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MOZART'S OPERAS FOR HARMONIE: THREE CONTEMPORARY

ARRANGEMENTS COMPARED
Jacob R. Ludwig
University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected]

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Ludwig, Jacob R., "MOZART'S OPERAS FOR HARMONIE: THREE CONTEMPORARY ARRANGEMENTS
COMPARED" (2021). Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music. 162.
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MOZART'S OPERAS FOR HARMONIE: THREE CONTEMPORARY

ARRANGEMENTS COMPARED

by

Jacob R. Ludwig

A THESIS

Presented to the Faculty of

The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska

In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements

For the Degree of Master of Music

Major: Music

Under the Supervision of Professor Pamela F. Starr

Lincoln, Nebraska

August, 2021
 MOZART'S OPERAS FOR HARMONIE: THREE CONTEMPORARY ARRANGEMENTS

COMPARED

Jacob R. Ludwig, M.M.

University of Nebraska, 2021

Advisor: Pamela F. Starr

This thesis examines three approaches to arranging Mozart's operas for Harmonie by

Johann Nepomuk Went, Josef Triebensee, and Joseph Heidenreich through an analysis of

selections from their arrangements. It consists of two chapters. Chapter One discusses the

historical background of the Harmonie ensemble in Vienna and an introduction to the

complicated publishing history of Mozart's original works for the Harmoniemusik ensemble. A

summary of the scant biographical information about the three arrangers of the works to be

studied concludes Chapter One. Chapter Two covers the arrangements of Mozart's operas by

Johann Nepomuk Went, Josef Triebensee, and Joseph Heidenreich. The Harmonie arrangements

of Mozart's operas made by Went, Triebensee, and Heidenreich provide vital information in

analyzing the writing style of Harmoniemusik at the end of the eighteenth century.
 iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures iv

Preface vi

Chapter I: HARMONIEMUSIK IN CONTEXT 1

Terminology 1

A Brief Historical Background of the Harmonie Ensemble in Vienna 2

Controversy Over Harmonie Works by Mozart 3

Brief Biographies of the Arrangers 6

Chapter II: THE HARMONIE ARRANGEMENTS 12

Went’s Arrangement of Die Entführung aus dem Serail 12

Triebensee’s Arrangement of Don Giovanni 28

Heidenreich’s Arrangement of Die Zauberflöte 51

Conclusion 71

Bibliography 75
 iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1 NMA score and Went's arrangement 14

Table 2 Overture comparison 16
Figure 1 "Hier soll ich dich”, mm. 113-118 17
Figure 2 "Hier soll ich dich”, mm. 105-109 18
Figure 3 "Hier soll ich dich”, mm. 51-58 19
Figure 4 "Hier soll ich dich”, mm. 49-54 20
Figure 5 "Hier soll ich dich”, mm. 24-28 20
Figure 6 "Hier soll ich dich”, mm. 21-30 21
Table 3 “Hier soll ich dich denn sehen, Konstanze!” comparison 22
Table 4 “O, wie will ich triumphieren” comparison 24
Figure 7 “O, wie will ich triumphieren”, mm. 38-44 25
Figure 8 “O, wie will ich triumphieren”, mm. 1-24 26
Figure 9 “O, wie will ich triumphieren”, mm. 25-37 27
Table 5 NMA and Triebensee’s arrangement 30-34
Table 6 Overture comparison 35
Figure 10 Overture, mm. 111-121 36
Figure 11 Overture, mm. 1-8 37
Figure 12 Overture, mm. 1-8 38
Table 7 “Là ci darem la mano” comparison 40
Figure 13 “Là ci darem la mano”, mm. 75-82 41
Figure 14 “Là ci darem la mano”, mm. 72-80 41
Figure 15 “Là ci darem la mano”, mm. 1-6 42
Figure 16 “Là ci darem la mano”, mm. 1-9 43
Table 8 NMA score and Triebensee’s arrangement 44
Figure 17 Overture comparison, mm. 8-13 45
Figure 18 “Già la mensa è preparata”, mm. 162-171 47
Table 9 “Già la mensa è preparata” comparison 48-49
Table 10 NMA score and Heidenreich’s arrangement 52-55
Table 11 Overture comparison 56
Figure 19 Overture, mm. 1-3 57
Figure 20 Overture, mm. 1-3 58
Figure 21 Overture, mm. 33-37 59
Figure 22 Overture, mm. 33-37 59
Table 12 Quintet no. 5, "Hm! hm! hm!" comparison 61-62
Figure 23 Quintet no. 5, "Hm! hm! hm!", mm. 236-247 63
Figure 24 Quintet no. 5, "Hm! hm! hm!" 64
Figure 25 Quintet no. 5, "Hm! hm! hm!", mm. 1-9 65
Figure 26 Quintet no. 5, "Hm! hm! hm!", mm. 1-20 66
Table 13 "O Isis un Osiris schenket" comparison 68
Figure 27 "O Isis un Osiris schenket", mm. 10-19 69
Figure 28 "O Isis un Osiris schenket", mm. 13-25 69
v
 vi

PREFACE

There have been a number of studies on the topic of Harmoniemusik, but relatively few

on the arrangements of excerpts of Mozart's operas for Harmonie ensemble by Mozart's

contemporaries. The purpose of this study is to examine three approaches to arranging Mozart's

operas for Harmonie, by Johann Nepomuk Went, Josef Triebensee, and Joseph Heidenreich,

through an analysis of selections from their arrangements. The operas include Die Entführung

aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni, and Die Zauberflöte. There has been little research on these

arrangements, some of the few surviving examples influenced by Mozart's style of wind writing.

The present study reflects the author's interest and background in both wind performance

and in the musicology of the Classical and early Romantic eras. While previous research by

musicologists such as Bastiaan Blomhert, Peter Heckl, Roger Hellyer, Daniel L. Neeson, Ann

van Allen-Russell, and David Whitwell have offered many critical insights into the history of

Harmoniemusik, there has been little recent publication on the subject.1

My research methodology involves both musical and historical analysis of Mozart's

operatic orchestrations in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe and the Harmonie arrangements of Went,

Triebensee, and Heidenreich. It will also take into account contemporary correspondence,

especially between Mozart's widow Constanze and Viennese publishers around the turn of the

nineteenth century, along with recent scholarship about Mozart's final decade in Vienna.

1
Ann R. Van Allen-Russell, "The Integration of the Harmonie Ensemble Into the Late Piano Concertos (1784-
1786) of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart," MM thesis., (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1992); Bastiaan Blomhert, The
Harmoniemusik of Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, (Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht,
1987); Peter Heckl, WA Mozarts Instrumentalkompositionen in Bearbeitungen für Harmoniemusik vor 1840
(Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2014); Roger Hellyer, " 'Harmoniemusik': Music for Small Wind Band in the Late
Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries," Ph.D. dissertation., (University of Oxford, 1973), Daniel N. Leeson and
David Whitwell, “Mozart’s ‘Spurious’ Wind Octets,” Music & Letters 53, no. 4 (October 1972): 377-99.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/733288.
 vii

My study consists of two chapters. Chapter One will briefly discuss the specific

terminology, the historical background of the Harmonie ensemble in Vienna, an introduction to

the complicated publishing history of Mozart's original works for Harmonie, and a summary of

the scant biographical information about the three arrangers of the works to be studied.

Chapter Two will cover the arrangements of Mozart's operas by Johann Nepomuk Went,

Josef Triebensee, and Joseph Heidenreich. These arrangements include selections from Die

Entführung aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni, and Die Zauberflöte. The Harmonie arrangements of

Mozart's operas made by Went, Triebensee, and Heidenreich provide vital information in

analyzing the writing style of Harmoniemusik at the end of the eighteenth century.2 These

arrangements have been neglected, and their study will illuminate both the Harmonie tradition

and Mozart's original works.

I would like to acknowledge the heroic efforts, assistance, and support of the following

institutions and individuals who have made this thesis possible. Within the University of

Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries system, I am especially grateful to music librarian Dr. Anita

Breckbill and operations supervisor Gama Wiesca for their efforts to make all the materials of

the UNL Music Library available during the life-altering outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19)

disease beginning in March of 2020. I wish to also express my deepest thanks to the staff of the

Interlibrary Loan office for obtaining all the items I requested amid a pandemic. I am grateful to

my life-long clarinet professor, Dr. Diane Barger, for sitting on my committee despite her breast

cancer diagnosis, surgeries, and treatment sessions. I cannot adequately express in words how

grateful I am for this gift.

2
While other contemporary Viennese Harmonie arrangements and transcriptions of Mozart’s operas may exist, there
are no other surviving published arrangements between 1781 to 1791 outside of the arrangements and transcriptions
of Went, Triebensee, and Heidenreich of note. For information on additional Harmonie arrangers after 1792 see
Blomhert, The Harmoniemusik of Die Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 175-181.
 viii

I wish to express my utmost appreciation to my thesis advisor, Dr. Pamela F. Starr, for

her unceasing guidance, constructive criticism, and unwavering support through the preparation

of this study. Taking every course offered by Dr. Starr starting in the Fall 2019 semester through

Spring of 2021 was the best set of decisions I have made in my academic life. This thesis would

never have come to fruition without the generosity, countless hours, and the unfailing

commitment of Dr. Starr; for that, I am forever in her debt. I give my deepest thanks to my

academic advisor and supervising committee member, Dr. Peter M. Lefferts, the first soul I met

in the Westbrook Music Building in August 2019. Thank you, Dr. Lefferts, for your knowledge

of the inner machinations of the Glenn Korff School of Music, for shaping my course of study,

and for your willingness to serve on this committee.

I would also like to express a special thanks to Dr. Ann van Allen-Russell for her warm,

kind, and generous help in supplying me with a digital copy of her 1992 M.M. thesis on the

subject of Harmoniemusik.

Finally, I would like to thank my loving parents, Jon and Lori, for supporting me beyond

measure. Thank you for your loving kindness, understanding, and constant encouragement. I will

cherish the past two years with both of you for the rest of my life.
 Chapter I

HARMONIEMUSIK IN CONTEXT

TERMINOLOGY

In this study, there are two crucial terms that need exploration: "Harmoniemusik" and

"arrangement." Although scholars have avoided a specific definition of the first term, the present

study defines "Harmoniemusik" as an octet comprised of "paired wind instruments, usually

oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons, that reached its zenith in the mid-and late eighteenth

century."3 Other terms used to describe the genre and its performing ensemble include

"Harmonie, Harmonien or Harmoniemusik."4 The term "full Harmonie" refers to every ensemble

instrument being deployed in a specific musical arrangement. The term "arrangement" will refer

to the specific numbers chosen by an arranger from an opera, comprising "popular pieces of the

theater work in a suite-like structure which did not necessarily follow the sequence of the

original work."5 I have avoided the term "transcription" unless it implies no musical changes

other than scoring. The term "transcription" will appear in citations throughout this thesis, but

they do not directly reflect the author's personal distinction between the terms "arrangement" and

"transcription." All of the Harmonie arrangements to be discussed involve musical alterations in

addition to those of scoring. My study applies these terms to the final two decades of eighteenth-

century Vienna.

3
Van Allen-Russell, "The Integration of the Harmonie Ensemble,” 7.
4
Ibid.
5
Ibid.
 2

A BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE HARMONIE ENSEMBLE IN

VIENNA

The Kaiserlich-Königliche Harmonie, or K.K. Harmonie, established on 1 April 1782,

was the very first ensemble of its kind in Vienna.6 The K.K. Harmonie formed a then-rare full

Harmonie, made up of the most sought-after Viennese wind players of the time. The virtuosi

wind players assembled for the K.K. Harmonie by Emperor Joseph II included Georg

Triebensee, first oboe; Johann Nepomuk Went, second oboe; Anton Stadler, first clarinet; Johann

Stadler; second clarinet; Martin Rupp, first horn; Jacob Eisen, second horn; Wenzel Kauzner,

first bassoon and Ignaz Drobney, second bassoon.7 Harmonie arrangements and transcriptions of

both opera and ballet music formed the principal repertoire of the K.K. Harmonie, as well as the

smaller Harmonie ensembles that subsequently appeared.8 The "quality and size" of the K.K.

