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The Viola da Gamba Music of the Berlin School, 1732-1772

The name Berlin School refers to the group of composers who worked in the orchestra of Frederick the Great in Berlin. The first musicians were engaged in 1732, and the group expanded rapidly to its full strength of about 42 after Fredericks coronation in 1740. All of the most significant composers were engaged in the first 10 years. Most of these composers wrote music for the viola da gamba, an instrument which by 1740 was already becoming obsolete in most places. The gamba composers are C. P. E. Bach, F. Benda, C. H. Graun, J. G. Graun, J. G. Janitsch and C. Schaffrath. They were encouraged to write for the viola da gamba by the presence in the orchestra from 1741 of Ludwig Christian Hesse, one of the last great virtuosi of the viola da gamba. Hesse was taught by his father Ernst Christian Hesse, who studied the French style in Paris. Hesse junior brought the French style to Berlin, where the Berlin School composers produced a synthesis of French and Italian styles by applying French textural techniques, some of them specific to the viola da gamba, to Italian forms. This study shows how the unique situation which existed in Berlin produced the last major corpus of music written for the viola da gamba. This music was the result of close collaboration between Hesse and the Berlin School composers.