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‘FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS’: VIEWING THE LIFE AND CAREER OF JOHANN FRIEDRICH FASCH (1688–1758) THROUGH THE LENS OF FINANCE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 July 2011
Abstract
This article traces the financial profile of Johann Friedrich Fasch, Kapellmeister of Anhalt-Zerbst from 1722 to 1758, in order to gain a better understanding of how an early eighteenth-century German court musician tried to manage his money. Factors that contributed to his debt problems ranged from personal choices, matters of faith and the need to maintain a certain standard of living as director of music, to the varying degrees of financial support offered by his employers. The period during which he first began incurring debts – his student days in Leipzig – will be examined prior to viewing his professional career path through the lens of finance, beginning with Fasch's first official appointment in Gera in 1715 and ending with his death in Zerbst in 1758. Finally, understanding the extent to which Fasch's personal debts affected his productivity as a composer means not only dealing with the ‘Music-Wechsel’ that he organized and the contents of the court's ‘Concert-Stube’ music inventory from 1743, but also considering Fasch's overall work ethic and integrity as a musician.
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References
1 See Petzoldt, Richard, ‘The Economic Conditions of the 18th-Century Musician’, in The Social Status of the Professional Musician from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century, ed. Salmen, Walter (New York: Pendragon, 1983), 161–188Google Scholar , and Owens, Samantha and Reul, Barbara M., “Das gantze Corpus derer … musicirenden Personen”: An Introduction to German Hofkapellen', in Music at German Courts, 1715–1760: Changing Artistic Priorities, ed. Owens, Samantha, Reul, Barbara M. and Stockigt, Janice B. (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2011), 1–14Google Scholar . Salaries varied greatly from court to court; for overviews of annual wages earned by musicians serving at the courts of Saxony-Dresden, the Saxon court of the Kingdom of Poland and the court of Brandenburg-Prussia see the tables that accompany the respective chapters in Music at German Courts.
2 See Zohn, Steven, ‘Telemann in the Marketplace: The Composer as Self-Publisher’, Journal of the American Musicological Society 58/2 (2005), 336CrossRefGoogle Scholar , and Ursula Kramer, “The Court of Hesse-Darmstadt”, in Music at German Courts, ed. Owens, Reul and Stockigt, 350. The court used taxes to pay out salaries and would defer the latter if necessary.
3 See Wolff, Christoph, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (New York: Norton, 2000), 540Google Scholar . According to Fett, Armin, ‘Musikgeschichte der Stadt Gotha von den Anfängen bis zum Tode Gottfried Heinrich Stölzels’ (PhD dissertation, Universität Freiburg im Breisgau, 1951)Google Scholar , 239ff, Stölzel's salary throughout his tenure ranged from 280 florins to over 500 florins, plus various payments in kind (‘Deputate’). The author acknowledges Bert Siegmund's advice on this matter.
4 Wäschke, Hermann, ‘Die Zerbster Hofkapelle unter Fasch’, Zerbster Jahrbuch 2 (1906), 55Google Scholar .
5 Richter, Maik, ‘Die Köthener Hofmusik zur Zeit des Fürsten August Ludwig’, in Musik an der Zerbster Residenz (Fasch-Studien 10), ed. Internationale Fasch-Gesellschaft (Beeskow: Ortus, 2008), 178–179Google Scholar , table 4. Fasch received between six and ten Thaler per composition.
6 Andreas Glöckner, ‘Johann Sebastian Bach und die Universität Leipzig: Neue Quellen (Teil 1)’, Bach-Jahrbuch 94 (2008), 173. Fasch's poverty may have been a direct result of his father's early death; see Fasch's autobiographical essay ‘Lebenslauf des Hochfürstl. Anhalt-Zerbstischen Capellmeisters, Herrn Johann Friedrich Fasch’, in Historisch-Kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik 3, ed. Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (Berlin, 1757), 124–129Google Scholar .
7 Johann Friedrich Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 125. All translation are mine unless otherwise noted.
