Prince of Bentheim's music collection, Burgsteinfurt

The Fürst zu Bentheimsche Musikaliensammlung Burgsteinfurt is an 18th century music library of the Princely House of Bentheim and Steinfurt .

history

The musical collection contains 734 manuscripts , 1152 printed music , almost 500 text books ( opera libretti and theater texts ) as well as some theoretical writings such as u. a. musical magazines and publishing catalogs. The private collection was built up primarily by Counts Karl Paul Ernst von Bentheim-Steinfurt (r. 1750–1780) and Ludwig Wilhelm Geldricus Ernst zu Bentheim and Steinfurt (r. 1780–1817, Prussian prince since 1817 ). After 1817 the collection was no longer systematically supplemented. The sheet music was acquired while traveling, almost exclusively for attending operas and concerts or from music publishers . Paris publishers such as Berault and the Frankfurt company Gayl & Hedler delivered larger broadcasts .

The public concerts in the so-called Bagno were characteristic of Burgsteinfurt's musical life at that time . A lot of symphonic music , music for wind instruments and concerts for the flute played by Count Ludwig has come down to us. The inventory of French symphonies from the 18th century is astonishingly large, although many works have been preserved as unique pieces in Burgsteinfurt , including a. by Giuseppe Cambini , François Devienne , François-Joseph Gossec , Étienne Ozi . There are numerous instrumental works , for example by the Mannheim composers Ernst Eichner , Anton Stamitz and Carl Stamitz , by the Viennese Adalbert Gyrowetz , Joseph Haydn , Franz Anton Hoffmeister , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Johann Baptist Wanhal and Paul Wranitzky , and also by Johann Christian Bach , Ludwig van Beethoven , Luigi Boccherini , Rodolphe Kreutzer , Ignaz Pleyel and Antonio Rosetti .

In Burgsteinfurt, vocal music primarily means opera music. Arias or entire operas or piano reductions are available, in addition to Mozart and Gyrowetz, above all by French people like François-Adrien Boieldieu , Nicolas Isouard and Étienne-Nicolas Méhul , later reinforced by Neapolitans such as Domenico Cimarosa , Ferdinando Paër , Giovanni Paisiello and Gioachino Rossini . Many of the instrumental works listed in Burgsteinfurt a large number of libretti have asides from the hand of Count Ludwig and characterize the Burgsteinfurter collection as a grown practical music library .

The valuable collection was housed in Burgsteinfurt Castle . Since 1964 the collection has been on loan to the University and State Library of Münster - Department for Manuscripts.

All works were also registered in the international music repertory RISM .

Joachim Domp: Studies on the history of music at Westphalian aristocratic courts in the 18th century. Freiburg studies in musicology, Regensburg 1934.
Albert Ernst, Erich Thurmann: Music at the Westphalian aristocratic courts. Rare and beautiful sheet music prints from the castles Rheda and Burgsteinfurt. Exhibition catalog, Münster 1987.
Erich Thurmann: Maintaining and indexing Westphalian musical collections in the Münster University Library. In: Library in four centuries. Jesuit library - Bibliotheca Paulina - University library in Münster 1588–1988. Münster 1988, pp. 297-316.