Franz Joseph Rosinack (1748-1823): A Bohemian Oboist and Music Arranger at the Fürstenberg Hofkapelle

Abstract

The oboist Franz Joseph Rosinack worked at the Fürstenberg princely court in Donaueschingen from 1777 to 1823. He had a range of duties, including performing with the Hof-orchester, Harmonie, and other ensembles, as well as supplying music for court occasions. Chapter I presents a survey of the court\u27s musical activities and principal musicians under Princes Joseph Wenzel (r. 1762-83), Joseph Maria Benedict (r. 1783-96), Karl Joachim (1796-1804), and Karl Egon II (r. 1817-54). Fürstenberg ties to the major cultural centers of eighteenth-century Europe supplied repertoire allowing the court orchestra to perform some of the best contemporary operas often within months of their premieres. Rosinack\u27s involvement in these and other performances gave him a familiarity with pieces he would then arrange as chamber music to accompany banquets, hunting parties, and other court festivities. Over fifty of Rosinack\u27s arrangements are preserved as manuscripts in the Fürstenberg Musicalien Sammlung now housed in the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe, Germany. Rosinack arranged music from across the broad spectrum of eighteenth-century genres, from chamber music and symphonies to operas and other works for the stage. Chapter III elucidates the techniques he used to create these works by examining excerpts from three representative pieces. These pieces include versions of Mozart\u27s string quartet K. 575 and wind serenade K. 361, both for oboe, violin, two violas, and cello, as well as an arrangement of Haydn\u27s opera Orlando Paladino for Harmonie octet. Generally, the further afield the genre of the original lay from its arranged form, the more far-reaching were the changes that Rosinack made to bring the music to its new setting. Arrangements of chamber music revolve mostly around issues of texture, tone color, and instrumental capacity. Arrangements of operas, however, can involve changes of form and harmonic structure to bring the music from its original stage genre to a chamber setting. Appendices present a complete list of Rosinack\u27s arrangements as well as a score to the first movement of Rosinack\u27s adaptation of K. 361 for oboe and strings