From Venice to Dresden: Tracing the Influence of Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerti among his Northern Followers

Dresden’s Hofkapelle employed over a dozen bassoonists between 1710s and 1740s and attracted composers who wrote virtuosic music for the instrument. This study traces the influence of Antonio Vivaldi’s bassoon concerti on those composers, who hailed from Prague, Berlin, Zerbst, Leipzig, and Dresden and whose works are preserved in the Schrank II collection in Dresden. Although there are no extant Dresden sources of Vivaldi’s bassoon concerti from this period, all the bassoon pieces surviving in Schrank II suggest the strong influence of Vivaldi. This study, therefore, analyzes Vivaldi’s style of writing for the instrument and compares it with the bassoon output of select Northern contemporaries and followers, including Georg Philip Telemann and Jan Dismas Zelenka. The initial biographical portion of this research focuses on Vivaldi’s places of employment and also introduces less-known composers and bassoonists who further enriched Baroque bassoon literature. Building upon work by Jeanne Swack and Steven Zohn, this study then analyzes and discusses three sonaten auf concertenart by Telemann and Zelenka as exemplars of Vivaldi’s influence on ritornello transformation and the role of the solo instrument in the ensemble. Finally, this study interprets TWV 41:f1 as a sonaten auf concertenart, though previous scholars have classified it differently. In sum, this research lays groundwork for future studies by connecting Vivaldi’s bassoon concerti with music of his Northern followers while contributing to our knowledge of the sonaten auf concertenart.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Musical Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Savitski, Dima

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dirst, Matthew

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Wagner, Elise
• Koozin, Timothy
• Vansteenburg, Jessica

• Bassoon
• Vivaldi
• Telemann
• Zelenka
• Concerti
• Concerto
• Dresden
• Sonata
• Sonaten auf concertenart

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/17689

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/17689