Bassoons | Photo: Thomas Müller

Harmony music for Maria Pavlovna

Bassoon professor Frank Forst reconstructs the first edition of Franz Seraph Destouches

On the occasion of the 220th anniversary of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna's move into Weimar, the Maria Pavlovna Society is organising an anniversary celebration on 9 November. The musical framework for this festive event at 3:00 p.m. in the study centre of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library will be provided by Frank Forst, professor of bassoon in Weimar.

For the first time in 220 years, students and teachers from the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar will perform a piece called ‘Harmonie-Music’ for 22 musicians, which was composed and performed by the then Weimar concertmaster Franz Seraph Destouches on the occasion of the Pavlovna's visit.

The only surviving copy of this work for 2 trumpets, 2 horns, 2 piccolos, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 violas, cello, double bass, timpani, triangle, cymbals and bass drum in the archives of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar was a handwritten score and a handwritten set of parts.

Prof. Frank Forst took on the laborious task of creating an 84-page score from the work's manuscript using the ‘Sibelius’ computer program. ‘When creating the material, my aim was to stay as close as possible to the original musical text,’ explains the Weimar bassoon professor, who has extensive experience in historical performance practice. ‘I tried to correct obvious mistakes and add missing articulations in individual parts.’

The full title of the work is: ‘Harmonie-Music: On the Occasion of the Happy Arrival of His Ducal Serene, the Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Weimar and Eisenach, Carl Friedrich, with His Imperial Serene, the Hereditary Grand Duchess Maria Paulowna, née Grand Duchess of Russia’.

‘The music sounds very festive in parts, as you would expect for the occasion 220 years ago,’ says Prof. Frank Forst. ’However, there are also playful and melancholic moments, such as the Ariette Russe. This was certainly added especially for Maria Pavlovna, and it would be very interesting to know whether it is actually a well-known folk song from Russia at the beginning of the 19th century."

[29 October 2024]