In dem Sammelband „August Wilhelm Ambros – Wege seiner Musikästhetik, -kritik und –historiographie“, herausgegeben von Markéta Štědronská erscheint der Beitrag „Virtuose Korrespondenzen: Der frühe Ambros und seine Anfänge als Kulturfeuilletonist“ (Wien: Hollitzer Verlag. Reihe: Wiener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikwissenschaft), S. 13-36
Die Studie basiert auf einen Vortrag, der im Rahmen der Tagung „Vom Entzücktsein bis zum vollen Verständniß“. August Wilhelm Ambros – Wege seiner Musikästhetik, ‑kritik und ‑historiographie (18.‒20. November 2016, Institut für Musikwissenschaft der Universität Wien) von Anna Ananieva und Rolf Haaser vorgestellt worden ist.
Book chapter
Virtuosic correspondences: The “early Ambros” and his beginnings as culture columnist and writer for the feuilleton
by Anna Ananieva / Rolf Haaser
Abstract
The study aims to give the reason for the assumption that several anonymous articles which were published in the Prague journal Bohemia and the Pesth magazine Spiegel can be attributed as early works by August Wilhelm Ambros. These periodicals covered the cultural life of the Habsburg cities and released regularly numerous reports and articles about the theater as well as music and art events abroad. While looking at the journal issues dating back to the 1830-40s the study examined the period that has received little attention in the field of Ambros research so far. In his autobiographical comments, made in retrospect, Ambros marks the beginning of his professional activities as a critic by his contributions to Bohemia in 1841. However, a close examination of the magazine suggested that there has been an earlier phase of these activities. The first findings presented here illuminate his very beginnings as a culture columnist and a writer for feuilleton. These contributions to the magazines on cultural life and sociability comprised thematically broad announcements, correspondence reports and increasingly also theater and concert reviews, which could have been marginalized easily from the point of view of Ambros after having become an established writer in the field of music criticism. Thus the study traces some of these journalistic works arguing that it would be worthwhile to pay closer attention to the „early Ambros“. The study invites future research in this field emphasizing that it would help to understand the genesis of his writing style substantially. In addition, further engagement with his early writings would shed new light on the networks that existed between the cultural milieus in Bohemia and Hungary before 1848.
