the early keyboard concertos in ptuj: music composed for the dornava court?*
MARTIN EYBL Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien
Izvleček: Zbirka 31 koncertov za glasbila s tipkami, ki jih danes hrani Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj, je edinstvena zbirka tovrstnih zgodnjih koncertov v srednji Evropi. V njej so dela dunajskih dvornih skladateljev Christopha Wagenseila (1714-1777) in Wenzla Bircka (1718-1763) ter dveh glasbenikov graške župnijske cerkve, Johanna Michaela Steinbacherja (pred 1710-po 1740) in Giovannija Antonia Sgatberonija (1708/09-1795). Ptujska zbirka muzikalij naj bi izvirala iz zasebnega fonda grofa Josepha Ber-nharda von Attemsa, ki je prebival v Dornavi med letoma 1754 in 1772. Glede na značilnosti prepisovalcev in kakovost papirja, na katerem so zapisani izvirniki, se zdi mogoče, da sta bila Steinbacher in Sgatberoni z Drnavskim dvorcem celo tesneje povezana, kot smo domnevali doslej.
Ključne besede: glasba sredine 18. stoletja, koncerti za glasbila s tipkami, Gradec, Dunaj, vodni znaki, prepisovalci.
Abstract: The 31 keyboard concertos now housed at the Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj represent a unique sample of early keyboard concertos in Central Europe, including works by the Viennese court composers Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1714-1777) and Wenzel Raimund Birck (1718-1763) as well as two musicians employed at the Graz parish church, Johann Michael Steinbacher (before 1710-after 1740) and Giovanni Antonio Sgatberoni (1708/091795). It is assumed that the Ptuj collection of keyboard music stems from the court of Count Joseph Bernhard von Attems, who resided at Dornava from 1754 to 1772. Considering the scribes and the paper quality of the sources, it seems possible that Steinbacher and Sgatberoni may have had a closer relationship to the Dornava court than has been assumed so far. Keywords: mid-eighteenth-century music, keyboard concerto, Graz, Vienna, watermarks, copyists.
In music history it is common knowledge that Johann Sebastian Bach first devised and developed the harpsichord concerto. Two of his sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, were his first followers in this new genre, which culminated in Mozart's incomparable piano concertos. However, even more important for Mozart than the Bach tradition was a separate evolution of keyboard concertos in Central Europe that, in the first decades of its existence, did not show any traces of influence from northern and central
* I am indebted to the Austrian National Bank Jubiläumsfonds, which supported this research on solo concertos including the Ptuj sources with a grant. Furthermore, I wish to thank Mira Jerenec for her support at the Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj and for the permission to publish Figs. 1-3 and 7-12, as well as Sterling Murray for his valuable comments.
Germany. Three composers dominate this repertoire, all of them keyboard teachers at the Vienna court. Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) became the instructor for Maria Theresa's older children in 1749. As his health began to decline around 1765, Leopold Hofmann (1738-1793) unofficially took over Wagenseil's imperial pupils. In addition to Hofmann, Josef Anton Steffan (1726-1797) was appointed keyboard teacher for the empress's youngest daughters, Maria Carolina (Charlotte) and Maria Antonia, the future queen of France, in 1766.
The major collections of Central European keyboard concertos all show specific profiles, each representing a distinct step in the development of the genre. The collection of keyboard concertos at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna consists of the archduchesses' repertoire. Many of the manuscripts can be identified as having once been the property of Maria Anna and Maria Elisabeth, two musically gifted daughters of Maria Theresa. The works of court keyboard teachers like Wagenseil, Hofmann, and Steffan dominate the collection, and most of the music dates from the mid-1750s to the 1760s.1 The collection of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden is quite similar to the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek collection in Vienna with regard to the inclusion of Viennese composers.2 As in Vienna, the Dresden collection is a court collection, in this instance stemming from the Saxon court. Covering approximately the same time span, it includes works by the same composers but also some pieces by Joseph Haydn. Nevertheless, the sample of Viennese keyboard concertos in Dresden is part of a larger collection including concertos from other regions as well as of local provenance. With more than 300 concertos, the collection at Kromeriž (Ger. Kremsier) represents the most extensive collection of early keyboard concertos. It includes the greater part of keyboard music and keyboard concertos available on the Viennese music market between 1760 and 1790. In addition to many concertos by Wagenseil, Hofmann, and Steffan, almost all of Mozart's keyboard concertos are included.
Compared with these three collections, the 31 keyboard concertos housed at the Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj seem at first glance to be a rather small sample (see Table 1). This collection is nonetheless important because it represents a very early stage in the genre's development. This is why it received a great deal of interest after being made public in the catalogue of Slovenian music sources by Janez Höfler and Ivan Klemenčič in 1967.3 Many of the compositions are now available in print (see Table 2). The collection is quite homogenous. The entire body of keyboard concertos was copied by only nine
1	For more information on the Vienna collection, see Martin Eybl, From Court to Public: The Uses of Keyboard Concertos in Austria 1750-1770, Ad Parnassum 6/2 (2008), pp. 19-40.
2	For a valuable study of the Dresden collection, see Annegret Rosenmüller, Die Überlieferung der Clavierkonzerte in der Königlichen Privatmusikaliensammlung zu Dresden im letzten Drittel des 18. Jahrhunderts, Schriften zur mitteldeutschen Musikgeschichte 5, Eisenach, Musikalienhandlung Karl Dieter Wagner, 2002.