Harmonie was so great in comparison with the other ensembles of the time that it "could be no

coincidence that the [H]armonie transcriptions of operas and ballet and the [subsequent]

Viennese [H]armonien themselves appeared simultaneously; the one evidently generated the

other."9

According to Roger Hellyer, the purpose of the Harmoniemusik arrangements and

transcriptions of opera and ballet scores served two functions: to provide background music at

dinners and for social events, and to perform in public and private concerts, "where they

6
Roger Hellyer, "The Transcriptions for Harmonie of Die Entführung aus dem Serail," In Proceedings of the Royal
Musical Association, vol. 102, pp. 53-66 (Cambridge University Press, 1975), 54.
7
Ibid., 54-55.
8
Ibid.
9
Hellyer, " 'Harmoniemusik'," 114.
 3

occasionally accompanied a soloist."10 Genres that would have been played by these performers

might also include serenades and divertimenti, similar to and possibly including the Viennese

wind serenades for winds written by Mozart. These pieces include the Serenade in E-flat major,

K.375,11 Serenade in C minor, K. 388/384a, and the Serenade in B-flat major, K.361/370a.12

These are the only surviving works for Harmonie attributed to Mozart that was written during his

decade in Vienna.13 However, there is some scholarly debate about the possibility of more such

works that might have been composed by Mozart during these years.

CONTROVERSY OVER DISPUTED HARMONIE WORKS BY MOZART

Perhaps one of the most intriguing puzzles to date for Mozart scholars lies in the

appendices, or "Anhang" sections 'A' through 'F' in almost every edition of the Chronologisch-

thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.14 These include the

doubtful or disputed works credited to Mozart, including some for the Harmonie ensemble.

These have been handled variously in the collected editions. The first complete edition of

Mozart's works, published by Breitkopf & Härtel from 1877 to 1910, left room for much

10
Roger Hellyer, "Harmoniemusik" (Grove Music Online, 2001), https://www-oxfordmusiconline-
com.libproxy.unl.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-
0000012392.
11
The Serenade in E-flat major, K. 375 originally was a sextet of paired wind instruments made up of clarinets,
horns and bassoons. The composer later added a pair of oboes to convert the composition into a wind octet.
12
The Serenade in C minor, K. 388/384 and the Serenade in B-flat major, K.361/370a could have only been played
by the K.K. Harmonie, or a similar ensemble due to the size and quality of the ensemble required to play it. Both
works also appear to have been composed between 1781 and 1783, which is around the formation of the K.K.
Harmonie.
13
This study acknowledges Mozart’s use of the Harmonie ensemble functioning within a larger ensemble (e.g., as
Tafelmusik for his finale to Don Giovanni, or in specific sections of the composer’s later piano concerti). However,
there is no other Harmoniemusik compositions that have currently been authenticated as being genuinely composed
by Mozart.
14
For the Neue Mozart Ausgabe, see Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, Franz Giegling, Alexander Weinmann, and Gerd
Sievers, Chronologisch-Thematisches Verzeichnis Sämtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amadé Mozarts; Nebst Angabe
Der Verlorengegangenen, Angefangenen (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel; C. F. Peters Corp., New York, 1964),
173-174. The now superseded Alte Mozart Ausgabe was a collection of 24 series of works in approximately 65
volumes. See Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Werke: Kritisch Durchgesehene
Gesammtausgabe (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1877-1910).
 4

improvement, according to serious scholars and performers. From 1955 to 2006, the Neue

Mozart-Ausgabe (the NMA) has been the leading authority and source on providing quality

editions and technical commentaries through the German publisher Bärenreiter-Verlag. Despite

the best efforts of the editors of the NMA's volumes of works for winds in Series VII, Orchestral

Serenades, Divertimentos, and Marches, the inclusion of some wind octets of contested

authenticity in the Neue Ausgabe Sämtlicher Werke: Serie VII: Ensemblemusik Für Größere

Solobesetzungen. Werkgruppe 17: Divertimenti und Serenaden Für Blasinstrumente published

by Bärenreiter-Verlag in 1984 has led to questioning by recent scholars Dietrich Berke, Albert

Dunning, Franz Giegling, Daniel N. Leeson, and Neal Zaslaw.

David Whitwell, a pioneering figure in the area of Harmoniemusik in musicological

studies, has pronounced many of the wind octets from "Anhang C" as being authentic works by

Mozart. A similar effort has been undertaken by pianist and musicologist Robert Levin regarding

the Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds in E-flat major, K. 297b (Anh. C 14.01), but with a

somewhat different scholarly approach. Other scholars, like Roger Hellyer, Bastiaan Blomhert,

and Peter Heckl are "on the fence" about these conclusions.15

Blomhert's dissertation describes Whitwell's case for the hand of Mozart in an

arrangement of Die Entführung aus dem Serail:

Whitwell published a series of articles on Harmonie music in Vienna. In his study on the
transcription of Die Entführung aus dem Serail (the Český Krumlov arrangement)
Whitwell16 'proves' that the Český Krumlov arrangement only could have been written by
Mozart himself. Whitwell does not discuss stylistic matters and his arguments are not

15
Roger Hellyer has written the earliest comprehensive Ph.D. dissertation on Harmoniemusik specifically, as well as
being the primary author of the New Grove Online entry on the subject. For the Hellyer’s dissertation, see Hellyer, "
'Harmoniemusik.' Also see Blomhert, The Harmoniemusik of Die Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In Heckl’s
dissertation, the author goes to some length to prove that K. 196e, Anhang C 17.01, (Anh 226) and Divertimento in
B-flat major, K. 196f, Anhang C 17.02, (Anh 227) by no means serve a legitimate scores by Mozart. Instead, Heckl
uses their lack of authenticity to validate the need for his own study of Mozart’s contemporaries’ Harmonie
transcriptions. See Heckl, WA Mozarts Instrumentalkompositionen, 13-21, 38-46.
16
For Whitwell’s original publication see David Whitwell, "A Case for the Authenticity of Mozart's Arrangement of
Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Wind Instruments'," The Instrumentalist (November 1969): 40-43.
 5

based on fact. They combine four cases of rather weak circumstantial evidence to
conclude that the Florence version is a transposition by Went of Mozart's own Český
Krumlov arrangement. Apart from interesting documentation about Harmoniemusik in
general, these articles are of no use to the research on Harmonie arrangements of Die
Entführung aus dem Serail.17

Roger Hellyer undoubtedly stands as one of the most respected figures in the relatively

unstudied area of Harmoniemusik. Hellyer's scholarship rests on careful authentication of

Mozart's works for Harmonie, which provides specific evidence about his publishers. What

follows here is a very brief summary of Hellyer's presentation of various views and his

conclusions. As Hellyer has documented, the publication history of Mozart's wind music is

complicated, contradictory, and incomplete.18 Many of the works for winds published

posthumously or without specific dates appear in "Anhang C" of the Köchel catalogue.19 Among

these works are divertimenti, serenades, and cassations whose style is similar to the authenticated

works by Mozart in these genres. Both Daniel Leeson and David Whitwell, two of the scholars

responsible for volumes of wind compositions in the NMA, relied on publishers' catalogues by

Johann Anton Traeg, Johann André and Breitkopf & Härtel that were published after Mozart's

death, along with the well-known but somewhat unreliable source, Mozart's own Verzeichnis

aller meiner Werke.20

The complicated story of how the posthumous publishers' catalogues were compiled is

rehearsed in Leeson's and Whitwell's article from 1972, "Mozart's 'Spurious' Wind Octets."21

These scholars made a case for the reliability of the sources, one that was convincingly refuted

17
For Whitwell’s original publication see Whitwell, "A Case for the Authenticity,” 40-43. Also see: Blomhert, “Die
Entführung aus dem Serail,” 32.17 Also see Roger Hellyer, “Mozart’s Harmoniemusik and Its Publishers,” The
Musical Times 122, no. 1661 (July 1981), https://doi.org/10.2307/1193562.
18
Hellyer,“Mozart’s Harmoniemusik and Its Publishers,” 468-469.
19
Köchel et al., Chronologisch-Thematisches Verzeichnis Sämtlicher, 874-880.
20
Daniel N. Leeson and David Whitwell, "Mozart's Thematic Catalogue," The Musical Times 114, no. 1566 (August
1973), 781-783.
21
Leeson and Whitwell, “Mozart’s ‘Spurious’ Wind Octets,” 379.
 6

by more recent scholars of Mozart's wind music, including Blomhert Bastiaan, Simon Keefe, and

Roger Hellyer.22

Each of these scholars questioned Leeson's and Whitwell's use of the dates in the

publishers catalogues and the evidence in a set of previously unknown works discovered in a

library in Prague. Hellyer's arguments and evidence, in particular, convinced the present writer

that the works for winds in "Anhang C" of the Köchel catalogue were not, in fact, composed by

Mozart, but by contemporary and anonymous composer/arrangers for Harmonie ensemble, "in

the style" of Mozart's authenticated compositions in that medium. In view of this, it becomes

even more relevant to study contemporary arrangements of Mozart's actual music, especially

excerpts from his operas by Mozart's contemporaries.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ARRANGERS

The lack of biographical information on the Harmoniemusik arrangers of Mozart's time

in Vienna presents a dilemma for music historians wishing to do research on arrangers like

Johann Nepomuk Went, Josef Triebensee, and Joseph Heidenreich. The popularity of these

men's arrangements and transcriptions for Harmonie did not result in extensive surviving

biographical data. The majority of the information on the Viennese Harmonie arrangers comes

from documents such as account ledgers and personnel rosters from the surrounding court and

opera orchestras in Vienna.23 Most of the known biographical information appears in Roger

Hellyer's 1973 dissertation,24 which corresponds with the biographical information found on

22
Blomhert, The Harmoniemusik of Die Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Hellyer, “Harmoniemusik and Its
Publishers,” also see: Simon P. Keefe, Mozart in Vienna :The Final Decade (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2017), 23.
23
Van Allen-Russell, "The Integration of the Harmonie Ensemble," 26.
24
Hellyer, " 'Harmoniemusik'."
 7

Grove Music Online, also written by Hellyer. Recent scholarship on the biographical information

on Joseph Heidenreich is provided in Peter Heckl's more recent dissertation,25 which like

Hellyer's biographies, was collected from a series of account ledgers, orchestral personnel

rosters, and sheet music advertisements.

The author wishes to acknowledge that the following information on the biographies of

Went,26 Triebensee,27 and Heidenreich28 comes almost directly from Hellyer's and Heckl's

writings. However, the author provides further historical data based on the previous findings of

Hellyer regarding Went and Triebensee.

JOHANN NEPOMUK WENT

Johann Nepomuk Went was a Bohemian oboist, cor anglais player, and composer born

on 27 June 1745 in Divice, now known as Vinařice u Loun, a municipality in the present-day

Czech Republic. Went's first professional post was as an oboist in the Prague court of Count

Patcha beginning the late-1760s or early 1770s. In the mid-1770s, Went became the first cor

anglais player in "the Harmonie Ensemble of Prince Schwarzenberg at Wittingau,"29 which is

now the present-day town of Třeboň in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, as

well as posts in Vienna. In 1777, Went was appointed to the post of second oboe in the K.K.

25
Heckl, W. A. Mozarts Instrumentalkompositionen.
26
Roger Hellyer, "Went [Vent, Wend, Wendt], Johann [Jan]" (Grove Music Online, 2001), https://www-
oxfordmusiconline-com.libproxy.unl.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-
9781561592630-e-0000030118.
27
Roger Hellyer, "Triebensee [Trübensee], Josef" (Grove Music Online, 2001), https://www-oxfordmusiconline-
com.libproxy.unl.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-
0000028360.
28
Biographical information on Joseph Heidenreich in Heckl’s 2014 dissertation as well as in the preface Himie
Voxman’s edited score Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Heidenreich and ed. Himie Voxman, Die Zauberflöte:
For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns, Band I (London: Musica Rara, 1977), i.
29
Hellyer, "Went," https://bit.ly/3y41f6g.
 8

Theater an der Burg, or Burgtheater, and the Wiener Hofmusikkapelle. In 1782, Went left his

post in Wittingau and became the second oboist of Emperor Joseph II's new Kaiserlich-

Königliche Harmonie beginning on 1 April 1782. His duties in the K.K. Harmonie, the

Nationaltheater, and Hofkapelle created "a combined income of 900 gulden a year (100 more

than Mozart's imperial salary) and additional fees for copying and composition."30 Went kept all

of his posts in Vienna until his death on 3 July 1801.