8 Glöckner, ‘Johann Sebastian Bach und die Universität Leipzig’, 171. The ‘first’ Collegium musicum had supposedly been founded by Telemann in 1702, the year after he became director of the Leipzig opera house and two years prior to his being promoted to organist and music director at the Neue Kirche in Leipzig. For an overview of which works were performed at the Leipzig opera house see Maul, Michael, Barockoper in Leipzig (1693–1720) (Freiburg im Breisgau: Rombach, 2009)Google Scholar .
9 Hiller, Johann Adam, ‘Fasch (Johann Friedrich)’, in Lebensbeschreibungen berühmter Musikgelehrten und Tonkünstler neuerer Zeit 1 (Leipzig, 1784), 63Google Scholar . Hiller suspected that problems of space and ‘merkantilische Speculationen, die in Leipzig zu Hause sind’ (mercantile speculations, which are common in Leipzig) had urged Fasch to move the ensemble from his small flat into the public eye.
10 Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 126, and Hiller, ‘Fasch’, 61. It is unclear which sources – in addition to Fasch's autobiographical essay from 1757 – Hiller had consulted for his report in 1784, as he mentions not only Pipping, like Fasch, but also Rivinius.
11 This section is based on Glöckner, ‘Johann Sebastian Bach’, 170–174, from which all quotations are taken.
12 Some could have been bought with money earned collectively by the Collegium musicum, since large string instruments, for example, would have been expensive for cash-strapped students to purchase.
13 Glöckner, ‘Johann Sebastian Bach’, 173–174, and Eckhardt, Wolfgang, ‘Johann Friedrich Faschs Bewerbungsschreiben für Chemnitz 1711’, in Das Wirken des Anhalt-Zerbster Hofkapellmeisters Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758) für auswärtige Hofkapellen (Fasch-Studien 8), ed. Internationale Fasch-Gesellschaft (Dessau: Anhalt, 2001), 111–125Google Scholar .
14 Fasch had paid twelve Groschen in 1703 when pre-registering at the University of Leipzig, followed by one Reichsthaler in the summer of 1708 when he began his studies; see Gottschalk, Werner, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758): Ein Beitrag zur Genealogie des Komponisten und Zerbster Hofkapellmeisters’, Ekkehard Familien- und regionalgeschichtliche Forschungen 12/2 (2005), 36Google Scholar .
15 Friedrich Fasch, Johann, letter to von Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig, 20 February 1732, in Dokumentation zu Johann Friedrich Fasch 1688–1758: Georg Philipp Telemann und seine zeitgenössischen Kollegen, ed. Thom, Eitelfriedrich (Michaelstein: Kultur- und Forschungsstätte Michaelstein, 1981), 37Google Scholar .
16 The author acknowledges Michael Maul's advice on this matter.
17 It is not known how much money Fasch was paid for his Naumburg activities.
18 Sources that would confirm that he graduated from university seem not to be extant.
19 Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 126–127.
20 Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 127: ‘ohne das geringste von mir zu nehmen’.
21 See Ursula Kramer, ‘The Court of Hesse-Darmstadt’, in Music at German Courts, ed. Owens, Reul and Stockigt, 340. Fasch copied out parts for a sacred cantata by Graupner, intended for performance in February 1714.
22 Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 127. Fasch refers to the courts of Zeitz, Gera, Gotha, Cassel, Mühlhausen, Marburg, Giessen and Frankfurt am Main, which he visited on his way to Darmstadt, followed by stays in Ansbach, Nuremberg and Bayreuth. However, he fails to provide a specific timeline beyond ‘etliche’ (a number of) and ‘viele Wochen’ (several weeks) or ‘bis in das Frühjahr’ (until the spring). Archival sources that pinpoint exact times of arrival and departure or document Fasch's activities at these courts seem not to have survived. See also Pegah, Rashid-S., ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch und das Musikleben an den Residenzen in Kassel, Ansbach, Oettingen und Bayreuth, 1714–1716’, in Musik an der Zerbster Residenz, 81–90Google Scholar .
23 Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 127, and Hiller, ‘Fasch’, 63.
24 Gottschalk, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch’, 41.
25 See Jung, Hans-Rudolf, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch in Greiz’, in Dokumentation zu Johann Friedrich Fasch, ed Thom, 22–25Google Scholar .
