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Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph  Willibald  (Ritter  von)  Gluck (German: [ˈkʁɪstɔf ˈvɪlɪbalt
ˈɡlʊk]; born on 2 July,[1] baptized 4 July 1714[2][3] – 15 November 1787) was
a "European" composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical
period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia,[4] both part of
the Holy Roman Empire, he gained prominence at the Habsburg court at
Vienna. There he brought about the practical reform of opera's
dramaturgical practices for which many intellectuals had been
campaigning. With a series of radical new works in the 1760s, among them
Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste, he broke the stranglehold that Metastasian
opera seria had enjoyed for much of the century. Gluck introduced more
drama by using simpler recitative and cutting the usually long da capo aria.
His later operas have half the length of a typical baroque opera.

The strong influence of French opera encouraged Gluck to move to Paris in

November 1773. Fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French (with Gluck playing his clavicord (1775),
rich chorus) into a unique synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the portrait by Joseph Duplessis
Parisian stage. Iphigénie en Tauride was a great success and is generally
acknowledged to be his finest work. Though he was extremely popular and
widely credited with bringing about a revolution in French opera, Gluck's mastery of the Parisian operatic scene was
never absolute, and after the poor reception of his Echo et Narcisse, he left Paris in disgust and returned to Vienna to
live out the remainder of his life.

Contents
Early years
Question of Gluck's native language
Italy
Travels: 1745–1752
Vienna
Operatic reforms
Paris
Last years and legacy
Works
List of Compositions
Operas
Ballets
Songs with piano
Arias and solo motets
Choral
Instrumental music
Notes
Sources
Further reading

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External links

Early years
Gluck's father, Alexander, was born in Neustadt an der Waldnaab, around
1703, at the age of twenty, serving Eugene of Savoy. In 1711 he settled
outside Berching as a forester and hunter in the service of the monastery
Seligenporten, Plankstetten Abbey and the mayors of Neumarkt in der
Oberpfalz.[5] About his mother, Maria Walburga, almost nothing is known,
but she probably grew up in the same area as she was named after Saint
Walburga, the sister of Saint Willibald, the first bishop of nearby Eichstätt.
Christoph Willibald was baptized on 4 July 1714 in the village of
Weidenwang. Because of changes after the War of Spanish Succession, his
father received no payment in 1715 and 1716.[6] When the case was settled
and his contract stopped the family left Erasbach end August 1717.
Alexander Gluck was appointed as head forester in Reichstadt, serving the
wealthy Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg, since 1708 separated
from her husband Gian Gastone de' Medici, the last duke of Tuscany.[7] On
1 of May 1722 the family moved to Kreibitz, serving Philip Kinsky of
Wchinitz and Tettau, seated in Kamnitz?[8][9] It was here, near Bohemian
Switzerland, where 8-year-old Willibald[10] received his first musical
Statue Gluck in Weidenwang
education. He learned to play the violin, cello and sang.

The Alsatian painter Johann Christian von Mannlich relates in his

memoirs, published in 1810, that Gluck told him about his early life in 1774. He quotes Gluck as saying:

"My father was forest master at N... in Bohemia and he planned that eventually I should succeed him. In
my homeland everyone is musical; music is taught in the schools, and in the tiniest villages the peasants
sing and play different instruments during High Mass in their churches. As I was passionate about the
art, I made rapid progress. I played several instruments and the schoolmaster, singling me out from the
other pupils, gave me lessons at his house when he was off duty. I no longer thought and dreamt of
anything but music; the art of forestry was neglected."[11]

In 1727 Count Kinsky was sent to London as envoy; in the fall the Glucks
moved to a forester's lodge near Eisenberg,[12] serving prince Philip
Hyacinth von Lobkowitz, known as a luteplayer. It is not sure if Willibald
was sent to the Jesuit college in Komotau, 20 km southwest.[13] A flight
from home is included in several contemporary accounts of Gluck's life. The
object of Gluck's travels was Prague, at a distance of 100 km, where he
arrived in 1728. According to himself, the journey lasted two weeks, earning
food and shelter by his singing or playing in villages and farmhouses. It is
Jezeří Castle
not sure Gluck was trained on the organ by Bohuslav Cernohorsky, who left
for Padua in 1731.[14] In the same year Gluck began studying logic and
mathematics, but, in his own words, also interested 'how studies were at that time conducted there'. Gluck frequently
toured the countryside and the outlying villages with other students. Eventually, he left Prague without taking a
degree.[15] It is assumed Gluck arrived in Vienna around the age of twenty, but vanishes from the historical record until
1737.[16]

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Question of Gluck's native language

