Dorothea from the Ried

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Dorothea vom Ried , also vom Ridt , vom Riedt (or “von”), or just Ridt , Ried or Riedt , (* unknown, 1615 at the earliest; in: Austria or Stuttgart, † unknown) performed as a viola player in the 17th century.

The gambist Dorothea vom Ried

A Latin poem of praise by the Nuremberg pastor of the Frauenkirche M. Joh. Saubertus , which has been preserved in the Prussian State Library in Berlin and was printed in 1623 , which presumably refers to a church concert from 1620, mentions the 5-year-old Dorothea, playing music with her parents and three siblings; where a 5-part Gloria was played by Christoph Buel vocal and instrumentalist . In 1657 Dorothea vom Ried was praised as a viol soloist in a baroque two-line praise by the Weimar court poet Georg Neumark , who himself played the viol.

" Just stop playing / you ädler musenchor / Because Dorothee vom Ried / she will introduce you all ."

The two-liner was reprinted again around 80 years later in Johann Gottfried Walther's Lexicon from 1732 - Walther calls it a " Distichon " (two-line ancient meter) - whereby Dorothea vom Ried, like Neumark before him, is called the "famous Violdagambist " designated. With "ädler musenchor" her family could be meant, with whom she already performed as a child. In 1657, when Neumark's planted pleasure forest , in which the distich is located, was printed, she must have been a well-known soloist by now.

In the 1990s, the viol player and author of the book " Die Gambe " Annette Otterstedt wrote about Dorothea vom Ried. Like him, it was also clear to the musicologist Linda Maria Koldau that Dorothea vom Ried was a daughter of the former "Cammer Musicant Fortunatus Ridt", who went on concert tours through Europe with his family in the 17th century. His hometown Pfaffstetten / Austriacum (Austria), from which he had to flee for reasons of faith, is stated on the title page of the sheet music from 1623. According to Koldau, the Sondershausen court organist Ernst Ludwig Gerber recorded Dorothea's membership in the Ridt family in his dictionary from 1790/92. When Neumark's entry " Dorothee vom Ried " - name variants were normal at the time - it is noticeable that no other member with name appears from the family ensemble. The printed sheet music from 1623 reproduces what the family made vocal and instrumentalists in Nuremberg and names the names of four children involved in the concert: Maria, Adam, Matthias and Dorothea, according to the source, the latter was only four or five this year Year old.

Concert tours by the Ried family of musicians

The poet Ricarda Huch tells of the family's guest performance in Nuremberg in 1620 in The Great War in Germany . The source does not state it. The source for Ricarda Huch was probably the printed sheet music from 1723 with a Latin foreword, which is in the Berlin State Library. Due to Huch's story from the Thirty Years' War , the family had a highly acclaimed appearance in the Zur Goldenen Gans inn and then made music in the Lorenz Church, singing in five voices (father, mother and the children given by name) and playing their instruments. The next documented concert of the Ridt family of musicians can be found in the Frankfurt council files on August 23, 1625. According to this, the family gave on the previous Sunday in Frankfurt " in the upper large election room " (town hall?) To " Mr. Schultheißen, Lord Mayors and others noble Rathspersonen "a" lovely ›Musica‹ ". A top-class concert by the traveling family can be found in the wording of the Frankfurt Council Act " uff all instruments and violas figured ". The musician Fortunatus Ridt, who was expelled from Austria as a " foreigner [from an unnamed place] , received 24 Reichsthaler for the performance with his family . The addition "expelled" refers to the Thirty Years' War that began in Prague in 1618 . Until 1625 the musician had a high, well-paid position as Cammer Musicus at the Stuttgart court for "about twenty years" , so that Dorothea could have been born as his daughter in Stuttgart. A four-week stay in Augsburg is documented in 1626 .

Another Frankfurt council file from 1627 contains a long letter of application from Fortunatus Ridt for another concert in the trade fair city. In it he mentions "his" sacred music - he was apparently also a composer - for whose rehearsals and performance he asks for a 14-day stay in a town hall. He writes of a successful family trip to Paris and emphasizes how much his “youth” could benefit from Parisian teachers. In 1630 they played in Hamburg in the hall of the Maria Magdalenen monastery, for which they received ten Reichsthaler. In 1633 the family gave a concert in Dordrecht in the Netherlands. On September 22, 1634 they came to Mühlhausen (Thür.) And gave a concert in the Barefoot Church. "Among them was a boy of six who played and sang so lovely on the viola viol that one has never heard anything like this in Mühlhausen." The Musicus Fortunatus Riede received 10 thalers from the city council for this concert.