26 Pfeiffer, Rüdiger, Johann Friedrich Fasch 1688–1758: Leben und Werk (Wilhelmshaven: Noetzel, 1994), 32Google Scholar . For Siehe da, eine Hütte Gottes Fasch received ‘4 fl 16 Gl’. See also page 26: the ‘Cathallogium des Herren General-Major Frey-Herrn [Friedrich Otto] von [Wittenhorst-]Sonsfeldt’ (1678–1755), a Prussian general, lists four trio sonatas and one solo sonata by Fasch for the time around 1720.
27 Rüdiger Pfeiffer, ed., Johann Friedrich Fasch 1688–1758: Briefe (Auswahl) (Michaelstein: Kultur- und Forschungsstätte Michaelstein, 1988), unpaginated. This letter is erroneously identified as dating from 28 August 1721.
28 Hans Rudolf Jung, Geschichte des Musiklebens der Stadt Greiz, 1. Teil: Von den Anfängen bis zum Stadtbrand 1802 (Greiz, 1963), 84. See also Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 128.
29 Wagner, Undine, ‘Das Wirken von Johann Friedrich Fasch für Prag’, in Das Wirken des Anhalt-Zerbster Hofkapellmeisters, 126–145Google Scholar .
30 Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 128. See also Michael Talbot, ‘Wenzel von Morzin as Patron of Antonio Vivaldi’, in Johann Friedrich Fasch und der italienische Stil (Fasch-Studien 9), ed. Internationale Fasch-Gesellschaft (Dessau: Anhalt, 2003), 68. Talbot states: ‘In all probability … [Fasch] served as Kapellmeister in the full sense, directing Morzin's orchestra (which according to Vivaldi's account was an excellent one) and contributing compositions of his own to the repertoire’.
31 Siegmund, Bert, ‘The Court of Saxony-Gotha’, in Music at German Courts, ed. Owens, , Reul, and Stockigt, , 204–211Google Scholar .
32 Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 128.
33 The development of the Anhalt-Zerbst Hofkapelle before, during and after Fasch's tenure as Kapellmeister is discussed in Reul, Barbara M., ‘The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, in Music at German Courts, ed. Owens, , Reul, and Stockigt, , 259–286Google Scholar , while employment practices are examined in Barbara M. Reul, ‘Court Musicians at Anhalt-Zerbst: New Sources for Eighteenth-Century Employment Practices’, in Haydn and His Contemporaries: Selected Papers from the Joint Conference of the Society for Eighteenth-Century Music and the Haydn Society of North America, Claremont, CA, 29 February – 2 March 2008, ed. Sterling Murray (Ann Arbor: Steglein, forthcoming).
34 Reul, Barbara M., ‘Musical Life at the Court of Anhalt-Zerbst: An Examination of Unknown Primary Sources at the Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Abteilung Dessau’, in Musik an der Zerbster Residenz, 197Google Scholar .
35 Reul, Barbara M., ‘“O vergnügte Stunden …”: Ein unbekannter Textdruck zu einer Geburtstagskantate J. S. Bachs für den Fürsten Johann August von Anhalt-Zerbst’, Bach-Jahrbuch 85 (1999), 7–17Google Scholar .
36 Fasch, ‘Lebenslauf’, 128–129.
37 From 1746 onward Fasch also composed music annually to mark the occasion of Catherine's birthday. See Reul, Barbara M., ‘Catherine the Great and the Role of Celebratory Music at the Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, Eighteenth-Century Music 3/2 (2006), 269–309CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
38 Two employment contracts for Kapelle members, both from 1719, are extant; see Reul, ‘Court Musicians at Anhalt-Zerbst’. It is unclear whether successful applicants would have been able to rely on their future employer to assist with costs incurred prior to their official appointments or were to cover these themselves. Johann Stamitz, for instance, who in 1748 considered leaving Mannheim for Stuttgart, pointed out that he would ‘suffer [enormous] financial damages (because of the house furniture which here [at Mannheim] must be sold at a loss, but there [in Stuttgart] built anew)’ and that he would have to pay for ‘the journey, rendered more difficult because of my family’ at his own expense. Cited by Wolf, Eugene, ‘Driving a Hard Bargain: Johann Stamitz's Correspondence with Stuttgart (1748)’, in Festschrift Christoph-Hellmuth Mahling zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Beer, Axel, Pfarr, Kristina and Ruf, Wolfgang (Tutzing: Schneider, 1997), volume 2, 1553–1571Google Scholar .