According to the music historian Daniel Heartz, there has been
considerable controversy concerning Gluck's native language. Gluck's
protégé in Vienna, the Italian-born Antonio Salieri, wrote in his memoirs
(translated into German by Ignaz von Mosel), that "Gluck, whose native
tongue was Czech, expressed himself in German only with effort, and still
more so in French and Italian."[17] Salieri also mentions that Gluck mixed
several languages when speaking: German, Italian and French, like Salieri
himself.[18] The Swiss philosopher, theologian, and music theorist Jean- The Jesuit church in Komotau
Laurent Garcin (1733-1781), in 1770 complaining about the dull French
opera, praised the style of Bohemian musicians/composers like Gluck, and
the obviously Czech-speaking František Brixi.[19] Gluck's first biographer, Anton Schmid, wrote that Gluck grew up in a
German-speaking area, and that Gluck learned to speak Czech, but did not need it in Prague and in his later life.[20] The
family name Gluck (also spelled Gluckh, Klugh, Kluch, etc.) likely comes from the Czech word for boy (kluk).[21] Heartz
writes: "More devious manoeuvres have been attempted by Gluck's German biographers of this [the 20th] century,
while the French ones have, without exception, taken Salieri at his word. Arend objected that not a single letter written
in Czech can be found, to which Jacques-Gabriel Prod’homme countered that no letters written by Liszt in Hungarian
were known either, but does this make him a German?"[22] Hans Joachim Moser wanted a lyric work in Czech as
proof.[23] His classification as a Bohemian composer by Irene Brandenburg is controversial.[24]

Italy
According to several sources, Gluck seems to be invited by Antonio Maria Melzi, a Lombardian aristocrat. Melzi left
Vienna after marrying Maria Renata Theresa von Harrach zu Rohrau, who was a pupil of Gottlieb Muffat. In 1737
Gluck arrived in Milan, and introduced to Giovanni Battista Sammartini, who, according to Carpani, taught Gluck
"practical knowledge of all the instruments". Apparently, this relationship lasted for several years. Sammartini was not,
primarily, a composer of opera, his main output being of sacred music and symphonies, but Milan boasted a vibrant
opera scene, and Gluck soon formed an association with one of the city's up-and-coming opera houses, the Teatro
Regio Ducal. There his first opera, Artaserse was performed on 26 December 1741, dedicated to Otto Ferdinand von
Abensberg und Traun. Set to a libretto by Metastasio, the opera opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742. According to
one anecdote, the public would not accept Gluck's style until he inserted an aria in the lighter Milanese manner for
contrast.

Nevertheless, Gluck composed an opera for each of the next four Carnivals at Milan, with renowned castrato Giovanni
Carestini appearing in many of the performances, so the reaction to Artaserse is unlikely to have been completely
unfavourable. He also wrote operas for other cities of Northern Italy in between Carnival seasons, including Turin and
Venice, where his Ipermestra was given during November 1744 at the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo. Nearly all of
his operas in this period were set to Metastasio's texts, despite the poet's dislike for his style of composition.

Travels: 1745–1752
In 1745 Gluck accepted an invitation from Lord Middlesex to become house composer at London's King's Theatre,
probably travelling to England via Frankfurt and in the company of the violinist Ferdinand Philipp Joseph von
Lobkowitz, the son of Phillip Hyacinth. The timing was poor, as the Jacobite Rebellion had caused much panic in
London, and for most of the year, the King's Theatre was closed. Six trio sonatas were the immediate fruits of his time.
Gluck's two London operas, (La caduta de' giganti and Artamene) eventually performed in 1746, borrowed much from
his earlier works. Gluck performed works by Galuppi and Lampugnani, who both had worked in London. A more long-
term benefit was exposure to the music of Handel – whom he later credited as a great influence on his style – and the
naturalistic acting style of David Garrick, an English theatrical reformer. On March 25, shortly after the production of
Artamene, Handel and Gluck together gave a concert in the Haymarket Theatre consisting of works by Gluck and an
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organ concerto by Handel, played by the composer. On 14 April Gluck

played on a glassharmonica in Hickford Rooms, a concert hall in Brewer
Street, Soho.[25] Either Gluck or Lobkowitz bought a copy of Handel's
Messiah.[26] Handel's own experience of Gluck pleased that composer less:
Charles Burney reports Handel as saying that "he [Gluck] knows no more of
contrapunto, as my cook, Waltz".

The years 1747 and 1748 brought Gluck two highly prestigious
engagements. First came a commission to produce an opera for Pillnitz,
performed by Pietro Mingotti's troupe, to celebrate a royal double wedding
that would unite the ruling families of Bavaria and Saxony. Le nozze
d'Ercole e d'Ebe, a festa teatrale, borrowed heavily from earlier works, and
even from Gluck's teacher Sammartini. The success of this work brought
Gluck to the attention of the Viennese court, and, ahead of such a figure as
Johann Adolph Hasse, he was selected to set Metastasio's La Semiramide
Bust of composer Christoph riconosciuta to celebrate Maria Theresa's birthday. Vittoria Tesi took the
Willibard Gluck title role. On this occasion Gluck's music was completely original, but the
displeasure of the court poet, Metastasio, who called the opera
"archvandalian music," probably explains why Gluck did not remain long
in Vienna despite the work's enormous popular success (it was performed 27 times to great acclaim). For the
remainder of 1748 and 1749 Gluck travelled with Mingotti's troupe, contracting a venereal disease from the prima
donna and composing the opera La contesa de' numi for the court at Copenhagen, where he repeated his concert on
the glassharmonica.