The family ensemble, led by the father Fortunatus Ridt, consisted of two sons and four daughters in 1631 at the latest, making a total of six children. In that year 1631 the book Lobworthige Gesellschaft der Schehrten Weiber by Johann Frauenlob appeared in Leipzig , in which the anonymous author emphasizes the four daughters of the family, of whom " two are still very young and one barely eight years old ". Dorothea vom Ried is likely to have appeared in public for the most part in her family's association. The exuberant description of women's praise, especially the girls, continues:

" How then, in Vienna, Prague, Leipzig, Wittenberg and other places next to their two brothers, did splendid samples of their art, that men marvel at it and boast more of an angelic or celestial than human music ."

He must have followed the fate of the family of musicians before 1631 in order to write his detailed report about them, which Koldau reproduces in full.

Musical socialization of girls in the 17th century

The musical advancement of the girls in this family of musicians was specially highlighted by contemporary Johann Frauenlob and was rated by the musicologists Koldau and Otterstedt as a special case and a stroke of luck at that time, especially in Germany. Instrumentalists performing in public did not correspond to the role model for girls and women in the 17th century. The singer was more likely to be tolerated in private or in many places on the opera stage, just not in church. But a viola player - solo - was unknown, as this leg-held instrument was considered "improper" for women. The viol player Annette Otterstedt wrote the chapter about this: An improper instrument? Viol-playing women .

The traveling student Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach recorded in his diary in 1714 after a concert at the Bernese Collegium musicum that he occasionally knew how to help :

“The fact that the women played viola players or singers in the Collegium musicum was neither customary in the place nor in the time. [...] a specially covered corridor to the artists 'room was created, and the music podium was closed off from the curious spectators' room in the manner described [curtain]. You could hear the women executing the music, but not see them. "

The Ridt family's trip to Paris was aimed at promoting their children musically, and with equal rights for their sons and daughters, when there were no opportunities in their own country, mainly due to the war. The pseudonym Johann Frauenlob (referring to Heinrich Frauenlob ?) Hides a promoter of the misunderstood female scholarship and an admirer especially of the teacher and educator of his daughters, Fortunatus Ridt.

“ The fact that a lot of women also experience musica is not hidden from the male. The wonderful and unheard-of example of Mr. Fortunati Riedts from Austria of his four daughters is particularly memorable "

Summary of the oldest sources

Viola bastarda from the Syntagma musicum by Michael Praetorius 1619
  • 1620 concerts in Nuremberg in the Goldene Gans inn (?), In the Lorenz Church, told by Ricarda Huch in The Great War in Germany and in the Frauenkirche.
  • 1623 Confirmation or notification of another concert by a printed sheet music dedicated by Fortunatus Ridt to the innkeeper of the Golden Goose in Nuremberg with a dedication title and details of the names of the four children Maria, Adam, Matthias and Dorothea who participated.
  • 1625 Report on a family concert in Frankfurt / Ratsakten.
  • Autumn 1627, Fortunatus Ridt's request in the Frankfurt council files for residence and the possibility of a concert by his family.
  • In 1631 , the lexicon Lobworthy Society of Scholarly Women appeared in Austria without a location, under the pseudonym " Johann Frauenlob " . In the preface you can read the aforementioned detailed report on the Ridt family of musicians, which particularly highlights the four young daughters. He praises the music they played with her brothers "in the loveliest way". It is printed in full in Koldau, pp. 516/17. So there have been two more daughters since 1620.
  • The three volumes Musikalisch-Poetischer Lustwald and Fortgepflantzter Musikalisch-Poetischer Lustwald by Georg Neumark were published in Jena , in his third volume, p. 35 f., Published in 1657, the two-liner about the “famous” viola (called “Distichon” by Walther) -da gamba player Dorothea vom Ried is included. Her name is highlighted as a soloist without her family being specifically mentioned.
  • In 1732 Johann Gottfried Walther referred to her alone in his Musicalisches Lexicon published in Leipzig as “a famous Violdagambist ” and quoted Neumark's “ Distichon ”.
  • The family lived temporarily in the Netherlands in Dordrecht, according to Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek Leiden, 1933.

An instrument from Dorothea vom Ried?