In addition to these posts, Went was best known for his Harmoniemusik arrangements,

transcriptions, and compositions in Vienna between 1777 and 1801. Went is credited with over

50 Harmonie arrangements and transcriptions of opera and ballet scores, most of which were

made under special contract for the Schwarzenberg Harmonie, which required "fundamentally

different arrangements of a work to accommodate the english horns."31 Among the over 50

arrangments and transcriptions, Went arranged and transcribed five of Mozart's operas. Went

also composed over 80 original works for the Harmonie ensemble, which mostly survive to this

day, though "several manuscripts are unsigned or lost."32 Went's work continued through his son-

in-law Josef Triebensee, who, like Went, was a very accomplished oboist and composer in

Vienna.

The most overlooked piece of information regarding Went is his direct involvement in

three of the Viennese premières of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's operas. Between 1782 and

1790, Went performed the second oboe part in the premières of Die Entführung aus dem Serail

(1782), Le nozze di Figaro (1786), and Così fan tutte (1790).33 Went's involvement in the initial

30
Ibid.
31
Ibid.
32
Ibid.
33
Herbert Seifert, Bruce Alan Brown, Peter Branscombe, Mosco Carner, Rudolf Klein, and Harald Goertz,
"Vienna," (Grove Music Online, 2002), https://www-oxfordmusiconline-
com.libproxy.unl.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-
5000905465.
 9

premières would more than explain why these three operas make up three of the five

arrangements made by Went. Went’s other Harmonie arrangements of Mozart’s operas derive

from Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte.

JOSEF TRIEBENSEE

Josef Triebensee, like his father Johann Georg Triebensee and father-in-law Johann

Nepomuk Went, was a Bohemian oboist, cor anglais player, and composer. Born in Wittingau,

now the present-day town of Třeboň in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic,

Triebensee took after his father, Georg Triebensee,34 who was an accomplished oboist and

composer. In addition to studies with his father, Triebensee also studied composition with the

famed Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist Johann Georg Albrechtsberger.

Triebensee can also be directly connected to a Mozart opera premiere, having played the second

oboe part under the direction of the composer for the "première of Die Zauberflöte"35 on 30

September 1791. In addition to his duties "at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, "36

Triebensee was also a frequent soloist with the Tonkünstler-Societät concert series and second

oboist of the Theater am Kärntnertor, or Kärntnertortheater in 1793. From 1794 to June of 1809,

Triebensee held the positions of Kapellmeister and first oboist in the Prince of Lichtenstein's

Harmonie in Feldsburg, which is now modern-day Valtice, a town in the Břeclav District in the

South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. From 1811 to 1816, Triebensee worked under

the auspices of Count Hunyady in Vienna while taking on additional work as a composer of

theater music in Brno. Triebensee's most notable professional appointment was to serve as Carl

34
Johann Georg Triebensee (b Herrndorf, 28 July 1746; d Vienna, 14 June 1813) was the principal oboist of Prince
Schwarzenberg’s Harmonie, later the K.K. Harmonie, as well as the Burgtheater in Vienna before his. For additional
information, see Hellyer, "Triebensee," https://bit.ly/2TFkqV2.
35
Hellyer, "Triebensee," https://bit.ly/2TFkqV2.
36
Ibid.
 10

Maria von Weber's successor as music director of the Prague Opera in 1816, a post he would

retain until his retirement in 1836.

The first sets of Josef Triebensee's Harmonie arrangements, transcriptions, and original

compositions were initially "advertised in the Wiener Zeitung"37 on 16 November 1803.

Triebensee would continue to publish his Harmoniemusik works as installments for public

consumption until about June of 1809. In addition to his over 32 installments of Harmoniemusik

publications, Triebensee is also noted for his "12 comic operas for Vienna and Prague stages, as

well as several smaller vocal pieces, orchestra and chamber works." Triebensee's arrangements

and transcriptions of Mozart's operas include works derived from Don Giovanni, La clemenza di

Tito,38 and Così fan tutte.

JOSEPH HEIDENREICH

There is a minimal amount of existing biographical material on Joseph Heidenreich. It

can be found in Otto Erich Deutsch's Mozart, Die Dokumenete seines Lebens, where birth and

death dates of 1753 and 1821 are given.39 Heckl speculates that Heidenreich was born in

Weidenau, Austria, located in present-day Vidnava, a town in Jeseník District in the Olomouc

Region of the Czech Republic.40 In addition to drawing upon newsprint advertisements between

1788 to 1816, Heckl utilizes additional primary documents to find that Heidenreich was also an

orchestral violist, composer, music composition instructor, and arranger of many operas and

oratorios, as well as many instrumental works, primarily chamber music.41 Heidenreich had no

37
Ibid.
38
La clemenza di Tito remains one of the only opera seria Harmonie arrangements of Mozart’s operas by
Triebensee.
39
Otto Erich Deutsch, Mozart: Die Dokumente seines Lebens, Dokumente, gesammelt und erläutert von Otto E.
Deutsch, Volume I (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1961), 278.
40
Heckl, W. A. Mozarts Instrumentalkompositionen, 50.
41
Ibid., 50-51.
 11

known affiliation with Mozart other than the arrangements and transcriptions of the composer's

operas and instrumental works. The only known arrangement of Mozart’s operas by Heidenreich

for Harmonie is the composer’s last Singspiel, Die Zauberflöte. In addition, Heidenreich is

credited by Heckl for making two other known Harmonie arrangements from Mozart's catalog,

which include: the fourth movement of Serenade for Winds in E-flat major, K. 375,42 and the

Horn Quintet in E-flat major, K.407/386c.43

42
Ibid., 24.
43
Ibid., 50-65.
 12

Chapter II

THE HARMONIE ARRANGEMENTS

WENT’S ARRANGEMENT OF DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL

Mozart references his own arrangement of Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Harmonie

in a letter to his father Leopold on Friday, 20 July 1782:

Well, I am up to the eyes in work, for by Sunday week I have to arrange my opera
for wind-instruments.44 If I don't, someone will anticipate me and secure the
profits. And now you ask me to write a new symphony! How on earth can I do
so? You have no idea how difficult it is to arrange a work of this kind for wind-
instruments [Harmonie], so that it suits these instruments and yet loses none of its
effect. Well, I must just spend the night over it, for that is the only way; and to
you, dearest father, I sacrifice it. You may rely on having something from me by
every post. I shall work as fast as possible and, as far as haste permits, I shall turn
out good work.45

The composer had just conducted the première of work on 16 July 1782 at the K.K.

Theater an der Burg in Vienna. The opera's success was so great that Aloys I, the Prince of

Liechtenstein, commissioned Mozart to transcribe his new opera for Harmonie quickly. The

Prince of Liechtenstein was so impatient for an arrangement that he also commissioned ones

from other arrangers. Mozart had to have been aware of this due to his fear that "someone will

anticipate me and secure the profits."46 The most likely group of competing arrangers would

have been Mozart's wind colleagues, bassoonist Wenzel Kauzner and oboists Georg Triebensee

and Johann [Nepomuk] Went.47

44
Mozart was referencing Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which was performed 16 July 1782.
45
Emily Anderson, The Letters of Mozart and His Family, Volume III (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1938),
1205.
46
Ibid.
47
Hellyer, "The Transcriptions for Harmonie," 53-66.
 13

No such arrangement by Mozart himself has ever been found which can be authenticated.

However, a 1784 arrangement of Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Johann Nepomuk Went has

survived to the present day. Went’s arrangement currently is housed at La Biblioteca dell’Istituto

Musicale "L. Boccherini" di Lucca in Florence, Italy. It "has the usual spate of wrong notes and

inconsistencies of articulation and dynamic indications, "which is the case with the majority of

transcriptions."48 The editor, Himie Voxman, resolved many of these inconsistencies by

comparing Went's manuscript with the original score in 1975. However, Voxman was not wholly

successful in his attempt to rid Went's original arrangement of all of the inconsistencies

occasioned in the arranging process.

Went's arrangement calls for the traditional Harmonie octet. Out of the twenty-one

selections of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Went chose only eight numbers. (See Table 1

below). Went's arrangements include only the arias and duets of Belmonte, Blonde, Osmin, and

Pedrillo. The most likely reason behind Went including these specific selections was their

immense popularity. Of the vocal solos, many, if not all, are given to the first and second oboe

parts, unsurprisingly since Went himself was an oboist and expected the chief melody line to be

played by that Harmonie instrument. Table 1 below shows the difference in order and selection

between Went's arrangement and the NMA full opera score.

48
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Nepomuk Went, and ed. Himie Voxman, Abduction from the Seraglio: For 2
Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns, (London: Musica Rara, 1975), 2.
 14

NMA Score Went’s Arrangement Transposition Vocal Parts

Ouvertüre No. 1: Ouvertüre C major→B-flat major X

No. 1: <Aria> Hier soll ich dich No. 2: <Aria> Hier soll ich dich C major→B-flat major Belmonte
denn sehen, Konstanze! Andante denn sehen, Konstanze! Andante (tenor)
No. 9: <Duetto> Ich gehe, doch No. 3: <Duetto> Ich gehe, doch E-flat major Blonde/Osmin
rate ich dir. Allegro – Andante – rate ich dir. Allegro – Andante – (soprano/bass)
Allegro assai Allegro assai
No. 8: <Aria> Durch Zärtlichkeit No. 4: <Aria> Durch Zärtlichkeit A major→B-flat major Blonde
und Schmeicheln. Andante und Schmeicheln. Andante (soprano)
grazioso grazioso
No. 15: <Aria> Wenn der Freude No. 5: <Aria> Wenn der Freude B-flat major Belmonte
Tränen fließen. Adagio – Tränen fließen. Adagio – (tenor)
Allegretto Allegretto
No. 19: <Aria> O, wie will ich No. 6: <Aria> O, wie will ich D major→B-flat major Osmin
triumphieren, wenn sie euch zum triumphieren, wenn sie euch zum (bass)
Richtplatz führen. Allegro vivace Richtplatz führen. Allegro vivace
No. 12: <Aria> Welche Wonne, No. 7: <Aria> Welche Wonne, G major→B-flat major Blonde
welche Lust. Allegro welche Lust. Allegro (soprano)

No. 14: <Duetto> Vivat Bacchus! No. 8: <Duetto> Vivat Bacchus! C major→B-flat major Osmin/Pedrillo
Bacchus lebe! Bacchus lebe! (bass/tenor)

Table 1. Comparison between NMA score and Went's arrangement.

Apart from the overture and first vocal number, Went's arrangement presents his

selections differently than in the opera. Further, Mozart’s original key choices are used only in

the arias “Ich gehe, doch rate ich dir” (E-flat) and “Wenn der Freude Tränen fließen” (B-flat).

Whereas the choice of keys Mozart employs throughout his operas are complex both

harmonically and dramatically, every key-area is planned out carefully in the original aria, this

tonal planning is almost abandoned entirely in the Harmoniemusik arrangement of Went to allow

the ensemble to play in the keys most suited to it.

Only one of Went's selections, "Hier soll ich dich denn sehen, Konstanze," does not

employ cuts. Most of his cuts make sure to preserve Mozart's original harmonic progressions.
 15

The cuts seem to have been made primarily with an eye to time constraints, placing the popular

arias by Belmonte, Blonde, Osmin, and Pedrillo in an order that would preserve the narrative of

Act I (with the exception of Konstanze's aria). Another possible motivation for including these

selections was the popularity of two specific singers who premièred the opera. The famed tenor

Johann Valentin Adamberger, who originated the role of Belmonte, and bass Ludwig Fischer, the

first Osmin, served as important factors in Mozart's composition of the opera.49 Adamberger and

Fischer were both so renowned and in-demand that Mozart's "changes [to the opera] were

motivated as much by concern for the singers of the roles involved" as for any other reason.50

Mozart himself documents his motivation to write specifically for Adamberger and Fischer at

great length, "at a level of detail scarcely encountered elsewhere in his letters."51

Out of Went’s eight selections, the overture and the arias “Hier soll ich dich denn sehen,

Konstanze!” and “O, wie will ich triumphieren, wenn sie euch zum Richtplatz führen,” will serve

here as the subjects of analysis and discussion. The choice of the overture follows from the fact

that each of the three opera arrangements discussed in this chapter includes it. The numbers

“Hier soll ich dich denn sehen, Konstanze!” and “O, wie will ich triumphieren, wenn sie euch

zum Richtplatz führen” are the most popular arias of Belmonte and Osmin.

