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{{short description|Techniques pioneered by the court orchestra of Mannheim}}
[[File:Ehrenhof des Mannheimer Schlosses.JPG|thumb|upright=1.4|The courtyard of the palace at Mannheim]]

'''Mannheim school''' refers to both the orchestral techniques pioneered by the court orchestra of the [[Elector Palatine]] in [[Mannheim]] in the latter half of the 18th century and the group of composers of the early classical period, who composed for the orchestra of Mannheim. The father of the school is considered to be the Bohemian composer [[Johann Stamitz]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Stamitz|title=Johann Stamitz|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=23 April 2017}}</ref> Besides him, two generations of composers wrote compositions for the orchestra, whose reputation was due to its excellent discipline and the individual skill of its players; the English traveler [[Charles Burney]] called it "an army of generals".<ref name=EB /> Their performance style included new dynamic elements, crescendos and diminuendos. Composers of the Mannheim school played an important role in the development of the classical period's genres and of the classical [[symphony]] form.<ref name=Collins>''Encyclopedia of Music'', William Collins Sons & Company, p. 340. 1976 {{ISBN|000434331X}}</ref>

==History==
The origins of the Mannheim school go back to the court of the [[Elector Palatine|Elector]] [[Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine|Charles III Philip]], who moved from [[Heidelberg]] to Mannheim in 1720, already employing an orchestra larger than those of any of the surrounding courts. The orchestra grew even further in the following decades and came to include some of the best virtuosi of the time. Under the guidance of [[Kapellmeister]] [[Carlo Grua]], the court hired such talents as [[Johann Stamitz]], who is generally considered to be the founder of the Mannheim school, in 1741/42, and he became its director in 1750.

The most notable of the revolutionary techniques of the Mannheim orchestra were its more independent treatment of the wind instruments, and its famous whole-orchestra ''crescendo''. Contemporary musicians mentioned the high level of the orchestra, among them, [[Leopold Mozart]] in 1763, and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|W. A. Mozart]] in his letters in 1777/78,<ref>Szabolcsi Bence – Tóth Aladár: ''Zenei lexikon'', Zeneműkiadó Vállalat, III. k. p. 535 (in Hungarian), 1965.</ref> and the English music historian [[Charles Burney]].<ref name=EB />

The role of the Mannheim school's composers in the evolution of the classical symphony is thus significant, although most scholars now agree that these changes occurred nearly simultaneously at various other centers, e.g. in Berlin and Vienna.<ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Mannheim-school|title=Mannheim school|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=22 April 2017}}</ref> Their influence on the evolution of the classical music period is due to the reputation of the ensemble at one hand, and on the other hand to the fact that the compositions of the Mannheim school's composers were published in Paris and London.

==Composers==
{{main|List of composers in the Mannheim school}}
Members of the Mannheim school included Johann Stamitz, [[Franz Xaver Richter]], [[Ignaz Holzbauer]], [[Carl Stamitz]], [[Franz Ignaz Beck]], [[Ignaz Fränzl]], and [[Christian Cannabich]], and it had a very direct influence on many major symphonists of the time, including [[Joseph Haydn]] and [[Leopold Hofmann]]. (Cannabich, one of the directors of the orchestra after the death of J. Stamitz, was also a good friend of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] from the latter's visit to Mannheim in 1777 onwards.)

Johann Stamitz visited Paris, and the Mannheim school had an influence on the [[Concert Spirituel]] Sacred Concert since 1754. When [[Joseph Legros]] took over the Parisian concert series Concert Spirituel, the relationship with the Mannheim School flourished and the music of Haydn became extremely popular in Paris. Prominent concerts in Paris during the 1770s were the [[Concert de la Loge Olympique]] (Concert of the Olympic Lodge) and the [[Concert des Amateurs]] (Concert for the Fans) which may have been part of the Concert Spirituel.<ref>Bernard Harrison "Haydn The Paris Symphonies" Cambridge University Press 1998 {{ISBN|0-521-47164-8}}</ref>

[[Claude-François-Marie Rigoley]] (the Comte d'Ogny) commissioned Joseph Haydn's six "[[Paris Symphonies]]", Nr. 82–87, for performance by Concert de la Loge Olympique. [[Chevalier de Saint-Georges]] conducted their world premiere. The influence of the Mannheim school is evident in these symphonies.