39 Reul, ‘The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, 265–277.
40 It is likely that Fasch had been given a house in the Schloßfreiheit area of town, which is adjacent to the palace grounds and boasts a number of Kavaliershäuser in which higher-ranking court officials resided. See also a primary source extant at the Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Abteilung Dessau (hereafter: D-LHASA, DE), Z 99, Amt Zerbst, ‘Einwohner- und Musterungslisten’, volume 8. It indicates that in 1753 Fasch did not own a house in any of the five town quarters.
41 These were Regina Rosina Fasch (1690–?) and Sophia Fasch (1692–1726); see Gottschalk, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch’, 41. Since they shared the same first name, Fasch's sister Sophia may have been godmother to her niece and therefore obliged to help raise her. Was she perhaps also the unnamed sister Fasch mentioned in a letter to Hermann August Francke on 21 September 1726? See Sawtschenko, Elena, ‘Briefe von Johann Friedrich Fasch im Archiv der Frankeschen Stiftungen Halle’, in Das Wirken des Anhalt-Zerbster Hofkapellmeisters, 104–105Google Scholar .
42 Schmidt, Bettina, ‘Musikpflege am Zerbster Hof um die Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts’, in Johann Friedrich Fasch und sein Wirken für Zerbst (Fasch-Studien 6), ed. Internationale Fasch-Gesellschaft (Dessau: Anhalt, 1997), 323–330Google Scholar . Interestingly, Kapelle members' salaries rose only by 35.5 per cent, compared to 94.25 per cent for court servants in general. See also Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach, Appendix 3, ‘Money and Living Costs in Bach's Time’, 539–541, and Owens and Reul, “Das gantze Corpus derer … musicirenden Personen”, 1–14.
43 What or who had caused this aversion to classroom instruction is unknown, but Fasch was still opposed to teaching at a school in 1755, when he applied for the position of cantor in Freiberg/Saxony.
44 Reul, ‘The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, 261–271.
45 At home, Fasch also received a fee of up to twenty Thaler for providing funeral music each time a member of the princely family died; see Reul, ‘The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, 272–273.
46 See <http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postkutsche> (19 August 2010). In 1700 the average speed of mail coaches was two kilometres an hour; by 1850 it had reached ten kilometres an hour. What kind of transport system had been available to citizens of Anhalt-Zerbst during the first half of the eighteenth century (regular or express coach, or both), and whether Fasch possibly owned, rented or borrowed a carriage and horses for travel purposes, cannot be determined. For a general overview see Beyrer, Klaus, ‘The Mail-Coach Revolution: Landmarks in Travel in Germany between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, German History 24/3 (2006), 375–386CrossRefGoogle Scholar . See also H. Zeidler, ‘104. Verzeichniß der in hochfürstlicher Hauptstadt Zerbst abgehenden Landkutschen im Jahre 1800’, Alt-Zerbst (1904), unpaginated. According to this source, at the turn of the nineteenth century, carriages left Zerbst every Friday for Halle/Saale (via Köthen), Magdeburg and Wittenberg (via Coswig), and on Thursdays for Leipzig (via Delitzsch).
47 Reul, ‘Court Musicians at Anhalt-Zerbst’.
48 See Wagner, ‘Das Wirken von Johann Friedrich Fasch für Prag’, 127, and Manfred Fechner, ‘Zur Datierung von Johann Friedrich Faschs “Dresdner” Vesperkompositionen und Messen – Annotation’, 57–58, both in Das Wirken des Anhalt-Zerbster Hofkapellmeisters. Bohemian watermarks in paper used by Fasch for liturgical compositions that are transmitted in Dresden hint at the possibility that he may have already written them while in Prague during the mid-1720s. Regarding monetary units in use at the time see Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach, 539.