3	Janez Höfler and Ivan Klemenčič, Glasbeni rokopisi in tiski na Slovenskem do leta 1800. Katalog. -Music manuscripts and printed music in Slovenia before 1800. Catalogue, Ljubljana, Narodna in univerzitna knjižnica, 1967, pp. 43-47; Hellmut Federhofer and Gudrun M. Schmeiser, Grazer Stadtmusikanten als Komponisten vorklassischer Klavierkonzerte, Historisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Graz 4 (1971), pp. 73-90; and Andrej Rijavec, Parthia in trije concerti Johanna Adama Scheibla v arhivu Študijske knjižnice v Ptuju, Muzikološki zbornik 8 (1972), pp. 57-69.
scribes, here identified as KP1-3 and 5-10.4 Despite the fact that KP3a uses a slightly different bass clef, the copyist seems to be identical to KP3. Moreover, the papers of the manuscripts show only nine watermarks, four of which appear three times or more (watermark nos. 120, 122, 124, 125 in my list of watermarks).
Table 1
Thirty-one keyboard concertos from Ptuj (watermark numbers according to my own list)
Call nr.	Höfler/ Klemencic	Old call nr.	Composer		Watermark	Copyist	Keyboard Range
4	220	4	Birck, in C, III	1	123	KP5	C-c3
5	221	12	Birck, in A, III	2	124	KP1, KP2	E-d3
6	222	5	Birck, in C, III	3	125	KP6	C-d3
7	223	22	Birck, in D, III	4	124, 126	KP1	D-c3 sharp
53	258	8	Birck, in F, III:6		125	KP1	D-d3
1	217	13	Castelli, in C		120	KP1, KP3	C-c3
2	218	17	Castelli, in G		120	KP1	C-b2
3	219	16	Hasse, in D		122	KP1, KP3	D-c3
15	231	14	Scheibl, in C		120, 124	KP1	C-c3
16	deest	15	Scheibl, in C		124	KP1	D-c3
17	232	18	Scheibl, in G		125	KP3a	D-d3
18	233	21	Scheibl, in F		124	KP3	D-c3
9	225		Sgatberoni, in D		129	KP7	D-d3
10	226		Sgatberoni, in B		135	KP7	C-d3
11	227		Sgatberoni, in G		135	KP7	D-d3
12	228		Sgatberoni, in A		129	KP7	E-d3
22	237		Steinbacher, in F		120	KP6	C-c3
23	238		Steinbacher, in C		120, 125?	KP6	C-c3
26	241		Steinbacher, in a		125	KP6	C-c3
27	242		Steinbacher, in C		120	KP6	C-c3
28	243		Steinbacher, in D		125	KP6	D-c3
35	250	1	Wagenseil, in B, 335		124	KP1	D-c3
36	251	2	Wagenseil, in g, 321		124	KP1	D-d3
37	252	3	Wagenseil, in F, 295		124	KP1	A1-d3
38	253	10	Wagenseil, in G, 307		123	KP9	D-c3
39	254		Zechner, in F		132	KP7	F-c3
8	224	19	Zechner, in F ("Birck" [III:5])		124	KP1	F-c3
40	255	7	Zechner, in A		122	KP1, KP3a	F-c3
41	256	11	Zechner, in B		124	KP1, KP3	E-c3
4 In the course of my analysis KP4 turned out to be identical to another copyist already listed; I therefore had to eliminate no. 4 from my list.
153	265		Zechner, in D	122, 125	KP3a, KP10	F-c3
54	259	20	anonym, in C	124, 126	KP3, KP10	C-c3
14	230	9	Scheibl, Parthia in C	125	KP3	C-c3
Table 2
Keyboard concertos from Ptuj: Modern editions
Call nr.	Höfler/ Klemenčič	Composer		
4	220	Birck, in C, 111:1	PZ 8	1992
3	219	Hasse, in D	ed. Dieter Sonntag, Mainz, Schott (original version for Flute and Orchestra)	1958
			PZ 9 (arrangement for Harpsichord and Orchestra)	1992
15	231	Scheibl, in C	PZ 7	1991
11	227	Sgatberoni, in G	MAM 28/29	1972
12	228	Sgatberoni, in A	MAM 28/29	1972
22	237	Steinbacher, in F	MAM 43/44	1975
26	241	Steinbacher, in a	MAM 43/44	1975
35	250	Wagenseil, in B, 335	MAM 42	1975
37	252	Wagenseil, in F, 295	MAM 42	1975
38	253	Wagenseil, in G, 307	ed. Hans Joachim Zingel, Leipzig, Deutscher Verlag für Musik (version for Harp and Orchestra)	1969
39	254	Zechner, in F	MAM 31/32	1973
40	255	Zechner, in A	MAM 33/34	1973
41	256	Zechner, in B	MAM 33/34	1973
153	265	Zechner, in D	MAM 31/32	1973
MAM - Musik alter Meister. Beiträge zur Musik- und Kulturgeschichte Innerösterreichs, ed. Hellmut Federhofer, Graz, Akademische Druck- und Verlags-Anstalt 1949-PZ - Ptujska zbirka, ed. Milko Bizjak, Ljubljana, Edition Bizjak, 1985-1992
Table 3
Thirty-one keyboard concertos from Ptuj: Group 1 Manuscripts (KP 1, KP3 and others)
Call nr.	Höfler/ Klemenčič	Old call nr.	Composer	Watermark	Copyist
15	231	14	Scheibl, in C	120, 124	KP1
16	deest	15	Scheibl, in C	124	KP1
17	232	18	Scheibl, in G	125	KP3a
18	233	21	Scheibl, in F	124	KP3
5	221	12	Birck, in A, 111:2	124	KP1, KP2
7	223	22	Birck, in D, 111:4	124, 126	KP1
53	258	8	Birck, in F, 111:6	125	KP1
35	250	1	Wagenseil, in B, 335	124	KP1
36	251	2	Wagenseil, in g, 321	124	KP1
37	252	3	Wagenseil, in F, 295	124	KP1
8	224	19	Zechner, in F ("Birck" [III:5])	124	KP1
40	255	7	Zechner, in A	122	KP1, KP3a
41	256	11	Zechner, in B	124	KP1, KP3
153	265		Zechner, in D	122, 125	KP3a, KP10
1	217	13	Castelli	120	KP1, KP3
2	218	17	Castelli	120	KP1
3	219	16	Hasse	122	KP1, KP3
54	259	20	anonym, in C	124, 126	KP3, KP10
14	230	9	Scheibl, Parthia in C	125	KP3
Watermarks:
120: WAW; man with a cudgel in his right hand (Fig. 6) 122: IGD; blacksmith with coat of arms (Fig. 4) 124: IK; Styrian coat of arms (Fig. 5) 125: IHS under a cross
