Maximilian Stadler

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Abbé Stadler (JB Pfitzer, 1813)
Stadler's grave in the Sankt Marxer Friedhof in Vienna

Maximilian Johann Karl Dominik Stadler , later Abbé Stadler (born August 4, 1748 in Melk ; † November 8, 1833 in Vienna ) was an Austrian composer , music historian , organist and pianist .

biography

childhood

On August 4, 1748, Johannes Karl Dominik Stadler was born as the second of nine children of the master baker and market judge (corresponds to the current mayor ) Karl Stadler and his wife Eleonora. He was only to receive the first name Maximilian when he entered the monastery. The house where he was born is still preserved today and is located at today's Rathausplatz 9 in Melk . He received his first musical training from the bassist Johann Franz Leuthner, employed at the Melk Benedictine Abbey . So it happened that he sang in the Melk parish church as a child . In 1758 Stadler became a student in Lilienfeld Abbey , where his uncle was a Cistercian . There he initially practiced the clavichord and organ alone, but soon received lessons. His first compositions also date from the time of Lilienfeld: a lost soprano aria and a Salve Regina , which is also lost today, but was often performed in the monastery at that time . From 1762 Stadler attended the fourth to sixth Latin grades with the Jesuits in Vienna . In Vienna he made contacts with numerous musicians working in Vienna, including Bonno , Gassmann , Reutter , Vanhal and J. Haydn .

In the monastery

On November 4, 1766, he entered the Melk Abbey, with four other former choirboys joining him, including Marian Paradeiser and Ulrich Petrak . In 1767 Stadler made his profession , in 1772 he was ordained a priest. After Paradeiser's death, Stadler took over the chair for theology in Melk in 1775. When the Theological University was relocated to Vienna, Stadler was given the post of cooperator in the Wullersdorf Abbey Parish in 1783 , but only stayed there for one year, since he was elected prior in 1784 . In this office, Stadler, who is considered moderate, succeeded the strict Father Damian Rusko . After the death of Abbot Urban Hauer in 1785, Stadler was responsible for the administration of the monastery. In order to obtain permission to elect an abbot, Stadler received an audience with Emperor Joseph II. However , Stadler refused permission. Instead, the Kaiser decided to appoint Stadler as Commendatar Abbot.

In Lilienfeld and Kremsmünster

In June 1786 Stadler took up his position as Commendatabab of the Cistercian Abbey of Lilienfeld . At that time the monastery was in a financially precarious position due to mismanagement and was dissolved in 1789. Thereupon the emperor ordered Stadler to the Benedictine monastery Kremsmünster to also become commendatabbot there. The pen chronicle leaves no good hair on Stadler and accused him of pleasure trips to Linz and Vienna, but also mentions that Stadler was an excellent musician. But when Stadler left the observatory in Kremsmünster, which Count Rottenhahn wanted to bring to Linz, his relationship with the monastery improved suddenly. Stadler's musical activities in Lilienfeld and Kremsmünster are little known, but there is evidence that he accompanied the Kremsmünster Benedictine Placidus Fixlmillner (violin) and Count Rottenhan (cello) on the piano.

In Linz, Vienna and Böhmischkrut

After the death of Emperor Joseph II, the old abbot was reinstated and Stadler went to Linz. As a farewell he received a booklet with joints from Georg Pasterwitz . The Bishop of Linz appointed Stadler to the Consistorial Council . Stadler spent a lot of time with the bishop, accompanying him on trips to Garsten and Mondsee. Stadler also traveled to Vienna and visited Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart there . After several unsuccessful applications for canons and parishes, Stadler moved to Vienna in 1796. There he devoted himself entirely to music, composed secular works, often visited the imperial library and arranged operas by Mozart ( Der Schauspieldirektor , Così fan tutte , Die Zauberflöte , Idomeneo ), Gluck ( Orfeo ed Euridice ) and Cherubini ( Médée , Lodoïska ), among others and Elisa ) for string sextet. In 1803 Stadler finally becomes pastor of Altlerchenfeld. A year later he was secularized (that is, freed from the three monastic vows and thus placed on an equal footing with world priests ); this was mainly due to financial reasons. In any case, it had nothing to do with an alienation from his home monastery Melk, which is supported by some autograph compositions that came to Melk Abbey later, but still during Stadler's lifetime. In 1809 Stadler applied for the parish of Böhmischkrut . In 1810 he was appointed pastor there. The pastoral care in the large parish (with three branches) overwhelmed the 60-year-old priest. So in 1815 he submitted his resignation and went to Vienna. He soon recovered there and was able to devote himself entirely to music in his pension. For example, he collected material on an Austrian music history, which, however, was not printed during his lifetime and was soon forgotten after his death. So it happened that this first musical history of Austria was only published in 1974 (see bibliography!). During the last years of his life, Stadler celebrated Holy Mass every day, strolled outdoors for several hours and never failed to visit musical circles . Stadler died on November 8, 1833 in his apartment in Vienna and was buried a few days later, like Mozart, in the Sankt Marxer Friedhof . His grave with the tomb donated by Baron von Trattner and the grave inscription by Ignaz Franz Castelli still exists today.

Appreciation

Stadler was one of the most prominent personalities in Viennese musical life at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries; he was friends with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Joseph Haydn , Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert and wrote numerous works on Mozart. He excelled particularly in the dispute about the authenticity of Mozart's Requiem (1825: Defense of the authenticity of Mozart's Requiem ). He was also involved in organizing Mozart's musical estate and in the very first Mozart catalog raisonné (published as an appendix to Georg Nikolaus Nissen's biography ). He also frequented the so-called Patriotic Circle around Moritz Joseph Johann von Dietrichstein and Ignaz Franz von Mosel as well as in several musical circles, such as that of Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin . Stadler enjoyed an excellent reputation as a music scholar and counterpoint artist. Even if he was not directly active as a teacher, numerous young composers submitted their works to him for assessment, including Simon Sechter and Franz Lachner .

In 1930 the Stadlergasse in Vienna- Hietzing was named after him.

Works (selection)

  • Oratorio : " The Liberation of Jerusalem " (Vienna, 1813)
  • Cantatas
  • Songs and choirs
  • Church music , including two requiums, four Latin masses , a German mass and numerous smaller works.
  • Works for keyboard instruments
  • Arrangements of operas for string sextet: "Cosi fan tutte", "Idomeneo", "Magic Flute" by Mozart, as well as works by Gluck and Cherubini.
  • Theoretical and music-historical writings, including The Defense of the Authenticity of Mozart's Requiem (Vienna, 1826)

Most of his works are in the music collection of the Austrian National Library and in the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna .

literature

Web links

Commons : Maximilian Stadler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gustav Schilling: Encyclopedia of the Entire Musical Sciences, or Universal Lexicon of Tonkunst . 3. Edition. Vol. 5, Franz Heinrich Köhler, Stuttgart 1838, p. 464.
personal data
SURNAME Stadler, Maximilian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stadler, Maximilian Johann Karl Dominik (full name); Stadler, Abbé
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian composer, music historian and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH August 4, 1748
PLACE OF BIRTH Melk , Lower Austria
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1833
Place of death Vienna