Descriptions
Horace Fitzpatrick writes (reference below):
- From about 1756 onward the Emperor and the Austrian nobles kept house bands called Harmonien, usually made of pairs of oboes, horns, bassoons, and after about 1770, clarinets. These wind groups formed part of the household musical staff, and provided serenade for banquets and garden parties. Joseph II kept a crack Harmonie for his private delectation, drawn from the principal wind players of the Imperial opera. His successor Franz II carried on this practice.
According to Haydn biographer Rosemary Hughes:
- "Feldharmonie" or simply "Harmonie," was the wind band, maintained by most noblemen even when they could not afford a larger orchestra, for performing at hunting parties and other outdoor entertainments.
Roger Hellyer, writing in the Grove Dictionary notes that while the Harmonie generally had an aristocratic patron, the same music was sometimes also played by street musicians. A letter by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his father Leopold (3 November 1781) noted that street musicians had serenaded him with his own composition, the wind serenade K. 375.
Read more about this topic: Harmonie
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