Christoph Willibald (Ritter von)Gluck (/ɡlʊk/;German:[ˈkʁɪstɔfˈvɪlɪbaltˈɡlʊk]; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and Frenchopera in the earlyclassical period. Born in theUpper Palatinate and raised inBohemia,[1] both part of theHoly Roman Empire at the time, he gained prominence at theHabsburg court in Vienna. There he brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices for which many intellectuals had been campaigning. With a series of radical new works in the 1760s, among themOrfeo ed Euridice andAlceste, he broke the stranglehold thatMetastasianopera seria had enjoyed for much of the century. Gluck introduced more drama by using orchestralrecitative and cutting the usually longda capo aria. His later operas have half the length of a typicalbaroque opera.
The strong influence ofFrench opera encouraged Gluck to move toParis in November 1773. Fusing the traditions ofItalian opera and the French (with rich chorus) into a unique synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stage.Iphigénie en Tauride (1779) was a great success and is often considered to be his finest work. Though he was extremely popular and widely credited with bringing about a revolution in French opera, Gluck's mastery of the Parisian operatic scene was never absolute. After the poor reception of hisEcho et Narcisse (1779), he left Paris in disgust and returned to Vienna to live out the remainder of his life.
Gluck's earliest known ancestor is his great-grandfather, Simon Gluckh von Rockenzahn, whose name is recorded in the marriage contract (1672) of his son, theforester Johann (Hans) Adam Gluck (c. 1649–1722) and grandfather of Christoph.[2][3] 'Rockenzahn' is believed to beRokycany, located in the central part of westernBohemia (about 70 km southwest ofPrague and 16 km east ofPilsen).[4] The family name Gluck (also spelled Gluckh, Klugh, Kluch, etc.) likely comes from the Czech word for boy (kluk).[2] In its various spellings, it is repeatedly found in the records of Rokycany.[3] Around 1675 Hans Adam moved toNeustadt an der Waldnaab in the service of Prince Ferdinand August vonLobkowitz, who possessed extensive landholdings inBohemia as well as the county ofStörnstein-Neustadt in the Upper Palatinate.[2][3]
Gluck's father, Alexander, was born in Neustadt an der Waldnaab on 28 October 1683,[5] one of four sons of Hans Adam Gluck who became foresters or gamekeepers.[6] Alexander served in a contingent of about 50 soldiers under Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz, the son of Ferdinand August von Lobkowitz, during theWar of Spanish Succession,[7] and, according to Gluck family tradition, rose to the level of gunbearer to the great general of the imperial forces,Eugene of Savoy.[8] In 1711 Alexander settled outsideBerching as a forester and hunter in the service of the monastery Seligenporten,Plankstetten Abbey, and the mayors ofNeumarkt in der Oberpfalz.[9] He took the vacant position of hunter inErasbach in 1711 or 1712 (his predecessor had been found shot in the forest).[10]
House inErasbach, constructed in 1713 by Gluck's father, where many believe the composer was born.[11]
About Gluck's mother, Maria Walburga, almost nothing is known, including her surname, but she probably grew up in the same area as she was named afterSaint Walburga, the sister ofSaint Willibald, the first bishop of nearbyEichstätt.[9] The couple probably married around 1711.[2] In 1713 Alexander built a house in Erasbach and by 12 September had taken possession of it.[12]
Although there is no documentary record with Gluck's birthdate at the time of his birth, he himself gave it as 2 July 1714 on an official document requested by Paris that he signed in 1785 in Vienna in the presence of the French ambassadorEmmanuel Marie Louis de Noailles. This has long been the commonly accepted date.[13] He was baptized Christophorus Willibaldus on 4 July 1714 in the village of Weidenwang,[14] aparish that at that time also included Erasbach.[2] Gluck himself never used the name Willibald. The church in Weidenwang was consecrated to Saint Willibald (as was the entire Eichstätt diocese to which it belonged), and the name Willibald is frequently found in the baptismal register, often as a second name. No documents contemporary with Gluck's life use the name Willibald. Only in the 19th century did scholars begin using it to distinguish the composer from his father's brother Johann Christoph, born in 1700, whose baptism had earlier been confused with that of the composer.[15]
