Baroque Flute Master Johann Joachim Quantz

Johann Joachim Quantz

Pastel by Johann Friedrich Gerhard   1735

Source: Expedition Audio

Born on 30 Jan 1697 in Oberscheden, Germany, flautist Johann Joachim Quantz was another prize in the musical dominion that was largely Germany's in the latter Baroque. He composed arias, lied and orchestral works, but his flute concertos number nearly three hundred and his flute sonatas more than two including trio sonatas.

The cataloging of Quantz' verseichnis via "QV" numbers is per Horst Augsbach in 'Johann Joachim Quantz: Thematisch-systematisches Werkverzeichnis' published by Carus-Verlag in Stuttgart in 1997. The majority of Augsbach's directory was sourced from manuscripts at the Sachsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden, the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin and the Königliche Hausbibliothek in Berlin. Though scholars detect problems with the Augsbach catalog it is commonly used and everyone is glad to have it. Among several examinations concerning flutes and Quantz, flautist, Mary Oleskiewicz, has written a review of Augsburg's directory in 'Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association', Vol. 56 No. 3, March 2000.

Quantz' mother died in 1702. His father, who was a blacksmith wanting Johann to follow him in his profession, remarried in 1703 but died in 1707. His stepmother may have died about that time as well, Johann ending up with his uncle in Merseburg where he studied at the Stadtpfeiffe and spent several years learning to perform on numerous musical instruments. One of these was harpsichord. Quantz came along only shortly after Cristofori's invention of the "gravicembalo col piano e forte" in 1700, a keyboard wanting another century to become the refined instrument for which Beethoven wrote. Quantz was a fan of contemporary, J.S. Bach, who encouraged the development of the piano but didn't like it enough to compose for it. Quantz, however, apparently employed fortepiano for continuo in addition to the standard harpsichord at least during his latter career in Berlin. His benefactor, Frederick the Great, bought several such instruments, perhaps upon Bach's approval, designed by Gottfried Silbermann in 1747. If a piano arrived to Dresden before Quantz left there in 1741 I've been able to determine. (The notable benefactress of the earlier Christofori piano had been Queen Barbara of Spain who owned several when she died in 1758. Nor did her tutor, Domenico Scarlatti, compose for piano at that early stage, albeit well-acquainted with it.)

Quantz became a piper for the municipality of Pirna in 1714. He joined the orchestra in Dresden, capital of Saxony, in 1716, before leaving for Vienna to study counterpoint with Zelenka in 1717. It was 1718 when Quantz was accepted at the Dresden Polish Chapel of August II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He then switched from oboe (hoboy) to flute, estimating opportunities greater with the latter.

It was during the Baroque about mid 17th century when the custom called the Grand Tour of Europe began. The Grand Tour was an itinerary commonly of perhaps two or three years to various European destinations of which Paris, Rome and Venice were usually considered essential. Often a mixed bag of education and neighborly leisure, the Grand Tour was made by such as nobles, authors and musicians including Quantz, the latter on the dime of Augustus the Strong in 1724. After examining counterpoint with Gasparini in Rome he visited with Scarlatti in Naples in 1725. He arrived to Paris in 1726. Augustus apparently wouldn't pay for a visit to England, but granted Quantz several weeks of liberty to visit with Handel across the Channel in 1727 before returning to Dresden. One account has him visiting England despite Augustus' permission.

His journeys having accomplished his fame as a virtuoso and composer in much of Europe, Quantz was now promoted to the Hofkapelle in 1728, this the cream orchestra of the Dresden Court. IMSLP has his 'Sonates en Trio' published that year, that later designated (not by himself) his Op 3. However, Feike Bonnema (below) dates this volume to 1730. Bonnema is the source to which this presentation will align. Quantz also accompanied Augustus on a trip to Berlin to visit Prussian Elector of Brandenburg, Crown Prince Frederick (Frederick the Great), in 1728. He thereafter returned twice a year to give Frederick music lessons. Frederick was himself a composer and flautist for whom Quantz would later arrange evening concerts in which Frederick performed. There are not a few works to which both both Frederick and Quantz contributed.

Bonnema has traced Quantz to 16 volumes of original compositions published from 1729 to 1761, the first of which was 'Sonatas Italiennes' pressed in Paris without an Op number. Op numbers with Quantz are a little confusing via such as Op 1 dated 1734 after an Op 2 (of which there are four in 1730/32/34/59) and Op 3 in 1733. His Op 4 is 'Solos for the German Flute' published in 1744 followed by a last Op 5 of six sonatas in 1750.