49 D-LHASA, DE, Z 73, Kammerrechnungen Köthen 1724/25, Tit. 5, no. 307.
50 Sawtschenko, ‘Briefe von Johann Friedrich Fasch’, 104–105. The ‘kleine Reise nach Halle’ (short trip to Halle/Saale) that Fasch had taken during the previous year could have led him to relatives on his father's side who resided in the Saalestadt, including descendants of his great aunt Margarethe Catharina Fasch. She had been married to a descendant of Philipp Melanchton, a collaborator with Martin Luther. See Gottschalk, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch’, 39.
51 See Janice B. Stockigt, ‘Fasch Visits Dresden 1726–1727: His Liturgical Works for the Catholic Court Church of Dresden’, in Das Wirken des Anhalt-Zerbster Hofkapellmeisters, 29–56, and ‘The Court of Saxony-Dresden’, in Music at German Courts, ed. Owens, Reul and Stockigt, 17–50.
52 Two musicians relocated to Zerbst in 1727: oboist Johann George Fröde(l), born in 1683 in Königstein near Dresden, on 29 September, and an alto soloist named Karl (Johann?) Ludwig Weißflock on 24 June; see Reul, ‘The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, 267. Moreover, a collection of sacred cantatas entitled ‘Musicalische Andachten, der sogenannte Dresdner Jahrgang’ (Musical Devotions, the so-called Dresden Cycle) formed part of the extensive Anhalt-Zerbst court music library and included music by Telemann, Graupner and J. S. Bach. Whether Fasch or someone else had assembled this cycle is unclear. See Pfau, Marc-Roderich, ‘“Pasticcio” Techniques in the Eighteenth Century: New Insights into Fasch's “Dresden” Cantata Cycle’, Faschiana 14 (2010), 5–6Google Scholar .
53 Petzoldt, Martin, ‘J. F. Fasch als Briefkorrespondent des Grafen Zinzendorfs: ein Beitrag zur theologischen Lokalisierung Faschs’, in Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758): Wissenschaftliche Konferenz in Zerbst am 5. Dezember 1983 aus Anlaß des 225. Todestages, ed. Eitelfriedrich Thom (Michaelstein bei Blankenburg: Kultur- und Forschungsstätte Michaelstein, 1984), 34Google Scholar .
54 On the topic of Pietism in Saxony see Kevorkian, Tanya, Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig, 1650–1750 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007)Google Scholar .
55 See also Elena Sawtschenko, Die Kantaten von Johann Friedrich Fasch im Lichte der pietistischen Frömmigkeit: Pietismus und Musik (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2009), 24. Fasch could also have come into contact with supporters of Francke who lived in Dresden, for instance Oberhofprediger Berhard Walther Marperger, one of Francke's students.
56 Fasch, letter to Zinzendorf, 20 February 1732, in Dokumentation zu Johann Friedrich Fasch, ed. Thom, 37. Ten letters by Fasch to Zinzendorf, dating from 1731 to 1737, survive at Herrnhut, several of which have been examined from a theological perspective in Petzoldt, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch als Briefkorrespondent’, and Sawtschenko, Die Kantaten von Johann Friedrich Fasch. No letters to Fasch by the Count seem to have been transmitted.
57 Fasch, letter to Zinzendorf, 20 February 1732, in Dokumentation zu Johann Friedrich Fasch, 37.
58 Fasch's letter to Mattheson is reproduced in Pfeiffer, Johann Friedrich Fasch, 78.
59 Up to now, twenty-five concertos, sixty-one orchestral suites, twelve sonatas and thirteen sinfonias by Fasch have been found at Dresden, as part of the ‘[Noten-] Kabinett II’ (Music Cabinet II). Several contain entries by Pisendel, thus shedding light on specific aspects of performance practice at the Dresden court. All of Fasch's music in Dresden is in the process of being digitized; see <www.schrank-zwei.de>, which can also be searched via <http://opac.rism.info>.
60 Eitelfriedrich Thom, ed., Concert–Stube des Zerbster Schlosses: Inventarverzeichnis aufgestellt im März 1743, facsimile edition (Michaelstein bei Blankenburg: Kultur- und Forschungsstätte Michaelstein, 1983). The inventory contains no information on the provenance of the works. This makes it difficult to determine in which context the music had been received by Fasch, whether directly from Dresden or as part of his ‘Music-Wechsel’ activities. But Fasch definitely sent cantata cycles to colleagues who performed them, most importantly Telemann in Hamburg in 1732–1733.