In the year of Gluck's birth, theTreaty of Rastatt and theTreaty of Baden ended theWar of Spanish Succession and brought Erasbach underBavarian control.[16] Gluck's father had to reapply to retain his position and received no salary until after 1715, when he began receiving 20gulden. He obtained additional employment in the vicinity of Weidenwang in 1715 as a forester in the service of Seligenporten Monastery, and after 1715, also with Plankstetten Abbey. In 1716 Alexander Gluck was cited for poor performance and warned he might be terminated.[17] He sold his house in August 1717 and voluntarily left Erasbach near the end of September to take up employment as head forester inReichstadt, serving the Duchess of Tuscany,[18] the wealthyAnna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg, since 1708 separated from her husbandGian Gastone de' Medici, the last duke of Tuscany.[19]
In 1727 Alexander moved with his family to Eisenberg (Jezeří inHorní Jiřetín) to take his final post, head forester to Prince Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz.[22] It is unclear if Christoph was sent to theJesuit college inChomutov, 20 km southwest.[23]
The Alsatian painterJohann Christian von Mannlich relates in his memoirs, published in 1810, that Gluck told him about his early life in 1774. He quotes Gluck as saying:
My father was forest master at N... in Bohemia and he planned that eventually I should succeed him. In my homeland everyone is musical; music is taught in the schools, and in the tiniest villages the peasants sing and play different instruments during High Mass in their churches. As I was passionate about the art, I made rapid progress. I played several instruments and the schoolmaster, singling me out from the other pupils, gave me lessons at his house when he was off duty. I no longer thought and dreamt of anything but music; the art of forestry was neglected.[24]
In 1727 or 1728, when Gluck was 13 or 14, he went toPrague.[25] A childhood flight from home to Vienna is included in several contemporary accounts of Gluck's life, including Mannlich's.[26] However, some scholars have cast doubt on Gluck's picturesque tales of earning food and shelter by his singing as he travelled. Most scholars now feel it is more likely that the object of Gluck's travels was not Vienna but Prague.[27] Gluck's German biographer Hans Joachim Moser claimed in 1940 to have found documents showing Gluck matriculated in logic and mathematics at theUniversity of Prague in 1731.[28]Gerhard and Renate Croll find this astonishing,[29] and other biographers have been unable to find any documents supporting Moser's claim.[30] At the time the University of Prague boasted a flourishing musical scene that included performances of both Italian opera andoratorio.[2] Gluck sang and played violin and cello, and also the organ atTýn Church.[31]
Gluck eventually left Prague without taking a degree and vanishes from the historical record until 1737.[2] Nevertheless, the memories of his family and indirect references to this period in later documents give good grounds for believing Gluck arrived in Vienna in 1734, where he likely was employed by the Lobkowitz family at their palace in theMinoritenplatz. Philipp Hyazinth Lobkowitz, Gluck's father's employer, died on 21 December 1734, and his successor, his brotherJohann Georg Christian Lobkowicz, is thought to have been Gluck's employer in Vienna from 1735 to 1736. Two operas with texts Gluck himself was later to set were performed during this period:Antonio Caldara'sLa clemenza di Tito (1734) andLe cinesi (1735). It is likely that the Lobkowitz family introduced Gluck to the Milanese nobleman Prince Antonio Maria Melzi, who engaged Gluck to become a player in his orchestra in Milan. The 65-year-old prince married the 16-year-old Maria Renata, Countess of Harrach, on 3 January 1737, and not long after returned with Gluck to Milan.[32]
