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{{Short description|German music copyist and publisher (1747–1805)}}
'''Johann Traeg''' (20 January 1747
==Life and career==
He was born in [[Gochsheim]] in [[Bavaria]], and had moved to Vienna by 1779.<ref name = "ng">''New Grove''</ref> He began his work simply by offering hand copies of musical works, working out of his home. This was possible even in the late 18th century, for as [[David Wyn Jones]] notes, Austria was at the time not very technologically advanced in this respect:
<blockquote>
Music-printing was becoming increasingly widespread in the 18th century ... In those areas of Europe like Britain, France, and northern Germany, where music-publishing was well established, printed copies of instrumental music became the principal means of dissemination ... On the other hand, in [other] parts of Europe, principally the Austrian monarchy, southern Germany, Italy, and the Iberian peninsula, ... copying of music by hand remained the principal means of dissemination for all music through Haydn's lifetime [
</blockquote>
As Jones as elsewhere pointed out, what set Traeg apart from most professional copyists was his assiduous compilation of what became a vast library of music from which he could offer copies for sale. Jones suggests that the several changes of residence recorded for Traeg in his advertisements may have been needed to house the expanding collection, and indeed Traeg eventually moved his family out to the suburbs and placed the collection in his own shop, whose opening was advertised 16 May 1789,<ref name="ng" /> and which became a destination for Viennese music-lovers for the rest of his life.<ref>Jones's discussion of the expanding library appears in his book ''The Symphony in Beethoven's Vienna'' (2006); Cambridge University Press.</ref>
As his business grew more successful, Traeg announced the opening (16 May 1789<ref name="ng" />) of his own shop where music could be purchased. As of 9 April 1794,<ref name="ng" /> he entered the publication business per se, with issue of printed copies of quartets by [[Joseph Leopold Eybler|Joseph Eybler]]; this business eventually flourished. Traeg retained his offerings of hand-copied music, however. Starting no later than 1789, he served as the Vienna agent of the important Leipzig publisher [[Breitkopf & Härtel]].<ref>Edge (2001:191)</ref>▼
▲
Austria had no copyright law until the 19th century<ref>See Schnopfhagen, Richard Dieter Heine, and Vladan Katanic (2011) ''Intellectual Property Law in Austria'', Kluwer Law International, p. 33). Edge (2001:152) remarks, "Musical copyright was not protected by law in the Habsburg monarchy at this time, and there was as yet no concept of “royalties".</ref> and Traeg was perfectly free to acquire copies from any source of whatever music he liked and offer hand copies of them for sale without compensation to the composer. Jones estimates, for instance, that Traeg at his peak had 500 works by [[Joseph Haydn]] on offer, none of which provided Haydn with any income.<ref>Cf. Edge's (2001:152) very similar remarks concerning Traeg and Mozart: "Needless to say, Mozart received no financial benefit from any of the manuscript copies sold by ... Traeg."</ref> Nevertheless, Haydn occasionally dealt with Traeg on a business basis, though there is evidence he was not pleased with the situation; see below.▼
▲Austria had no copyright law until the 19th century<ref>See Schnopfhagen, Richard Dieter Heine, and Vladan Katanic (2011) ''Intellectual Property Law in Austria'', Kluwer Law International, p. 33). Edge (2001:152) remarks, "Musical copyright was not protected by law in the Habsburg monarchy at this time, and there was as yet no concept of
===His catalogue=== ▼
In 1799, Traeg's firm created a catalog listing all the items that were available for purchase at the time, indicating which were obtainable in print and which in custom hand-copy. The catalog runs to 233 pages and by Edge's "conservative" estimate contains at least 10,000 musical works by hundreds of composers.<ref>Edge (2001:274-276)</ref> A supplement to the catalog was issued in 1804. The catalogs have been re-published in modern times as a resource for historical musicology, along with the set of advertisements that Traeg took out in the newspaper ''[[Wiener Zeitung]]''.<ref>See Weinmann (1973, 1981).</ref>▼
▲In 1799, Traeg's firm created a catalog listing all the items that were available for purchase at the time, indicating which were obtainable in print and which in custom hand-copy. The catalog runs to 233 pages and by Edge's "conservative" estimate contains at least 10,000 musical works by hundreds of composers.<ref>Edge (2001:
Summarizing what music was available from Traeg's business, Edge writes:
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<blockquote>
In contrast to [other copyists], Traeg specialized in instrumental music, including an extremely wide variety of arrangements. He also made
a specialty of
</blockquote>
===Later years===
Starting in about 1800, the music copying part of the business was deemphasized in favor of printed offerings.<ref>Edge (2001:
Traeg died on 5 September 1805; his fatal disease was described as
==
===Haydn===
Joseph Haydn mostly entrusted publication of his works to others, but in old age he did have Traeg publish his late [[Piano Trio No. 41 (Haydn)|piano trio, H. XVI:31]] (1803). Concerning the issue of Traeg and intellectual property, Jones narrates the following small act of revenge on Haydn's part, from the same year:
<blockquote>
The vast majority of [Traeg's] material was acquired independently of the composer. These were characteristics of contemporary musical life that Haydn would have accepted but in 1803 it led to a quarrel between composer and dealer. Traeg had acquired from a member of the [[Erdödy]] family several autograph scores of Haydn's operas, including ''[[L'isola disabitata]]''. [[Breitkopf & Härtel]] had expressed an interest in publishing the opera and Haydn borrowed the autograph score from Traeg; after a while Traeg asked that the score be either returned or purchased. Haydn did neither and gave the dealer a dressing down in front of several mutual acquaintances.<ref>Jones (2011). For the original version of the anecdote, which derives from a letter by [[Georg August Griesinger]] and was published in a biographical volume on Haydn by Hugo Botstiber, see Edge (2001:782).</ref>
</blockquote>
===Mozart===
Traeg periodically offered works by Mozart for sale in his advertisements in the ''Wiener Zeitung''.<ref>These may be viewed in English translation in Deutsch (1965){{incomplete short citation|date=January 2020}}; see entries for "Traeg" in Index; as well as in Edge (2001), who fills some gaps in the earlier record.</ref> He was the first (27 Sept. 1783) to offer copies of the Piano Concertos [[Piano Concerto No. 11 (Mozart)|K. 413]], [[Piano Concerto No. 12 (Mozart)|K. 414]], and [[Piano Concerto No. 13 (Mozart)|K. 415]] after the Paris publisher Jean Georges Sieber had turned them down.
