Johann Traeg: Difference between revisions

'''Johann Traeg''' (20 January 1747 -– 5 September 1805)<ref>Life dates from ''New Grove''.</ref> was a German [[music copyist]] and publisher who flourished in [[Vienna]] in the late 18th century. He had business dealings with [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]], [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]], and his catalogs and advertisements are still employed today as a source for [[historical musicology]].

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:

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 [1732-18091732–1809].<ref>Jones, David Wyn (2011) ''Oxford Composer Companions: Haydn''. Oxford University Press, article "copyists". The article is by David Wyn Jones.</ref>

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 symphonySymphony in Beethoven's Vienna'' (2006); Cambridge University Press.</ref>

As of 9 April 1794,<ref name="ng" /> Traeg 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 name="Edge 2001:191">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"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.

===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 (2001:274-276274–276)</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>

a specialty of “old”"old" music (from a late eighteenth-century perspective, anything composed before roughly 1775), and he occasionally advertised works by such composers as [[Arcangelo Corelli|Corelli]] and [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]]. Traeg also seems to have been the only commercial copyist in Vienna who dealt to any significant degree in sacred music ... the wide variety of offerings in Traeg’sTraeg's catalogue of 1799 seem to suggest that he maintained close contacts with music publishers and dealers throughout Europe.<ref> name="Edge (2001:191)<"/ref>

Starting in about 1800, the music copying part of the business was deemphasized in favor of printed offerings.<ref>Edge (2001:757-758757–758)</ref> In his later years Traeg carried out his business in collaboration with his son, also named Johann Traeg (15 September 1781 -– after 1831); as of October 1803 the firm was named "Johann Traeg und Sohn". <ref name="Edge 2001:758">Edge (2001:758)</ref>

Traeg died on 5 September 1805; his fatal disease was described as “Brustwassersucht”{{lang|de|Brustwassersucht}} (pulmonary dropsy).<ref> name="Edge (2001:758)<"/ref> The family business continued to prosper under the son for some time but eventually withered against strong competition and folded in 1820.<ref name="ng" />

==His dealingsDealings with celebrated composers==

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 ana biographical volume on Haydn by Hugo Botstiber, see Edge (2001:782).</ref>

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.<ref>See Halliwell (1998:396). Halliwell raises the possibility (fn. 25) that the Traeg issue of the concertos may have been not a backup business arrangement with Mozart but rather simply pirated. <ref>Ruth Halliwell (1998) ''The Mozart familyFamily: four lives in a social context''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 396, fn. 25.</ref> But Edge makes the case that at least some of Traeg's Mozart offerings were in fact created from material acquired from Mozart himself, and thus presumably involved remuneration.

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 --– including many works previously not sold in Vienna --– suddenly have come from, except Mozart's estate? <ref>[[Cliff Eisen|Eisen, Cliff]] (1997) "Another look at the 'corrupt passage' in Mozart's G Minor Symphony, K550: Its sources, 'solution' and implications for the composition of the final trilogy." ''[[Early Music (journal)|Early Music]]'' 25 (3):373-380373–380. Quotation is from p. 376.</ref>

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 husband’shusband's chaotic finances, might quickly have decided to sell some of what seemed to her the less obviously important items from her husband’shusband's collection in order to raise ready cash. Although there is currently no direct evidence to support this conjecture, it is at least plausible."<ref>Edge (2001:862-863862–863)</ref>

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''. The quotation is from p. xiv.</ref> and when the appropriate occasion arose (late delivery by Traeg of some free offerings from Breitkopf & Härtel) Beethoven did not hesitate to make a pun out of the literal meaning of Traeg's name: "with Herr Traeg everything is slow" [German "traegträg"].<ref>For the letter see Alfred Christlieb Kalischer (2013 reprint) ''Beethoven's Letters''. Courier Corporation, p. 127.</ref>

{{reflistReflist}}

*[[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's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', online edition, article "Johann Traeg". The article is by Alexander Weinmann.

*[http://www.boxwoodandbrass.co.uk/boxwoodandbrassblogs/2017/1/20/recovering-a-lost-soundscape Images from the 1799 catalog], with discussion by Prof. David Wyn Jones.; From the "Boxwood and Brass" website: [http://www.boxwoodandbrass.co.uk/boxwoodandbrassblogs/2017/1/20/recovering-a-lost-soundscape].

[[Category:PeopleBusinesspeople from Vienna]]