According to the music historianDaniel Heartz, there has been considerable controversy concerning Gluck's native language. Gluck's protégé in Vienna, the Italian-bornAntonio Salieri, wrote in his memoirs (translated into German byIgnaz von Mosel), that "Gluck, whose native tongue wasCzech, expressed himself in German only with effort, and still more so in French and Italian."[33] Salieri also mentions that Gluck mixed several languages when speaking: German, Italian and French, like Salieri himself.[34] Gluck's first biographer,Anton Franz Schmid [de], wrote that Gluck grew up in a German-speaking area, and that Gluck learned to speak Czech, but did not need it in Prague and in his later life.[35] Heartz writes: "More devious manoeuvres have been attempted by Gluck's German biographers of this [the 20th] century, while the French ones have, without exception, taken Salieri at his word. His German biographer Max Arend objected that not a single letter written in Czech can be found, to whichJacques-Gabriel Prod'homme countered that "no letters written byLiszt in Hungarian were known either, but does this make him a German?"[36] Hans Joachim Moser wanted a lyric work in Czech as proof.[37] In fact, the music theorist Laurent Garcin, writing in 1770 (published 1772) before Gluck arrived in Paris, included Gluck in a list of several composers of Czechopéras-comiques (although such a work by Gluck has yet to be documented).[38] A presentation by Irene Brandenburg classifying Gluck as a Bohemian composer was considered controversial by her German colleagues.[39]
In 1737 Gluck arrived in Milan and was introduced toGiovanni Battista Sammartini, who, according toGiuseppe Carpani, taught Gluck "practical knowledge of all the instruments".[40] Apparently, this relationship lasted for several years. Primarily, Sammartini was not a composer of opera for his main output was sacred music and symphonies. However, Milan boasted a vibrant opera scene, and Gluck soon formed an association with one of the city's up-and-coming opera houses, theTeatro Regio Ducale. There his first operaArtaserse was performed on 26 December 1741, dedicated toOtto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun. Set to a libretto byMetastasio, the opera opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742. According to one anecdote, the public would not accept Gluck's style until he inserted anaria in the lighter Milanese manner for contrast.[citation needed]
Nevertheless, Gluck composed an opera for each of the next fourCarnivals in Milan, with renownedcastratoGiovanni Carestini appearing in many of the performances. He also wrote operas for other cities of Northern Italy in between Carnival seasons, including Turin and Venice, where hisIpermestra was performed in November 1744 at theTeatro San Giovanni Crisostomo. Nearly all of his operas in this period were set to Metastasio's texts, despite the poet's dislike for his style of composition.
Bust of Gluck, whose face was noticeably pockmarked
In 1745, Gluck accepted an invitation fromLord Middlesex to become house composer at London'sKing's Theatre. Gluck may have traveled to England via Frankfurt and in the company of the violinist Ferdinand Philipp Joseph von Lobkowitz, the son of Phillip Hyazinth.[citation needed] The timing was unfortunate, as theJacobite Rebellion had caused much panic in London and, for most of the year, the King's Theatre was closed. Six trio sonatas were the immediate fruits of his time. Gluck's two London operas (La caduta de' giganti andArtamene), performed in 1746, borrowed much from his earlier works. Gluck performed works byGaluppi andLampugnani, who both had worked in London. A more long-term benefit was exposure to the music ofHandel – whom he later credited as a great influence on his style – and the naturalistic acting style ofDavid Garrick, an English theatrical reformer.[citation needed] On 25 March, shortly after the production ofArtamene, Handel and Gluck gave a concert in theHaymarket Theatre consisting of works by Gluck and an organ concerto by Handel, played by the composer. On 14 April Gluck played on aglassharmonica inHickford's Rooms, a concert hall inBrewer Street, Soho.[41] Handel's own experience of Gluck pleased that composer less:Charles Burney reports Handel as saying that "he [Gluck] knows no more ofcontrapunto, as my cook,Waltz".[41]