In 1750 he abandoned Mingotti's group for another company established by

a former member of the Mingotti troupe, Giovanni Battista Locatelli. The
main effect of this was that Gluck returned to Prague on a more consistent
basis. For the Prague Carnival of 1750 Gluck composed a new opera, Ezio
(again set to one of Metastasio's works, with the manuscript located at the
Lobkowicz Palace). His Ipermestra was also performed in the same year.
The other major event of Gluck's stay in Prague was, on 15 September 1750,
his marriage to Maria Anna Bergin, aged 18 years old, the daughter of a rich
(but long-dead) Viennese merchant.[27] Gluck seems to have spent most of
1751 commuting between Prague and Vienna. Johann Franz Greipel - Il Parnaso
confuso by Christoph Willibald
The year 1752 brought another major commission to Gluck, when he was
Gluck (music) and Pietro Metastasio
asked to set Metastasio's La clemenza di Tito (the specific libretto was the (libretto). Performed on 24 January
composer's choice) for the name day celebrations of King Charles VII of 1765 by the children of Maria
Naples. The opera was performed on 4 November at the Teatro di San Theresia: Maria Amalia (Apollo),
Carlo, and the world-famous castrato Caffarelli took the role of Sextus. For Maria Elisabeth (Melpomene), Maria
Josepha (Euterpe), Maria Karolina
Caffarelli Gluck composed the famous, but notoriously difficult, aria "Se
(Erato), Leopold (Harpsichord)
mai senti spirarti sul volto," which provoked admiration and vituperation in
equally large measures. Gluck later reworked this aria for his Iphigénie en
Tauride. According to one account, the Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante claimed that his fellow composers
"should have been proud to have conceived and written [the aria]". Durante simultaneously declined to comment
whether or not it was within the boundaries of the accepted compositional rules of the time.

Vienna

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Gluck finally settled in Vienna, where he became Kapellmeister invited by

Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen. He wrote Le cinesi for a festival in
1754 and La danza for the birthday of the future Emperor Leopold II the
following year. After his opera Antigono was performed in Rome in
February, 1756, Gluck was made a Knight of the Golden Spur by Pope
Benedict XIV. From that time on, Gluck used the title "Ritter von Gluck" or
"Chevalier de Gluck".

Gluck turned his back on Italian opera seria and began to write opéra
comiques. In 1761 Gluck produced the groundbreaking ballet-pantomime
Don J uan in collaboration with the choreographer Gasparo Angiolini; the
more radical Jean-Georges Noverre was involved for the first time? The
climax of Gluck's opéra comique writing was La rencontre imprévue
(1764). By that time, Gluck created musical drama, based on Greek tragedy,
with more compassion, influencing the latest style Sturm und Drang.
Carmen Lavani in Le Cinesi (1973).
Under the teaching of Gluck, Marie Antoinette developed into a good
The work is very much in the vein of
musician. She learned to play the harp,[28] the harpsichord and the flute. the chinoiserie so popular in its time.
She sang during the family's evening gatherings, as she had a beautiful Le Cinesi reflects cultural overlap
voice.[29] All her brothers and sisters were involved in playing Gluck's between the Austrian court and the
music; on 24 January 1765 her brother Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor distant Chinese court. In Le Cinesi,
directed one of Gluck's compositions, Il Parnaso confuso. Metastasio gives a lesson on the
different forms of theatre: pastoral,
In Spring 1774, she took under her patronage her former music teacher and comedy and tragedy.
introduced him to the Paris public. For that purpose, she asked him to
compose a new opera Iphigénie en Aulide. "Mindful of the Querelle des
Bouffons between adherents of Italian and French opera, she asked the composer to set the libretto in French." To get
to her goals she was assisted by the singers Rosalie Levasseur and Sophie Arnould. Gluck had grove ways, demanded
strict adherence from the cast when rehearsing. Gluck told the bass-bariton Henri Larrivée to change his ways. The
soprano Arnould was replaced. He insisted that the chorus, too, had to act and become a part of the drama - that they
could no longer just stand there posing stiffly and without expression while singing their lines. Gluck was assisted by
Gossec, director of the Concert Spirituel. The Chevalier de Saint-Georges attended the first performance on 19 April;
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was delighted with Gluck melodic style. Marie Antoinette received a large share of the
credit.[30]

Operatic reforms
Gluck had long pondered the fundamental problem of form and content in opera. He thought both of the main Italian
operatic genres, opera buffa and opera seria, had strayed too far from what opera should really be and seemed
unnatural. Opera buffa had long lost its original freshness. Its jokes were threadbare and the repetition of the same
characters made them seem no more than stereotypes. In opera seria, the singing was devoted to superficial effects
and the content was uninteresting and fossilised. As in opera buffa, the singers were effectively absolute masters of the
stage and the music, decorating the vocal lines so floridly that audiences could no longer recognise the original melody.
Gluck wanted to return opera to its origins, focusing on human drama and passions and making words and music of
equal importance.

Francesco Algarotti's Essay on the Opera (1755) proved to be an inspiration for Gluck's reforms. He advocated that
opera seria had to return to basics and that all the various elements—music (both instrumental and vocal), ballet, and
staging—must be subservient to the overriding drama. Several composers of the period, including Niccolò Jommelli
and Tommaso Traetta, attempted to put these ideals into practice (and added more ballets).