126: Saint with cross in his right hand, the leaf of a palm tree in his left
A careful study of paper and scribes makes it possible to identify four separate groups of manuscripts. Group 1 (see Table 3) is the largest. KP1 was the main copyist (see Figures 1-3), assisted by KP3. Wherever these two scribes worked together, KP1 did at least half of the work and his hand is more frequently encountered than that of his colleague. In some manuscripts two further copyists (KP2 and 10) cooperated with KP1 and 3. The uniform and even style of their handwriting suggests that KP1 and 3 were professional copyists, who presumably worked in an urban copy shop. We find a limited number of watermarks, quite often number 124 (in 11 manuscripts) and numbers 120, 122, and 125 three times each. Three watermarks can be identified, all for types of paper that came from the Upper Austrian town of Steyr. The blacksmith on watermark number 122 (see Figure 4) indicates steel production. Steyr is the center of a region that grew wealthy from steel beginning in the Middle Ages. The initials "IK" on watermark 124 (see Figure 5) stand for Johann Kienmoser, owner of the old paper mill (Altmuhle) in Steyr from 1750 to 1783.5
5 Georg Eineder, The Ancient Paper-Mills of the Former Austro-Hungarian Empire and Their
The countersign of this watermark shows the Styrian coat of arms. The initials "IGD" on watermark 122 most probably stand for Johann Gottlieb Doeck, Kienmoser' s predecessor.6 "WAW" in watermark 120 (see Figure 6) are the initials of Wolf André Wurm, who owned the new paper mill (Neumühle) in Steyr-Saggraben from 1750 to 1760.7
It is known that papers from Steyr were used in Styria in the eighteenth century, while in the same period the Viennese court and Viennese copyists preferred Italian paper. Thus the paper in Group 1 suggests that the manuscripts were not written in Vienna; they could well have been copied in Styria; for example, in Graz. Unfortunately, the paper does not offer us more detailed information about the origin of the manuscripts.
Six composers contributed works to Group 1. Johann Adam Scheibl (1710-1773) is represented by four concertos and an accompanied keyboard partita. Scheibl worked as an organist in St. Pölten (in Lower Austria). Johann Georg Zechner (1716-1778) moved from Göttweig Abbey, where he served as organist, to the nearby town of Krems to conduct the choir and orchestra of the main parish church. The Ptuj collection preserves unique sources of Zechner's four keyboard concertos. Wenzel Raimund Birck (c. 17181763) contributed three concertos to Group 1 (Stephanides III: 2, 4, and 6).8 He was court organist in Vienna and the keyboard teacher of the archduchesses like Wagenseil, who also contributed three concertos. There is no information available so far on a certain Castelli, who composed two further concertos. Johann Adolph Hasse's (1699-1783) D-major concerto for harpsichord and orchestra preserved in Ptuj is an arrangement, albeit probably not authentic, of an original flute concerto. There is not a single authentic keyboard concerto known by Hasse. Most of the composers present in Group 1 lived in Vienna or Lower Austria; even Hasse resided in the Austrian capital in the 1760s. Most of the paper was produced in the 1750s at the earliest. The manuscripts of Group 1 can therefore be roughly dated to the 1750s or slightly later.
Table 4
Group 2 Manuscripts (KP 5, KP 9)
Call nr.	Höfler/ Klemencic	Old call nr.	Composer	Watermark	Copyist
4	220	4	Birck, in C, III:1	123	KP5
38	253	10	Wagenseil, in G, 307	123	KP9
Watermark
123: IHS over a burning heart
Watermarks, Monumenta chartae papyricae historiam illustrantia 8, Hilversum, The Paper Publications Soc., 1960, p. 64; cf. his watermark no. 334 (plate 98).
6	G. Eineder, op. cit., p. 64.
7	G. Eineder, op. cit., p. 65; cf. watermark no. 831 (plate 231).
8	Michael Stephanides, Wenzel Birck (Pürk). Leben und Werk eines Wiener Hofmusikers an der Wende vom Barock zur Klassik, Wien, 1982 (University of Vienna, PhD. Diss., including a Thematic Catalogue).
Group 2 is quite small (see Table 4). It consists of only two manuscripts from two scribes, KP5 and KP9, each of whom appears only once in the collection. The watermark of the paper shows the Christogram "IHS" above a heart. This paper has yet to be linked to a particular mill and thus does not provide any hints as to the origin of the manuscripts. Because Wagenseil and Birck were Viennese court composers, and neither the copyists nor the watermarks are known from other Ptuj sources, we may assume a foreign origin of the two pieces in Group 2.
