salomon
concerts and resident virtuosi. Mozart's first important piece for more than one
soloist and orchestra was written in 1773 and called Concertone(K. 190). It is a
scintillating, gallant work in C, with solos for two violini principali, oboe and
cello. Both Leopold Mozart and the flutist, Wendling, refer to it as >just the thing
for Paris.<<During his stay there in 1778 and in the year immediately following,
Mozart was spurred to attempt no fewer than six multiple concerti. In addition
to the Sinfonie Concertantefor four winds (K. 297 B), he wrote the masterwork
for violin and viola (K. 320=364), the concerto for two pianos (K. 316a=365), and
the concerto for flute and harp (K. 297c=299). Two works of magnificent promise
remain only as fragments: one in D for piano and violin (K. 315f=Anh. 56), and
the other in A for violin, viola, and 'cello (K. 320e=Anh. 104).17
Germany presents no consistent pattern. Composers were dispersed in many
different cities and courts. There was considerable multiple concerto activity in
some centers; e.g., Regensburg, Schwerin, Munich. The title, symphonie concer-
tante, was little used, except by the Mannheimers, until the 1780's and 1790's.
Instead, one finds other loosely-defined genre names such as serenata, concertino,
divertimento, and terzetto. Among the more important composers, mostly of
Beethoven's generation or later, are J. P. Moralt, C. H. Meyer, J. J. B. Martin, P.
J. von Lindpaintner, F. A. Hoffmeister, T. von Schacht, G. A. Schneider, etc.
Turning finally to France, we find that it was no accident that the focal point
for the establishment and development of the genre was the city of Paris. The
French capital, with half a million in population, second only to London, boasted:

17
Alfred EINSTEIN (Mozart,New York, p. 277) and Friedrich BLUME (TheMozart Companion,
London, p. 213) concur that >it must be counted among the greatest of losses to art that Mozart did
not complete [these works].(<See also Robert D. LEVIN, The Unfinishedof W. A. Mozart (B. A. Thesis,
Harvard, 1968), and by the same author, >>Das Konzert fiir Klavier und Violine D-dur KV. Anh.
56/315f und das Klarinettenquintett B-dur KV. Anh. 91/516c: ein Erglinzungsversuch<<, Mozart-
Jahrbuch,1968/70, pp. 304-306.

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B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148 145

more concerts, more composers, more performers, engravers, and publishers of

music than any other city in Europe. The symphonie concertante was specifically
tailored for this milieu. Its composers consciously wooed the concert-going pu-
blic by writing the most melodious, scintillating, and instrumentally-varied
works within their power. To perform these pieces they engaged the leading
virtuosi available. Since the composers were often themselves solo performers,
they could reciprocate when their colleagues wrote concertante works of their
own. This gentlemen's agreement, which is reflected in citations from title pages
given below, supports the hypothesis that the symphonie concertante helped
musicians improve their status and augment their income. They were not pere-
grinating virtuosi in the 19th-century sense, dazzling audiences wherever they
went. Rather, they were, for the most part, first-rate local musicians, some of
whom had no ambitions for demanding solo careers. Their participation as sym-
phonie concertante principals, however, sufficed to place their names before the
public, thus helping them secure additional pupils, wider sales of their printed
works, and better contracts with publishers.
The association of the symphonie concertante (or multiple concerto) with
its Parisian milieu was so close that when aspects of that milieu appeared in
other locales, the genre seemed to appear almost automatically. This is borne
out in Mozart's letter to his father from Mannheim on 12 November 1778:

An Academiedes Amateurs,like the one in Paris,is about to be startedhere - Herr

Frinzl is to lead the violins - so at the moment I am composinga concertofor violin
and clavier.[K. 315f=Anh.56].

Principal Parisian symphonie concertante composers - by quantity of works

- are Devienne, Gossec, Pleyel, Brival, Widerkehr, Davaux, Cambini and Le
Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Gifted composers of more limited output include
Bertheaume, Chartrain, and Simon Leduc. In the 1770's and 1780's, Davaux, al-
though second to Cambini in productivity, was first in popularity. His fame per-
sisted well into the 19th century. J. N. Bouilly, in 1837, was to call him >>lecrdateur
de la simphonie concertante.<<In the 1790's, Pleyel, the transplanted Viennese
who had been a student of Haydn, became concertante king. Of high intrinsic
merit are the works of Brival, a composer important in the history of the 'cello,
and St. Georges, the brilliant mulatto swordsman, soldier, athlete, dancer, vio-
linist, and conductor. Cambini, who left Italy in his youth, spent half a century
in Paris. He is remembered mainly from references in Mozart's letter to his father
of May 11, 1778, as the villain responsible for the failure of the Concert Spirituel
to perform his symphonic concertante for four wind instruments. As the world's
chief manufacturer of symphonies concertantes - one per-month, available on
subscription - Cambini didn't relish any competition from a Mozart, a man
whose genius he had quickly recognized.s8