The years 1747 and 1748 brought Gluck two highly prestigious engagements. First, he was given a commission to produce an opera forPillnitz, performed byPietro Mingotti's troupe, to celebrate a royal double wedding that would unite the ruling families of Bavaria and Saxony.Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe, afesta teatrale, borrowed heavily from earlier works and even from Gluck's teacher Sammartini. The success of this work brought Gluck to the attention of the Viennese court, and, ahead of such a figure asJohann Adolph Hasse, he was selected to set Metastasio'sLa Semiramide riconosciuta to celebrateMaria Theresa's birthday.Vittoria Tesi took the title role. On this occasion Gluck's music was completely original, but the displeasure of the court poet, Metastasio, who called the opera "archvandalian music".[citation needed] This may explain explain why Gluck did not remain long in Vienna despite the work's enormous popular success (it was performed 27 times to great acclaim). For the remainder of 1748 and into 1749, Gluck travelled with Mingotti's troupe, contracting a venereal disease from theprima donna and composing the operaLa contesa de' numi for the court at Copenhagen, where he repeated his concert on the glassharmonica.[citation needed]
Johann Franz Greipel –Il Parnaso confuso by Christoph Willibald Gluck (music) and Pietro Metastasio (libretto). Performed on 24 January 1765 by the children ofMaria Theresia: Maria Amalia (Apollo), Maria Elisabeth (Melpomene), Maria Josepha (Euterpe), Maria Karolina (Erato), Leopold (Harpsichord)
In 1750 he abandoned Mingotti's group for another company established by a former member of the Mingotti troupe,Giovanni Battista Locatelli. The main effect of this was that Gluck returned to Prague on a more consistent basis. For the Prague Carnival of 1750 Gluck composed a new opera,Ezio (again set to one of Metastasio's works, with the manuscript located at theLobkowicz Palace). HisIpermestra was also performed in the same year. One major event of Gluck's life, during his stay in Prague, was his marriage. On 15 September 1750, he married Maria Anna Bergin, a 18 year old daughter of a Viennese merchant.[42] Gluck spent most of 1751 commuting between Prague and Vienna.
The year 1752 brought another major commission to Gluck. He was asked to set Metastasio'sLa clemenza di Tito (the specific libretto was the composer's choice) for the name day celebrations of KingCharles VII of Naples. The opera was performed on 4 November at theTeatro di San Carlo, and the world-famouscastratoCaffarelli took the role of Sextus. For Caffarelli, Gluck composed the famous, but notoriously difficult, aria "Se mai senti spirarti sul volto", which provoked admiration and vituperation in equally large measures. Gluck later reworked this aria for hisIphigénie en Tauride. According to one account, the Neapolitan composerFrancesco Durante claimed that his fellow composers "should have been proud to have conceived and written [the aria]". Durante simultaneously declined to comment whether or not it was within the boundaries of the accepted compositional rules of the time.[citation needed]
Carmen Lavani inLe cinesi (1973). The work is very much in the vein of thechinoiserie so popular in its time.Le cinesi reflects cultural overlap between the Austrian court and the distant Chinese court. InLe cinesi, Metastasio gives a lesson on the different forms of theatre: pastoral, comedy and tragedy.
Under the teaching of Gluck,Marie Antoinette developed into a good musician. She learned to play theharp,[43] theharpsichord and theflute. She sang during the family's evening gatherings, as she had a beautiful voice.[44] All her brothers and sisters were involved in playing Gluck's music; on 24 January 1765 her brotherLeopold II, Holy Roman Emperor directed one of Gluck's compositions,Il Parnaso confuso.
