JAVS Fall 2002

77

FRoM DiscovERY TO PuBLICATION THE PATH OF I8TH-CENTURY IGNATZ GsPAN's CoNCERTO IN C FOR VIoLA AND STRINGS

by Myron Rosenblum

Recently published is a genuine 18th-century viola concerto. The New York Viola Society has embarked on a publication project whose aim is to make available unpublished viola works of value, old and new, and it has recently released its first offering-Ignatz Gspan's Viola Concerto in C. Several years ago, I visited several monasteries and libraries in Austria and Germany as part of a research grant. My grant was to make a study of the chamber music of Joseph Eybler, a contemporary, friend and colleague of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and other luminaries in late-Classical-period Vienna. As a viola d'amore player, I had long been intrigued by Eybler after I played his two quintets for viola d' amore, violin, viola, cello, and bass-works of considerable charm and good craftsmanship. As a vio list, I was fascinated as well by Eybler's other chamber works, especially the string quintets, as they often highlighted the viola with substantial solo passages. It has been my practice when doing research in libraries to go through their catalogues and note all works of potential merit, works of composers I have interest in, chamber music, and of course music for viola and viola d' amore. Based in Linz, Austria, for a few weeks during this grant period, I would take local trains to the towns with monasteries or libraries containing manuscripts of my grant figure and do my research. All this was arranged in advance, of course. One of these monasteries with some Eybler holdings was in Seitenstetten, Austria. After my Eybler research was completed there, I went through their catalogue and came upon a listing for a Concerto, Viola o Fagottol Violino !mol Violino 2dol Con Basso by Ignatz Gspan. When I looked at the parts of the manu script, the work appeared to be a fairly simple and nondescript piece in its handwritten form, and I added it to my Eybler works, along with some religious works with viola obbligato, for eventual photocopying. Some time later, I copied out all the parts by hand. Playing through the solo viola part, I was pleas andy surprised to find it of more than passing interest and decided that it would be a worthwhile project to pursue. After I acquired my music-copying program, I copied the concerto on my computer, first the score and then the parts, extracted from the score. With the capability of hearing it played back on my computer, I realized that this was a work of substance and would be a valuable addition to the solo viola repertory, especially with the relative dearth of authentic 18th-century viola concerti. I could find nothing about Gspan in my usual bibliographical sources, but P. Benedikt Wagner, the music archivist in Seitenstetten, was able to supply me with the following: Ignatz Gspan was also an actor who was the Director of Music in a traveling German Theater Group, the Bernersche Gesellschaft Junger deutscher Schauspieler. Around 1779, this group performed in the towns of Ansbach, Ntirnberg, and Erlangen. In 1779, they performed Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne in Ntirnberg. Gspan was also the Director ofMusic at the theater in Regensburg. This is all we know about him. The concerto is in three movements-Allegro moderato, Andante, and Allegro. Although the tide page says it is a concerto for "Viola or Fagotto," the solo part, which reads "viola," is dearly for a stringed instrument with its double stops and occasional chords. There is no alternate bassoon part and it is likely that Gspan thought of the alternate bassoon version for utilitarian reasons.