18
See B. BROOK, La symphoniefranpaise,I. pp. 406-409.

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146 B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148

Title pages of French symphonie concertante publications provide useful

evidence relating to the problem of identity. We find that unlike editions of sym-
phonies of the same period, they contain few dedications to nobility. There are
dedications to pupils (Tapray), to friends (>a son ami Eler?: Jadin), to virtuoso
colleagues who first performed the piece (Devienne). Often, mention is made
of the public concert that was the scene of the work's premiere (St. Georges).
When a composer wrote numerous compositions in the same genre, it was eco-
nomical to use the same engraved plate to print a >passe-partout? title page for
all of them. Space was left on the plate so that the number of the piece could
later be written in on the printed page (Cambini, e. g. Symphonie Concertante
n0[6]). There are several examples of symphonies concertantes originally written
and published for one group of instruments being arranged, performed, and
published for entirely different combinations. There are even instances of two
composers collaborating in the writing of a single piece! Around 1800, for ex-
ample, Frederic Duvernoy, homist, and Martin-Pierre Dalvimare, harpist, wrote
and performed a joint symphonie concertante for horn, harp and orchestra. There
is no evidence that anyone regarded this plural parentage as immoral.
The flavor of this frenetic activity may be seen from the title page of Brival's
SymphonieConcertanteOpus XXXI, for flute and bassoon (an arrangement of his
Opus XXX, for oboe and horn).
DU REPERTOIRE DE LA LOGEOLYMPIQUE/SIMPHONIE/ CONCERTANTE
/Pour une Flute, et un Basson/ Avec accompagnementde deux Violons /Alto &
Basse/ Cette Simphoniea etd arrangeepar M Deviennepour les deux /Instrumens
ci dessus (et executeepar MM. Salantinet Le Brun.aux/Concertsde la Loge Olym-
pique et au Concert Spirituel/pr Cor, et hautbois)/ Composee par/J. B. BRE-
VAL/Opera XXXI./ Grave par Richomme/ Prix 4.f 4.s/ Cette Simphonie se vend
separementpour un Hautbois et Cor obliges, et se trouve aussi/A PARIS/ Ches
l'Auteur,rue FaideauNo 28/ Et chez tous les Marchandsde musique/. A.P.D.R.//

Obviously, the role of the solo group in the symphonie concertante was of
cardinal importance; all else was subordinate. The 'innovative' and 'profit' as-
pects of the symphonie concertante were specifically recognized as early as 1771.
Nicolas Framery, a composer and librettist best known today as a perceptive
lexicographer, demonstrates this in the March issue of the Journal de Musique
which he edited. Framery declares that the Concert Spirituel audiences were
weary of so much dull Latin vocal music but, if the Latin motets were eliminated,
only the insipid sonata and the 'overlong' concerto would remain. They should
be replaced, he urges, by the symphonie concertante, a genre ideal for the Concert
Spirituel, which has the most gifted virtuosi of Paris available.
... on n'a donc plus que la ressourcedes Concertos& des Sonates,mais une Sonate
est une chose si insipide & un Concertoest si long! Ce seraient des Symphonies
concertantesqu'il faudraity substituer.Quel est le lieu pour lequel cette sorte de
Compositionparaisse le plus faite, que pour celui quit doit rdunirles plus habiles
Virtuosesde Paris dans tous les Genres?

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B. S. BROOK,THESYMPHONIE IRAMDA25/1,2 (1994)131-148
CONCERTANTE, 147

One problem remains, Framery adds, the symphonies concertantes must be

paid for:
Une chose s'oppose encore A l'innovationdes Symphonies concertantes.Si l'on en
voulait avoir, non seulement il faudrait qu'elles fussent bien executees, mais il
faudrait les payer. La gloire, on le sait, doit tre le principalmotif de tout Artiste:
mais la gloire est un I'interatdu profitest present,& il a la preference.
(Italicsmine) intrertbloignd;

>>'inter&tdu profit< or, in English, >the profit motive< was a fact of life; for
several decades, composers who were motivated to build their careers in the
>>commercialworld? found that the innovative appeal of the symphonie concer-
tante helped them to achieve their goal.
A word in conclusion on why the popularity of the symphonie concertante
began to decline after the turn of the century, especially after the Napoleonic
wars.'9 At present, I can only suggest a probable answer: The cult of the indi-
vidual, the glamour of the virtuoso enjoying star billing, replaced and over-
whelmed the concept of 'concerted' action by composers and performers working
together to improve their status. The problem of identity of the 1770's had tem-
porarily been solved, only to be transformed into another crisis on a different
plane. J.-J. de Momigny, writing in 1818, in the second volume of the Framery
and Guinguend EncyclopidieMethodique,provides support for this thesis:

On ne fait plus de symphoniesconcertantespour deux violons;probablementparce

que deux grands artistes ne se soucient plus de se mesurer comme des chefs
d'escrime,et preffrent garder le secret de leurs forces respectivesplut6t que de le
donner au public.
He might have been writing about a Paganini! Obviously, the social and
musical circumstances around 1818 were undergoing a metamorphosis.
In the high classical era, the symphonie concertante served some musicians
as the vehicle which enabled them to reject the confining security and subser-
vience of church and court to seek an uncertain independence - with its potential
for upward mobility - of bourgeois society. All cultural changes, including the
birth, growth, and decline of forms and styles in music, are subject in varying
degrees both to internal forces, governed by the genius of the creative mind,
and to external ones, shaped by social, political and cultural imperatives. The
symphonie concertante is a remarkable model of a musical genre in the creation
of which social factors played the dominant role, a genre that was more the >re-
sultant of anonymous forces,? to use Barzun's phrase, than of purely musical
ones.