Table 5
Old call numbers
Call nr.	Hofler/ Klemencic	Old call nr.	Composer	Copyist
35	250	1	Wagenseil, in B, 335	KP1
36	251	2	Wagenseil, in g, 321	KP1
37	252	3	Wagenseil, in F, 295	KP1
4	220	4	Birck, in C, III:1	KP5
6	222	5	Birck, in C, 111:3	KP6
153	265		Zechner, in D	KP3a, KP10
40	255	7	Zechner, in A	KP1, KP3a
53	258	8	Birck, in F, 111:6	KP1
14	230	9	Scheibl, Parthia in C	KP3
38	253	10	Wagenseil, in G, 307	KP9
41	256	11	Zechner, in B	KP1, KP3
5	221	12	Birck, in A, 111:2	KP1, KP2
1	217	13	Castelli	KP1, KP3
15	231	14	Scheibl, in C	KP1
16	deest	15	Scheibl, in C	KP1
3	219	16	Hasse	KP1, KP3
2	218	17	Castelli	KP1
17	232	18	Scheibl, in G	KP3a
8	224	19	Zechner, in F („Birck" [111:5])	KP1
54	259	20	anonym, in C	KP3, KP10
18	233	21	Scheibl, in F	KP3
7	223	22	Birck, in D, III:4	KP1
All manuscripts of Groups 1 and 2 contain inscriptions of old call numbers ranging from 1 to 22 (see Table 5), with the single exception of number 6, which is missing. Correspondingly, the concerto by Zechner with inv. no. 153 has no old call number, even though the original title page was not replaced and the manuscript, written by KP1 and 3a with watermarks 122 and 125, clearly belongs to Group 1. The old call numbers establish the manuscripts of Group 1 and 2 as part of an older collection. From their form and design
it is evident that all of these sources are products of the professional music trade. The two remaining groups clearly represent a different case.
Table 6
Group 3 Manuscripts (KP6 - Steinbacher?)
Call nr.	Höfler/ Klemencic	Composer	Watermark	Copyist
6	222	Birck, in C, 111:3	125	KP6
22	237	Steinbacher, in F	120	KP6
23	238	Steinbacher, in C	120, 125?	KP6
26	241	Steinbacher, in a	125	KP6
27	242	Steinbacher, in C	120	KP6
28	243	Steinbacher, in D	125	KP6
25	240	Steinbacher, Partita in C	136	KP6
24	239	Steinbacher, Partita in C	120	KP6
55	260	Steinbacher, Partita in G	120	KP6
57	262	Steinbacher, Partita in F	120	KP6
58	263	Steinbacher, Partita in D	120	KP6
156	267	Steinbacher, Partita in a	120	KP6
Watermarks: 120: see Tab. 3 125: see Tab. 3
136: MIH; blacksmith with hammer in his right hand, on the right side a shield with crossed
hammers
With one exeption group 3 (see Table 6) is restricted to works by Johann Michael Steinbacher: five concerti and six partitas, all of the known works by Steinbacher. It represents the only source for all of his pieces. There was only one copyist at work, who unfortunately did not sign the manuscripts (see Figures 7-9). The exclusiveness of works and scribe is a special case of source tradition. This rare situation suggests the need to consider the relation between the fame of a composer and the distribution of his music on the one hand and the kinds of sources on the other. The better a composer is known and the more widely his works are distributed, the less likely it is to encounter an autograph in the composer's hand among contemporary manuscripts. One can also put it the other way round: the less a composer is known and the less his works were distributed, the higher one's chance of finding an autograph manuscript if there are any works extant at all. Because there are no other sources to works by Steinbacher and because all the extant works were written by only one scribe, the probability is very high that the scribe and the composer are one and the same person.9 The layout of the writing suggests that KP6 is not
9 J. Hofler and I. Klemencic, op. cit., pp. 44-47, were led to the same conclusion. They marked all the Steinbacher manuscripts as "autogr. (?)".
a professional copyist. It is consistently fluent writing, however, and not at all the hand of an amateur musician. There are no corrections. All of these observations combined suggest that the manuscripts of KP6 are autograph fair copies.
Table 7
Group 4 Manuscripts (KP7 - Sgatberoni?)
Call nr.	Höfler/ Klemencic	Composer	Watermark	Copyist
9	225	Sgatberoni, in D	129	KP7
10	226	Sgatberoni, in B	135	KP7
11	227	Sgatberoni, in G	135	KP7
12	228	Sgatberoni, in A	129	KP7
39	254	Zechner, in F	132	KP7
13	229	Sgatberoni, Partita in F	134	KP7
154	266	Sgatberoni, Partita in C	127	KP7
157	268	Sgatberoni, Partita in D	128	KP7
29	244	Wagenseil, Div., 2	133	KP7
30	245	Wagenseil, Div., 22	131	KP7
56	261	Wagenseil, Div., 29	131	KP7
Watermarks:
127: 3 crescent moons (65/16) over a crossbow
128: GG; 3 crescent moons (91/20)
129: AS; 3 crescent moons (84/27?)
