page_title: Franz Xaver Richter
section_title: Early Symphony
hierarchical_section_title: Franz Xaver Richter / Biography / Early Symphony
caption_attribution_description: English: The Fugal Subject in Richter's Symphony no. 29 in G minor
context_page_description: Franz Xaver Richter, known as François Xavier Richter in France was an Austro-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theoretician who spent most of his life first in Austria and later in Mannheim and in Strasbourg, where he was music director of the cathedral. From 1783 on Haydn’s favourite pupil Ignaz Pleyel was his deputy at the cathedral.
  The most traditional of the first generation composers of the so-called Mannheim school, he was highly regarded in his day as a contrapuntist. As a composer he was equally at home in the concerto and the strict church style. Mozart heard a mass by Richter on his journey back from Paris to Salzburg in 1778 and called it charmingly written. Richter, as a contemporary engraving clearly shows, must have been one of the first conductors to actually have conducted with a music sheet roll in his hand.
  Richter wrote chiefly symphonies, concertos for woodwinds, trumpet, chamber and church music, his masses receiving special praise. He was a man of a transitional period, and his symphonies in a way constitute one of the missing links between the generation of Bach and Handel and the Viennese classic.
context_section_description: The Adagio and Fugue in G minor for Strings (1760) is one of Franz Xaver Richter's symphonies, which features the learned style in 18th century orchestral works. His experience in churches also contributes to his sophisticated contrapuntal style in his orchestral works. The first movement begins with the tonic key, G minor, entitled Adagio and fugue, and it distinguishes from later sonata form by Haydn and Mozart. The opening material is quite different from the primary theme in symphonies by Mozart and Haydn. First, the opening material is not highly melodically recognizable and easy to grasp for the audience. One could call it primary key area instead of the primary theme. It is in highly learned style with a lot of sequential passages. The music progresses until m. 23 when it reaches a structural V chord in the first section after an augmented sixth chord (m. 25) is emphasized (Example A). Again the music is still in the tonic key area when the fugue begins. The fugue subject is in g minor, and the answer is in d minor. The music goes to B-flat major for the first time in m. 60 after a V–I motion. The B-flat major passage starts another sequence until m. 67. The third tonal area in this piece is C major, starting after a French augmented sixth chord resolving to a dominant chord (G-B-D) in m. 120. A cadence on C major is elided in m. 217, the bass progresses to a D-G motion, sitting on the tonic key G minor in m. 222. Overall, the first movement includes two sections, Adagio (which can be seen as an introduction to fugue) and a fugue (in fugue form), which is very different from the sonata-allegro form composed by Mozart and Haydn. As Jochen Reutter acclaims, Franz Xaver Richter's compositional idiom "changed from a late Baroque sound to a tonal language which reached the threshold of the Classical style. He was influenced by the 18th-century learned style and he adapted the Mannheim symphonic style with his own differentiated instrumentation." Also according to Reutter, "his [Richter's] works from this period include such conservative traits as fugal techniques, Baroque sequences and the frequent use of minor tonality." As shown in this work Adagio and Fugue in G minor for Strings, the first movement is almost entirely based on various kinds of sequences and fugal style. This early symphony makes an intriguing subject for a scholarly study of early symphonies.
caption: Example B
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