Quantz continued with the Hofkapelle at Dresden after the death of his benefactor, Augustus, in February of 1733. He married in 1737 before taking up the craft of making flutes (with a corkscrew) in 1739. Crown Prince Frederick became Frederick the Great of Prussia in 1740, whence in 1741 Quantz joined Frederick in Berlin as composer, tutor and instrument maker. It is Quantz' pedagogical book, 'Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen' ('On Playing the Flute'), published in 1752, that musicologists in particular appreciate with its insight into the music of the period. In 1755 Quantz published his autobiography in Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg's 'Historical-Critical Contributions to the Recording of Music'. A second autobiography appeared in Padre Martini's 'Storia della Musica' in 1762.

The Quantz Verseichnis is categorized into seven main sections:

   QV 1: flute sonatas / 184 certain / 45 anhang
   QV 2: trio sonatas / 43 certain / 36 anhang
   QV 3: for 1-3 flutes minus continuo / 28 certain / 15 anhang
   QV 4: flute concertos minus viola / 7 certain / 2 anhang / 6 quartets certain
   QV 5: flute concertos w viola / 281 certain / 26 anhang
   QV 6: orchestral works  / 9 certain / 2 anhang
   QV 7: arias / lied / 30 certain / 2 anhang

Quantz' composing career stretches nearly sixty years, granting his first to emerge after arriving to Dresden in 1716, to 1773. This constitutes the two main time periods of his professional career being Dresden 1716 to 1741 and Berlin 1741 to 1773. Though much of Quantz can be approximately dated (: manuscripts, publications), a considerable portion cannot, relevant to which Kayla Ann Low addresses the paucity of Quantz scholarship in general. Titles below are stacked by QV number, that is, by type of work, not chronology, as I've not been able to cinch dates for them.

'Flute Sonata in A minor'   QV 1:146   Johann Joachim Quantz

Score (not known if the original intended accompaniment to be specifically piano)

Flute: Kirio Matsuda   2020

'Flute Concerto in G minor'   QV 5:193   Johann Joachim Quantz

SA 2936 in the archive of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin founded 1791

Dresdner Kammersolisten / Johannes Walter

IMSLP estimates 'Flute Concerto in D major' QV 5:45 showing up in manuscript at the Dresden Sachsische Landesbibliothek  sometime 1740 to 1750.

'Flute Concerto in D major'   QV 5:45   Johann Joachim Quantz

MS Dresden sometime 1740-50

For flute / strings / continuo   Score   Score

Arion Baroque Orchestra / Alexander Weimann

It isn't determined when Quantz' authored 'Concerto for 2 Flutes in G minor' QV 6:8a. I insert it here only because it shares the same MS number, Mus. 2470-O-11, as QV 6:8b which is 'Concerto for 2 Flutes in G minor' with bassoon and two oboes added by Pisendel. Bonnema comments that this may have been toward the inauguration of the Katholische Hofkirche in Dresden in 1751. Continuo would have been performed on organ rather than harpsichord for that.

'Concerto for 2 Flutes in G minor'   QV 6:8a   Johann Joachim Quantz

QV 6:8a: 2 flutes / strings / continuo  MS Mus. 2470-O-11

(QV 6:8b: bassoon & 2 oboes added by Pisendel poss 1751  MS Mus. 2470-O-11)

Arion Baroque Orchestra

Flute: Claire Guimond / Alexa Raine-Wright

Quantz published 'Sei Duetti a Due Flauti Traversi', Op 2, in 1759 containing QV 3:2:1-6 [transverse flute].

'Sei Duetti a Due Flauti Traversi'   Op 2   QV 3:2:1-6   Johann Joachim Quantz

Published 1759   Score

Flutes 1 & 2: Kan Saito

Quantz' 'Flute Concerto in G minor' QV 5:206 got copied into Mus. MS. 18019/30 at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin circa 1765.

'Flute Concerto in G minor'   QV 5:206   Johann Joachim Quantz

Mus. MS. 18019/30 c 1765   Score

Die Kölner Akademie   Michael Alexander Willens   Flute: Eric Lamb

Quantz gave his last concert in 1773 during which he performed what is believed to be his last composition, 'Flute Concerto in A minor' QV 5:38. This is a work to which both Quantz and Frederick contributed, Quantz providing the first two movements before his death in 1773, Frederick posthumously adding the 'Vivace' for its third. This is also thought to be the last composing that Frederick did, albeit long since a thing of the past for him by that time.

'Flute Concerto in A minor'   QV 5:38   Johann Joachim Quantz

Movements 1 & 2 Quantz final composition and performance 1773

Movement 3 'Vivace' by Frederick added posthumously

Concerto Armonico Budapest / Miklós Spányi / Flute: Mary Oleskiewicz

Flute concertos had been Quantz' main preoccupation when he died in Potsdam, Germany, on 12 July 1773 with all his compositions belonging to Frederick who didn't follow until 1786 in Potsdam.