D-DGla, KK II Nr. 3022 (Minutes of the Privy State Council, 1790)

Bonn and Münster, January to December 1790

Location: D-DGla, Kurköln II Nr. 3022 (Minutes of the Privy State Council, 1790), I, II, and III (the third volume is an unbound second copy of the January and December entries).

During the reign of Elector Maximilian Franz, most petitions and decrees were decided upon in meetings of the so-called Geheime Staats-Conferenz. These bulky protocol books are seldom consulted by music historians, and were largely overlooked by Thayer for his Beethoven biography (and as a result they appear in no later scholarship that relies on him). Their value is especially critical when the corresponding petitions and decrees have not survived, as is very often the case with court musicians. In cases where they have survived, the records here can sometimes clarify points of chronology or details of the decision-making process. One important subtlety has to do with the chain of command. Most petitions were not handled by the elector directly, so when a first decision is marked "dependirt von höchster Gnad," which can be understood as "referred to the highest authority," it is a sign that the matter was considered unusually important.

An index, organized roughly alphabetically by last names of petitioners, appears in the second volume from fol. 714r.

Here, the entries pertaining to court musicians are excerpted.

Transcription

[39r]
Friedrich Müller

[101v]
393 Decretum als Kurf[ürstliche] Hofsängerinn
nebst einer Zulage von 1000. fl. jährlichs
auf den Kurf[ürstliche] Cassier Klingler für
Magdalena Willmann./.

[left side]
Nachtrag./.

[right side]
394 Decretum als Kurf[ürstliche] Hofgeiger
für Thomas Pokorni./.

[155]
Unnamed military musicians

[221r]
Organist Weiss zu Ahrweiler

[621v]
Rombergs

Translation

In Progress