In Spring 1774, she took Gluck under her patronage and introduced him to the Paris public. For that purpose, she asked him to compose a new opera,Iphigénie en Aulide. Mindful of theQuerelle des Bouffons between adherents of Italian and French opera, she asked the composer to set the libretto in French. To achieve her goals she was assisted by the singersRosalie Levasseur andSophie Arnould. Gluck demandded strict adherence from the cast when rehearsing. Gluck told the bass-baritonHenri Larrivée to change his ways. The soprano Arnould was replaced. He insisted that the chorus to act and become a part of the drama – that they could no longer just stand there and without expression while singing their lines.[citation needed] Gluck was assisted byFrançois-Joseph Gossec, director of theConcert Spirituel. TheChevalier de Saint-Georges attended the first performance on 19 April;Jean-Jacques Rousseau was delighted with Gluck's melodic style. Marie Antoinette received a large share of the credit.[45]
Gluck surveyed the fundamental problem of form and content in opera. He thought both of the main Italian operatic genres,opera buffa andopera seria, had strayed from what opera should be and seemed unnatural.Opera buffa had long lost its original freshness. Its jokes were threadbare and the repetition of the same characters made them seem no more than stereotypes. Inopera seria, the singing was devoted to superficial effects and the content was uninteresting and fossilised. As inopera buffa, the singers were effectively absolute masters of the stage and the music, decorating the vocal lines so floridly that audiences could no longer recognise the original melody. Gluck wanted to return opera to its origins, focusing on human drama and passions and making words and music of equal importance.[citation needed]
Francesco Algarotti'sEssay on the Opera (1755) proved to be an inspiration for Gluck's reforms.[citation needed] He advocated thatopera seria had to return to basics and that all the various elements—music (both instrumental and vocal), ballet, and staging—must be subservient to the overriding drama. Several composers of the period, includingNiccolò Jommelli andTommaso Traetta, attempted to put these ideals into practice (and added more ballets).
In Vienna, Gluck met like-minded figures in the operatic world: CountGiacomo Durazzo, the head of the court theatre, and one of the primary instigators of operatic reform in Vienna ; the librettistRanieri de' Calzabigi, who wanted to attack the dominance of Metastasian opera seria; the innovative choreographerGasparo Angiolini; and the London-trainedcastratoGaetano Guadagni.[citation needed]
The first result of reform was Gluck's balletDon Juan. On 5 October 1762,Orfeo ed Euridice was given its first performance, on alibretto by Calzabigi, set to music by Gluck. Gluck tried to achieve a noble,Neo-Classical or "beautiful simplicity". The dances were arranged by Angiolini and the title role was taken by Guadagni, a catalytic force in Gluck's reform, renowned for his unorthodox acting and singing style.Orfeo, which has never left the standard repertory, showed the beginnings of Gluck's reforms. His idea was to make the drama of the work more important than the star singers who performed it, and to do away with dryrecitative (recitativo secco, accompanied only bycontinuo) that broke up the action. In 1765,Melchior Grimm published"Poème lyrique", an influential article for theEncyclopédie onlyric and operalibrettos.[46][47][48][49][50]
Set design for the première of the revised, French-language version ofAlceste
Gluck and Calzabigi followedOrfeo withAlceste(1767) andParide ed Elena(1770), dedicated to his friendJoão Carlos de Bragança (Duke de Lafões), an expert on music and mythology, pushing their innovations even further. Calzabigi wrote a preface toAlceste, which Gluck signed, setting out the principles of their reforms:
anoverture that is linked by theme or mood to the ensuing action
Joseph von Sonnenfels praised Gluck's tremendous imagination and thesetting after attending a performance ofAlceste.[51] In 1769 Gluck performed his operas inParma.
On 2 September 1771Charles Burney visited Gluck, who was living in Sankt Marx. Burney thought Gluck's preface, in which Gluck gives his “reasons for deviating from the beaten track”, important enough to give it almost in its entirety: "It was my intention to confine music to its true dramatic province, of assisting poetical expression, and of augmenting the interest of the fable; without interrupting the action, or chilling it with useless and superfluous ornaments; for the office of music, when joined to poetry, seemed to me, to resemble that of colouring in a correct and well disposed design, where the lights and shades only seem to animate the figures, without altering the out-line."[52] On 11 September Burney went to see Gluck to say goodbye; Gluck was still in bed, as he used to work in the night.