61 The contents of the ‘Concert-Stube’ have been transcribed in Bernhard Engelke, Johann Friedrich Fasch: Sein Leben und seine Tätigkeit als Vokalkomponist (Halle: C. A. Kämmerer, 1908)Google Scholar , Anhang II.
62 Reul, ‘The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, 267–271.
63 Fasch, letter to Zinzendorf, 20 February 1732, in Dokumentation zu Johann Friedrich Fasch, 37.
64 Gottschalk, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch’, 37.
65 Sawtschenko, Die Kantaten von Johann Friedrich Fasch, 27–38. That Fasch must have been supporting the Institute for years is evident from a letter he wrote to the Hauptmann E. M. von List, who acted as ‘Geschäftsführer’ (business manager) for Callenberg; see Sawtschenko, 27, note 18. As for individuals who could have donated money, the Zerbst Oberhofmarschall Christian aus dem Winckel is mentioned by name; fellow Pietists in Zerbst would have included two members of the Kapelle, concertmaster Carl Höckh and oboist Johann George Fröde(l).
66 Sawtschenko, Die Kantaten von Johann Friedrich Fasch, 36–37.
67 Sawtschenko, Die Kantaten von Johann Friedrich Fasch, 32, doubts that Fasch made any monetary contribution at the time.
68 See Fasch's tenth letter to Zinzendorf, written on 11 May 1737 (Pfeiffer, Johann Friedrich Fasch, 70). On Fasch and his relationship with Zinzendorf see Daniel, Thilo, ‘Fasch und Zinzendorf: Bemerkungen zur Geschichte eines Briefwechsel’, in Das Wirken des Anhalt-Zerbster Hofkapellmeisters, 74–84Google Scholar , and Petzoldt, Martin, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch als Briefkorrespondent des Grafen Zinzendorf, 32–43Google Scholar .
69 See also Zelter, Karl Friedrich, Dokumentation zu Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch, 1736–1800, ed. Thom, Eitelfriedrich (Michaelstein: Kultur- und Forschungsstätte Michaelstein, 1983), 9Google Scholar . Zelter failed to provide the identity of a ‘Freund’ of Kapellmeister Fasch from Köthen, but described him as ‘ein geselliger, heiterer Mann, der … sich öfter in Zerbst aufhielt und bei dem alten Fasch wohnte’ (a sociable, pleasant man who … stayed on occasion in Zerbst, where he resided with Fasch senior).
70 I would like to thank Dr Andreas Erb, director of the Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Abteilung Dessau, for his kind permission to reproduce an image of this primary source.
71 Wäschke, ‘Die Zerbster Hofkapelle unter Fasch’, 55.
72 D-LHASA, DE, Z 92, Kammer Zerbst Nr. 8457, fols 28r–30r.
73 Frau Koch‘s letter from 17 August 1740, which she had mistakenly sent to Köthen, is transcribed in Wäschke, ‘Die Zerbster Hofkapelle unter Fasch’, 57.
74 See also Richter, ‘Die Köthener Hofmusik zur Zeit des Fürsten August Ludwig’, 178–179, table 4. Fasch received between six and ten Thaler per composition.
75 Cited in Was uns dieser Geldmangel für tägl. Kummer machet: Briefe, Johann Friedrich Fasch betreffend, aus dem St. Bartholomäi-Stift zu Zerbst (1752 bis 1757), ed. Konstanze Musketa (Oschersleben: Ziethen, 1997), 102–103, letter from 6 October 1756: ‘Was dieser Geldmangel uns vor tägl[ich] Kummer machet, ist mit dieser Feder nicht zu beschreiben’ (The daily sorrow that this lack of funds causes us cannot be put into words).
76 Prince Johann Ludwig owned numerous works by Italian and German composers, including vocal, keyboard and flute music; see Reul, ‘The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, 272.
77 See Reul, ‘Catherine the Great’, 300–301, and D-LHASA, DE, Z 92, Kammer Zerbst, Kammerrechnungen 1745/46, 294–297. Of the four public events that were held in Zerbst in early December 1745, the fireworks and ‘Illumination’ event alone cost over 7,500 Thaler, which was more than Fasch earned as court Kapellmeister between 1737 and 1756.