19 For valuable insight into the life

cycle of musical genres, see Georg von DADELSEN, ))Die
Vermischung musikalischer Gattungen als soziologisches Problem<<,in Bericht(iberden Internationalen
MusikwissenschaftlichenKongressKassel 1962, Kassel 1963, pp. 23-25.

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148 B. S. BROOK, THE SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE, IRAMDA 25/1,2 (1994) 131-148

Saz'etak
KONCERTANTNA SIMFONIJA:GLAZBENE I SOCIOLODKEOSNOVE
Za'to je koncertantna simfonija u'la u modu tako iznenada oko 1770., brzo doiivjela svoj puni
procvat i uskoro se ugasila? Koncertantna simfonija, koju su sve do nedavno povjesniEari glazbe
jedva spominjali, moze se definirati kao simfonijska kompozicija za 2, 3, 4, a ponekad ?ak do 9 solo
instrumenata s orkestrom; njen puni cvat pada u razdoblje kasnog klasicizma, od 1770. do 1825.; bila
je namijenjena javnom izvodenju u koncertnim dvoranama i nastupima virtuoza solista. Ona je samo
prividno sliina concertu grossu, a zapravo je srodnija klasianoj simfoniji, koncertu i oblicima poput
divertimenta. Uostalom, ona je razvila svoj vlastiti oblik. U glazbenoj literaturi postoji oko 560 pozna-
tih koncertantnih simfonija od 209 kompozitora. Gotovo polovicu svih koncertantnih simfonija napi-
salo je 68 francuskih autora. Ova francuska crta jo' je jaEanego Sto to proizlazi iz ovakvih brojeanih
odnosa, ako znamo da su skladatelji drugih nacionalnosti (kao na primjer Carl i Anton Stamitz, J.
Ch. Bach i drugi) svoje koncertantne simfonije pisali za parisku publiku i nakladnike. Prvih dvade-
setak godina svoga postojanja ta je vrsta ostala preteino francuska, a tek se onda postupno potela
siriti na njemaike dvorove i gradove. S nastupom razdoblja kasnog klasicizma, to jest oko 1770.,
doglo je do osjetnog ubrzanja mijene u glazbenom stilu, kako na opernom tako i na instrumentalnom
podrudju. Paralelno s time, nakon duzeg razdoblja relativno stabilnih odnosa izmedu glazbenika i
njegove okoline, probudila se nova svijest o ulozi i statusu glazbenika. Koncertantna simfonija odi-
grala je vainu ulogu u tim promjenama i kao sredstvo, i to novo sredstvo, pomodu kojega
poslu.ila
je instrumentalni skladatelj (i izvoditelj) mogao dramatiano izraziti svoj stav i poloiaj. Sljedefe razno-
vrsne pojave sve su se stekle oko 1770. i sve su uzajamno povezane: porasla je popularnost javnih
koncerata i opernih predstava, znatno se pojaeala glazbena nakladnikka aktivnost, izbio je kratkotrajni
pokret Sturm und Drang, i konaino se pojavila koncertantna simfonija. Sve su te pojave uzrokovane
spletom druitvenih snaga i faktora koji su ved i ranije djelovali, ali koji su sada dobili katalitiaku
snagu u uzajamnom djelovanju. Njihova uzajamna povezanost nije rezultat nekog >duha vremena<
niti pak >>samihideja i oblika, nego zajednidkih problema za koje su ove ideje i oblici nahli odgovore<<.
Glavni problem pred kojim se nahao skladatelj sedamdesetih godina osamnaestog stoljeda, u druitvu
u kome je stari ved bio prezivio i pokazao se potpuno beskorisnim, bio je problem identiteta.
re.im
Koncertantna simfonija stvorena je za novu koncertnu publiku. Njenom je ukusu ponudila lake,
raznolike i melodiozne skladbe i tako glazbeniku omogudila da se oslobodi svakog patronata nad
sobom. Umrla je kad je shvadanje o potrebi masovne akcije za poboljanje skladateljeva statusa za-
sjenjeno kultom virtuoza. Koncertantna simfonija predstavlja model jedne vrste za %ijije opstanak
bitan vanjski drutveni imperativ vise nego unutrasnja, 6isto glazbena, stvaralaika snaga.

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