As his operas were not appreciated byFrederick II of Prussia, Gluck began to focus on France.[53] Under the patronage of Marie Antoinette, who had married the future French KingLouis XVI in 1770, Gluck signed a contract for six stage works with the management of the Paris Opéra. He began withIphigénie en Aulide. The premiere on 19 April 1774 sparked a huge controversy, not seen in the city since theQuerelle des Bouffons. Gluck's opponents brought the leading Italian composerNiccolò Piccinni to Paris to demonstrate the superiority ofNeapolitan opera, and the whole town engaged in an argument between "Gluckists" and "Piccinnists". The composers themselves took no part in the polemics, but when Piccinni was asked to set the libretto toRoland, on which Gluck was also known to be working, Gluck destroyed everything he had written for that opera up to that point.[citation needed]
On 2 August 1774 the French version ofOrfeo ed Euridice was performed, moreRameau-like,[54] with the title role transposed from the castrato to the tenor voice. This time Gluck's work was better received by the Parisian public. In the same year, Gluck returned to Vienna, where he was appointed composer to the imperial court (18 October 1774) after 20 years serving asKapellmeister. Over the next few years, the composer would travel back and forth between Paris and Vienna. He became friends with the poetKlopstock in Karlsruhe. On 23 April 1776, the French version ofAlceste was given.
During the rehearsals forEcho et Narcisse in September 1779, Gluck became dangerously ill.[55] Since the opera itself was a failure, running for only 12 performances, Gluck decided to return to Vienna within two weeks. In that cityDie unvermuthete Zusammenkunft orDie Pilgrime von Mekka (1772), a German version ofLa rencontre imprévue, had been performed 51 times.[56]
His musical heir in Paris was the composerAntonio Salieri, who had been Gluck's protégé since he arrived in Vienna in 1767 and later had made friends with Gluck. Gluck brought Salieri to Paris with him and bequeathed him the libretto forLes Danaïdes byFrançois-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet andbaron de Tschudi. The opera was announced as a collaboration between the two composers. However, after the overwhelming success of its premiere on 26 April 1784, Gluck revealed to the prestigiousJournal de Paris that the work was wholly Salieri's.
Gluck lived and died in the Wiedner Hauptstraße Nr. 32 in Vienna
In Vienna, Gluck wrote a few more minor works, spending the summer with his wife inPerchtoldsdorf. Gluck suffered frommelancholy and high blood pressure.[55] In 1781, he brought out a German version ofIphigénie en Tauride. Gluck dominated the season's proceedings with 32 performances.[57] On 23 March 1783 he seems to have attended a concert byMozart who playedKV 455, variations onLa Rencontre imprévue by Gluck (Wq. 32).[58]
On 15 November 1787, lunching with friends, Gluck suffered aheart arrhythmia and died a few hours later, at the age of 73. Usually, it is mentioned Gluck had several strokes and became paralyzed on his right side.[clarification needed] Robl, a family doctor, had doubts as Gluck was still able to play hisclavichord or piano in 1783.[59] At a formal commemoration on 8 April 1788, his friend, pupil and successor Salieri conducted Gluck'sDe profundis, and aRequiem by the Italian composerNiccolò Jommelli. His death opened the way for Mozart at court, according toH. C. Robbins Landon.[citation needed] Gluck was buried in theMatzleinsdorfer Friedhof. On 29 September 1890,[60] his remains were transferred to theZentralfriedhof; a tomb was erected containing the original plaque.[61][62]
Although only half of his work survived after a fire in 1809,[63] Gluck's musical legacy includes approximately 35 complete full-length operas plus around a dozen shorter operas and operatic introductions, as well as numerous ballets and instrumental works. His reforms influencedMozart, particularly his operaIdomeneo (1781).[54] He left behind a flourishing school of disciples in Paris, who would dominate the French stage throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. As well as Salieri, they includedSacchini,Cherubini,Méhul andSpontini. His greatest French admirer would beHector Berlioz, whose epicLes Troyens may be seen as the culmination of the Gluckian tradition. Though Gluck wrote no operas in German, his example influenced the German school of opera, particularlyCarl Maria von Weber andRichard Wagner, whose concept ofmusic drama was not so far removed from Gluck's own.[citation needed]
^Brown & Rushton 2001,Introduction and"1. Ancestry, early life and training."; Heartz 1988, pp. 517–526. Sources differ concerning Gluck's nationality: Kuhn 2000, p. 272, and Croll 1991, p. 308, said he was German, while Brown & Rushton 2001 and Howard 2003 (p. xi) gaveBohemian; Hayes et al. 1992, p. 453, Bohemian-Austrian; and Harewood & Peattie 1997, p. 261, Austrian; G. Banat, p. 144 recognized him as Bavarian.