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In Vienna, Gluck met like-minded figures in the operatic

world: Count Giacomo Durazzo, the head of the court theatre,
and one of the primary instigators of operatic reform in
Vienna ; the librettist Ranieri de' Calzabigi, who wanted to
attack the dominance of Metastasian opera seria; the
innovative choreographer Gasparo Angiolini; and the
London-trained castrato Gaetano Guadagni.

The first result of the new thinking was Gluck's reformist

ballet Don J uan, but a more important work was soon to
follow. On 5 October 1762, Orfeo ed Euridice was given its
first performance, on a libretto by Calzabigi, set to music by
Gluck. Gluck tried to achieve a nobel, Neo-Classical or
"beautiful simplicity". The dances were arranged by Angiolini
and the title role was taken by Guadagni, a catalytic force in
Gluck’s reform, renowned for his unorthodox acting and
singing style. Orfeo, which has never left the standard
repertory, showed the beginnings of Gluck's reforms. His idea
was to make the drama of the work more important than the
star singers who performed it, and to do away with dry
recitative (recitativo secco, accompanied only by continuo)
that broke up the action. In 1765 Melchior Grimm published Title-page of the first printed score
"Poème lyrique", an influential article for the Encyclopédie on
lyric and opera librettos.[31][32][33][34][35]

Gluck and Calzabigi followed Orfeo with Alceste (1767) and Paride ed Elena (1770), dedicated to his friend João Carlos
de Bragança (Duke de Lafões), an expert on music and mythology, pushing their innovations even further. Calzabigi
wrote a preface to Alceste, which Gluck signed, setting out the principles of their reforms:

far less repetition of text within an aria, no da capo arias

little or no opportunity for vocal improvisation or virtuosic displays of vocal agility or power
no long melismas
no ritornello's or shorter
a more predominantly syllabic setting of the text to make the words more intelligible
a blurring of the distinction between recitative and aria, declamatory and lyrical passages, with altogether less
recitative
accompanied rather than secco recitative
simpler, more flowing melodic lines
an overture that is linked by theme or mood to the ensuing action.
Joseph von Sonnenfels praised Gluck's tremendous imagination and the setting after attending a performance of
Alceste.[36] In 1769 Gluck performed his operas in Parma.
On 2 September 1771 Charles Burney visited Gluck, living in Sankt Marx; his face was pockmarked. Burney thought
Gluck’s preface, in which Gluck gives his “reasons for deviating from the beaten track,” important enough to give it
almost in its entirety.

"It was my intention to confine music to its true dramatic province, of assisting poetical expression, and
of augmenting the interest of the fable; without interrupting the action, or chilling it with useless and
superfluous ornaments; for the office of music, when joined to poetry, seemed to me, to resemble that of
colouring in a correct and well disposed design, where the lights and shades only seem to animate the
figures, without altering the out-line."[37]

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On 11 September Burney went to see Gluck to say goodbye; Gluck was still in bed, as he used to work in the night.

Paris
As his operas were not appreciated by Frederick the Great Gluck began to
focus on France.[38] Under the patronage of Marie Antoinette, who had
married the future French King Louis XVI in 1770, Gluck signed a contract
for six stage works with the management of the Paris Opéra. He began with
Iphigénie en Aulide. The premiere on 19 April 1774 sparked a huge
controversy, almost a war, such as had not been seen in the city since the
Querelle des Bouffons. Gluck's opponents brought the leading Italian
composer Niccolò Piccinni to Paris to demonstrate the superiority of
Neapolitan opera, and the "whole town" engaged in an argument between
"Gluckists" and "Piccinnists". The composers themselves took no part in the
polemics, but when Piccinni was asked to set the libretto to Roland, on
which Gluck was also known to be working, Gluck destroyed everything he

Gluck by Belliard had written for that opera up to that point.

On 2 August 1774 the French version of Orfeo ed Euridice was performed,

more Rameau-like,[39] with the title role transposed from the castrato to the tenor voice. This time Gluck's work was
better received by the Parisian public. In the same year, Gluck returned to Vienna, where he was appointed composer
to the imperial court (18 October 1774) after 20 years serving as Kapellmeister. Over the next few years, the now
internationally famous composer would travel back and forth between Paris and Vienna. He became friends with the
poet Klopstock in Karlsruhe. On 23 April 1776, the French version of Alceste was given.

During the rehearsals for Echo et Narcisse in September 1779, Gluck became dangerously ill.[40] Since the opera itself
was a complete failure, Gluck decided to return to Vienna within two weeks. In that city Die unvermuthete
Zusammenkunft or Die Pilgrime von Mekka (1772), a German version of La rencontre imprévue, had been performed
51 times.[41]

His musical heir in Paris was the composer Antonio Salieri, who had been Gluck's protégé since he arrived in Vienna in
1767, and later had made friends with Gluck. Gluck brought Salieri to Paris with him and bequeathed him the libretto
for Les Danaïdes by François-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet and baron de Tschudi. The opera was announced as a
collaboration between the two composers; however, after the overwhelming success of its premiere on 26 April 1784,
Gluck revealed to the prestigious J ournal de Paris that the work was wholly Salieri's.