In the Frankfurt files, there is talk of “figured viola playing ”, which points to the diminution technique of the viol (virtuoso ornamentation technique). For this special, virtuoso technique, a " viola bastarda " was used north of the Alps , a bass viol which, as the viol player Annette Otterstedt describes, played a solo role in the viol consort . The instrument can be recognized by a rosette on the ceiling and a snail instead of a head. Was a “viola bastarda” the instrument of the “soloist” Dorothea vom Ried?

literature

Web links

URL [5] Dedication of a composition by Christoph Buel to the host of the Golden Goose in Nuremberg in 1623 by Fortunatus Ridt

Evidence and Notes

  1. ^ Johann Gottfried Walther : Musicalisches Lexicon or Musicalische Bibliothec .
  2. ↑ Dedication of praise to Fortunato Ried. Page 2 of the printed sheet music from 1623. 5-part Glora by Christoph Buel
  3. ↑ Georg Neumark: Fortpflantzter Lustwald [1]
  4. ^ Johann Gottfried Walther: Musicalisches Lexicon or Musicalische Bibliothec .
  5. ↑ See title page of the printed sheet music from 1623, which refers to the Nuremberg Concert of 1720: Message from an IP on the discussion page [URL http://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN789433788 ]
  6. ↑ Annette Otterstedt: The viol. Cultural history and practical guide . Bärenreiter, Kassel 1994, p. 80.
  7. ↑ in different spellings of the name. Linda Maria Koldau: Women Music Culture 2005, p. 517.
  8. ↑ Linda Maria Koldau: Women Music Culture 2005, p. 516/17; There also a reprint of Johann Frauenlob's report .
  9. ↑ Koldau pp. 518/519.
  10. ↑ Frauenlob speaks of four daughters and two sons, so that the first line of the verse "Just stop playing, you ädler musen choir" could refer to the rest of the family, the "noble muses choir", as it pauses in making music, to allow Dorothea's solo performance in front of the audience present.
  11. ^ Print from 1623, p. 2.
  12. ↑ Otterstedt, p. 80. The document for this concert gives an IP here, see on the discussion page and in the footnotes.
  13. ↑ See page 2 of the print from 1623.
  14. ↑ Koldau, p. 516.
  15. ↑ According to Nuremberg printing from 1623 from Pfaffstetten / Austriacum .
  16. ↑ Koldau p. 516.
  17. ↑ Koldau p. 517.
  18. ↑ Compare the quote in Koldau, p. 518.
  19. ^ Letter in Koldau, p. 518.
  20. ↑ Otterstedt p. 80.
  21. ↑ See the detailed message by the IP on the talk page.
  22. ↑ Jordan, Reinhard: Chronicle of the City of Mühlhausen 1600 - 1770, p. 80
  23. ↑ Johann Frauenlob, quoted in Koldau p. 516/17 with detailed references.
  24. ↑ Johann Frauenlob: Lobworthige Gesellschaft der Gelehrten Weiber , 1631. Reprint 2000, pp. 114–159, here p. 123 f.
  25. ↑ So Frauenlob, quoted from Koldau, pp. 116/117.
  26. ↑ Koldau, pp. 516 and 517.
  27. ↑ Otterstedt p. 77ff. See also Koldau p. 517.
  28. ^ Eberhard Preussner: The musical journeys of Mr. Uffenbach . P. 50.
  29. ^ Letter in Koldau, p. 116.
  30. ↑ Composition by Christoph Buel Soli Deo Gloria , performed by the Ried family. URL [2]
  31. ^ Koldau p. 516: Peter Epstein: From Frankfurt council files of the 17th century . In: Zeitschr. f. Music science 5, 1922/23, pp. 368-374, here p. 368. Entry 23 August 1625.
  32. ^ Printed in full in Koldau, p. 518. Epstein, p. 369.
  33. ↑ PDF title and text: [3]
  34. ↑ Koldau p. 517. Otterstedt, p. 80.
  35. ^ Walther: Lexicon , p. 476.
  36. ↑ Communication from the named IP (see discussion page): [4] .
  37. ↑ Annette Otterstedt: The viol. Cultural history and practical guide . In it: Die Viola Bastarda , pp. 121–124.
personal data
SURNAME Ried, Dorothea from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ried, Dorothee; Reed Dorothe; Ridt, Dorothea; Riedt, Dorothea; Ried, Dorothea; Ridt, Dorothea vom; Riedt, Dorothea from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German viol player
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: 1615
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Stuttgart or Austria
DATE OF DEATH 17th century