Torie Flinton

Music History

Dr. Van Dessel

2nd March 2012

Carl Stamitz Clarinet Concerto No. 3

Carl Stamitz was the son of the famous composer Johann Stamitz, who was the first

composer to write symphonies in four movements. Carl Stamitz was born in 1745 in the city of

Mannheim, Germany, where his father conducted the Mannheim Orchestra, a famous group

who created the orchestral crescendo. 1 His father used to give him violin and composition

lessons as he was a child, but when his father died at a young age he took up lessons with his

father’s successor in the orchestra, Christian Cannabich, and also Ignaz Holzbauer, the court-

director of music, and the court-composer Franz Xaver Richter. 2

When Stamitz was seventeen he received a job playing for the Mannheim

orchestra as a violinist, but did not keep the job for long. He eventually quit and began to travel

all around Europe for the better part of the next twenty-five years.3 This traveling expanded his

compositional abilities and broadened his horizons, making his pieces more universal. This was

good considering, at the time, universal music was a great demand for the Classical era that he

took part in. thus being true, as you will see in the rest of the biographical information, this did

1
"Carl Stamitz," Wikipedia, accessed April 30, 2012, last modified April 4, 2012,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Stamitz.
2
ibid
3
Gary Smith, "Carl Phillip Stamitz," Mozartforum.com, accessed April 30, 2012,
http://www.mozartforum.com/Contemporary%20Pages/Carl_Stamitz_Contemp.htm.
not help him to receive a steady job or income which lead him to a tragic and depressing life in

his father’s large shadow.

Being a traveling virtuoso, Stamitz may have accepted many jobs, but he never kept

them for too long.4 During the years 1777 and 1778 he managed to find success in London.5

Around the time 1782 and 1783, Stamitz found himself in the Netherlands where he gave

concerts in The Hague and in Amsterdam.6 After a while, in 1785 Stamitz went back home to

Germany once more only to find himself appearing in concerts in numerous places like

Hamburg, Lübeck, Braunschweig, Magdeburg, and Leipzig.7 In the April 1786 he escaped to

Berlin where on the nineteenth of May 1786 he was given the opportunity to perform in the

piece of a lifetime: a performance of Handel's Messiah under the direction of Johann Adam

Hiller's glorious baton.8

Years go by and he found himself still on a restless, seemingly never-ending travel

from city to city. Evidence of his presence was found in places such as Dresden, Prague, and

Halle. He eventually finally found himself in Nuremberg.9 During the winter of 1789-90 he was

the director of amateur concerts in Kassel. Being unsteady as he was, he once again failed to

gain employment with the Schwerin court. By this point in his life he was married and father of

four children who all died in infancy, but he was forced to move on once more due to the

unstable life of a battered musician.

4
"Carl Stamitz," Wikipedia, accessed April 30, 2012, last modified April 4, 2012,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Stamitz.
5
ibid
6
ibid
7
ibid
8
ibid
9
Gary Smith, "Carl Phillip Stamitz," Mozartforum.com, accessed April 30, 2012,
http://www.mozartforum.com/Contemporary%20Pages/Carl_Stamitz_Contemp.htm.
 In 1793 he ventured one last journey to his hometown, Mannheim, before he finally

gave up travelling for good.10 Winter of 1794-95 he moved his family to the university town of

Jena. This town of less than 5,000 inhabitants is where his wanderings all ended.11 Jena was a

very agricultural place, and had no band, or orchestra, or anything else to try and make money

on as a musician.12 Stamitz slowly sloped into poverty, where he had nothing but his talent and

vivid imagination kept him going.13 For years after he settled down, he wrote up master plans

about operas he wanted to write and future concerts that could make him even just the

slightest bit of money to possibly regain his popularity among society, but he was sadly

unsuccessful. He had even made plans to travel to Russia and make his family money, but then

he died.14

During his lifetime, he composed fifty symphonies, but unlike his father, many of his

symphonies were composed of three movements instead of four, leaving out the minuet that

his father was so famous for. He wrote forty concertos for the flute, the bassoon, the basset

horn, the violin, the viola, and the viola d’amore along with varied combinations of these. He

composed three strictly cello concertos, two operas, which are both considered lost, and the

most important, eleven clarinet concertos.