49
Daniel Heartz, Mozart's Operas, (Berkley: University of California Press, 1990), 69.
50
Ibid.
51
Ibid.
 16

NO.1 OUVERTÜRE

The overtures to Mozart's operas are the opening selection of all three Harmonie

arrangements discussed. In the original opera, it was the only exclusively instrumental number

and it functions as a perfect introduction to the spirit and thematic content of the following

selections.

The original score of the overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail contains three

distinct sections: Presto, Andante, and Primo tempo. Went's arrangement, however, only

includes the first of the three sections from the original overture. See Table 2 for sections and

transpositions below:

NMA Score Went’s Arrangement Transposition

Presto: mm. 1-118 Presto: mm. 1-109 C major→B-flat major

Andante: mm. 119-152 X X

Tempo primo (Presto): mm. X X

153-240

Table 2.

The arrangement thus eliminates over 131 measures of the original overture, including a cut of

three measures of the original first section, cutting mm. 113-116 at the end of the first presto

section. The second theme of the overture presents a 'B' section that is an instrumental version of

first aria in the opera sung by Belmonte. Went eliminates the instrumental version of Belmonte's

aria and the second presto section to achieve a seamless progression to the second number,

Mozart's first aria, "Hier soll ich dich denn sehen, Konstanze!". Went employs a slower

harmonic rhythm in the oboe and horn parts to bring the overture to a close. See Fig. 1 and Fig. 2

below:
 17

Fig. 1. Measures 113-118 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Entführung aus dem
Serail. Neue Mozart-Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum., 2006,
25.
 18

Fig. 2. Example of slowed harmonic rhythm in mm. 105-109 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Went, and ed. Himie Voxman, Abduction from the Seraglio, 9.

Along with the cuts and compositional changes in the last six measures, Went also

deleted four measures of repetitive figures from the first violins in mm. 51-58 of the original

score. See Fig. 3 and 4 below:

 19

Fig. 3. Measures 51-58 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Neue
Mozart-Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. 2006, 14-15.
 20

Fig. 4. Measures 49-54 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Nepomuk Went, and ed. Himie
Voxman. Abduction from the Seraglio: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns.
London: Musica Rara, 1975, 6-7.

The majority of the orchestral accompaniment in the original overture comprises a

constant stream of eighth-note figures, mainly in the bassoon, second violins, violas, cellos, and

basses. See Fig. 5 below:

Fig. 5. Measures 24-28 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Neue
Mozart-Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum., 2006, 14-15.
 21

As an oboist, one could speculate that Went understood that many of these repetitive eighth-note

passages marked presto alla breve would be quite fatiguing for any woodwind player. To reduce

fatigue Went would often replace eighth-notes successions with half-notes, especially in the

horns. See Fig. 6. below:

Fig. 6. Measures 21-30 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Nepomuk Went, and ed. Himie
Voxman. Abduction from the Seraglio: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns.
London: Musica Rara, 1975, 6.

Went also revised the original articulation directions in the original, using slurs in place of

staccato articulation. Fig. 5 presents the second violins playing a completely staccato passage,

while as in Went's arrangement, the second clarinets have slurs underneath each group of eighth-

notes.

In sum, the overture of Went's arrangement is a perfect example of excellent scoring for

the Harmonie ensemble. Wen[d]t went to great lengths to create a direct arrangement of the first

Presto section with the fewest possible changes. However, without the original bass drum,

cymbals, triangle, and piccolo, the arrangement completely loses the "Turkish" or "Janissary"

elements Mozart was trying to invoke. In addition to the lack of Janissary effect, the extreme
 22

alternation of piano to forte sections loses much of the original score's depth in terms of

orchestration due to the doubling of unisons in each of the oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons

in Went's arrangement.

NO. 2: <ARIA> HIER SOLL ICH DICH DENN SEHEN, KONSTANZE! ANDANTE

"Hier soll ich dich den sehen, Kostanze! " is the only one of the eight selections from

Went's arrangement where the aria is almost completely identical to Mozart's original score. See

Table 3 below:

NMA Score Went's Arrangement Transposition Vocal Part

Andante: mm. 1-59 Andante: mm. 1-59 C major→B-flat Belmonte

major (tenor)

Table 3.

Went transposed the aria from the original key from C major to B-flat major to suit the wind

player's preference for flat-keys and match the previous key of the overture. "Hier soll ich dich

den sehen, Kostanze!" is also marked as andante, the same marking of the second section of the

overture that Went omitted along with the second presto section. This strategic cut allows for the

drama of the original overture to be maintained.

Went also retains Mozart's choices of rhythm, dynamics, articulation, and ornamentation

in this number. He even had the horns rest for the majority of the three-minute selection

choosing both oboes and the second clarinet with the bassoon as the primary accompaniment to

stay closer to Mozart's original writing. Perhaps the most significant change made in this

arrangement was in Went's conception of the solo voice. Belmonte's lyrical aria is given to the

first clarinet instead of the first oboe or first bassoon, which were Went's most utilized solo
 23

instruments. The effect of the staccato and legato passages played by the first clarinet perfectly

captures the lyrical qualities of the tenor aria in both the chalumeau and clarion registers of the

instrument.

Went's arrangement of "Hier soll ich dich den sehen, Kostanze!" is perhaps the most

intricately modified of the transcribed selections. Perhaps it is the most convincing number

because it is the closest to Mozart's original setting of the aria for tenor and orchestra. Unlike the

overture arrangement, the aria's overall texture is much more uniform, with detailed articulation

indications and dynamic ranges. Went achieves a fuller-sounding arrangement without

doublings.

NO. 6: <ARIA> O, WIE WILL ICH TRIUMPHIEREN, WENN SIE EUCH ZUM

RICHTPLATZ FÜHREN. ALLEGRO VIVACE

In arranging the "comic villain" Osmin's triumphant vendetta aria, Went presents a good

contrast with the mainly lyrical style of the preceding numbers of the "heroic" Belmonte's tenor

arias. Ludwig Fischer, who originally played the role of Osmin, was as famous as a crowd

favorite Johann Valentin Adamberger playing the hero Belmonte. Unlike the "virtuous"

Belmonte, who seeks to rescue his beloved Konstanze, the overseer Osmin is the "very

incarnation of rage" and "makes vice laughable."52 The text of Osmin's aria that Went highlights

the most in this arrangement epitomizes the class comic villain in Mozart's operas:

Oh, my gloating will run amok

When you're on the chopping block,
And the executioner tightens the ropes!53

52
Heartz, Mozart's Operas, 78.
53
J.D. McClatchy and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Seven Mozart Librettos: A Verse Translation (New York: WW
Norton & Company, 2011), 251.
 24

The aria “O, wie will ich triumphieren, wenn sie euch zum Richtplatz führen” in its

original form represents the lengthiest selection Went includes in his set. Went cut nearly 90

measures of the original. In addition to cutting a large portion of “O, wie will ich triumphieren,

wenn sie euch zum Richtplatz führen,” Went also transposed the aria from its original comic

sharp key of D major to the flat key of B-flat major, a key more suitable for Harmonie. See

Table 4:

NMA Score Went's Arrangement Transposition Vocal Part

Allegro vivace: mm. Allegro vivace: mm. 1- D major→B-flat Osmin

1-238 148 major (bass)

Table 4.

Most of the cuts in Went's arrangement remove extended instrumental sections of the rondo,

essentially repurposing the instrumental sections, with Osmin's solo line as only one thread of the

arrangement. Went cuts the aria's overall duration by a third from these calculated cuts. For

example, Went's arrangement condenses Mozart's original aria's first forty-one measures down to

a mere fourteen measures. This major cut can easily be seen by comparing measure 42 of

Mozart's original with m. 15 of Went's arrangement. At measure 15 of the arrangement, it is clear

that these two bassoons are beginning the lines "Hüpfen will ich, lachen, springen," which is

27 measures earlier than it would occur in the original score. See Figs. 7 and 8 below:
 25

Fig. 7 Measures 38-44 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
Neue Mozart-Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. 2006, 363.
 26

Fig. 8 Measures 1-24 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Nepomuk Went, and
Himie Voxman. Abduction from the Seraglio: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns.
London: Musica Rara, 1975, 23.
 27

All tempo markings, dynamics, and other indications remain the same. Many accompaniment

figures like the succession of Alberti bass sixteenth notes are frequently replaced with a one-bar

repeat sign. Other than the inclusion of these, there are no repeats in the aria. There are no

antiquated split beams in this aria; all beams following a present-day practice. All ornaments are

consistent with Mozart's in this selection. The original articulation found in Mozart's has been

changed somewhat by Went. As is the case in many of the selections, Went has added slurs to

many sixteenth-note groupings to aid the woodwind player's stamina in terms of embouchure and

articulation.

Mozart's original bass aria for Osmin is almost completely lost in the arrangement. His

solo line appears in the second bassoon part and acts more as a harmonic bass than the original

score's actual melody. Instead, what the players and listeners are left with is a purely

instrumental-sounding rondo. See mm. 25-37 in Fig. 9 below:

Fig. 9. Measures 25-37 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Nepomuk Went, and Himie
Voxman. Abduction from the Seraglio: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns.
London: Musica Rara, 1975, 23.
 28

Went's success with his Harmonie arrangements was carried on by his son-in-law, Josef

Triebensee. Triebensee was also an accomplished oboist, Kapellmeister, and arranger of the

following Harmonie arrangement of Mozart's operas included in this discussion, Don Giovanni.

TRIEBENSEE'S ARRANGEMENT OF DON GIOVANNI

Mozart's operas' popularity went on well beyond his lifetime, as is found in a letter from

Constanze Mozart to the Viennese publisher Johann Anton André regarding the public demand

for small ensemble arrangements of Mozart's operas, even eight years after the composer's

death.54

You are aware that many of the airs from the "Zauberflöte," "Don Giovanni," "Così fan
Tutte," and "Figaro" have been arranged for string quintet. Well, the Viennese public is
now anxious for a similar adaptation of "Idomeneo."55

Indeed, the first publication of Don Giovanni for Harmonie by Triebensee appeared in the

Wiener Zeitung over fifteen years after the opera's premiere, and over a dozen years after

Mozart's death, slightly after Triebensee's first set of publications on 16 November 1803 [1803-

1804].56 He probably began his work on the arrangement after he was appointed the leader of the

octet of Prince Alois [I] Lichtenstein in 1796. While in this post, he was very active as a

composer, arranger, and transcriber.57 The arrangement might have been bought by Aloys'

chamber ensemble in 1796 and likely not published then. The original manuscript of

Triebensee's original arrangement cannot be found. Since Triebensee's arrangement of Don

55
Anderson, The Letters of Mozart and His Family, 1464.
56
Hellyer, "Triebensee," https://bit.ly/2TFkqV2.
57
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Triebensee, and ed. Himie Voxman, Don Giovanni: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2
Bassoons & 2 Horns, Band I (London: Musica Rara, 1976), 1.
 29

Giovanni was primarily distributed in copies before being published between 1803-1804, the

copies most likely served as the basis of the later publication.

Triebensee's arrangement of Don Giovanni incorporates many of the same stylistic traits

as in the settings by his father-in-law, Johann Went. The editor of the modern edition of this

arrangement, Himie Voxman, resolved several textual inconsistencies made by Triebensee in

terms of "seemingly unnecessarily altered text, dynamics, and articulations" as well as reducing

the number of Triebensee's superfluous additions sforzando (sf), fortepiano (fp), and sforzando

pianoforte (spf) dynamics by comparing Triebensee's edition with Mozart's original score in

1976.58

Triebensee’s arrangement calls for the traditional Harmonie octet. Out of the twenty-four

numbers in Don Giovanni, Triebensee chose nineteen. (See Table 5 below). Unlike Went's

choice of eight of the most popular arias of the twenty-one numbers in Die Entführung aus dem

Serail, Triebensee's arrangement includes a more numerous and more diverse choice of arias,

duets, trios, quartets, and choruses. The opera's featured roles include Don Giovanni, the

Commendatore, Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Donna Elvira, Leporello, Masetto, and Zerlina.

Triebensee created arrangements of vocal music of all the main characters except for the

Commendatore, because the arranger would not have given music for bass in its original register

to a member of the Harmonie.59 Triebensee opted not to include the most dramatic scenes of the

original opera in his arrangement. The most glaring omission is from the Finale to Act 2, "Don

Giovanni, a cenar teco," where the Commendatore takes the unrepentant Giovanni's hand, and he

is immersed in flames.