Last years and legacy
In Vienna Gluck wrote a few more minor works, spending the Summer with
his wife in Perchtoldsdorf, famous for its wine (Heuriger). Gluck suffered
from melancholy and high blood pressure.[42] In 1781, he brought out a
German version of Iphigénie en Tauride. Gluck dominated the season's
proceedings with 32 performances.[43] In 23 March 1783 he seems to have
attended a concert by Mozart who played KV 455, variations on La
Rencontre imprévue by Gluck (Wq.32).[44]

On 15 November 1787, lunching with friends, Gluck suffered a heart

arrhythmia and died a few hours later, at the age of 73. Usually, it is Gluck lived and died in the
mentioned Gluck had several strokes and became paralyzed on his right Wiedener Hauptstraße Nr. 32 in
side. Robl, a family doctor, has doubts as Gluck was still able to play his Vienna
clavicord or piano in 1783.[45] At a formal commemoration on 8 April 1788,

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his friend, pupil and successor Salieri conducted Gluck's De profundis, and a requiem by the Italian composer Niccolò
Jommelli was given. His death opened the way for Mozart at court, according to H.C. Robbins Landon. Gluck was
buried in the Matzleinsdorfer Friedhof. Around 1890 his remains were transferred to the Zentralfriedhof; a tomb was
erected containing the original plaque.[46][47]

Although only half of his work survived after a fire in 1809,[48] Gluck's musical legacy includes approximately 35
complete full-length operas plus around a dozen shorter operas and operatic introductions, as well as numerous ballets
and instrumental works. His reforms influenced Mozart, particularly his opera Idomeneo (1781).[49] He left behind a
flourishing school of disciples in Paris, who would dominate the French stage throughout the Revolutionary and
Napoleonic period. As well as Salieri, they included Sacchini, Cherubini, Méhul and Spontini. His greatest French
admirer would be Hector Berlioz, whose epic Les Troyens may be seen as the culmination of the Gluckian tradition.
Though Gluck wrote no operas in German, his example influenced the German school of opera, particularly Carl Maria
von Weber and Richard Wagner, whose concept of music drama was not so far removed from Gluck's own.

Works

List of Compositions

Operas

Ballets

Songs with piano

Klopstocks Oden und Lieder beym Clavier zu Singen (Vienna, 1785; individually published during 70s)
Vaterlandslied ("Ich bin ein deutsches Mädchen")
Wir und sie ("Was that dir, Thor, dein Vaterland?")
Schlachtgesang ("Wie erscholl der Gang des lauten Heers")
Der J üngling ("Schweigend sahe der May") [earlier version published in Göttinger Musenalmanach, 1775]
Der Sommernacht ("Wenn der Schimmer von dem Monde") [different version in Musenalmanach, ed. J.H.
Voss (Hamburg, 1785)]
Die frühen Gräber ("Willkommen, o silberner Mond")
Die Neigung ("Nein, ich widerstrebe nicht mehr")
An den Tod ("O Anblick der Glanznacht") (Klopstock), in Musikalischer Blumenstrauss (Berlin, 1792)
"Minona lieblich und hold", duet, in Musikalische Blumenlese (Berlin, 1795)
Siegsgesang für Freie ("Laut, wie des Stroms donnernder Sturz") (Friedrich von Matthisson), in Musenalmanach,
ed. Voss (Hamburg, 1795)

A number of additional works in German, Italian and French are considered doubtful or
spurious.

Arias and solo motets

"Berenice, ove sei ... Ombra che pallida" (recitative and aria for Apostolo Zeno's Lucio vero)
Alma sedes, motet, 1v, orch (Paris, before 1779)
A number of additional Latin motets have been identified as parodies from Gluck's operas.

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Choral
De profundis clamavi for SATB and orchestra, performed 8 April 1788 in Vienna at Gluck's Requiem mass[50] and
published Paris, c. 1804.
Lost works include a Miserere (? Turin, 1744–5), a setting of Psalm viii, c. 1753–7, and a Grand choeur performed
in Vienna, 18 March 1762.
Doubtful: Hoch tut euch auf (Psalm xxiv), Hosianna gelobet sei der da kommt, Mit fröhlichem Munde

Instrumental music
9 symphonies are listed in Alfred Wotquenne's 1904 catalogue, another 12 mentioned in Grove include some that
are doubtful.
Six trio sonatas, (London, 1746)

No 1 in C major
No 2 in g minor
No 3 in A major
No 4 in B-flat major
No 5 in E-flat major
No 6 in F major
Two trio sonatas, after manuscripts

No 1 (No 7) in E major
No 2 (No 8) in F major
Flute Concerto in G major (a version for violin exists)