78 Fasch noted that he felt a ‘gros[s]e Liebe’ (great affection) for this ‘frommen und hochseel. Fürsten’ (devout and deceased Prince); see Maul, Michael, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch und das Freiberger Kantorat’, in Johann Friedrich Fasch als Instrumentalkomponist, ed. Ständige Konferenz Mitteldeutsche Barockmusik in cooperation with the International Fasch Society Zerbst (Beeskow: Ortus, 2007), 248Google Scholar .
79 The lavish, if not extravagant, birthday celebrations and festivities held in Anhalt-Zerbst on the occasion of Princess Johanna Elisabeth's fortieth birthday in 1752 are described by Stephan Blaut, ‘Geburtstagsserenaten für den Anhalt-Zerbster Hof in der ersten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts’, in Musik an der Zerbster Residenz, 235–268.
80 Zelter, Dokumentation zu Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch, 8. Fasch junior ‘war von der Wiege an schwächlich gewesen, und kränkelte unaufhörlich fort’ (had been weak since birth and was ailing continuously). Apparently Carl had spent his early ‘Tage und Jahre einsam … ohne Beschäftigung und Bewegung’ (days and years … without mental and physical exercise), but remembered his father as being ‘arbeitsa[m], zärtlic[h] und religiö[s]’ (industrious, tender and religious).
81 Musketa, Was uns dieser Geldmangel, 18–19, letter by Fasch to Princess Johanna Elisabeth from 11 July 1752, written in Magdeburg. Johann Wilhelm Hertel (1727–1784) had been a student of Höckh (and possibly Fasch himself) in Zerbst during the 1740s. His father was the famous gambist and Kapellmeister of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Johann Christian Hertel (1699–1754).
82 Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, 18–19, letter from 11 July 1752. Fasch had previously requested a loan of fifty Thaler in 1751 (or perhaps earlier, in 1750) and paid it back on time. See also Zelter, Dokumentation zu Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch, 11. Curiously, expenses associated with the six months Fasch junior spent at Kloster Bergen near Magdeburg upon his return from Strelitz ‘um in Sprachen und anderen Schulkenntnissen das Erforderliche zu lernen’ (to acquire the necessary knowledge of languages and other school subjects) are not mentioned by his father.
83 Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, same letter of 11 July 1752, 20–21. It is unclear to which works Fasch was specifically referring in this context.
84 Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, 31–33, letter from 13 September 1753.
85 Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, 40–43, letter from 21 March 1754. On other unpaid or junior musicians who helped out at the chapel and the palace, such as choral scholars, ‘Kapellknaben’ and students at the local St Bartholomäischule, see Reul, ‘Court Musicians at Anhalt-Zerbst’.
86 Reul, ‘Unbekannte Dokumente zu Johann Friedrich Fasch’, and Konstanze Musketa, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch und die Zerbster Feierlichkeiten zur Hochzeit des Fürsten Friedrich August von Anhalt-Zerbst 1753’, in Johann Friedrich Fasch als Instrumentalkomponist, 182–185, and 201–202, note 78, which contains a transcription of the entire letter by Fasch.
87 Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, 46–49, letter from 21 March 1754.
88 Perhaps Fasch had stayed at Magdeburg's municipal hospital in the Knochenhaueruferstraße, which was founded at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
89 Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, 64–69, letter from 19 September 1754.
90 Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, 74–75. In the letter from 22 May 1755 Fasch refers to the request and the court's reaction; the corresponding primary sources are, however, not extant. It has also been impossible to determine why and for what reason he had to take out another Leipzig Wechsel-Schuld.
91 Reul, ‘Musical Life at the Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, 204–210.
92 Maul, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch und das Freiberger Kantorat’, 250: ‘Diß eintzige bitte ich noch gehorsambst, diese[s] mein Suchen, so viel möglich, niemanden wissen zu lassen’ (I humbly request one more favour: that, in as much as possible, nobody shall be made aware of my application).