131: 3 crescent moons (76/14)
132: 3 crescent moons (68/20)
133: 3 crescent moons (89/24)
134: AF; 3 crescent moons (73/15)
135: FC; 3 crescent moons (73/17)
The case of Giovanni Antonio Sgatberoni is similar. All known works by this composer belong to Group 4 of the Ptuj manuscripts (see Table 7) and were copied by KP7, who also prepared some other works, namely three divertimenti by Wagenseil and a concerto by Zechner. In Group 1 this last mentioned concerto by Zechner was attributed to Birck. However, with the standard ritornello form of the first movement (four ritornellos in I, V, VI, and I), the simple binary form in the second and third movements, the relatively wide extension of the themes (compared to Birck's), and the fermata with the option for a cadenza at the end of the slow movement, this work perfectly fits into the series of the three other rather standardized concertos by Zechner. In addition, there are many features typical of Birck's concertos that are lacking, such as sonata form, modulating ritornellos, and "Da capo" for the recapitulation of the first ritornello at the end of a movement. This calls into question the attribution of the F-major concerto to the Viennese court organist.
All manuscripts of Group 4 are written on Italian paper showing the well-known three crescent moons both with and without a countersign.10 KP6 used eight different papers, suggesting that the manuscripts were written over a longer time span. The three divertimenti by Wagenseil copied by KP6 (Scholz-Michelitsch nos. 2, 22, and 29)11 may aid the dating of at least one part of the group. These pieces are present in several other Ptuj sources (inv. nos. 32-34). Together with the Divertimento in A (Scholz-Michelitsch no. 66, inv. no. 31) they belong to a collection of six divertimenti by Wagenseil dated in two Viennese manuscripts 1750 and printed in 1756.12
As with Steinbacher, there is a high probability that the scribe of the Sgatberoni works is the composer himself. Moreover, the hand is that of a professional copyist. In those days, professional music copying by musicians was nothing unusual. There are Viennese examples of this practice.13
Hellmut Federhofer and Gudrun Schmeiser provided biographical information about Johann Michael Steinbacher in their article on the Ptuj collection.14 He was an organist in Graz and is first mentioned in the records in 1727, when he lost a son. Based on this fact, Federhofer and Schmeiser propose a birth date around 1700. More cautiously, we may assume that Steinbacher was at least 18 years old when his son died and therefore was born not later than 1709. In 1740 he was appointed organist of the parish church in Graz (Stadtpfarrorganist). There are no further records concerning him after 1741. Joseph Fast succeeded Steinbacher in this position probably some time before 1750. What had happened to the musician? In her preface to the edition of two concertos by Steinbacher (1975), Gudrun Margarete Schmeiser states that Steinbacher likely died before 1750.15 Without clearly saying so, Hellmut Federhofer seems to follow Schmeiser's assumption.
10	Alan Tyson's method for measuring the crescents ("selenometry") was used in describing the watermarks; see Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke. Serie X: Supplement. Werkgruppe 33: Dokumentation der autographen Überlieferung. Bündel I, Abteilung 2: Wasserzeichen-Katalog, ed. Alan Tyson, Kassel, Bärenreiter, 1992, Textband, pp. xi-xii. Federhofer and Schmeiser ignored the countersigns of the watermark and consequently stated that the copyist used only one paper: H. Federhofer and G. M. Schmeiser, op. cit., p. 81.
11	Helga [Scholz-]Michelitsch, Das Klavierwerk von Georg Christoph Wagenseil. Thematischer Katalog, Tabulae musicae Austriacae 3, Wien, Hermann Böhlaus Nachf., 1966.
12	H. [Scholz-]Michelitsch, op. cit., pp. 23-24 ("Sammelwerke E"). The collection is printed under the title Divertissement musical contenant VI sonates pour le clavessin, Nürnberg, Haffner, [1756] (RISM W 37).
13	Andreas Amiller (1781-1750), one of the principal copyists of the Imperial Court in the 1730s and 1740s, was previously a tenor in the court chapel of the dowager Empress Amalie Wilhelmine. Joseph Leysser (c. 1708-1771), similarly, was a tenor in the court chapel of the dowager Empress Elisabeth Christine and at the same time its main copyist. See Martin Eybl, Die Kapelle der Kaiserinwitwe Elisabeth Christine (1741-1750) I: Besetzung, Stellung am landesfürstlichen Hof und Hauptkopisten, Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 45 (1996), pp. 33-66: 48, 51-52 (Amiller), 43-44 (Leysser).
14	H. Federhofer and G. M. Schmeiser, op. cit., pp. 77-78.
15	"[...] dürfte Steinbacher noch vor 1750 gestorben sein", see Johann Michael Steinbacher, Zwei Konzerte für Cembalo mit Begleitung von Streichinstrumenten, ed. Gudrun Margarete Schmeiser, Musik alter Meister 43/44, Graz, Akademische Druck- und Verlags-Anstalt, 1975, p. vii.
In the recent edition of the New Grove Dictionary he states with regard to Steinbacher's concertos:
'The oldest examples of their genre in Austria, the harpsichord concertos must have dated from earlier than those of M. G. Monn, J. A. Scheibl, J. A. Sgatberoni, G. C. Wagenseil, and J. G. Zechner, and are evidently modelled on the form of the Italian solo concerto [.. .]."16
Monn died in 1750, and there is a concerto by Scheibl at Gottweig dated 1743.17 What makes Federhofer so sure that Steinbacher's concertos were composed earlier? There is no proof that Steinbacher died so early. Schmeiser and Federhofer did not take into account that Steinbacher might have taken a different job. There is also no proof that Steinbacher's concertos were composed before 1750. The manuscripts of these works were written on the same kind of paper as our Group 1 (showing watermarks 120 and 125). Consequently, they have to be dated in the 1750s or even later. Above all, the historical situation described by Federhofer seems implausible. It is difficult to believe that an almost unknown composer whose works - as far as we know - were not distributed anywhere should turn out to be the pioneer of a new genre or, at the very least, an important branch of a genre, the Central European tradition of the early keyboard concerto.