Notes
1. Although there is no documentary record with Gluck's birthdate at the time of his birth, he himself gave it as 2 July
1714 on an official document requested by Paris that he signed in 1785 in Vienna in the presence of the French
ambassador Emmanuel Marie Louis de Noailles. This has long been the commonly accepted date (Croll & Croll
2010, p. 12). Other sources giving this date include Einstein 1936, p. 3; Brown & Rushton 2001. The authenticity
of the 1785 document has been disputed by Robl 2015, pp. 141–147.
2. http://www.zeno.org/Musik/M/Schmid,+Anton/Christoph+Willibald+Ritter+von+Gluck/Beilagen/Beilage+A
3. Werner Robl (2013) Christoph Willibald Gluck wurde doch in Weidenwang geboren …, p. 11 (http://www.heimatfor
schung-regensburg.de/491/1/gluck1.pdf)
4. Brown & Rushton 2001, Introduction (http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/11301#S11
301) and "1. Ancestry, early life and training." (http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/11
301pg1#S11301.1); Heartz 1988, pp. 517–526. Sources differ concerning Gluck's nationality: Kuhn 2000, p. 272,
and Croll 1991, p. 308, said he was German, while Brown & Rushton 2001 and Howard 2003 (p. xi) gave
Bohemian; Hayes et al. 1992, p. 453, Bohemian-Austrian; and Harewood & Peattie 1997, p. 261, Austrian; G.
Banat, p. 144 recognized him as Bavarian.
5. Auf den Spuren der Familie Gluck in den Dörfern Weidenwang und Erasbach Fallstricke und Lösungen der
regionalen Gluck-Forschung by Dr. Werner Robl, Berching, Dezember 2015 (http://www.robl.de/gluck/gluckbuchkl
ein.pdf)
6. Auf den Spuren der Familie Gluck in den Dörfern Weidenwang und Erasbach Fallstricke und Lösungen der
regionalen Gluck-Forschung by Dr. Werner Robl, Berching, Dezember 2015 (http://www.robl.de/gluck/gluckbuchkl
ein.pdf)
7. During the Lauenburg war of succession (1690 - 1693) the Habsburg emperor banned Anna Maria Franziska of
Saxe-Lauenburg and her sister to Reichstadt and forced them to marry one of his generals in order to pay his
debts to them. Franziska refused to marry Eugene of Savoy, accepted the next candidate Gian Gastone, who
came to the conclusion Reichstadt was a boring place to live. She refused to follow him to Florence, being more
interested in horses and hunting than in him.
8. Wien Geschichte Wiki on Gluck (https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php?title=Christoph_Willibald_Gluck)
9. https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Gluck,_Christoph_Willibald_Ritter_von
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Willibald_Gluck 9/13
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10. Gluck himself preferred the more international Christoph and never used Willibald (Heartz 1988, p. 517, note 6).
11. Quoted and translated by Heartz 1988, p. 521, who cites and provides the French original: "Gluck à Paris en
1774", La Revue Musicale (1934), p. 260: "Mon père, nous disoit-il, étoit maître des eaux et forêts à N... en
Bohème; il m'avoit destiné à le remplacer un jour dans son poste. Dans mon pays tout le monde est musicien; on
enseigne la musique dans les écoles et dans les moindres villages les paysans chantent et jouent des différens
instrumens pendant la grand-messe dans leurs églises. Comme j'étois passionné pour cet art, je fis des progrès
rapides. Je jouois de plusieurs instrumens, et le maître, en me distinguant des autres écoliers, me donna des
leçons chez lui dans ses moments de loisir."
12. Schmid, Hans (1964), "Gluck, Christoph Willibald Ritter von" (https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0001/bsb0001
6322/images/index.html?seite=480), Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 6, Berlin: Duncker &
Humblot, pp. 466–469
13. Daniel Heartz relates that this assertion has been the subject of much debate. Gluck himself does not appear in
the list of students, although one of his younger brothers does. All instruction was in Latin, and Gluck's failure to
learn Latin, which he had to study later in life, argues against it (Heartz 1988, p. 520).
14. Gluck and the Czechs (http://www.classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=22654)
15. Brown & Rushton 2001, "1. Ancestry, early life and training." (http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/
grove/music/11301pg1#S11301.1)
16. Gluck by Patricia Howard (https://books.google.nl/books?id=YzQrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=Komotau
+Jesuit+Gluck&source=bl&ots=UMsIV5aTtd&sig=ypqDx3ccdYupNgW389FW2k0YLSY&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUK
EwiG1oGf-dvaAhUGmrQKHYRqDdMQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=Komotau%20Jesuit%20Gluck&f=false)
17. Quoted and translated by Heartz 1988, pp. 524–525, citing Ueber das Leben und die Werke des Anton Salieri,
K.k. Hofkapellmeister, I.F. Edlen von Mosel (Vienna, 1827), p. 93: "Gluck, dessen Muttersprache die böhmisch
war, drückte sich in der deutschen, und noch mehr in der französischen und italienischen, nur mit Mühe aus... ."
18. Ueber das Leben und die Werke des Anton Salieri, p. 93 (http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/displ
ay/bsb10600260_00097.html?contextType=scan&contextSort=score%2Cdescending&contextRows=10&contextSt
art=20&context=gluck)
19. Jean-Laurent Garcin 1772, p. 115 (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1087678/f145.image); reproduced by
Heartz 1988, p. 527; cited by Brown & Rushton 2001.
20. Anton Schmid (1854). Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck: Dessen Leben und tonkünstlerisches Wirken, p. 286-
287 (https://books.google.nl/books?id=yEIZBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA286), cited by Heartz 1988, p. 525.
21. Brown & Rushton 2001.
22. Heartz 1988, p. 525; Arend 1920, p. 20 (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015007877767?urlappend=%3Bseq=2
2); Prod'homme 1948, chapter one.
23. Moser 1940, pp. 20–21, cited by Heartz 1988, p. 525.
24. MITTEILUNGEN DER INTERNATIONALEN GLUCK-GESELLSCHAFT NR. 2 JULI 1997 (https://gluck-gesellschaf
t.org/assets/Uploads/2jul97.pdf)
25. http://www.glassarmonica.com/armonica/gluck.php
26. This copy was used around 1789 by Mozart for his adaption of this oratorio (K. 572).
27. Wien Geschichte Wiki on Gluck (https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php?title=Christoph_Willibald_Gluck)
28. Cronin 1989, p. 45
29. Cronin 1989, p. 46
30. Banat, Gabriel (2006). The Chevalier de Saint-Georges : virtuoso of the sword and the bow. Hillsdale, N.Y.:
Pendragon Press. ISBN 1-57647-109-8., p. 146-150.
31. Larousse Dictionnaire de la musique (http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/musdico/Grimm/167991)
32. Thomas, 1995, p. 148
33. Heyer (ed.) 2009, p. 248
34. Lippman 2009, p. 171
35. "Position Papers: Seminar 1. Music: universal, national, nationalistic" (http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/music/r
esearch/proj/esf/pos/sem1.aspx) Faculty of Arts and Humanities, King's College London
36. https://sammlungen.ulb.uni-muenster.de/um/content/pageview/2112199
37. Charles Burney on Gluck’s Reform of Opera Seria (1773) (https://www.cengage.com/music/book_content/049557
273X_wrightSimms/assets/ITOW/7273X_41_ITOW%20Gluck.pdf)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Willibald_Gluck 10/13
29/6/2018 Christoph Willibald Gluck - Wikipedia