Carl Stamitz, whose name was originally Karl Stamitz, was a Classical composer,

making his third clarinet concerto a Classical piece. Classical pieces were very formal and

10
"Carl Stamitz," Wikipedia, accessed April 30, 2012, last modified April 4, 2012,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Stamitz.
11
ibid
12
ibid
13
ibid
14
Gary Smith, "Carl Phillip Stamitz," Mozartforum.com, accessed April 30, 2012,
http://www.mozartforum.com/Contemporary%20Pages/Carl_Stamitz_Contemp.htm.
symmetric. They were ethical and moral meaning that they appealed more to the intellectual

side. Their “scientific” feel helped you to understand things.

The Allegro Moderato, or the first movement of the concerto starts out with the

strings introducing the main theme. The accompaniment seems rather homophonic in that all

of the parts move together as one instead of freely moving about. Historically the allegro

section is in sonata form and is sectioned off. Each section completes a side in the “musical

argument.”15 When the Clarinet comes in it continues the theme. It is very symmetrical in that

it finishes the movement out with the same theme as the beginning setting the form at ABA.

Takes influence of his father by adding a second contrasting theme to the Allegro.

The second movement, the romanza, starts off classical, but almost sways toward the

romantic period, yet because of its form it is still presented in classical way. You can tell the he

is in the era of the influencial Haydn and Mozart. 16 The over-emotionalism shows

characteristics of empfindsam style. There is a tormented irrational feeling in some places,

especially the second theme. It shows the “sturm and drang.” Occasionally straying from the

key, this movement definitely appeals with the emotions. Thus being true, the strict ABA form

and homophonic score display a very classical formatting.17 The main theme is reiterated

countless times throughout the piece in not only the leading voice, but the accompanying

voices as well.

15
"Sonata Form," Wikipedia, accessed April 30, 2012, last modified April 28, 2012,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonata_form.
16
Review of Clarinet Concerto No. 3 in B Flat Major, composed by Karl (Carl) Philipp Stamitz,
Program Notes, accessed April 30, 2012, http://www.seiso.us/images/
61_winter_concert_program_notes.pdf.
17
ibid
 Rondo, the third movement, is very up tempo and lively.18 The whole piece is taken

over by sequential repetition. This movement completes the story that Stamitz is telling with

this concerto. If applied to life, Stamitz often towards the end refers back to the first

movement, even if only showing slight similarities as if to remind you of where you have been,

so that you can look at where you are and see how far you have come.

For me, the piece depicts the story of Stamitz life. In the beginning he had it all. His

father was well accomplished and was teaching him to love and appreciate music. When his

father died at such a young age, it was as though tragedy struck, bringing us to the second

movement. He couldn’t keep a job and though he did find a wife, she had an illness that caused

her to have seven miscarriages. It changed him, but things sometimes change for the better,

and then when he got to the end of his life things got harder and more technical, but he hadn’t

completely changed from who he was. There was still parts of the old him there, they were just

entwined with a new understanding. Toward the middle of the last movement, everything

stops and the clarinet plays a few unaccompanied notes as if almost to show him stopping to

take a breath. This is where he settled down in Jena. Things began to get really technical at this

point, displaying the hardships he went through when he was poor and had no way to express

his love for music.

18
ibid
Bibliography
"Carl Stamitz." Wikipedia. Accessed April 30, 2012. Last modified April 4, 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Stamitz.

Review of Clarinet Concerto No. 3 in B Flat Major, composed by Karl (Carl) Philipp

Stamitz. Program

Notes. Accessed April 30, 2012.

http://www.seiso.us/images/61_winter_concert_program_notes.pdf.

Smith, Gary. "Carl Phillip Stamitz." Mozartforum.com. Accessed April 30, 2012.

http://www.mozartforum.com/Contemporary%20Pages/Carl_Stamitz_Contemp.htm.

"Sonata Form." Wikipedia. Accessed April 30, 2012. Last modified April 28, 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonata_form.