Matthias Georg Monn

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Matthias Georg Monn (also male ) (born April 9, 1717 in Vienna ; † October 3, 1750 ibid) was an Austrian composer , organist and music teacher of the Viennese pre-classical period .

Life

Very little is known about the composer, who died of a “lung defect” at the age of 33. Only positions as organist are documented, initially in Klosterneuburg near Vienna. Furthermore, he worked in the same function at the Karlskirche . He is said to have been ailing all his life and always dressed in black.

However, his works show him as an inventive master, especially in the field of instrumental music. His works were mainly created in the last decade of life. They are an Austrian counterpart to the experiments of the Mannheim School , which began to develop on the Rhine at the same time. In his concerts, sonatas and symphonies, Monn was clearly influenced by the latest developments from Italy. He spoke a language that Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart could directly relate to.

From late baroque to classic

Together with Georg Christoph Wagenseil and other contemporaries such as Leopold Mozart and Josef Starzer, Monn represents those Austrian composers who

Matthias Monn's compositional oeuvre comprises mainly 16 symphonies , a number of quartets, sonatas, masses and compositions for violin and piano. He is still one of the best-known representatives of the Viennese pre-classical period.

His authorship of most of the works ascribed to him is questionable insofar as these are almost all only preserved in copies from the 1780s and could therefore also come from his brother Johann Christoph Monn (1726? –1782). To this day it has not even been clarified whether “Johann Georg Mann”, born in 1717, is actually the organist Matthias Georg Monn, who died in 1750. The image of Monn as a pioneer of the pre-classical symphony is therefore largely a construct of Viennese musicology of the early 20th century and has long required a thorough reassessment.

Today's reception

“Even the substance of the cello concerto in G minor, which still breathes baroque spirit, by the Viennese organist Georg Matthias Monn (1717 to 1750) withstands the musicians' carefully scrutinizing gaze.” (Note: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra). "Lovingly like an old master watchmaker, the strings themselves dab off the solo part in the middle movement - a Siciliano of austere, simple beauty - with the simple tool of articulating chord insertions."

“... It is less well known that the symphony in G (1749) Monns presented here has a kind of second theme ( secondary theme ) very early in the history of the symphony , which is then important for the final development of the so-called sonata main movement form . Already early (1740) Monn used a minuet in the third place of the three-movement symphony type. "

Discography (selection)

  • CD "6 symphonies" (cpo, 1994)
  • "Concerts for various instruments" (cpo, 1995)
  • Around 1969 the cellist Jacqueline du Pré recorded a cello concerto in G minor by Monn. The recording was released by EMI.
  • In October 2017 the British-French cellist Corinne Morris released the CD Chrysalis on Linn Records , which also contains Monn's Cello Concerto in G minor in a recording with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The analysis from 2004 can be found in the archive of classical music reviews (3rd web link).
  2. ↑ E. Stadler in the aeiou encyclopedia about the symphony in G and an audio sample from it.
  3. ↑ audio samples; review
  4. ↑ audio samples
personal data
SURNAME Monn, Matthias Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Husband, Mathias Georg; Mon, Matthias Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian composer, organist and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1717
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 1750
Place of death Vienna