38. Collected correspondence and papers (https://archive.org/stream/collectedcorresp00gluc#page/12/mode/2up)

39. From The “Reform” To Grand Opera. Brittanica.com (https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-music/From-the-reform-
to-grand-opera)
40. Werner Robl (2013) Christoph Willibald Gluck wurde doch in Weidenwang geboren …, p. 48 (http://www.heimatfor
schung-regensburg.de/491/1/gluck1.pdf)
41. The Mozart Compendium, p. ?
42. Werner Robl (2013) Christoph Willibald Gluck wurde doch in Weidenwang geboren …, p. 48 (http://www.heimatfor
schung-regensburg.de/491/1/gluck1.pdf)
43. Otto Mitchner (1970) Das alte Burgtheater als Opernbühne, p. 99
44. H.C. Robbins Landon (1990) The Mozart Compendium, p. ?
45. Werner Robl (2013) Christoph Willibald Gluck wurde doch in Weidenwang geboren …, p. 50-54 (http://www.heima
tforschung-regensburg.de/491/1/gluck1.pdf)
46. Brown & Rushton 2001, "7. Final years in Vienna." (http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/mu
sic/11301pg7#S11301.7).
47. https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Gluck,_Christoph_Willibald_Ritter_von Wikisource on Gluck
48. Daniela Philippi (2012) Zur Überlieferung der Werke Christoph Willibald Glucks in Böhmen, Mähren und Sachsen,
p. 75 (http://slub.qucosa.de/api/qucosa%3A2190/attachment/ATT-0/)
49. From The “Reform” To Grand Opera. Brittanica.com (https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-music/From-the-reform-
to-grand-opera)
50. Wiener Zeitung, 9 April 1788, p. 855 (http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=wrz&datum=17880409&seite=3&
zoom=33)

Sources
Arend, Max (1920). Gluck, eine Biographie. Berlin: Schuster & Loeffler. Copy (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.3901
5007877767?urlappend=%3Bseq=5) at HathiTrust.
Brown, Bruce Alan (1991). Gluck and the French Theatre in Vienna. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
ISBN 9780193164154.
Brown, Bruce Alan; Rushton, Julian (2001). "Gluck, Christoph Willibald, Ritter von" (http://www.oxfordmusiconline.
com/subscriber/article/grove/music/11301), Grove Music Online, edited by L. Macy (accessed 11 November
2007), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
Croll, Gerhard (1991). "Gluck, Christoph", vol. 5, pp. 308–10, in The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition.
Chicago. ISBN 9780852295533.
Croll, Gerhard; Croll, Renate (2010). Gluck. Sein Leben, Seine Musik (in German). Kassel; New York: Bärenreiter.
ISBN 9783761821664.
Einstein, Alfred (1936). Gluck, English translation by Eric Blom, 1964. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780070195301 (1972
paperback edition).
Garcin, Laurent (1772). Traité du mélo‑drame. Paris: Chez Vallat-la-Chapelle. OCLC 764008429 (https://www.worl
dcat.org/oclc/764008429). Copy (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1087678) at Gallica.
Harewood, The Earl of; Peattie, Antony, editors (1997). The New Kobbé's Opera Book. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons. London: Ebury Press. ISBN 0091814103.
Hayes, Jeremy; Brown, Bruce Allen; Loppert, Max; Dean, Winton (1992). "Gluck, Christoph Willibald", vol. 2, pp.
453–64, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan.
ISBN 9781561592289.
Heartz, Daniel (1988). "Coming of Age in Bohemia: The Musical Apprenticeships of Benda and Gluck", The
J ournal of Musicology, vol. 6, no. 4 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 510–27. JSTOR 763744 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/7637
44). Also available here (https://is.muni.cz/el/1421/jaro2012/VH_804a/Haertz_Bohemia_Benda_Gluck.pdf).
Howard, Patricia (2003). Christoph Willibald Gluck. A Guide to Research, Second Edition. New York and London:
Routledge. ISBN 9780415940726
Kuhn, Laura (2000). Baker's Dictionary of Opera. New York: Schirmer. ISBN 9780028653495.
Moser, Hans Joachim (1940). Christoph Willibald Gluck : die Leistung, der Mann, das Vermächtnis . Stuttgart:
Cotta. OCLC 10663283 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10663283).
Hedwig and E. H. Mueller von Asow, eds., The Collected Correspondence and Papers of Christoph Willibald
Gluck, trans. Stewart Thomson (London: Barrie and Rockcliff, 1962)
Prod’homme, Jacques-Gabriel (1948; revised 1985). Gluck. Paris: Société de'Éditions Françaises et
Internationales. OCLC 5652892 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5652892), 692250253 (https://www.worldcat.org/oc
lc/692250253). 1985 revision by Marie Fauquet: Paris: Fayard. ISBN 9782213015750.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Willibald_Gluck 11/13
29/6/2018 Christoph Willibald Gluck - Wikipedia

