Volume 13, August 2021
Sperger's Cadenzas for his Contrabass Concertos: A Study of Compositional Techniques and Improvisational Strategies for Creating Cadenzas

by Renaud Boucher-Browning

Abstract:The art of improvising fermata embellishments, including cadenzas and lead-ins, once flourished among concerto soloists in the late eighteenth century. The composer-performer-improvisers of this period learned the creative skills that they needed to invent music in real time as an essential part of their craft. Though period treatises on performance practice provide guidelines for fermata embellishments, they neglect to furnish example cadenzas from specific concertos. This article examines the creative practices behind sixteen cadenzas by Johannes Sperger (1750-1812) from the manuscripts of six of his eighteen concertos for the Viennese violone as well as Anton Zimmermann's Concerto No. 1 and Franz Anton Hoffmeister's Concerto No. 3. These creative practices include the use of recurring stock formulas across cadenzas, the quotation of themes, motives, and figurations from specific concertos, and multiple beginning, middle, or ending sections that create cadenzas with various permutations. As with Mozart's piano concerto cadenzas, Sperger's contrabass concerto cadenzas contain evidence of both compositional and improvisatory practices, demonstrating a range of historical tools that present-day soloists can adapt for their own use to learn the related processes of fully composing, partially sketching, and freely improvising cadenzas. This three-part article first deduces Sperger's principles of cadenza creation, then analyzes selected manuscript cadenzas by Sperger, and lastly explains strategies for creating new cadenzas. The appendices compile stock formulas from selected Allegro cadenzas in C or D major and Adagio cadenzas in G or A major with the goal of helping performers learn to compose or improvise new cadenzas.

Introduction

Part 1: Deducing Sperger's Cadenza Playbook

• The Function of Cadenzas within a Concerto and Sperger's Four-Part Cadenza Form
• Chord Progressions, Stock Formulas, and Recurring Figurations in Sperger's Cadenzas
• Motivic Development Devices and Thematic Quotation Strategies in Sperger's Cadenzas
• Manuscript Fermata Embellishments as Evidence of Sperger's Performance Practices

Part 2: Tracing Sperger's Creative Process

• Allegro Cadenza for Sperger's Concerto No. 2 in E♭ Major (Preßburg, 1778)
• Adagio Cadenza for Sperger's Concerto No. 2 in E♭ Major (Preßburg, 1778)
• Adagio Cadenzas from the Solo Part of Zimmermann's Concerto No. 1 (Preßburg, c1778)
• Allegro Cadenza for Sperger's Concerto No. 8 in E♭ Major (Kofidisch, 1783)
• Adagio Cadenzas for Sperger's Concerto No. 8 in E♭ Major (Kofidisch, 1783)
• Allegro Cadenza for Sperger's Concerto No. 10 in E♭ Major (Berlin, 1787)
• Adagio Cadenza for Hoffmeister's Concerto No. 3 in E♭ Major (Vienna, c1786-1789)
• Allegro Cadenzas for Sperger's Concerto No. 12 in E♭ Major (Ludwigslust, c1792)
• Adagio Cadenza from the Solo Part of Sperger's Concerto No. 12 (Ludwigslust, c1792)
• Allegro Cadenza for Sperger's Concerto No. 13 in D Major (Ludwigslust, c1792)
• Allegro Cadenza for Sperger's Concerto No. 16 in E♭ Major (Ludwigslust, 1797)

Part 3: Reconstructing Sperger's Improvisatory Language

• Sperger's Creative Process as a Guide to Learning to Improvise Cadenzas
• Sperger's Use of Symbolic Notation as a Tool for Creating Variable Cadenza Networks
• Cadenzas à la Sperger: A Compilation of Sperger's Cadenza Figurations
• Cadenza Length in Relation to Movement Length

Conclusion

Appendix A — Allegro Cadenzas à la Sperger in Fourths Tuning for 1st Movements in C

Appendix B — Allegro Cadenzas à la Sperger in Viennese Tuning for 1st Movements in D

Appendix C — Adagio Cadenzas à la Sperger in Fourths Tuning for 2nd Movements in G

Appendix D — Adagio Cadenzas à la Sperger in Viennese Tuning for 2nd Movements in A

Appendix E — Map of Central Europe in 1789

Appendix F — Contrabass Concertos by Sperger and Other Composers in Sperger's Estate

Endnotes

Bibliography

About the Author