58
Ibid., 1.
59
Dr. Peter M. Lefferts, personal communication with author, 16 July 2021.
 30

Of the various numbers, many were given to the first and second oboe parts since

Triebensee, like Went, himself was an oboist and expected the chief melody line to be played by

that Harmonie instrument. The vocal melody appears in the principal oboe, with the second oboe

assigned to the orchestral accompaniment's primary melodic material. Table 5 below shows the

difference in order and selection between Triebensee's arrangement and Mozart's.

NMA Triebensee’s Transposition Vocal

Arrangement

Overture of “Don Overture of “Don D minor/major→ X

Giovanni” K. 527. Giovanni” K. 527. C minor/major

Concert version Concert version

Ouvertura. Andante – Ouvertura. Andante –

Molto Allegro Molto Allegro

No. 1: Introduzione No. 1: Introduzione F major Leporello

Notte e giorno faticar. Notte e giorno faticar. (Bass)

Molto Allegro Molto Allegro

No. 3: <Aria> Ah chi No. 2: <Aria> Ah chi E-flat major→F Donna Elvira

mi dice mai. mi dice mai. major (Soprano)

<Allegro> <Allegro>

No. 4: <Aria> No. 3: <Aria> D major→C major Leporello

Madamina, il Madamina, il (Bass)

catalogo è questo. catalogo è questo.

Allegro Allegro
 31

No. 5: <Coro> No. 4: <Coro> G major→C major Zerlina & Masetto

Giovinette che fate Giovinette che fate (Soprano & Bass)

all’amore. Allegro all’amore. Allegro

No. 7: Duettino Là ci No. 5: Duettino Là ci A major→C major Zerlina & Don

darem la mano. darem la mano. Giovanni

Andante – Allegro Andante – Allegro (Soprano & Baritone)

No. 9: Quartetto Non No. 6: Quartetto Non C major Don Elvira, Donna

ti fidar, o misera. ti fidar, o misera. Anna, Don Ottavio,

Andante Andante & Don Giovanni

(Soprano, Soprano,

Tenor, & Baritone)

Appendix: Additions No. 7: <Aria> Dalla G major Don Ottavio

and amendments to sua pace. (Tenor)

the "Viennese

version." 1. Atto

primo, in Scena XIV

K. 540a. No. 10a:

<Aria> Dalla sua

pace.

No. 11: <Aria> Fin No. 8: <Aria> Fin B-flat major→F Don Giovanni

ch’han dal vino. ch’han dal vino. major (Baritone)

Presto Presto
 32

No. 12: <Aria> Batti, No. 9: <Aria> Batti, F major Zerlina

batti, o bel Masetto – batti, o bel Masetto – (Soprano)

Pace, pace, o vita Pace, pace, o vita

mia. mia.

No. 13: Finale Presto No. 10: Finale Presto C major Masetto & Zerlina

presto pria ch’ei presto pria ch’ei (Bass & Soprano)

venga. Allegro assai venga. Allegro assai

No. 14: <Duetto> Eh No. 11: <Duetto> Eh G major→F major Leporello & Don

via buffone. via buffone. Giovanni

(Bass & Baritone)

No. 15: Terzetto Ah No. 12: Terzetto Ah A major→G major Leporello, Don

taci, ingiusto core. taci, ingiusto core. Giovanni, & Donna

Andantino Andantino Elvira

(Bass, Baritone, &

Soprano)

No. 16: No. 13: D major→F major Don Giovanni

<Canzonetta> Deh <Canzonetta> Deh (Baritone)

vieni alla finestra. vieni alla finestra.

No. 17: <Aria> Metà No. 14: <Aria> Metà F major Don Giovanni

di voi qua vadano. di voi qua vadano. (Baritone)

Andante con moto Andante con moto

 33

No. 18: <Aria> No. 15: <Aria> C major Zerlina

Vedrai carino. Vedrai carino. (Soprano)

Grazioso Grazioso

Atto secondo: Scena No. 16: <Duetto> Per C major Leporello & Zerlina

Xa KV3: 540b= queste tue manine. In (Bass & Soprano)

527/21a [NMA] tempo – Allegro

Restati qua – Per moderato

queste tue manine. in

tempo – Allegro

moderato

Atto secondo: Scena No. 17: <Aria> Mi E-flat major→F Donna Elvira

Xd K. 540c= 527/21b tradì quell’alma major (Soprano)

[NMA] Mi tradì ingrata.

quell’alma ingrata.

Allegro assai

No. 23: Recitativo No. 18: Recitativo F major→G major Donna Anna

<accompagnato e <accompagnato e (Soprano)

Rondo> Crudele! – Rondo> Crudele! –

Ah no, mio bene! – Ah no, mio bene! –

Non mi dir, bell’idol Non mi dir, bell’idol

mio. mio.

No. 24: Finale Già la No. 19: Finale Già la D major→C major Don Giovanni &

mensa è preparata. mensa è preparata. Leporello

 34

(Baritone & Bass)

Table 5. Comparison between Mozart's and Triebensee's arrangement.

Unlike Went's arrangement of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which presents the selections in a

different order than the original opera, Triebensee here is almost entirely faithful to Mozart's

original sequence of events in Don Giovanni. The only presentation of the dark, dramatic themes

associated with the Commendatore appears in Triebensee's arrangement of the overture.

Eight of the nineteen selections from the original opera maintain Mozart's original key

choices. The eleven numbers where keys were changed in the Harmoniemusik arrangements of

Triebensee allow the ensemble to play in the most suitable keys for it. The entire dramaturgy of

the original opera is, for the most part, maintained but in a much more lighthearted presentation.

Shorter arias are presented in full with few to no cuts. In the duettino "Là ci darem la mano," for

example, there are only two measures cut.

Out of Triebensee's nineteen selections, four examples will serve here for analysis and

discussion: the overture, "Là ci darem la mano," "Deh vieni alla finestra," and "Già la mensa è

preparata."

NO.1 OUVERTÜRE

Mozart's overture for Don Giovanni includes much more thematic material than in

Triebensee's arrangement. The original overture follows almost all of the normative procedures

of the late classical sonata form. It consists of 292 measures in five distinct sections: a slow

introduction, exposition, development, recapitulation, and codetta. Triebensee's arrangement

omits the entire development and much of the recapitulation. (Eighteenth-century Harmonie
 35

arrangers traditionally avoided development sections because these modulatory sections would

take the ensemble to keys not suitable for a traditional Harmonie ensemble.) See Table 6 for

sections and transpositions below.

NMA Score Triebensee’s Arrangement Transposition

Slow introduction: mm. 1-30 Slow Introduction: mm. 1-30 D minor/major→

C minor/major

Exposition: mm. 31-120 Exposition: mm. 31-98 P1:D major/S2:A major→

P1:C major/S2:C major

(Tonicizing the dominant)

Development: mm. 121-192 X X

Retransition to Recapitulation: Dominant of D major→

mm. 99-112 Dominant of C major

Recapitulation: mm. 193-281 Recapitulation: mm. 113-120 D major→C major

Codetta: mm. 282-292 Codetta: mm. 121-132 D major→C major

(Modulating at the end

towards the dominant

chord of F major)

Table 6.

With the omission of Mozart's development section, Triebensee's arrangement reduces the 292

measures of the overture down to 132 measures.

 36

As mentioned above, Triebensee also omitted most of the recapitulation, apart from the

closing section. He connected the retransition of the development, mm. 99-112, with the

recapitulation's closing theme group, mm. 113-120. These two sections are similar and serve to

lead directly to the "codetta." See Fig. 10 below:

Fig.10. Measures 111-121 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Triebensee, and ed. Himie
Voxman. Don Giovanni: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns. Band I. London:
Musica Rara, 1976, 5-6.
 37

Triebensee faithfully maintains the entire slow introduction of the overture in his

arrangement, which was already predominately reliant on winds in the original orchestration.

The most telling illustration of Triebensee's concept of arrangement can be found in the first

eight bars opening bars of the overture. See Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 below:

Fig.11. Measures 1-8 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Neue
Mozart-Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum., 2006, 5.
 38

Fig.12.Measures 1-8 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Triebensee, and ed. Himie
Voxman. Don Giovanni: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns. Band I. London:
Musica Rara, 1976, 1.

It is clear in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 that Triebensee maintains Mozart's distribution of melodic and

harmonic lines as closely as possible. The opening four measures present the original

instrumentation with their original pitches but transposed from the original key. Measure five is

the clearest example of how Triebensee compensates for the lack of string parts in his

arrangement. The clarinets and bassoons take over the parts of the violins, violas, cellos, and

basses in mm. 5-8, while the oboes maintain their original material from Mozart's overture. The

two horns are placed where needed by Triebensee to offer additional harmonic support.

Triebensee took the utmost care in his arrangements, especially with ornaments and

articulation. Almost all ornaments and articulation markings in the original, such as

appoggiaturas or trills, are retained. Triebensee does not employ imprecise slurs, as Went used in

his arrangement of Die Entführung aus dem Serail to possibly prevent fatigue of the tongue from

constantly articulated passages. Tempo markings appear the same as Mozart's original scores and
 39

are never abbreviated. Triebensee's deviation from Mozart's original is in his addition of dynamic

markings.60

In sum, the overture of Triebensee's arrangement serves as an excellent example of

second-generation Harmoniemusik arranging in Vienna. Triebensee retains as much of Mozart's

original material of the overture as possible, except for the development section. All of the

original dramatic elements are more or less maintained.

NO. 5: DUETTINO LÀ CI DAREM LA MANO

"Là ci darem la mano" is one of the most famous duets in all of eighteenth-century opera.

A pastorale sung by Don Giovanni as a marriage proposal to the innocent Zerlina, it is the only

operatic number where Don Giovanni does not appear to be overtly deceitful. The seduction

occurs subtly, with only a "descending chromatic fourth into Giovanni's vocal line as he thinks

about the girl in the piazza who might become a new conquest for him."61

Triebensee captures the seduction duet beautifully in its entirety, while transposing the

duet from Mozart's original key of A major to C major. He thus ignores Mozart's deliberate

choice of A major to express the emotion of love.62 (He also transposes the terzetto from Act II,

"Ah taci, ingiusto core," another number involving amorous persuasion, from A major to G

major.) See Table 7:

60
Mozart, Triebensee, and ed. Voxman, Don Giovanni, 1.
61
Heartz, Mozart's Operas, 181.
62
Leonard G. Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style (New York: Schirmer Books), 1980, 398.
 40

NMA Score Triebensee’s Transposition Vocal Part

Arrangement

Andante: mm. 1-49 Andante: mm. 1-49 A major→C major Don Giovanni

& Zerlina

(Baritone &

Soprano)

Allegro: mm. 50-82 Allegretto: mm. 50-80

Table 7.

Triebensee's cut of two measures is evident when comparing the last six measures of Mozart's

against the arrangement. Measures 77-78 are repeated as a sequence in mm. 79-80 in Mozart's.

Triebensee cut measures 77-78 from the original score in his arrangement for no apparent reason.

See Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 below:

 41

Fig. 13. Measures 75-82 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Don Giovanni. Neue Mozart-
Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. 2006, 116.

Fig.14.Measures 72-80 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Triebensee, and ed. Himie
Voxman. Don Giovanni: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns. Band I. London:
Musica Rara, 1976, 24.
 42

The arranger has chosen a more deliberate tempo at mm. 50: allegretto instead of allegro.

Triebensee assigns the parts of Don Giovanni (baritone) and Zerlina (soprano) to the principal

bassoon and oboe, respectively. The pitches of the solo bassoon and oboe lines are very close to

the original vocal parts, as is the configuration of the accompaniment. The opening six measures

of the NMA and Triebensee scores demonstrate Triebensee's masterfully scoring for Harmonie.

See Fig. 15 and Fig. 16 below:

Fig. 15. Measures 1-6 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Neue
Mozart-Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. 2006, 111.
 43

Fig.16.Measures 1-9 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Triebensee, and ed. Himie
Voxman. Don Giovanni: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns. Band I. London:
Musica Rara, 1976, 22.

Triebensee assigns the second oboe and both clarinet parts to the violins' original roles, violas,

and the bass part to the second bassoon in the opening three measures. Triebensee's faithful

arrangement of Mozart's opera appears in measure 4 of Fig. 16 when the arranger assigns both

oboe parts to mirror their original roles in the same measure in Fig. 15. The opening solo

bassoon line is very different rhythmically than Don Giovanni's original part in Mozart's.