Even the Italian solo concerto did not necessarily serve as an immediate model for Steinbacher's concertos. These works do, of course, adopt a kind of ritornello form. Frequent features in Steinbacher's concertos, however, like modulating ritornellos and harmonically stable solo episodes18 can also be found in other examples from the Ptuj repertoire. Besides Steinbacher's works, the group of manuscripts written by KP6 consists of only one foreign concerto, written by Wenzel Raimund Birck (see Table 6, inv. no. 6). If Johann Michael Steinbacher is identical with KP6, this is not a coincidence. In several respects Birck's concertos could represent models for Steinbacher's concertos. They show the same features of modulating ritornellos (Birck III: 1, first and third movement) and harmonically stable solo episodes (e.g., the first movements of Birck III: 1, 2, and 4). Like in Steinbacher's concertos in A-minor and F-major (first movement), Birck repeats the first ritornello unchanged at the end of the movement (III: 1, 2, and 4, first movements; finale of III: 1 and 4). Finally, Birck and Steinbacher share the tendency of an early return of the tonic in the second half of the first movement. In all of Steinbacher's larger first movements in ritornello form - like in Birck's with four ritornellos - the last solo episode prolongs the tonic instead of modulating into the tonic. The same is true for Birck's concertos III: 1, 2, and 4. The modulation into the tonic is completed by the preceding ritornello, like in Birck's concerto III: 1.
According to a report by Anton Lach, who was employed by the Herberstein family in 1945, the collection of keyboard music today housed at Ptuj was discovered in
16	The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 24, 2nd edition, London [...], Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2001, p. 335.
17	Johann Adam Scheibl, Concerto in C, A-GO Mus. Hs. 3051, owner's mark: "Ex Rebus Joannis Georgij Schaller Ao 1743." The piece is not identical with the two C-major concertos by Scheibl in Ptuj.
18	For an analysis of the first movements, see H. Federhofer and G. M. Schmeiser, op. cit., pp. 83-85.
1941 while dismantling an old tiled stove in Vurberk Castle.19 During its history this castle was owned by two aristocratic families which (as Janez Höfler has pointed out20) had residences in Slovenia: the Herberstein family in Hrastovec and the Attems family in Dornava. The hidden music manuscripts could stem from either of these castles. A member of the Herberstein family purchased Vurberk in 1907 and could then have taken the manuscripts with him. Nevertheless, because of his well-known musical ambitions it is more likely that the manuscripts were originally used at the court of Count Joseph Bernhard von Attems (1727-1772) and his wife, who resided in Dornava from 1754 to 1772. We know from documents in the Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv in Graz that the countess owned a harpsichord.21 When her husband died, she relocated to Graz. Many of his personal belongings, his books, and his archive, however, were sent to Vurberk, to the Count's nephew and heir Ferdinand von Attems.
Assuming that the keyboard music was used at Dornava Castle, how did the manuscripts get there? Federhofer and Schmeiser speculate that the portion of the collection bearing old call numbers (Groups 1 and 2 in Table 3 and 4) came from Vienna and the manuscripts of works by Steinbacher and Sgatberoni (Groups 3 and 4 in Table 6 and 7) from Graz because both musicians were working there.22 As already mentioned, the paper used suggests that Group 1 was presumably not written in Vienna, but perhaps in Graz. Concerning Groups 3 and 4, I would like to present a different interpretation of the existing sources.
Table 8
Works for violin and harpsichord (basso) from Ptuj
Call	Höfler/ Klemenčič	Old	Composer
nr.		call nr.	
50	257		anonymous, [23 Menuetti, violino col basso]
13	229		Sgatberoni, Partita in F
154	266		Sgatberoni, Partita in C
157	268		Sgatberoni, Partita in D
25	240		Steinbacher, Partita in C
Steinbacher and Sgatberoni may have been engaged at the Dornava court. In this
position they might have composed (or at least copied) their keyboard works between
1754 and 1772. We can imagine the small repertoire of music for violin and harpsichord
19	For the history of the manuscripts and the possible connection to the Attems family, see H. Federhofer and G. M. Schmeiser, op. cit., pp. 79-80.
20	Janez Höfler, Predgovor, in: Wenzel Raimund Birck, Suita G-dur, Suita F-dur, Ljubljana, Državna založba Slovenije, 1985, pp. 3-5: 3.
21	"1. Instrumental Flüg der frauen gräfin gehörig," see Igor Weigl, O francoskih grafikah, loparjih in grofičinem strelovodu. Oprema in funkcije dvorca Dornava v 18. stoletju, Dornava. Vrišerjev zbornik, ed. Marjeta Ciglenečki, Ljubljana, Slovensko umetnostnozgodovinsko društvo, 2003, pp. 180-249: 200, n. 56 and 221, n. 6.
22	H. Federhofer and G. M. Schmeiser, op. cit., p. 81.
extant in Ptuj (see Table 8) being performed by the violinist Sgatberoni and the keyboard player Steinbacher. Several facts support this theory. First, the Steinbacher manuscripts were written in the 1750s or even later. Second, there is a gap in the Graz records of several decades for both musicians. The last mention of Steinbacher in Graz is 1741, and we lack any record of his death. Johann Anton (Giovanni Antonio) Sgatberoni was first mentioned in Graz on 30 August 1773 as Stadtpfarr Musicus,23 just one year after Count Attems' death in 1772. Third, there is a link between KP6 and the keyboard repertoire now in Ptuj and perhaps from Dornava. One single manuscript in his hand was included in the collection of old call numbers (see Table 5). If the manuscripts of works by Steinbacher are autographs and the Birck concerto with the old call number 5 was written by Steinbacher, it must have been written before the whole collection received its call numbers. It is therefore quite possible that Steinbacher himself did the numbering but did not want to enter his own works into the collection. They may have been integrated only after his death. Assuming that Steinbacher did not establish the numbering of the repertoire himself, an alternative explanation seems difficult. As the watermarks indicate, the Steinbacher manuscripts and the Birck concerto were written at approximately the same time. Why would anybody other than Steinbacher exclude his works, while including the concerto by Birck?
