An inventory of music belonging to the Sanguszko family from the second half of the eighteenth century

Irena Bieńkowska

Abstract

The Wawel Division of the State Archive in Cracow is in possession of materials from the court of the Sanguszko family, including an inventory of music once belonging to the Prince’s court, dating from the second half of the eighteenth century. The musical documents occupy just a few sheets in a volume of almost 500 pages in folio format. The volume contains a wide range of documents, mainly speeches, letters and poems, most of which were part of the collection of Barbara Sanguszkowa, née Dunin (1718–91). The inventory discussed here occupies fols. 161–165. It is neither dated nor annotated with the name of the collection’s owner. The inventory is divided into five parts – symphonies, concertos, arias, divertimenti and compositions for clarinet – and contains a total of 140 compositions. Every work in the list was provided with a musical incipit.

Among the seventy-three symphonies in the list, we find works by composers representing both the Mannheim School and early Viennese style. Most numerously represented is Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. Other composers include Joseph Haydn, Friedrich Schwindel, Johann A. Filtz, Carl J. Toeschi and Josef Mysliveček. The ‘symphonies’ section includes also eight operatic overtures, including three compositions by Johann Christian Bach. The eighteen solo concertos include works by Leopold Hoffmann, William Reinards and Maddalena Laura Syrmen; the ‘arias’ section contains compositions by Mysliveček, Carl H. Graun and Antonio M.G. Sacchini; the nineteen works of chamber music in the list were written by such composers as Toeschi, Haydn, Filtz, Franz Asplmayer, Leopold Hoffmann, Johann C. Kellner and Domenico Mancinelli. The final section in the inventory comprises twenty-one compositions for clarinet, some of them by composers linked to Poland: Kajetan Mayer, known as Gaetano, and Maciej Kamieński. Apart from these compositions, the inventory includes music by other composers who lived and worked in Poland: Giuseppe Pasqua, Antoni Weinert, Anton Neumann and jan Engel.

So who was the owner of the preserved list of music? In all probability, it belonged to one of the four sons of Paweł Karol Sanguszko. The most likely owner of the inventory was Hieronim Janusz Sanguszko, who is known to have maintained, in the years 1768–89, an ensemble of a dozen or so musicians that was capable of performing the repertoire contained in the inventory.