Triebensee has simply written out the rhythm of the solo bassoon line as a singer would perform

the solo with rubato, which is clearly notated. See Fig. 15 and Fig. 16 above. Triebensee has

simply beamed together the separated noteheads of the original (for which, see Mozart's);

Triebensee also does not retain Mozart's choices of dynamics, articulation, and ornamentation in

this number. Measure 1-2 of Fig. 16 above in the solo bassoon line has additional staccato

markings, a dolce indication, and fortepiano indication; none of these additional markings and

indications are present in mm. 1-2 of the NMA in Fig. 15. Similar indications, such as a different
 44

staccato marking and a dolce indication, are present in Zerlina's line, placed in the solo oboe line.

Other than the stylized modifications that Triebensee has put into place for translating the solo

vocal line into a purely instrumental medium, the composer successfully creates a very detailed

and faithful arrangement of the "love duet" for Harmonie.

NO. 13: <CANZONETTA> DEH VIENI ALLA FINESTRA

"Deh vieni alla finestra" is only one out of a handful of Triebensee's nineteen selections

that appears without any cuts whatsoever. In fact, Triebensee's arrangement is almost identical to

the original score of Don Giovanni. See Table 8 below:

NMA Score Triebensee’s Transposition Vocal Part

Arrangement

Allegretto: mm. 1-44 Allegretto: mm. 1-44 D major→F major Don Giovanni

(Baritone)

Table 8.

Triebensee might have transposed the aria from the original key of D major to F major for one or

two reasons: either to preserve the symmetry, wherein all of the arrangements of Giovanni's

music are transposed to F major from the original preference for D major for the character, a key

that might, according to Leonard Ratner, represent "his worldly aspect-his status, his arrogance,

and the brilliance that surrounds him,"63 or, to establish the key of F as a prelude to number 14,

"Metà di voi qua vadano," also sung by Giovanni, and also in F major in the opera.

Triebensee more than like chose "Deh vieni alla finestra" because it is inherently a

serenade, with Giovanni "accompanied by mandolin (supposedly played by himself) and plucked

63
Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style, 398.
 45

strings."64 The running sixteenth notes of the mandolin are placed coequally in the first bassoon

and second clarinet lines. The mandolin line alternates between the first bassoon and second

clarinet line and is never in both lines at the same time. See Fig. 17 below:

Fig.17. Measures 8-13 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Josef Triebensee. Don Giovanni:
For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns. Band II. London: Musica Rara, 1976, 16.

In order to achieve the sound of a plucked string, Triebensee alters Mozart's original articulation

by inserting staccato markings for the first bassoon and second clarinet lines. The beautiful bel

canto melodic line of Giovanni is placed in the oboe, as is the case with most melodies arranged

by Triebensee. The oboe was also used because it was the highest-pitched woodwind instrument

in the Harmonie ensemble. Triebensee uses it exclusively to capture the soprano vocal lines, as

well as often presenting the baritone and bass vocal lines, transposed an octave higher.

64
William S. Mann, The Operas of Mozart (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 492.
 46

NO. 24: FINALE GIÀ LA MENSA È PREPARATA

In the opera itself, the beginning of the Act II finale, "Già la mensa è preparata," for

Giovanni and Leporello offers a glimpse of the social use of Harmonie in Mozart's Vienna, as

music to accompany high-society dining known as Tafelmusik. While there are many historical

documents which provide commentary on Tafelmusik, Mozart, "through music, provides the

most brilliant historical record of all."65 Here Mozart incorporates several arias from popular

opera buffa of the day in scoring for Harmonie. The aria selections include: "O quanto un sì bel

giubilo" from the Act I finale of the opera Una cosa rara by Vicente Martín y Soler, "Come un

agnello" from Act I of Giuseppe Sarti's comic opera Fra I due litigant il terzo gode, and finally

Mozart's own "Non più andrai" from Le nozze di Figaro.66 Leporello, with his mouth full of

food, jokes about the third Harmonie arrangement, saying "that he knows this tune much too well

([Felice] Ponziani had sung Figaro in many Prague performances)."67 As in Went's and

Triebensee's arrangements, Mozart lets woodwind instruments carry the recognizable melody of

each aria, along with typical accompaniment patterns, while allowing the dialogue between

Giovanni and Leporello to be heard above it. Mozart’s Harmonie arrangements of Vicente

Martín y Soler and Giuseppe Sarti’s operas Una cosa rara and Fra I due litigant il terzo gode

were highly popular around the same time as the premières of Le nozze di Figaro and Don

Giovanni in the 1780s.68 Surprisingly, Triebensee does not include a direct allusion to "Non più

65
Jahrbuch der Tonkinst von Wien und Prag and Magazin der Musik [1784] are referenced in Hellyer, "
'Harmoniemusik', " 347-349.
66
Julian Rushton, "Don Giovanni (ii)," (Grove Music Online, 2002), https://www-oxfordmusiconline-
com.libproxy.unl.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-
5000901351.
67
Mann, The Operas of Mozart, 512.
68
Many operatic numbers Le nozze di Figaro, such as “Non più andrai,” were independently popular outside of the
opera. Mozart in a letter to Gottfried von Jacquin on 14 January 1787 states that his music from Le nozze di Figaro
has been arranged for “quadrilles and waltzes”, as well as stat that “[n]othing is played, sung or whistled but
Figaro.” See Emily Anderson, The Letters of Mozart and His Family, Volume III (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.,
1938), 1344.
 47

andrai" from Le nozze di Figaro from measures 162 through 171 in his arrangement of the Act II

finale. See Fig. 18 below:

Fig. 18 Measures 162-171 from from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Entführung aus
dem Serail. Neue Mozart-Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum.
2006, 405-406.
 48

The Act II finale is comprised of nine numbers which include: “Già la mensa è preparate”,

“L’ultima prova dell’amor mio”, “Ah signor ... per carità!”, “Don Giovanni, a cenar teco”,

“Oimè! che gelo è questo mai?”, “Da qual tremore insolito”, “Ah dove è il perfido”, “Or che

tutti, o mio Tesoro”, and “Questo è il fin di chi fa mal”. Out of these nine numbers, Triebensee

only includes “Già la mensa è preparate” and “Questo è il fin di chi fa mal”. See Table 9 below:

NMA Score Triebensee’s Transposition Vocal

Arrangement Parts/*Harmonie

References

Già la mensa è Già la mensa è D major→C major Don Giovanni &

preparate. Allegro preparate. Allegro Leporello

assai: mm. 1-199 assai: mm. 1-43 (Baritone & Bass)

L’ultima prova X X Donna Elvira, Don

dell’amor mio. Giovanni, &

Allegro assai: mm. Leporello

200-378 (Soprano, Baritone,

& Bass)

* O quanto un sì bel

giubilo found in mm.

47-112 of the NMA.

Ah signor ... per X X * Come un agnello in

carità! Molto allegro: mm. 118-157 & Non

379-432 più andrai in mm.

162-199 of the NMA.

 49

Don Giovanni, a X X X

cenar teco. Andante:

mm. 433-520

Oimè! che gelo è X X X

questo mai? Più

stretto: mm. 521-553

Da qual tremore X X X

insolito. Allegro:

mm. 554-602

Ah dove è il perfido. X X X

Allegro assai: mm.

603-711

Or che tutti, o mio Measures 44-47 G major→C major X

Tesoro. Larghetto: composed by

mm. 712-755 arranger, mm. 48-53

Questo è il fin di chi Presto: mm. 54-143. D major→C major Entire Ensemble

fa mal. Presto: mm.

756-871

Table 9.

In his arrangement, Triebensee omits Mozart's instrumental arrangement of the arias by Soler

and Sarti, as well as Mozart's own arrangement of "Non pi'u andrai."

 50

Mozart's original intent was to create a Harmonie ensemble within the context of his

original orchestration.69 Both Triebensee and Mozart deploy full Harmonie in scoring “Già la

mensa è preparate.” However, Mozart employs the use of two clarinets in A and a single

violoncello, while Triebensee uses two clarinets in B-flat and no strings. Mozart's texture of the

higher voices is primarily "melodic functions in thirds and sixths," while the bass function lies in

both bassoons, both horns, and the violoncello.70 The addition of the violoncello into the

Harmonie instrumentation allows for Mozart's Harmonie arrangements to have more harmonic

support than the original three-part setting of Soler and Sarti's arias.71 Triebensee's instrumental

textures are almost identical to Mozart's with the exception of the violoncello, whose omission

required Triebensee to limit the bass functions of the bassoon and horns more than Mozart's

Harmonie settings. However, Triebensee again does not rearrange Mozart's Harmonie settings in

the aria, allowing Triebensee to arrange sections of the aria with only wind instruments.

Triebensee's arrangement of Don Giovanni was reported to be one of his most successful

scores for Harmonie that he composed between his 1794 appointment as first oboist and

Kapellmeister to Prince Liechtenstein's Harmonie at Feldsburg, and his succession to Carl Maria

von Weber as director of the Prague Opera post.72 Triebensee's performances under Mozart's

baton between 1782 through 1791, such as taking part as an oboist in the première of Die

Zauberflöte under Mozart's direction, speaks to the confidence Mozart placed in Triebensee, and

perhaps to the authenticity of his arrangements. Mozart might also have played a part in his

69
A detailed analysis of Mozart’s scoring for Harmonie in the Tafelmusik from Don Giovanni can be found in:
Blomhert, The Harmoniemusik of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 86-105.
70
Blomhert, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 93.
71
Ibid., 93.
72
Hellyer, "Triebensee," https://bit.ly/2TFkqV2.
 51

appointments as Kapellmeister to Prince Liechtenstein's Harmonie at Feldsburg as well as his

appointment as music director of the Prague opera.

HEIDENREICH’S ARRANGEMENT OF DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE

Josef Triebensee's later success with his Harmonie arrangements was to a lesser extent

mirrored by the earlier arrangement of Joseph Heidenreich, made near the time of Mozart's 1791

death. There is little known about Joseph Heidenreich other than that he was the arranger of the

Harmonie arrangement of Mozart's last opera. A brief biography of Heidenreich appears in Otto

Erich Deutsch's Mozart Die Dokumente seines Lebens, where the arranger "is described as a

modest composer, and prolific arranger of operas for Harmonie and for the piano."73 The original

publication of Heidenreich's arrangement of Die Zauberflöte appeared in the Wiener Zeitung, 14

January 1972 "under the heading of New Music."74 Heidenreich's arrangement of Die Zauberflöte

was his only Harmonie arrangement drawn from a Mozart opera.

The original manuscript of Heidenreich's arrangement is lost. According to Himie

Voxman, the editor of the modern edition, the original publisher likely used Heidenreich's

autograph as the basis for the first edition of the arrangement. Voxman goes on to say that while

Heidenreich's arrangement of this Mozart opera is not as well-known as Went and Triebensee's

were, that "the present one compares favorably in is the idiomatic treatment of the instruments

and in solving the problems involved in such an arrangement, problems that seem to me more

difficult here than those found in Mozart's earlier operas."75 Heidenreich took the most liberties

in his arrangement of Die Zauberflöte in the order of the original numbers. He also converted the

73
Quoted in Mozart, Heidenreich, and ed. Voxman, Die Zauberflöte, i.
74
Ibid.
75
Ibid.
 52

more extended scenes into shorter numbers. The original instrumentation of the opera calls for

two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets in B-flat, two basset horns, two bassoons, two horns

in E-flat, two trumpets in E-flat, three trombones, timpani in E-flat and B-flat, first and second

violins, viola, cellos, and double basses. A keyed-glockenspiel, more often a celesta, is also used

to perform Papageno's "magic bells." Heidenreich’s arrangement calls for the traditional

Harmonie octet. Out of the twenty-one numbers in Die Zauberflöte, Heidenreich chose eighteen.

(See Table 10 below).

