Johann Joachim Quantz y su aportación a la cultura musical del siglo XVIII

Abstract

Abstract Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) is the author of the Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen (Essay of a method on playing the flute), published in 1752 in Berlin. Besides being the first comprehensive summary about the flute, this book covers several issues related to composition, style, profession, expression and musical appreciation, and shows a broad panorama on contemporary musical taste. Thanks to the publication en 1960 decade of the first modern English translation by E. R. Reilly, the Versuch is today considered an unavoidable authority for the interpretation of Baroque music. Nevertheless, his notoriety contrasts with the quite lowly awareness about the life of its author. Quantz was one of the most famous virtuosi of his time in Germany. A prolific composer, he wrote more than 700 works, mostly for flute, still little known today. He also brought important innovations to the design of the instrument. His fame has been traditionally linked to the last thirty years of his life, which he spent as a private flute teacher of Frederick II of Prussia. Being young, Quantz acquired substantial proficiency on many instruments, like oboe and violin. This gave him access to a bright career in the Saxon court in Dresden, as a flutist in its celebrated orchestra. He visited the main European musical centres, and met celebrities like Gasparini, Scarlatti, Hasse, Farinelli, Blavet and Handel. This stage of his life is described in his short 1754 autobiography, which provides us with valuable keys to accurate insight of the treatise. This thesis deeply investigates the links between the Versuch and Quantz biography, in order to enhance its comprehension and to identify the most appropriate application fields. In addition, this research sets up the first comprehensive knowledge base in Spanish language about this matter. The first part of the thesis consists of a critical reconstruction of Quantz's biography, based upon the autobiography and contemporary sources. The second part gathers a detailed analysis of the Versuch, deepening in antecedents, dissemination and matters addressed. The third part introduces a critical version in Spanish of the Versuch, in close connection with the biographic reconstruction and research findings. This research disentangles the relation between Quantz and his cultural and artistic environment, explores the stages of his early education, his reception of the opera and Italian instrumental music, and assesses the role of the violin and singing in the ideas found in the Versuch. Through resizing the traditional association to Prussian environment, the thesis highlights the importance of his professional experience in Dresden. In order to precise Quantz's place in contemporary musical debate, the thesis details his contribution to matters like the diffusion of "mixed style" (synthesis of French and Italian styles), the development of the flute, the growth of the "good execution" conception and of the German musical taste. Quantz's ideas about the "cantabile" and the ornamentation, his moderate position in the instrumental music emancipation from singing, and the growing importance of the invention in musical creation against the rhetoric representation of "passions", underline his role of hinge between two stages in musical taste evolution