<blockquote>
[[Cliff Eisen]] suggests that Traeg may have been involved in important dealings with [[Constanze Mozart]] shortly after the composer died (5 December 1791). The widow was faced with a very serious financial situation in light of having two children, the debts her husband left, and (at first) no pension income.<ref>The documents from Constanze's struggle (ultimately successful) to receive a pension from the Emperor are recorded in Deutsch (1965), entries for 1791-1792.</ref> ▼
Traeg was ... in possession of an exceptionally wide variety of works by Mozart, and he was often able to advertise them in the ''Wiener Zeitung'' at quite an early date, often not long after the composer finished them or received them from [his childhood home in] [[Salzburg]]. Under these circumstances, it seems more than plausible that he acquired them directly from the composer.<ref>Edge (2001:786)</ref>
</blockquote>
▲[[Cliff Eisen]] suggests that following Mozart's death (5 December 1791), Traeg may have been involved in important dealings with his widow [[Constanze Mozart|Constanze]].
<blockquote>
There is good reason to think that Traeg might have acquired [manuscripts of Mozart's compositions] from Constanze, shortly after Mozart's death in December 1791. As early as April 1792 Traeg offered for sale copies of 14 Mozart symphonies; this number was augmented to 15 in August, at which time Traeg also offered an enormous collection of Masses, concertos for piano, violin and horn, cassations, partitas for winds, a horn quintet, the duos for violin and viola, more than 30 dances, and 'various' arias, in score, with Italian texts. Where could such a large selection
</blockquote>
Edge spells out what may have been happening, and partially endorses Eisen's hypothesis: "One can easily imagine that Constanze, suddenly faced with the prospect of supporting herself and two children while attempting to sort out her deceased
Later on, Constanze's dealings with Traeg were less substantial; once her financial situation had become more secure she dealt more often with out-of-town publishers such as [[Breitkopf & Härtel]] and [[Johann Anton André|Johann André]]. However, Traeg did issue the first edition (1798) of the Mozart's [[String Quintet No. 1 (Mozart)|String Quintet K. 174]] (1773), as well a four-hand piano edition of the Fantasia for Mechanical Organ K. 608.<ref>Source for this paragraph: Keefe (2007).</ref>
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*Variations for cello and piano on Mozart's "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" from ''The Magic Flute'', Op. 66 (1796)
According to {{ill|Alfred Kalischer|de|Alfred Christlieb Kalischer|lt=Kalischer}}, Beethoven was an inveterate punster,<ref>Kalischer writes, "Of puns and various plays upon words there is an abundance, one might say superabundance." {{ill|Alfred Kalischer|de|Alfred Christlieb Kalischer|lt=Kalischer, Alfred Christlieb}} (1909) ''Beethoven's Letters: A Critical Edition : with Explanatory Notes, Volume 1''.
==Notes==
{{
==References==
*Edge, Dexter (2001) "Mozart's Viennese copyists"; Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, distributed by ProQuest.
*[[David Wyn Jones|Jones, David Wyn]], ed. (2011) ''Oxford Composer Companions: Haydn''. Article "Johann Traeg". The article is by David Wyn Jones.
*[[Simon P. Keefe|Keefe, Simon]] (2007) "Johann Traeg", article in ''The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia'', ed. by [[Cliff Eisen]] and Simon Keefe. Cambridge University Press.
*''New Grove'' = ''[[The New Grove
*Weinmann, Alexander (1973) ''Johann Traeg: Die Musikalienverszeichnisse von 1799 und 1804 (Handschrift und Sortiment)'', Beiträge zur Geschichte des Alt-Wiener Musikverlages, vol. 2/17, Vienna. [Johann Traeg: The musical catalogs of 1799 and 1804 (manuscripts and goods on offer), Contributions to the history of music publication in historical Vienna.]
*Weinmann, Alexander (1981) ''Die Anzeigen des Kopiaturbetriebs Johann Traeg in der Wiener Zeitung zwischen 1782 und 1805.'' Wiener Archivstudien, vol. 6, Vienna. [The advertisements of the copying business of Johann Traeg in the Wiener Zeitung between 1782 and 1805].
==External links==
*[http://www.boxwoodandbrass.co.uk/boxwoodandbrassblogs/2017/1/20/recovering-a-lost-soundscape Images from the 1799 catalog], with discussion by
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Traeg, Johann}}
[[Category:1747 births]]
[[Category:1805 deaths]]
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[[Category:Sheet music publishers (people)]]
[[Category:Music copyists]]
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