The Dissertation Chronicles, Op. 10

Today I completed the draft to my first dissertation chapter and sent it off to my adviser. Originally, I planned to write a chapter on instrumentation and orchestration, but my adviser suggested that I split the two. So this first chapter is on instrumentation, meaning a discussion purely on just the instruments called on for a particular work. The following chapter will be on orchestration, how the instruments interact, aid in articulation of form, and provide special effects and flashes of virtuosity.

As I reviewed the literature, some scholars mention the instrumentation of a work or works, but rarely comment on it. Then there are hose like John Spitzer and Neal Zaslaw who research changing conditions, size, and balance among orchestras throughout Europe. Yet more often than not, the focus remains on the usual suspects: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. These are the canonical composers who led to the reduction of our understanding of Viennese symphonic culture. I hope to remedy this on some level with my dissertation.

In the instrumentation chapter I hold up the symphonies of Beethoven's contemporaries to the simplified historical narrative, mainly the idea of the Classical orchestra (strings in four parts, pairs of winds, and timpani). Among Beethoven's contemporaries, only about 40% of their symphonies, at best, used this instrumentation. most of the others used smaller forces, and the remaining symphonies used trombones in addition to the "classical" orchestra, and others used accessory instruments (Turkish instruments and the like). With the entrance of the trombones, three was not the norm as often told by the historical narrative, mainly because of Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies.

Basically, accessory instruments amount to unconventional instruments. Turkish instruments (cymbals, triangle, military drums, and bass drums) are the most common addition. The example often referenced is Haydn's Symphony No. 100, "Military" from 1794. But before him came Franz Xaver Sussmayr and his Sinfonia turchesa from 1791. From the group of composers I examined, only two used Turkish instruments. Ferdinand Ries used them in the finale of his Sixth Symphony from 1822, and Paul Wranitzky used them in three of his symphonies (all composed for performance at the court of Marie Therese). The remaining symphonies using accessory instruments were composed by Wranitzky, and include two symphonies with keyboard (presumably composed with Marie Therese in mind), a symphony using four Papageno flutes and glockenspiel (both references to Mozart's Die Zauberflote (a favorite opera of Marie Therese), and a toy symphony. All of these symphonies by Wranitzky were composed during the last decade of his life (1795-1808).

It took longer than I would have liked to complete this chapter, but along the way I researched sources and did score study that helped lay the foundation for the next two chapters I will write. Orchestration is next, and there are several fascinating topics to explore with the symphonies I am looking at.