Frederick II (Frederick the Great) of Prussia

Born on 24 January 1712 in Berlin, Frederick II (Frederick the Great; not) was a member of the House of Hohenzollern and exemplar of the Age of Enlightenment, aka Age of Reason, in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Age of Reason had been much precipitated by the empirical scientific method of Francis Bacon, then examined by John Locke and David Hume. Other philosophical heavyweights of the age were René Descartes (such as 'Discourse on Method' ["I think, therefore I am"] in 1637), the German mathematician, Gottfried Leibniz, and Immanuel Kant filling out the height of the period. Along the way came Charles Montesquieu, François-Marie Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (also a composer), all of whom contributed to 'Encyclopaedia or a Systematic Dictionary' published from 1751 to 1772 by Jean le Rond d'Alembert and Denis Diderot. This publication is credited as the first encyclopedia. The American Revolution of 1776 and French Revolution of 1789 were considered conflicts of enlightenment. At the height of the period George Washington declined a golden opportunity to declare himself king and, instead, established a democratic republic. In all the decolonization of the Americas North to South, Washington was the singular exception who didn't simply rehash an old monarchy with a smaller new one. Though Frederick himself was an absolute boss, definitely neither democrat nor populist, he did correspond with Voltaire [Strachey], could speak six languages, and read Latin, ancient Greek and Hebrew as well. Though as a teenager Frederick had no desire to be a king, when the role was later thrust on him at the death of his father he suffered no arguments from anyone about it, which is one reason we now have modern Germany of former Prussia.

Frederick became a runaway at age eighteen because his father was King Frederick William I of Prussia. Attempting to flee to England in 1730 with a friend waiting in Potsdam, he and his mate were caught and arrested. The main problem was that both of them were military officers. The court martial found his friend, one Hans Hermann von Katte, guilty of desertion, and sentenced him to life in prison. Frederick William, however, believed treason a more just charge and had Frederick observe Katte's beheading. Frederick himself was stripped of rank and sent to study statecraft and administration in Küstrin.

Frederick met flautist, Johann Joachim Quantz, in 1728 on a visit to Augustus II the Strong in Dresden. On a return visit to Berlin later that year Augustus brought Quantz along with him, whence Quantz declined a position offered to him at Frederick's court. Quantz, though, did visit Frederick twice annually to give flute lessons. By 1733 Franz Benda was present as a violinist at the court of the young Prince, the same year that he reluctantly married Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick, feeling that he would be a poor husband. Sometime after that he reentered the Prussian army as a colonel and assumed command of a regiment in Ruppin, there maintaining his retinue of musicians. Moving his court to Rheinsberg in 1736, his company of seventeen musicians included Benda and Johann Gottlieb Graun at violin, Benda's brother, Johann, at viola, Christoph Schaffreth at harpsichord and Carl Heinrich Graun who became director of chamber music in 1735 and Kapellmeister 1740.   

Frederick's book, 'Anti-Machiavel', was published anonymously in September of 1740, a few months after succeeding Frederick William as King of Prussia at age 28. From there he wrote profusely throughout his life including librettos and poetry amidst addressing political and military subjects. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach took up the harpsichord at Frederick's court no later than 1740. Though Bach may have accompanied Frederick more than any other musician over the years, Quantz would be favored as a flute player like Frederick and the one whom Frederick imitated as a composer. Quantz was more conservative in late baroque-galant than Bach who indulged in more progressive galant Empfindsamer, that is, sensibility.

Frederick wasn't long king when he turned aside from studies in governance and Enlightenment arts and humanities to attend to his realm, the most ambitious on his agenda being the consolidation of his scattered territories resulting in the Silesian Wars against Habsburg Austria (1740-45). It was during this time that Quantz finally joined Frederick's court in December of 1741. Then it was the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 during which the Habsburgs attempted to regain Silesia. Frederick's Prussia was aligned with Great Britain against Austria which formed alliances with France, Sweden, Saxony and Russia. The Seven Years War also affectively spilled into North America where the French and Indian War had begun in 1754, that a conflict between Brits and France with each allied to various American Indian tribes. Another of Frederick's conflicts with Austria was the War of the Bavarian Succession from 1778-79 when the House of Wittelsbach couldn't leave a direct heir upon the death of Maximilian III Joseph.

