Recording Vogler’s Keyboard Works

A New Album

In connection with the Carl Theodor Jubilee Year in 2024, I am proud to announce a new project: an album of never-before-recorded solo keyboard music by the composer, Georg Joseph Vogler (1749–1814), an important Kapellmeister in Carl Theodor’s courts, using a square fortepiano built by Longman & Broderip in London in 1788; part of the personal collection of Anders Muskens. The album will be entitled “Vogler: Variations and Keyboard Pieces.”

The album’s projected release is in early 2025 with the Canadian record label, Leaf Music Distribution.

A prominent figure within the Mannheim School, Georg Joseph Vogler stood out as an innovative composer, music theorist, influential teacher, and accomplished keyboard performer (organ, harpsichord, fortepiano, clavichord) in his era. Seemingly, Mozart was jealous of Vogler’s success, and due to Mozart’s disdain for him documented in his letters, Vogler's reputation suffered posthumously, hindering modern interest in Vogler's music. Consequently, modern interest in his compositions is limited, and few are performed or recorded nowadays. Nevertheless, this overlooked music deserves a revival, and this project offers audiences a unique chance to rediscover these forgotten pieces, adding a novel dimension to the recording. This project is supported by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Forschungszentrum HOF | MUSIK | STADT.

Concept and Detailed Historical Background

No other musical figure of the late eighteenth century is as polarizing as Georg Joseph Vogler (1749–1814), whose mere mention divided the musical world into either bitter opponents or ardent admirers. Often called “Abbot” or “Abbé” Vogler, he was born in Würzburg, Germany in 1749. For Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, who met him during his visit to Mannheim in 1777–78, he was a man “who imagines quite a lot and cannot do much,” while for the poet and musician Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, he was “an epoch maker in music.”

Vogler could be aptly described as a lifelong traveler. In the age of horse-drawn stagecoaches, he covered considerable distances at great speeds that would command the respect of even today’s ardent air travelers. His travels extended from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, and from the British Isles to Russia. He never really settled down, for he was constantly driven by the missionary zeal to disseminate his ideas and put them into practice. He not only worked as a composer and Kapellmeister, but also as a pedagogue, organ virtuoso, music theorist, organ builder and priest.

The musically gifted son of a violin maker, Vogler first studied ecclesiastical and secular law at the University of Würzburg. The decision to pursue music was not taken until Vogler arrived in the spring of 1771 at Mannheim, the capital of the Electoral Palatinate (Kurpfalz) and at the time, one of the foremost centers for music in all of Europe. Recognizing his talent, the reigning monarch Elector Carl Theodor granted Vogler a scholarship for a study trip to Italy (1773–75). It was probably during this time that Vogler was ordained to the priesthood. After returning from Italy, he was appointed second Kapellmeister in Mannheim after Ignaz Holzbauer. As well, he devoted himself—certainly in the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment—to furthering public education. In 1776, he opened his Tonschule: the first musical training institute in Mannheim, which men and women could attend regardless of their religion. As material for his teaching, he published a whole series of books on music theory, including his main work, the Kuhrpfälzische Tonschule.

Restlessly seeking recognition, Vogler departed Mannheim in 1780, settling in Paris to establish himself as a theorist and composer, facing mixed success (the music written around the time of this journey was the subject of the last album I recorded with AFA funding, mentioned above). His journey continued to London, where his theory of harmony gained approval from the Royal Society. Briefly serving as Kapellmeister in Munich (1784-86), he then shifted his focus to Sweden, finding an ideal environment for teaching, composing, and performing under a ten-year contract at King Gustave III’s court. Resuming pedagogical pursuits, Vogler published manuals, traveled extensively, and earned an international reputation for improvisation. Intrigued by national character, he integrated themes of ethnic music into his works, including the “Pièces de Clavecin” (1798) proposed in this album. Following Gustav III’s death in 1792, Vogler embarked on an extensive journey from the edges of Europe to Africa, exploring sacred-music traditions, yielding a treatise on modes and chorale harmonization. After the expiration of his Swedish contract, he resumed European travels, making notable contributions in Prague, Vienna (encountering Haydn and Beethoven), and Munich.