NMA Heidenreich’s Transposition Vocal

Arrangement

Ouverture Ouverture E-flat major→ X

No. 1: Introduction No. 2: Introduction. G minor/major→ Tamino & Three

Zu Hilfe! zu Hilfe! Ich sollte fort. E-flat major Ladies (Tenor,

sonst bin ich Allegretto Soprano, Soprano, &

verloren. Allegro – Mezzo-Soprano)

Allegretto – Allegro

No. 2: <Aria> Der No. 3: <Aria> Der G major→ Papageno (Baritone)

Vogelfänger bin ich Vogelfänger bin ich E-flat major

ja. Andante ja. Andante

No. 5: Quintetto Hm! No. 4: Quintetto Hm! B-flat major Papageno, Tamino, &

hm! hm! Allegro hm! hm! Allegro Three Ladies

Ha, ha, ha! (Baritone, Tenor,

He Sklaven! Soprano, Soprano, &

Mezzo-Soprano)
 53

No. 6: Terzetto Du No. 5: Terzetto Du G major→F major Pamina, Monostatos,

feines Täubchen nur feines Täubchen nur & Papageno

herein. Allegro molto herein. Allegro molto (Soprano, Tenor, &

Baritone)

No. 7: Duetto Bei No. 6: Duetto Bei E-flat major→ Pamina & Papageno

Männern, welche Männern, welche B-flat major (Soprano & Baritone)

Liebe fühlen. Liebe fühlen.

Andantino Andantino

No. 3: <Aria> Dies No. 7: <Aria> Dies E-flat major Tamino (Tenor)

Bildnis ist Bildnis ist

bezaubernd schön. bezaubernd schön.

Larghetto Larghetto

No. 8: Finale Zum No. 8: Finale Zum C major→ Tamino & Three

Ziele führt dich diese Ziele führt dich diese B-flat major Boys (Tenor, Treble,

Bahn. Larghetto Bahn. Larghetto Contralto, & Mezzo-

Soprano)

No. 8 continued No. 9: Wie stark ist C major→ Tamino (Tenor)

(excerpted): Wie doch dein Zauberton. B-flat major

stark ist doch dein Andante – Presto –

Zauberton. Andante Adagio – Presto

No. 8 continued No. 10: Das klinget G major→ Pamina, Papageno, &

(excerpted): Schnelle so herrlich. Allegro F major Monostatos (Soprano,

Füße, rascher Mut. Baritone, & Tenor)

 54

No. 8 continued No. 11: Wenn C major→ Chorus

(excerpted): Wenn Tugend und B-flat major

Tugend und Gerechtigkeit. Presto

Gerechtigkeit. Presto

No. 10: <Aria con No. 12: <Aria con F major Sarastro (Bass)

coro> O Isis und coro> O Isis und

Osiris schenket. Osiris schenket.

Adagio Adagio

No. 12: Quintetto No. 13: Quintetto G major→F major Papageno, Tamino, &

Wie? wie? wie? ihr Wie? wie? wie? ihr Three Ladies

an diesem an diesem (Baritone, Tenor,

Schreckensort? Schreckensort? Soprano, Soprano, &

Allegro Allegro Mezzo-Soprano)

No. 13: <Aria> Alles No. 14: <Aria> Alles C major Monostatos (Tenor)

fühlt der Liebe fühlt der Liebe

Freuden. Allegro Freuden. Allegro

No. 16: Terzetto Seid No. 15: Terzetto Seid A major→ Three Boys (Treble,

uns zum zweiten Mal uns zum zweiten Mal E-flat major Contralto, & Mezzo-

willkommen. willkommen. Soprano)

No. 19: Terzetto Soll No. 16: Terzetto Soll B-flat major Sarastro, Tamino, &

ich dich Teurer nicht ich dich Teurer nicht Pamina (Bass, Tenor,

mehr sehn? mehr sehn? & Soprano)

 55

No. 20: <Aria> Ein No. 17: <Aria> Ein F major→ Papageno (Baritone)

Mädchen oder Mädchen oder E-flat major

Weibchen wünscht Weibchen wünscht

Papageno sich. Papageno sich.

Andante Andante – Allegro

No. 21: Finale Pa- No. 18: Finale Pa- E-flat major Papageno (Baritone)

pa- pa- pa- pa-

Table 10.

Like Triebensee, Heidenreich took the utmost care to maintain the original sequence of

Mozart's operatic numbers. Die Zauberflöte presents a challenging opera to arrange

dramaturgically because of the interspersion of spoken dialogue. Johann Nepomuk Went’s

arrangement of another of Mozart’s popular Singspiel works, Die Entführung aus dem Serail

(discussed above) did not follow the original ordering of the operatic numbers to the extent that

Heidenreich did in Die Zauberflöte. Seven of the eighteen selections from the original opera

maintain the original key choices Mozart had deliberately selected for added complexity both

harmonically and dramatically. The eleven numbers where the key areas are abandoned entirely

in the Harmoniemusik arrangements of Heidenreich, allowing the ensemble to play in the most

suitable keys. The dramaturgy of Die Zauberflöte is impossible to maintain in a purely

instrumental presentation. However, the arrangements remain in the logical sequence of the

original opera. Shorter arias are presented in full with little to no cuts. Here, I have chosen to

discuss the overture, the quintet from Act I, and Sarastro's bass aria "O Isis un Osiris" from Act
 56

II. These numbers offer a glimpse of Heidenreich's treatment of an operatic overture, an

ensemble, and an aria.

NO.1 OUVERTÜRE

Mozart’s original overture to Die Zauberflöte includes much more thematic material than

Heidenreich’s arrangement. The original overture follows almost all of the normative procedures

of the late classical sonata form, much like Mozart's overture to Don Giovanni. Consisting of

five distinct sections: a slow introduction, exposition, development, recapitulation, and codetta,

Mozart's overture consists of 226 measures. Heidenreich's arrangement, on the other hand, omits

the entire development and much of the recapitulation. See Table 11 for sections and

transpositions below:

NMA Score Heidenreich’s Arrangement Transposition

Slow Introduction (Adagio): Slow Introduction: mm. 1-30 E-flat major

mm. 1-15

Exposition (Allegro): mm. 16- Exposition: mm. 16-95 P1: E-flat major

95 P2: C major

Transition (Adagio): mm. 96- Transition (Adagio): mm. 96- B-flat major

102 102

Development: mm. 103-188 X B-flat minor

Recapitulation: mm. 189-218 Recapitulation: mm. 103-133 E-flat major

Codetta: mm. 219-226 Codetta: mm. 134-141 E-flat major

Table 11.
 57

The omission of the development section was presumably to avoid remotely related keys that

would be virtually unplayable for the Harmonie ensemble. Thus, excluding the development and

retransition sections, Heidenreich maintains the integrity of the original tonal structure, including

its original key of E-flat major.

The famous chords of the opening three measures of the overture include two flutes,

oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, drums, three trombones, and strings. See Fig.19.

below:

Fig. 19. Measures 1-3 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Zauberflöte. Neue Mozart-
Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum., 2006, 5.

The opening three harmonies of root position E-flat major, C minor, and E-flat major six-three

are fully orchestrated by Mozart and serve as the seeds of the harmonic framework in the opera.
 58

Heidenreich has taken the twenty-part scoring down to the eight parts covered in the traditional

Harmonie configuration. See Fig.20. below:

Fig.20. Measures 1-3 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Heidenreich. Die
Zauberflöte: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns, Band I. London: Musica Rara,
1977, 1.

It is clear from the comparison of Fig. 19 and Fig. 20 that Heidenreich maintains Mozart's

distribution of melodic and harmonic lines as carefully as possible. The opening four measures

present the original instrumentation with their original pitches and in the original key. There are

two slight changes in instrumentation from Mozart's original scoring for winds. The first is the

change of horns in E-flat to Heidenreich's preferred horns in F. The second is in the second

bassoon part, simply playing one octave below the first bassoon for additional harmonic support

in the bass voices. Measure 16 demonstrates how Heidenreich compensates with the lack of

string parts in his arrangement. The clarinets and bassoons take over the violins, violas, cellos,

and basses in mm. 33-37. At the same time, the oboes maintain their original material from

Mozart's overture. Compare Fig.21. and Fig.22. below:

 59

Fig. 21. Measures 33-37 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Zauberflöte. Neue Mozart-
Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum., 2006, 7.

Fig.22. Measures 33-37 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Heidenreich. Die
Zauberflöte: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns, Band I. London: Musica Rara,
1977, 2.

Heidenreich later uses the two horns to provide additional harmonic support where needed, much

as in Triebensee's arrangement of Don Giovanni. Heidenreich's arrangement is exceptionally

faithful to Mozart's use of ornaments and articulation. Almost all ornaments and articulation

markings in the original, such as appoggiaturas or trills, are retained. Heidenreich. Tempo
 60

markings appear the same as in Mozart's original score, and there are no deviations from

Mozart's original dynamic markings. In the opening three-subject fugal passage of the overture's

exposition, starting at measure sixteen, Heidenreich simply exchanges the roles of the first and

second violins with the first and second clarinet for the first subject. The second entrance of the

second subject entrance is maintained from Mozart's original scoring for bassoon, alongside

violas and cellos entering at measure twenty-seven. The third and last subject entry is found

starting at measure thirty-three. For the last entry, Heidenreich substitutes the double bass tutti

with the second bassoon. Heidenreich's skillful arranging of the fugal passages maintains all of

Mozart's masterful counterpoint even in a reduction for winds only.

In sum, the overture of Heidenreich's arrangement of the overture epitomizes

Harmoniemusik arranging in Vienna at its zenith. Heidenreich, like Triebensee, retains as much

of Mozart's original material of the overture as possible, except for the removal of the

development section.

NO. 4: QUINTETTO

Mozart's own instrumentation in the quintet no. 5, "Hm! hm! hm!" comes closest to that

used by Heidenreich in his arrangement. Oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns in B-flat form the core

of the instrumental accompaniment in both the original and arrangement, except for the lack of

strings in Heidenreich's arrangement. Heidenreich deploys the full Harmonie in this number, as

he will for the majority of the selections in his arrangement. The "tutti possibilities of the [entire]

ensemble" is also lacking Heidenreich's arrangement, much like in Triebensee's arranging style.76

76
Blomhert, The Harmoniemusik of Die Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 174.
 61

Heidenreich reproduces the agreeable quintet beautifully, though not in its entirety,

having omitted twenty-four measures in his arrangement. Mozart's original key of B-flat major is

maintained, and the other key areas in each of the sections of this number in Heidenreich's

arrangement. See Table 12:

NMA Heidenreich’s Original Keys (No Vocal

Arrangement Transpositions)

Section I: mm. 1-33 Section I: mm. 1-33 B-flat major Tamino & Papageno

"Hm! hm! hm!"

Section II: 34-77 Section II: mm. 34-77 F major Three Ladies

“Die Königin

begnadigt dich,”

Section III: 80-132 Section III: mm. 80- B-flat major Three Ladies.

“O Prinz! Nimm dies 108 Tamino, & Papageno

Geschenk von mir,”

Section IV: 133-171 X G minor Three Ladies

“Nun, ihr schönen

Frauenzimmer,”

Section V: 172-183 X E-flat major Tamino & Papageno

Section VI: 183-213 Section IV: mm. 109- B-flat major Three Ladies,

146 Tamino, & Papageno

 62

“Hier, nimm dies

Kleinod,”

Andante (Concluding Andante (Concluding B-flat major Three Ladies,

Section): 214-247 Section): mm. 147- Tamino, & Papageno

“Drei Knaben, jung, 157

schön, hold und

weise,”

Table 12.

As is clear in the table above, Heidenreich omitted the fourth section because the key area of G

minor would have been unidiomatically difficult for the Harmonie ensemble. The short,

transitional fifth section likely was omitted since its dramaturgical purpose is mute from the cut

of the fourth section of the original. The cut of sections four and five from Mozart's score leaves

the personae from sections three and six unaltered. Finally, the cut of sections four and five

retains the key area of B-flat major for a seamless transition into measures 183 to 213 of

Mozart's. The slower tempo, slow harmonic rhythm, and change of vocal style and

accompaniment of the concluding Andante section present an ethereal, almost hymn-like

moment. This moment is a culmination in the action of Act I. It indicates the action's "magical"

impact on the numbers featuring the "Drei Knaben." It also points to Act I's ambivalent quality,

where the Queen of the Night and her Three Ladies are not yet overtly evil. The topic is an

"exalted" march, used for sacred moments; the dynamic and expressive marking, p, and "dolce,"

imply the special moment as well.77 Heidenreich captures this special moment in his scoring for

77
See Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style, 154.
 63

Harmonie by keeping almost all of Mozart's original wind instrumentation, which originally

doubled the vocal quintet.78 Heidenreich's creatively economic choice skillfully solves the

problem of covering both the original wind parts as well as the vocal quintet; played by both

oboes, first clarinet, and both horns. The supporting bass accompaniment is then transferred to

the second clarinet and bassoon parts. Compare Fig.23. and Fig.24. below:

Fig. 23. Measures 236-47 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Zauberflöte. Neue Mozart-
Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum., 2006, 112.