Frederick is considered among the greatest tactical geniuses in military history. The small and relatively young Kingdom of Prussia (1701) was, after all, up against the Habsburg Empire which power had spread throughout Europe for several centuries. Prussia was a heavily armed military state. "Where some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state" to quote Voltaire. When Frederick inherited his realm in 1740 his army of 76,000 men was nearly a third the size of that of France (long since no friend to the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire at 225,000), even though France had ten times the population (23,000,000 v 2,240,000) producing eight times the revenue (60,000,000 crowns v 7,400,000) [Kyte. There was a soldier for every 102 people in France versus one for every 29 in Prussia. As well, it wasn't unusual for Frederick to lead his troops into battle, six horses shot from beneath him during his military career. He was no hero, though, to the Polish. Frederick owned a concentrated prejudice against Poles, making him not so Great with them as he applied various pressures to make them wish to leave his acquired Polish domains. He more reasonably preferred Jews to stimulate trade in an economy that he much improved while running a Protestant monarchy which retained Jesuits for their academic skills [Jewish Encyclopedia]. Frederick himself was a Freemason (like George Washington) who held Plato and Marcus Aurelius in in high regard.

Frederick is also lauded for his construction projects, including buildings, canals and his rococo Sanssouci Palace [Wikipedia] built from 1745-47 in Potsdam near Berlin. "Sans souci" translates to "carefree" from French. (The similarly named Sans-Souci Palace in Haiti has naught to do with Fred.) Frederick also established the first veterinary school in Germany. Yet, amidst all the greatly condensed foregoing Frederick found time to become an admirably skilled transverse flute player who practiced every day for decades. A transverse flute is simply the modern flute, held horizontally, unlike the recorder preceding it.

Frederick's Modern Rococo Sanssouci Palace of 1747

Frederick had begun to study composition at age seven with church organist, Gottlieb Hayne, and would compose four symphonies, four concertos, 121 sonatas (11 lost), ten arias (1746-53) and possibly three marches. Though baroque counterpoint was among his examinations Frederick would prefer the baroque-galant style of Quantz. As commented, Frederick had become acquainted with Quantz in 1928 before running off to England in 1730. His sonatas were confusedly catalogued with those of Quantz until Philipp Spitta clarified the situation in 1889 with SpiF numbering. Included in the twenty-five sonatas that Spitta has catalogued is Frederick's 'Flute Sonata in C minor' SpiF 190 (audio).

Frederick didn't publish his compositions which are difficult to date beyond a little help from manuscripts having been left upon Frederick's death at what residences where they may have been written. Sarah Macken cites Eugene Helm who has Graun correcting a symphony by his student, Frederick, as early as 1735, possibly his No.1. Of Frederick's four concertos his ' Flute Concerto No.1 in G major' is of an unidentified date, published posthumously by Breitkopf & Hartel in 1889 (audio). Macken gives his 'Sinfonia in D major' a date of 1743 (audio), also identifying two marches as of 1741 and 1756.

Several works associated with Frederick remain in argument as to their actual composers. One march generally credited to Frederick that is contested is 'Der Hohenfriedberger Marsch' usually dated 1745 due to the Prussian victory against Austria and Saxony on 4 June that year at the Battle of Hohenfriedberger during the 2nd Silesian War. There is apparently no documentation of the march until 1795 per a piano piece by an unknown hand, and it didn't receive lyrics until 1845. Johann Piefke employed the march in his 'Königgrätzer Marsch' of 1866. Written by Frederick or not, Arthur Pryor credited the work to him for his 1906 recording of it released on Victor 4778 [DAHR]. It also saw issue on cylinder in 1907 as recorded by the Edison-Orchester in Berlin [UCSB]. Come the 1923 version by the Victor Military Band for release on Victor 77172 [LOC].

As Frederick's compositions are difficult to impossible to date, titles below do not descend in chronological order. We begin, though, with his 'Symphony No.1 in G major' for reason that this may be the one corrected by Graun in the early year of 1735 (above). Next is Frederick's 'Hohenfriedberger March'. Per Wikipedia, the 'Hohenfriedberger' is derived from the anonymous 'Pappenheimer March' of the early 17th century. To iterate, it is reasoned that Frederick, if indeed the composer, might have written the 'Hohenfriedberger' in latter 1745 to commemorate his victory in battle there. We follow that with a couple of sonatas and conclude with his best-known works, his four concertos.