Unfortunately, there is no archival evidence so far connecting the court of Joseph Bernhard von Attems at Dornava to the two musicians Steinbacher and Sgatberoni. On a research visit to Ptuj and Maribor in May 2004, I searched for certification of Johann Michael Steinbacher's death in old church books. The death records from 1752 to 1758 in the Parish of Ss. Peter and Paul in Ptuj are lost. The next volume still exists,24 but lacks any mention of Steinbacher. The same is true for the death records of the Parish of St. Margaret near Ptuj.25 The archive of the Attems family is now part of the Steiermarkisches Landesarchiv in Graz. Between 1754 and 1772 only two account books of the Dominium Dornava survive from the last two years.26 The salaries listed (1771 f. 22-23, 1772 f. 22'-24) strictly relate to people working at the residence, such as the administrator, the gardener, or some farmers. The list does not include musicians or other people that directly served the family, such as the master of ceremonies, cooks, or domestic staff. The family account books for Joseph Bernhard's court seem to be lost.
Although there seems to be little hope, incidental future discoveries may shed new light on the relation of Steinbacher and Sgatberoni to the Dornava court. Apart from the biographical aspect, the Ptuj collection still offers a valuable area of research. Because it represents such an early stage in the development of the keyboard concerto, a broad analytical comparison of all 31 concertos could help clarify the evolution and the mutual relationship of these works and thus provide hints for dating the music.
23	Federhofer and Schmeiser, op. cit., p. 77.
24	Minoritski samostan Ptuj, Minoritski trg 1, Parish of St. Oswald, Liber mortuorum 18. 4.1758 -31.12.1779. A contemporary notice states "26. 4. 1752 - 17. 4. 1758 Liber Mortuorum deest".
25	Škofijski Arhiv Maribor, Parish of St. Margaret near Ptuj, Liber mortuorum 1750-1784.
26	Verwaltungs Jahrs Rechnung Beeder Hochgrafl. Herrschaften Dornau und S: Marxen De Anno 1771, similar title for 1772, both: Steiermarkisches Landesarchiv Graz, A. Attems K 212, H 1481.
In closing, I would like to briefly touch on a second major question that could perhaps be answered after a careful examination of the Ptuj repertoire: were these works originally intended for harpsichord or organ? We have learned from the Haydn organ concertos, which were distributed as harpsichord concertos, that the range of the solo instrument can provide a clue for identifying organ concertos. Among Haydn's keyboard concertos, those with a range within C and c''' are considered to be organ concertos.27 But this rule should be adopted quite cautiously for the early repertoire of the genre. None of the Steinbacher concertos goes beyond c''' (see Table 1), and one might argue that Steinbacher composed the works while carrying out his duties at the Graz parish church. Nevertheless, four of Steinbacher's partitas use the same range (from C to c''')28 and these works of typical chamber music were obviously not played during the services and were intended for the harpsichord, as the title indicates. On the other hand, many of the other composers in the Ptuj repertoire - Birck, Scheibl, Wagenseil, and Zechner - worked as organists, at least for some part of their lives. Their keyboard concertos with a reduced range for the solo instrument can be a point of departure for considering the possibility of a tradition of early organ concertos in the Habsburg monarchy.
27	Georg Feder, Wieviel Orgelkonzerte hat Haydn geschrieben?, Die Musikforschung 23 (1970), pp. 440-444.
28	Partitas in G-major, F-major, D-major, and A-minor (inv. nos. 55, 57, 58, and 156).
Appendix
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Figure 1
Copyist KP1: Johann Adam Scheibl, Concerto in C (inv. no. 16), title page (Basso); Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj, with permission.
Figure 2
Copyist KP1: Johann Adam Scheibl, Concerto in C (inv. no. 16), Cembalo, p. 1 (Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj, with permission).
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Figure 3
Copyist KP1: Johann Adam Scheibl, Concerto in C (inv. no. 16), Violino primo, p. 1 (Knjižnica Ivana Porca Ptuj, with permission).
Figure 4
Watermark 122: Johann Gottlieb Doeck (?), Altmühle Steyr.
Figure 5
Watermark 124: Johann Kienmoser, Altmühle Steyr.
Figure 6
Watermark 120: Wolf André Wurm, Neumühle Steyr-Saggraben.
Figure 7
Copyist KP6 (autograph?): Johann Michael Steinbacher, Concerto in C (inv. no. 27), title page - Cembalo (Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj, with permission).
Figure 8
Copyist KP6 (autograph?): Johann Michael Steinbacher, Concerto in C (inv. no. 27), Cembalo, beginning of the 1st movement, f. 1' (Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj, with permission).
Figure 9
Copyist KP6 (autograph?): Johann Michael Steinbacher, Concerto in C (inv. no. 27), Cembalo, beginning of the 2nd movement, f. 3 (Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj, with permission).
Figure 10
Copyist KP7 (autograph?): Antonio Sgatberoni, Concerto in B flat (inv. no. 10), title page -Cembalo (Knjižnica Ivana Porca Ptuj, with permission).