The “Pièces de Clavecin”

Published in Stockholm in 1798 near the end of his Swedish contract, Vogler’s collection of character pieces, titled “Pieces de clavecin,” may appear quaint, recalling an old French genre of keyboard music reflecting the French influence at the Swedish royal court. However, beneath this facade lies a modern pianistic idiom, clearly intended for the emerging fortepiano rather than harpsihcord. Full of stylistic diversity, these pieces also are ordered for pedagogical guidance, as the collection accompanies Vogler’s Swedish-language keyboard tutor, the Clavér-schola. The pieces increase in complexity, introducing various styles, genres, expressive devices, pianistic textures, and later on, extendecd keyboard techniques like tremolos and double and triple trills. Vogler's aim to unite technical, theoretical, and aesthetic aspects of musical training is evident in the carefully selected pieces. The diverse contents share a common thread of national character, in a cosmopolitan collection celebrating music from around the world, presumably collected by Vogler during his extensive travels, including many variations on folk songs and marches from Scandinavia. Foreign influences, which Vogler came into contact with during his extensive travels, such as a Moroccan song (from his time in North Africa) and a Chinese melody (reportedly recorded by a British diplomat who had been to China), are Westernized in syntax and harmonic vocabulary.

Vogler's collection of musical pieces from around the world stands in the context of the Enlightenment world view, which is characterized by a scientific interest in and great curiosity about foreign countries and cultures. The reception of a Moroccan song or a Chinese melody testifies to Vogler's aesthetic appreciation and recognition of various non-European musical traditions. The flip side of such a reception is, of course, a certain exoticism and ethnocentrism inherent in the European gaze on such a repertoire, based on the colonial world view of the eighteenth century. Such a Eurocentric perspective also means that a certain degree of distortion in Vogler's rendition and representation cannot be ruled out. However, Vogler's documentation of these melodies provides us today with valuable insights into historical musical traditions that might otherwise have been lost or overlooked. In reviving this repertoire, it is important to see and understand Vogler's efforts within the constraints of his time, and to celebrate above all the great artistic curiosity and experimentation in his exploration of national themes – while acknowledging the problematic historical context of the colonial period.

Vogler and Variations

Vogler was well-regarded for his intricate, complex variation sets for keyboard, which he often improvised in dazzling public concerts on organ and fortepiano. Vogler himself wrote in 1793 that variations are “a type of musical rhetoric, where the given meaning appears in different guises, with the distinction that the boundary lines are much more rigorously determined in music than in oratory.’

Vogler’s Variations on “Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre” were published in Speyer in 1791 and were also based on a popular French folk song, which is known by its English title “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” This folk song has a long history and has been adapted and transformed in various ways by different composers since the early 18th century. Vogler’s complex variations are masterworks, showcasing a degree of ingenuity, technical proficiency, and complexity that rivals some of Mozart and even Beethoven’s most lauded variation sets.

Choosing an Instrument

I will use an original fortepiano from my personal collection: a Longman & Broderip square piano built in London in 1788 and restored by Paul Kobald in Amsterdam in 2018. Longman & Broderip were distinguished English makers of square pianos during the 18th century and played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of keyboard instruments. Notably, their square pianos, characterized by a compact and rectangular design, became sought-after choices for domestic settings. My instrument has the patent-action of 1787. John Geib, who worked for the Longman & Broderip firm, received a patent for improvements to square piano mechanisms, introducing innovations that contributed to their enhanced playability and sound. Geib’s mechanical action became so universal by the early 19th century that it became simply known as the “English action,” and was copied by many other makers in the United Kingdom and abroad.

During the Gustavian era in Sweden, English fortepianos began being imported already in the 1770’s. Local instrument-building firms in Stockholm, including builders like Pehr Lindholm, Mattias Petter Kraft, Pehr Lundborg, Henric Johan Söderström, George Christoffer Rackwitz, Göran Garman, Lorentz Mollenberg, and Johan Söderberg, used the English style design as a model for their locally built square pianos.

Hence, my choice of using a top-rate Longman & Broderip square piano with patent action from 1788 is a perfect choice for this recording, since it is a type of instrument Vogler had access to during his employment in the Swedish court. As well, I will use a grand pianoforte by John Broadwood & Sons to record the variations on “Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre.

Tracks

Georg Joseph Vogler (1749-1814)
Pièces de Clavecin (1798) [100 min]

I. Pastorale

II. Variations on a Barcarolle from Venice

III. Romance africaine

IV. Fantasia drawn on “Cheu Teu” a Chinese Air

V. Variations on the Swedish song “Min far han var en Vestgöthe han han”

VI. Pente chordium

VII. Variations on the Finnish air “Ak minan rakas linduisen”

VIII. Variations on the Swedish song “Höns gummans visa”

IX. Air barbaresque

X. Polonaise

XI. Variations on the March of Charles XII auprès du Narvae

XII. Variations on a Russian Air

XIII. Variations on the March of the Knights of the Order of the Seraphim in Sweden

XIV. Variations on the Quarndansen: a Swedish Dance

Georg Joseph Vogler (1749-1814)
Variations on Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre (1791) [22 min]