93 See Maul, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch und das Freiberger Kantorat’, 249–250, which contains a transcription of the full letter from 30 October 1755. The adjective wiederum (page 250) could mean that Fasch's knowledge of Latin had perhaps been much better in 1744, when he had first considered leaving Zerbst for a position in Freiberg, though it hints at his unwillingness to teach Latin as Thomaskantor.
94 See Maul, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch und das Freiberger Kantorat’, 248, which contains a full transcription of Fasch's follow-up letter to Willisch from 29 October 1755.
95 In the late summer of 1722, when Fasch began his tenure as Kapellmeister at the court of Anhalt-Zerbst, Willisch was in the running for pastor at Zerbst's Trinitatiskirche and professor at the local Gymnasium Illustre. See Maul, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch und das Freiberger Kantorat’, 244.
96 Maul, ‘Johann Friedrich Fasch und das Freiberger Kantorat’, 245. Exceptions were made in the larger cities of Danzig (J. B. C. Freislich), Frankfurt and Hamburg (Telemann), as well as Leipzig (J. S. Bach).
97 All quotations in this section are taken from Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, 84–87, letter by Johanna Friedericka Fasch, from either 17 or 18 September 1756 (handwriting illegible).
98 Words are missing here because of the fragile condition of the primary source.
99 See Reul, Barbara M., ‘Das vakante Organistenamt an der St. Bartholomäi-Kirche zu Zerbst und die “liederliche Lebensart” von Johann Heinrich Heil (1709–1764)’, in Mitteilungen des Vereins für anhaltische Landeskunde 19 (2010), 129–143Google Scholar , and Zelter, Dokumentation zu Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch, 9.
100 See Fasch's second letter to Zinzendorf from 20 February 1732, in Dokumentation zu Johann Friedrich Fasch, ed. Thom, 37.
101 Perhaps Fasch suffered from peripheral artery occlusive disease, which is linked to diabetes. See <www.dr-arlt-online.de/Der_diabetische_Fuss.pdf> (25 March 2011).
102 Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, 90–95, letter from 29 September 1756. See also Fasch's letter from 6 October 1756, 100–103.
103 Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, letter from 3 March 1757, 142–153. As promised, Fasch had submitted affidavits by Carl Fasch (dated 5 December 1756, from Potsdam, 118–122) and by Johann Andreas Ritter on behalf of Fasch's unmarried daughter Johanna Friedericka (dated 3 March 1757, 154–159).
104 It is unclear where the Bach family resided, if not at Kapellmeister Fasch's house. On C. P. E. Bach's activities as a composer in Zerbst see David Schulenberg, ‘C. P. E. Bach in Zerbst: The Six Sonatas of Fall 1758[,]with Contributions on the Early Biography and Compositions of Carl Fasch’, in Johann Friedrich Fasch als Instrumentalkomponist, 131–152. See also Reul, ‘Das vakante Organistenamt an der St. Bartholomäi-Kirche zu Zerbst’, 136–137, which discusses Bach's involvement (albeit oblique) in the audition process for a new organist at the St Bartholomäikirche in Zerbst in September 1758.
105 The Prince and his mother had escaped Zerbst in April 1758, following an incident involving a French spy that angered Frederick II, who at the time was at war with Russia.
106 Zelter, Dokumentation zu Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch, 15.
107 D-LHASA, DE, Z 92, Kammer Zerbst, Kammerrechnungen 1758/59, 113, no. 153, which covered the six-month period (or two quarters) from Christmas to 24 June. The court of Anhalt-Zerbst dealt with Heil's creditors after his death in 1764; see Reul, ‘Das vakante Organistenamt’, 140–143.
108 See also Musketa, Was dieser Geldmangel, 124–125, letter from 30 December 1756. Fasch's first choice as a guardian for his daughter had been Christoph Heinicke, organist at the St Bartholomäikirche, but he died before Fasch, on 8 June 1758, at the age of 41. Whether Fasch made any further arrangements regarding a guardian (or a potential husband) for his daughter is unknown; her name does not appear in extant Zerbst marriage registers.
109 Zelter, Dokumentation zu Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch, 8.
110 The missing parts of the ‘Concert-Stube’ are addressed in Reul, ‘The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst’, 269–270. It is also highly likely that Fasch maintained a personal music collection, but no primary sources have come to light that provide information on its contents.