Work on Lambach Abbey Halfway Done
Frank van der Lecq
Monday, July 20, 2015
Frank van der Lecq of the Netherlands describes his work cataloging the collection of Lambach Abbey (A-LA) for RISM:
Cataloging the music collection of the Benedictine monastery Lambach Abbey (A-LA) in Austria is almost halfway completed. Only small details need to be added to the instrumental music and the masses. Entries for the smaller vocal works are well underway. The project is expected to be completed in 2018. All records entered so far can be found through this link (click here).
It was purely by happenstance that Frank van der Lecq of the Dutch city of Utrecht volunteered to take on this project. Van der Lecq, who makes a living as a speechwriter for the mayor of Utrecht, writes, “In 2010, my girlfriend and I were hiking through Anton Bruckner’s homeland. I had intended to explore the manuscripts of works by composer Ignaz Holzbauer in the music archives of Kremsmünster and Lambach.”
The music archivist at Lambach, Peter Deinhammer, turned out to be a lot more than someone you can spend hours talking to about music and life over a good glass of (Austrian) wine. “We also talked about how the Lambach music archive is relatively unknown and how, unlike its counterpart in Kremsmünster, it was not yet cataloged in RISM. There was only one catalog, which was compiled by Gerda Lang in the 1970s, based in part on preliminary work by her father-in-law Prof. Hermann Lang. Only a couple copies exist of this typescript document, a mammoth undertaking.
Van der Lecq is not a musicologist but is well versed in the musical world of the eighteenth century. After thinking it over for several months, he decided to take on this project in 2011. First he had to master Kallisto and the Plaine & Easie code. Another year went by, and in 2012 he actually started.
“Forming the basis of my work are the photos that I take every summer in the archive. I spend one week every year as an overnight visitor at Lambach Abbey, where I then photograph 500 manuscripts. This yearly quota is compatible with my day job. Entries are made with the help of Gerda Lang’s catalog. A further source of information is the facsimile edition of the Lambach thematic catalog (1768), edited by Charles H. Sherman. Nevertheless, problems inevitably arise and I must wait another year to find a solution. Every day I learn something new.”
Sometimes Van der Lecq wonders why he ever got involved with this project in the first place. “To keep the momentum going, I need to average around 70 manuscripts per month. That costs me several evenings a week. As a consequence, we can never spend our vacations too far from Austria. But that’s not a bad thing!”
Archivist Deinhammer is especially proud of the Lambach manuscript of Mozart’s “Alter Lambacher Sinfonie” (RISM ID no. 603000262) and the large collection of works by composers who were active in Lambach: Balthasar Hochreither, Joseph Tischer, Anton Obermayr, and Stanislaus Reidinger. But Michael Haydn is also well represented in Lambach. Van der Lecq says, “The final year of my work will consist almost entirely of entering his vocal works. What especially impresses me is the phenomenal collecting streak shown by the abbot Amandus Schickmayr (1716-1794). When the project is completed, we will be able to determine exactly how many manuscripts bear his initials ‘A.A.L.’ It’s got to be hundreds.”
Peter Deinhammer reports that since entries have started appearing in RISM, interest in the Lambach music archive (2,500 manuscripts, 1700-1850) has grown and new contacts have been established. Deinhammer, besides being an archivist, is also a musician, instructor, musicologist, concert organizer, and founder of the education center ProDiagonal in Lambach. He hopes that having the collection cataloged in RISM will be the beginning of further research into musical practices in Lambach - by him and by musicologists from all over the world.
Photo: Frank van der Lecq hard at work (courtesy of the author).
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