^Croll & Croll 2014, p. 15. The record of ownership from the time it was built to the present is unbroken, and, although the house has been remodeled and modernized, it is believed to retain much of its original appearance. There is a plaque on the side of the house which reads: "Hier wurde am 2.7.1714 der Komponist Christoph Willibald Gluck geboren" ("Here was born on 7/2/1714 the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck"); see apicture of the plaque at Commons.
^Croll & Croll 2014, p. 15. In the cited document he is named as "Jäger Alexander Gluck zu Erasbach". According to Croll & Croll, a different house, located in Weidenwang, also designated by many as Gluck's birthplace is well documented and was built about ten years after his birth.
^Croll & Croll 2010, p. 12. Other sources giving this date include Einstein 1936, p. 3; Brown & Rushton 2001. The authenticity of the 1785 document has been disputed by Robl 2015, pp. 141–147.
^During the Lauenburg war of succession (1690–1693) the Habsburg emperor banned Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg and her sister to Reichstadt and forced them to marry one of his generals in order to pay his debts to them. Franziska refused to marry Eugene of Savoy, accepted the next candidate Gian Gastone, who came to the conclusion Reichstadt was a boring place to live. She refused to follow him to Florence, being more interested in horses and hunting than in him.
^Prod'homme 1948 (1985), p. 20; Howard 1995, p. 1; Croll & Croll 2014, p. 18.
^Daniel Heartz relates that this assertion has been the subject of much debate. Gluck himself does not appear in the list of students, although one of his younger brothers does. All instruction was in Latin, and Gluck's failure to learn Latin, which he had to study later in life, argues against it (Heartz 1988, p. 520).
^Quoted and translated by Heartz 1988, p. 521, who cites and provides the French original: "Gluck à Paris en 1774",La Revue musicale (1934), p. 260: "Mon père, nous disoit-il, étoit maître des eaux et forêts à N... en Bohème; il m'avoit destiné à le remplacer un jour dans son poste. Dans mon pays tout le monde est musicien; on enseigne la musique dans les écoles et dans les moindres villages les paysans chantent et jouent des différens instrumens pendant la grand-messe dans leurs églises. Comme j'étois passionné pour cet art, je fis des progrès rapides. Je jouois de plusieurs instrumens, et le maître, en me distinguant des autres écoliers, me donna des leçons chez lui dans ses moments de loisir.
^Howard 1995, p. 6; Heartz 1988, p. 522, citing Arnošt Mahler "Glucks Schulzeit. Zweifel und Widerspruche in den biographischen Daten,"Die Musikforschung, vol. 27 (1974), pp. 457–460.
^Quoted and translated by Heartz 1988, pp. 524–525, citingMosel 1827, p. 93: "Gluck, dessen Muttersprache die böhmisch war, drückte sich in der deutschen, und noch mehr in der französischen und italienischen, nur mit Mühe aus... ."
^Banat, Gabriel (2006). The Chevalier de Saint-Georges : virtuoso of the sword and the bow. Hillsdale, N.Y.: Pendragon Press.ISBN1-57647-109-8., p. 146-150.
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