Figure 11
Copyist KP7 (autograph?): Antonio Sgatberoni, Concerto in B flat (inv. no. 10), Cembalo, beginning of the 1st movement, p. [2] (Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj, with permission).
Figure 12
Copyist KP7 (autograph?): Antonio Sgatberoni, Concerto in B flat (inv. no. 10), Cembalo, end of the 3rd movement, p. [9] (Knjižnica Ivana Potrča Ptuj, with permission).
ZGODNJI KONCERTI ZA GLASBILA S TIPKAMI NA PTUJU: GLASBA, NAPISANA ZA DORNAVSKI DVOREC?
Povzetek
V primerjavi z obsežnimi zbirkami koncertov za glasbila s tipkami iz 18. stoletja na Dunaju, v Dresdnu in v Kromenžu, se zdi na prvi pogled kolekcija 31 koncertov, ki se danes nahajajo v Knjižnici Ivana Potrča na Ptuju, majhen vzorec. Pa vendar je ta zbirka pomembna, saj predstavlja zelo zgodnjo fazo razvoja te glasbene oblike. Je tudi zelo enovita. Celotni ptujski korpus koncertov za glasbila s tipkami je delo devetih prepisovalcev, pa tudi papir rokopisov izkazuje enako število vodnih znakov. Natančnejše raziskave papirja in rokopisov prepisovalcev so omogočile identifikacijo štirih različnih skupin rokopisov.
Skupina 1 je najobsežnejša in vsebuje prepise enega glavnega kopista, ki pa mu je pomagala še vrsta drugih. Večina papirja ni bila izdelana pred petdesetimi leti 18. stoletja. Rokopise te skupine lahko zato okvirno datiramo v petdeseta leta ali malo pozneje. Po papirju sodeč rokopisi niso bili napisani na Dunaju, zato sklepamo, da so morda nastali v Gradcu. Šest skladateljev, ki so zastopani v skupini 1, je večinoma živelo na Dunaju ali na Spodnjem Avstrijskem: Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) in Wenzel Raimund Birck (ok. 1718-1763), sta bila oba dvorna organista na Dunaju in sta učila cesarične igre na glasbila s tipkami; Johann Adam Scheibl (1710-1773) je bil organist v St. Poltnu (Spodnja Avstrija); Johann Georg Zechner (1716-1778) pa organist v samostanu v Gottweigu in pozneje regens chori pri glavni župnijski cerkvi v Kremsu; nadalje sta v skupini 1 zastopana tudi Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783) in neki Castelli.
Skupina 2 obsega rokopise, ki so predvidoma prav tako tujega izvora. V njej sta dve deli Wagenseila in Bircka. Dela v skupinah 1 in 2 nosijo stare signature, kar kaže na to, da so del neke starejše zbirke. Po njihovi obliki in videzu lahko sklepamo, da so rokopisi delo poklicnih prepisovalcev glasbenikov.
Preostali dve skupini se od prvih dveh jasno razlikujeta. Skupina 3 je edini vir vseh znanih skladb Johanna Michaela Steinbacherja; vse je zapisala ista roka, domnevno v petdesetih letih 18. stoletja. Ti rokopisi so najverjetneje avtografi. Skupina 4 vsebuje vse danes znane skladbe Giovannija Antonia Sgatberonija (1708/09-1795). Tudi te rokopise je izdelal en sam zapisovalec, zato je zelo verjetno, da gre prav tako kot v skupini 3 za avtografe samega skladatelja Sgatberonija.
Johann Michael Steinbacher se je rodil najpozneje leta 1709. Leta 1740 je bil nastavljen kot organist v najpomembnejši graški cerkvi. Po letu 1741 o njem nimamo več podatkov. Raziskovalci so doslej predpostavljali, da je Steinbacher verjetno umrl pred letom 1750. Njegove koncerte za glasbila s tipkami lahko zato štejemo med najzgodnejše primere te glasbene oblike v Avstriji. Kljub temu pa je težko verjeti, da bi bila prav dela nekega tako rekoč neznanega skladatelja, ki niso poznala nikakršne distribucije, pionirska oz. vsaj na začetku pomembne veje te zvrsti v srednjeevropski tradiciji zgodnjih koncertov za glasbila s tipkami.
Zbirko, ki jo danes hrani ptujska knjižnica, so odkrili leta 1941 ob prenovi stare opečnate peči na gradu Vurberk. Predvidevalo se je, da so bili rokopisi prvotno v rabi na dvoru glasbeno ambicioznega grofa Josepha Bernharda von Attemsa (1727-1772) in
njegove soproge, ko sta med letoma 1754 in 1772 stanovala v dvorcu Dornava. Steinbacher in Sgatberoni bi iz več razlogov dejansko lahko delovala na dornavskem dvoru. V tem primeru bi lahko skladala (ali prepisala) svoja dela za glasbila s tipkami med letoma 1754 in 1772. Žal za to predpostavko nimamo na voljo zanesljive arhivske dokumentacije.
Širša analitična primerjava vseh 31 koncertov bi v prihodnosti lahko pomagala pojasniti razvoj razmerij med temi deli in tako podala nove namige za podrobnejšo datacijo glasbe. Morda je pomembno tudi to, da veliko koncertov uporablja reduciran ansambel solističnih glasbil. Podroben pregled ptujskega repertoarja bi tako lahko dejansko rekonstruiral neko danes pozabljeno tradicijo zgodnjih koncertov za glasbila s tipkami v habsburški monarhiji.