78
Dr. Pamela F. Starr, personal communication with author, 23 June 2021.
 64

Fig. 24. Measures 146-52 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Heidenreich. Die
Zauberflöte: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns, Band I. London: Musica Rara,
1977, 17.

The first clarinet and first bassoon carry the parts of Papageno and Tamino, respectively.

In contrast, the parts of the Three Ladies are realized by both oboes and the second clarinet. The

core of the original accompaniment lies in the arrangement is assigned to both horns second

bassoon at all times, which cover the original parts of both horns and the cello part, respectively.

When both sets of oboes and clarinets do not carry a vocal assignment, they are assigned to

another role. Either the oboes and clarinets retain the material from the original quintet, or

Heidenreich has assigned the four instruments to cover the parts of both the first and second

violins. If the first bassoon part is not assigned to Papageno's parts, the first bassoon covers the

original cello part's material, and the second bassoon moves to function as the double bass part.

Papageno and Tamino's parts clearly appear in the first nine measures of Heidenreich's

arrangement compared with Mozart's score. Compare Fig. 25. and Fig. 26. below:
 65

Fig. 25. Measures 1-9 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Zauberflöte. Neue Mozart-
Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum., 2006, 89-90.
 66

Fig.26. Measures 1-20 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Heidenreich. Die
Zauberflöte: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns, Band I. London: Musica Rara,
1977, 11-12.

Heidenreich retains Mozart's choices of dynamics, articulation, and ornamentation in this number

perfectly. The only additional markings Heidenreich includes in the solo lines are additional

staccato markings which are not in the original vocal part. Heidenreich added these stylized

articulations as Mozart did in his original woodwind accompaniment. Heidenreich and Mozart

knew that to achieve the same vocal articulation quality, the woodwind parts should be marked

with staccatos when necessary. Heidenreich's arrangement of "Hm! hm! hm!" is a perfect
 67

testament to the arranger's fidelity not only to the notes but also to the style, effect, and drama of

the original opera.

NO. 12: <ARIA CON CORO> O ISIS UND OSIRIS SCHENKET. ADAGIO

The same attention to detail can be found in the last number of discussion for

Heidenreich's arrangement, Sarastro's aria "O Isis un Osiris schenket" from Act II. Sarastro's bass

aria "O Isis un Osiris schenket" contains one of the most unusually orchestrated arias in all of

Mozart's operas. The aria is scored for two basset-horns in F, two bassoons, three trombones, two

violas, and a cello. The orchestration calls for all low-range instruments, excluding double bass,

to create "low-lying textures all the time." The original instrumentation conveys the solemnity of

prayer by Sarastro as a hymn to his gods, and the scoring reflects that quasi-sacred context.

Trombones are used exclusively at this time in sacred music, as in Mozart's own Requiem.79

"O Isis un Osiris schenket" is one of eleven numbers in Heidenreich's arrangement where

no cuts are made. Heidenreich also maintained the same key of F major as the original aria.

Thus, the aria's formal structure appears as a binary form hymn, with a choral refrain at the end

of each half.80 See Table 13 below:

79
See Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style, 154-155.
80
Mann, The Operas of Mozart, 623.
 68

NMA Heidenreich’s Arrangement Transposition

Section I: mm. 1-24 Section I: mm. 1-24 F major

Choral Refrain I: mm. 25-28 Choral Refrain I: mm. 25-28

Section II: mm. 29-48 Section II: mm. 29-48

Choral Refrain II: mm. 49-55 Choral Refrain II: mm. 49-55

Table 13.

Heidenreich's arrangement, while containing no cuts or transpositions, does not emulate the same

sonorities achieved in Mozart's unique orchestration. The original aria employs ten

instrumentalists accompanying Sarastro's bass aria, alongside a four-part chorus appearing in the

refrains of both sections of the aria. Especially in the choral refrains, there are as many

instrumentalists as singers sounding simultaneously, which left a problematic task for

Heidenreich in how he would try to fill in the instrumental texture. His solution to these

problems is proved highly creative. For measures one through twenty-four, Heidenreich places

Sarastro's aria in the first clarinet part, having the second clarinet and both oboe parts take the

roles of the basset horns and bassoon lines. The horns and bassoons then cover the trombone,

viola, and cello lines; compare Fig.27. and Fig.28. below:

 69

Fig. 27. Measures 10-19 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Die Zauberflöte. Neue Mozart-
Ausgabe: Digital Mozart Edition. Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum., 2006, 194.

Fig. 28. Measures 13-25 from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Heidenreich. Die
Zauberflöte: For 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons & 2 Horns, Band II. London: Musica Rara,
1977, 6.

For measures 29 through 48, Heidenreich employs almost the exact same strategy to the first

section of the aria, except for changing the melodic roles from the solo clarinet to the solo oboe.

In the two choral refrains, mm. 25-28 and 49-55, Heidenreich takes both sets of oboes and

clarinets and sets them as the chorus, keeping the horns and bassoons as underlying harmonic

support. The harmonic material given to both horns and bassoons changes greatly from bar to
 70

bar. The second bassoon part, for example, mostly takes on the role of the cello line of the

original aria. However, Heidenreich would change the octave of the original cello part to the

actual second bassoon part; compare mm. 13-14 in Fig. 27 and Fig. 28 above. The shifting of the

second bassoon roles could have either been an idiomatic re-registration, or it could be that

Heidenreich was trying to maintain Mozart's original scoring at that particular moment. Either

way, there is no doubt of Heidenreich's extreme sensitivity to both Mozart's original score as

well as to the idiomatic nature of his arrangements.

 71

CONCLUSION

The three approaches to arranging Mozart's operas for Harmonie by Johann Nepomuk

Went, Josef Triebensee, and Joseph Heidenreich demonstrate many specific decisions and

compromises. These include but are not limited to: choices of the source material, the selection

of music, the instrumentation, the original formal structures, and transpositions that emerge into

a somewhat standard routine for each arranger. The primary instrument played by each arranger-

performer also played a significant part in their arrangements. The arranging styles of Went and

Triebensee are very similar since both men were both composers and virtuoso oboists who

played in many of the Viennese premières of Mozart's operas. In contrast, Joseph Heidenreich

was an orchestral violist and had no documented history as a wind player or composer.81 Despite

these differences, these three men converted operatic numbers into a well-crafted, purely

instrumental idiom.

In terms of overall quantity, Johann Nepomuk Went's output of opera and ballet wind

arrangements, alongside his original compositions, without a doubt made him "the foremost

Harmonie arranger in Vienna, probably the only one of any importance in the 1780s."82 Many of

Went's arrangements of Mozart's operas serve as a select set of operatic highlights of the famous

arias and duets, as is the case in his arrangement of Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Both

Triebensee and Heidenreich made more extensive sets of arrangements. Most vocal melodies

from the arias and duets were reserved for the first and second oboe parts, because Went himself

was an oboist and expected the chief melody line to be played by that Harmonie instrument. The

range of the oboe could easily capture the original lines of the soprano and alto lines of Mozart's

arias or duets with little to no changes, other than possibly being transposed from the original

81
Blomhert, The Harmoniemusik of Die Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 170-71.
82
Ibid.
 72

key. Baritone, tenor, or bass solos are often given to the solo bassoon, with supporting materials

designated for the pair of clarinets, horns, and the second bassoon.

The social context surrounding Went's arrangements did not call for long, extensive

treatments, which explains why many more extended numbers have been strategically cut, as

discussed earlier in this chapter regarding Went's arrangement of Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

The primary purpose of Went's arrangements, upon with the establishment of the K.K.

Harmonie, in the spring of 1782, was to provide that ensemble with Tafelmusik as well as

general entertainment music, nothing more.83 During Went's tenure at the Austrian Imperial

Court, the establishment of the full Harmonie ensemble allowed arrangers such as his son-in-law,

Josef Triebensee, to expand upon a newly established tradition of arranging Harmoniemusik for

the Imperial Court. All of Triebensee's opera and ballet Harmonie arrangements consisted "of at

least twelve or more complete numbers," which led to longer, more expansive arrangements than

his predecessors.84 Fewer cuts also followed Triebensee's inclusion of more operatic numbers to

each number, making the overall arrangement faithful to the original opera.

Josef Triebensee's approach to converting operatic numbers to a purely instrumental one

was akin to his father-in-law's, except that the oboe did not always serve as the "prima donna" of

the arrangement. While Triebensee deployed the use of the oboe extensively as both a solo voice

and duet-pairing in many operatic selections, Triebensee "transformed arias and duets into

"'concertinos' for oboe, clarinet or even horn accompanied by the other instruments of the

ensemble, or as a 'double concertino.'"85 With an output just as prolific as Went's arrangements

of Mozart's operas, Triebensee's are far more extensive in both the number of operatic numbers

83
Ibid., 26.
84
Hellyer, " 'Harmoniemusik'," 153.
85
Ibid., 174.
 73

included in his arrangements as is the length of each operatic number. Instead of making

significant cuts to individual numbers, Triebensee excises the more dramatic numbers of

Mozart's original operas, as demonstrated in Triebensee's arrangement of Don Giovanni. Cutting

the dramatic numbers from Don Giovanni not only reduced the duration of the arrangement but

was more likely intended to keep a light and cheerful atmosphere for the engagements at the

Austrian Imperial Court. Like Went, Triebensee did not significantly recompose any of Mozart's

original opera numbers, other than altering the closing bars of an operatic number where specific

measures were omitted. Triebensee's approaches and techniques used in arranging Mozart's Don

Giovanni were made so with the express purpose of maintaining the dramaturgy of the original

opera. The only exception to the sequence of the original scenes was the omission of the

numbers that exhibited the more demonic aspects of Mozart's opera. Went and Triebensee's

similar approaches to arranging for Harmonie are both mirrored and also contrasted by the last

arranger included in this discussion, Joseph Heidenreich.

Joseph Heidenreich approached his arrangement of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte much

differently than either Went or Triebensee. Unlike them, Heidenreich was known for his piano

transcriptions of operas rather than his Harmoniemusik arrangements.86 Heidenreich was also

unaffiliated with Mozart's original opera premières between 1782 and 1791, unlike Went and

Triebensee, who were involved in many premières, as oboists. The most distinctive difference in

Heidenreich's Harmonie arrangements lies in the sources that each arranger used. Went and

Triebensee made their arrangements directly from the opera score, while Heidenreich most likely

made his arrangement from a piano reduction.87 Other than some unorthodox settings of

accompaniment material in the horns, Heidenreich primarily utilized the set of oboes and

86
Ibid., 178.
87
Ibid.
 74

clarinets for the more melodic material very idiomatically, much like Triebensee. It could be

possible that Heidenreich used both a piano reduction as well as the original score in his creative

approach to the more challenging sections of the Singspiel.88

Perhaps the most significant difference between the social contexts of both Went and

Triebensee to that of Heidenreich was a question of marketing. Heidenreich's arrangement of Die

Zauberflöte was not intended for a specific court or ensemble as Went's and Triebensee's

arrangements initially were. Both Triebensee's and Heidenreich's arrangements were intended to

be sold directly to the consumer.89 Thus, in just ten years, arrangements of Mozart's theater

music for the Harmonie ensemble went from exclusively aristocratic to public consumption.

The arrangements of Went, Triebensee, and Heidenreich provide overwhelming evidence

demonstrating the transformation of a high art medium of opera to an equally respectable

infinitely more practical medium of Harmoniemusik suitable for social occasions, especially for

banquets and parties. These arrangements' success depended on some degree of familiarity with

the originals, especially the most popular and beloved tunes; and the ability for the arrangements

to serve as background to social interactions and conversations.90 Mozart's finale to Don

Giovanni further demonstrates the author's belief in Harmoniemusik as a significant art form.

88
Blomhert alludes to Heidenreich’s possible use of a piano score as a possible explanation for an “unorthodox
setting of horns” found in the No.16 Terzetto ‘Seid duns zum zweiten Malilkommen,’ in measures 17 and 18 of his
arrangement. See Blomhert, The Harmoniemusik of Die Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 178.
89
Hellyer, " 'Harmoniemusik',” 150.
90
Dr. Pamela F. Starr, personal communication with author, 4 July 2021.
 75

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