Fourth-Class Wine from Bietigheim? Employment Conditions for Lutenist Maria Dorothea St. Pierre and Waldhornist Franz Anton Spurni at the Württemberg Court, c.1719–1736

Abstract

In 1752, the soprano Maria Dorothea Wendling (née Spurni) and her husband, the celebrated flautist Johann Baptist Wendling, were both engaged as musicians at the Mannheim court of Elector Carl Theodor. Dorothea—who later premiered the role of Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo—was surely well aware of the realities of her chosen career, since her parents were Cammermusici (chamber musicians) who had served at both the Württemberg court and that of the deposed Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński at Lunéville. Detailed investigation of archival documents uncovers new information regarding Dorothea Wendling’s family background and provides, in the process, fresh insights into the daily lives of court musicians during the first half of the eighteenth century. Having been employed as a lutenist at the Württemberg court for a period of seven years prior to her marriage to the recently widowed horn player Franz Spurni in 1726, Dorothea Spurni (née St. Pierre) was shocked to discover that her wages were significantly altered to reflect her new marital status (including the allocation of a lower class of salary wine). Further documents relating to the couple throw fascinating, but depressing, light on the employment conditions and financial hardship endured by some German court musicians—female and male alike.