Robl, Werner (2015). "Auf den Spuren der Familie Gluck in den Dörfern Weidenwang und Erasbach Fallstricke
und Lösungen der regionalen Gluck-Forschung" (http://www.robl.de/gluck/gluckbuchklein.pdf). Berching
(December 2015).
Schmid, Anton (1854). Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck. Dessen Leben und tonkünstlerishes Wirken. Leipzig:
Friedrich Fleischer. Copy (https://books.google.com/books?id=fURAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false)
at Google Books.
This article incorporates material from the German version of Wikipedia

Further reading
Abert, A.A., Christoph Willibald Gluck (in German) (Munich, 1959) OCLC 5996991 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/
5996991)
Felix, W., Christoph Willibald Gluck (in German) (Leipzig, 1965) OCLC 16770241 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1
6770241)
Heartz, D., "From Garrick to Gluck: the Reform of Theatre and Opera in the Mid-Eighteenth Century", Proceedings
of the Royal Musical Association (http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/169210419-41341949/title~db=all~content=t
794546064~tab=issueslist), xciv (1967–8), pp. 111–27. ISSN 0080-4452 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jr
nl&q=n2:0080-4452).
Gibbons, W. Building the Operatic Museum: Eighteenth‑Century Opera in Fin‑de‑siècle Paris . University of
Rochester Press, 2013. ISSN 1071-9989 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:1071-9989)
Howard, P., Gluck and the Birth of Modern Opera. London, 1963 OCLC 699685 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/699
685)
Howard, P., "Orfeo and Orphée", The Musical Times , cviii (1967), pp. 892–94. ISSN 0027-4666 (https://www.world
cat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0027-4666)
Howard, P., "Gluck"s Two Alcestes: a Comparison", The Musical Times , cxv (1974), pp. 642–93. ISSN 0027-4666
(https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0027-4666)
Howard, P., "Armide: a Forgotten Masterpiece", Opera, xxx (1982), 572–76. ISSN 0030-3526 (https://www.worldca
t.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0030-3526)
Kerman, Joseph, Opera as Drama. New York, 1956, 2/1989. Revised 1989 edition ISBN 978-0-520-06274-0.
Noiray, M., Gluck's Methods of Composition in his French Operas "Iphigénie en Aulide", "Orphée", "Iphigénie en
Tauride". Dissertation, University of Oxford, 1979
Rushton, J., "Iphigénie en Tauride: the Operas of Gluck and Piccinni", Music & Letters , liii (1972), pp. 411–30.
ISSN 0027-4224 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0027-4224)
Rushton, J., "The Musician Gluck", The Musical Times , cxxvi (1987), pp. 615–18. ISSN 0027-4666 (https://www.w
orldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0027-4666)
Rushton, J., "'Royal Agamemnon': the Two Versions of Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide", Music and the French
Revolution, ed. M. Boyd (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 15–36. ISBN 978-0-521-08187-0.
Saloman, O. F., Aspects of Gluckian Operatic Thought and Practice in France (diss., Columbia University, 1970)
Sternfeld, F.W., "Expression and Revision in Gluck's Orfeo and Alceste, Essays Presented to Egon Wellesz"
(Oxford, 1966), pp. 114–29
Youell, A.L. (2012) "Opera at the Crossroads of Tradition and Reform in Gluck’s Vienna".[1] (https://academiccom
mons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:153519)
Amber

External links
Christoph Willibald Gluck (https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/235806) at Encyclopædia Britannica
Free scores by Christoph Willibald Gluck in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
Free scores by Christoph Willibald Gluck at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
Digital catalogue raisoné (http://www.gluck-gesamtausgabe.de/gwv/werkregister.html)
Gluck the Reformer. William Christie & John Eliot Gardiner feature in this documentary on the operas of Christoph
Willibald Gluck (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GHTzc9TF5M)

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