The Distribution of Geschriebene Musikalien in Late Eighteenth-Century Vienna, c.1780–1796

Between 1780 and 1800 in Vienna, over one-thousand advertisements featuring sheet music appeared in local newspapers, attesting to the emergence and rapid development of a functioning market. Approximately half contain reference to print (Druck, Stich, or gestochene Muskalien); the other half refer to hand-copied music (Schrift, Abrschrift, or geschriebene Musikalien), for which the majority of advertisements appeared before 1796.

Despite equal prominence, the development and local distribution of print has taken centre stage in scholarly discourse to date, with references to geschriebene Musikalien largely restricted to the treatment of individual (canon) composers with editorial and biographical motivations. Thus, the broader contexts in which it was produced, marketed, and sold have been significantly underappreciated and its importance in terms of the market for sheet music as a whole considerably underestimated.

This dissertation seeks to appreciate Viennese distribution of geschriebene Musikalien in the round during the peak years of its growth and market saturation (1780–1796). This is achieved first by exploring its relationship with print within the broader context of the sheet music market, taking the principles of demand and supply and the factors by which they would have been determined. Attention is then directed to the businesses and individuals responsible for the production and sale of geschriebene Musikalien, first in a broader, contextual manner, exploring the conditions and components of the copying trade as a whole, before taking individual examples of copyists and publishers who also dealt in this form alongside print. This includes a detailed appraisal of the copying activities of Lorenz Lausch and his business, demonstrably the most active distributors of sheet music during this period, most often taking the form of operatic and dance arrangements. To conclude, Lausch’s contribution to this genre is also situated in the broader context of musical arrangements in Vienna, hitherto barely explored.