==Musical innovations==
{{Image frame|content=<score sound="1">
\relative c' {
   \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 120
   \time 2/2 \tempo "Allegro assai" \key g \minor
   \partial4 d4\p(
   g )  bes-. d-. g-.
   bes2 ( a4 )
}
</score>|width=300|caption=Mannheim Rocket at the beginning of the fourth movement of Mozart's [[Symphony No. 40 (Mozart)|Symphony No. 40]]}}
Composers of the Mannheim school introduced a number of novel ideas into the orchestral music of their day: sudden [[Dynamics (music)|crescendo]]s – the ''Mannheim Crescendo'' (a crescendo developed via the whole orchestra) – and [[Dynamics (music)#Gradual changes|diminuendos]]; crescendos with piano releases; the ''Mannheim Rocket'' (a swiftly ascending passage typically having a rising arpeggiated melodic line together with a crescendo);<ref name="EB" /> the ''Mannheim Roller'' (an extended crescendo passage typically having a rising melodic line over an [[ostinato]] bass line); the ''Mannheim Sigh'' (a mannered treatment of the [[Baroque music|Baroque]] practice of putting more weight on the first of two notes in descending pairs of slurred notes);<ref name="Classically Curious">{{cite web |last1=Buzacott |first1=Martin |title=Classically Curious: Rockets and sighs in Mannheim |url=https://www.abc.net.au/classic/read-and-watch/music-reads/classically-curious-the-mannheim-school/11545732 |website=[[ABC Classic]]|date=24 September 2019 |access-date=19 July 2020}}</ref> the ''Mannheim Birds'' (imitation of birds chirping in solo passages); the ''Mannheim Climax ''(a high-energy section of music where all instruments drop out except for the strings, usually preceded by a ''Mannheim Crescendo''); and the ''Grand Pause'' where the playing stops for a moment, resulting in total silence, only to restart vigorously. The ''Mannheim Rocket'' can be a rapidly ascending broken [[Chord (music)|chord]] from the lowest range of the [[Bass (sound)|bass]] line to the very top of the [[soprano]] line. Its influence can be found at the beginning of the fourth [[Movement (music)|movement]] of Mozart's Symphony No.&nbsp;40 and the start of ''[[Eine kleine Nachtmusik]]'', and the very start of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Piano Sonata No. 1 (Beethoven)|Piano Sonata No.&nbsp;1 in F&nbsp;minor, Op.&nbsp;2, No.&nbsp;1]].

Members of the Mannheim school abandoned quickly the praxis of the [[basso continuo]] in their compositions, which was almost universal in the Baroque era, and they used the minimum of [[Counterpoint|contrapuntal]] elaboration. One of their chief innovations is the four-movement symphony form, introducing the [[menuet]] as its third movement, which was originally one of the Baroque [[Suite (music)|suite]]'s movements. The Mannheim school played an important role in the development of the [[sonata form]], which is generally the form of the classical symphony's first movement. In their [[orchestration]] practice, the [[clarinet]] appears both as part of the woodwind section and as a solo instrument.<ref name=Collins />

==Recordings==
* ''Clarinet Concertos by The Mannheim School''<ref>[http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/a/anv37327a.php "Clarinet Concertos by The Mannheim School"], CD review by Raymond Tuttle at classical.net.</ref> Seven concertos by [[Carl Stamitz]]; works by [[Franz Danzi]], {{ill|Franz Anton Dimmler|de}}, [[Josef Fiala]], [[Frédéric Blasius]], [[Sébastien Demar]], {{Interlanguage link|Georg Friedrich Fuchs|de}}, [[Franz Tausch]], [[Peter Winter]]; Karl Schlechta, clarinet and basset horn; {{Interlanguage link|Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester|de}}, Jiří Malát, conductor. Arte Nova 74321 37327 2, 5 discs
* Many of the Mannheim symphonists have now been recorded on [[Chandos Records|Chandos]] and the [[Naxos (company)|Naxos]] labels in various numbers of volumes per composer. J. Stamitz 2 volumes, F. X. Richter 2 volumes, Carl Stamitz, Cannabich 2 volumes, etc.
* Conductor [[Simon Murphy (conductor)|Simon Murphy]] has made several recordings of the very first Mannheim School symphonies for [[Pentatone (record label)|Pentatone]], including early four part, string symphonies by J. Stamitz and F. X. Richter.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Paul Corneilson, ''Opera at Mannheim'', Ann Arbor, University of North Carolina, 1992, PhD diss. (UMI DA9309859)
* Romain Feist, ''L'École de Mannheim'', Genève, éditions Papillon, 2001, {{ISBN|2-940310-12-2}} (in French)
* [[Ludwig Finscher]], ''Die Mannheimer Hofkapelle im Zeitalter Carl Theodors'', Mannheim, Palatinum Verlag, 1992, {{ISBN|3-920671-02-3}} (in German)
* Eugene K. Wolf, "The Mannheim Court" in ''The Classical Era'', ed. by [[Neal Zaslaw]], Houndmills, McMillan, 1989, pp. 213–239 {{ISBN|978-1-349-20628-5}}
* Roland Würtz, ''Verzeichnis und Ikonographie der kurpfälzischen Hofmusiker zu Mannheim nebst darstellendem Theaterpersonal 1723–1803'', Wilhelmshaven, Heinrichshoffen, 1975, {{ISBN|3-7959-0167-7}} (in German)

==External links==
*[http://www.hoasm.org/XIIA/XIIAMannheimSchool.html History of the Mannheim school]
*Gerald Drebes, [https://web.archive.org/web/20150207142809/http://www.gerald-drebes.ch/page8.html "Die 'Mannheimer Schule' – ein Zentrum der vorklassischen Musik und Mozart"], 1992 {{in lang|de}}

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[[Category:Classical-period composers]]
[[Category:Classical period (music)]]
[[Category:Composition schools]]
[[Category:Music in Baden-Württemberg]]
[[Category:Culture in Mannheim]]
[[Category:History of Mannheim]]
[[Category:Electoral Palatinate]]
[[Category:Cultural history of Germany]]