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Aesthetic Mediation and Tertiary Rhetoric in Telemann’s VI Ouvertures à 4 ou 6
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24 Aesthetic Mediation and Tertiary Rhetoric in Telemann’s VI Ouvertures à 4 ou 6 Steven Zohn W hile visiting a recent exhibition of Meissen porcelain in Dresden, a relatively unassuming figure caught my eye.1 This charming representation of what the exhibition’s curators titled “Actors as a Musical Shepherd Couple” was modeled by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706–75), who upon completing work in February 1744 described it as “a very exacting small shepherd group, divided up and ready for molding. The shepherdess playing the lute sits under green trees next to the shepherd, who is singing from sheet music; both are most elegantly tricked out.”2 As previous commentators have noted, the shepherdess is outfitted in the latest 1. The exhibition, held under the auspices of the Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden at the Japanisches Palais between 8 May and 29 August 2010, was entitled “Triumph der Blauen Schwerter: Meissener Porzellan für Adel und Bürgertum, 1710–1815.” See the exhibition catalog, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie, 1710–1815, ed. Ulrich Pietsch and Claudia Banz (Leipzig: Seemann; Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, 2010—the book was produced simultaneously by both publishers). A German-language version of the catalog was published alongside the English edition. 2. “Ein sehr Mühsames Schäfer Groppgen zerschnitten und zum abformen gehörig zu bereitet. Es sitzet die Schäferin, welche die Laute spielet nebst dem Schäfer, so darzu nach den Noten singet unter Grünen Bäumen, beyde sind aufs zierlichste angeputzet.” Kaendler had earlier described the figure as follows: “1. Groupgen einen Schäffer und Schäfferin, welche letztere auff der Laute spielt, und ein Schaaff neben sich liegen hat, vorstellend. 16.Thlr. ” (1. Small group representing a shepherd and shepherdess, the latter playing the lute, and a sheep lying by them. 16 Taler.). Both descriptions are quoted in Ingelore Menzhausen, In Porzellan verzaubert: Die Figuren Johann Joachim Kändlers in Meißen aus der Sammlung Pauls-Eisenbeiss Basel (Basel: Wiese, 1993), 152. Translations are adapted from William Hutton, “Meissen,” in J. Pierpoint Morgan, Collector: European Decorative Arts from the Wadsworth Atheneum, ed. Linda Horvitz Roth (Hartford, Conn.: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1987), 148 (No. 49: “Shepherd Musicians”). Figure 1: Johann Joachim Kaendler, “Actors as a Musical Shepherd Couple.” Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden. [18.233.223.189] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:24 GMT) 26 Zohn fashions of the day, but the shepherd’s clothes are those of a comedic actor, with his black cap, long button-down waistcoat, and cloak bringing to mind stock images of the commedia dell’arte characters Scaramouche and Mezzetino.3 Only the surrounding decorations, including a tree, leaves, flowers, and a sheep, inform us that we have left an urban or courtly locale for the countryside. What intrigued me in particular about Kaendler’s figure was the music held and sung by the actor: an eight-measure melody entitled “Alla Polacca del Sige. Has,” the attribution referring to the Dresden Kapellmeister Johann Adolf Hasse (figures 1 and 2).4 This melody turns out to be a previously unrecognized version of BWV Anh. 130, an anonymous Polonaise in G major copied out by Anna Magdalena Bach in the Figure 2: J. A. Hasse’s Polonaise (BWV Anh. 130) in Johann Joachim Kaendler’s “Actors as a Musical Shepherd Couple.” Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden. 3. Hutton, “Meissen,” 148; Alfred Ziffer, commentary to No. 352 in Triumph of the Blue Swords, 318. 4. The version of the figure exhibited in Dresden and illustrated here belongs to the Museo della Ceramica Duca di Martina, Villa Floridana, Naples. Figure 1 is reproduced from Triumph of the Blue Swords, 318. I am grateful to Patrizia Piscitello of the Museo della Ceramica for providing me with the image shown in Figure 2. 27 Aesthetic Mediation and Tertiary Rhetoric 1725 Clavierbüchlein bearing her name. Although fragmentary, the Meissen melody provides a second concordant source for BWV Anh. 130, the other being a Berlin manuscript copy of an F-major keyboard sonata attributed to Hasse.5 Example 1 shows all three versions of the polonaise’s melody, together with the Clavierbüchlein left-hand part.6 Constrained by space, the anonymous painter of Kaendler’s figure was forced to repeat what is essentially a composite version of measures 5 and 6 and alter the last note of measure 7. In most other respects, however, the melody does not stray far from the Clavierbüchlein version (though the ornamental thirty-second notes in measure...