DRESDEN – SEAT OF TWO SUCCESSIVE Saxon electors from the house of Wettin and elected kings of Poland – exemplifies a brilliant European court whose cultural climate and musical excellence was, by the mid-eighteenth century, equal to the best then offered. Developments of this era owed much to the personalities, tastes, and change of confession of the rulers whose leadership covered the years of the snapshots. For more than fifty years the music of Dresden reflected first the preference for French culture of Saxon Elector Friedrich August I (1670–1733; as king of Poland titled August II ‘the Strong’). On the other hand the highly developed musical tastes of his son and successor, Electoral Prince Friedrich August II (1696–1763), and his eldest surviving son and heir, Electoral Prince Friedrich Christian (1722–1763), veered towards Italy. After election as king of Poland in October 1733 and coronation in January 1734, Friedrich August II – now titled August III – and his Habsburg-born consort Maria Josepha (1699–1757) provided powerful musical patronage in Dresden. They and family members often determined the selection of musicians and repertoire for Dresden, whose court witnessed musical advances that came to have far-reaching effects upon contemporary developments, musical standards, and continuing musical institutions.

The sons and daughters of August III and Maria Josepha contributed to this enlightened musical patronage, with strong musical connections established through marriages between Dresden and the courts of Naples, Munich, and Versailles.

THIS VOLUME — first conceived in early April 2005, when the three editors presented papers at the conference held during the 9. Internationale Fasch-Festtage (Ninth International Fasch Festival) in Zerbst/Anhalt, Germany — is the outcome of a round table titled ‘Changing Artistic Priorities of German Hofkapellen, 1715–1760’, given during the Twelfth Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music in Warsaw (2006). Michael Talbot, chairperson of the session, suggested we publish and enlarge our findings, and in the months that followed the basic structure and contents of the book gradually emerged, as we approached potential authors and received their reactions to the project. John Spitzer and Neal Zaslaw's excellent book on The Birth of the Orchestra (Oxford University Press, 2004) had filled many previous gaps, but we wanted to provide English-speaking readers with a series of detailed case studies of German Hofkapellen based on a close reading of archival sources. The final selection, a mixture of fifteen Protestant and Catholic courts of varying sizes with different artistic priorities, was largely dependent upon the willingness of scholars to share the results of their archival research, and, of course, in the first instance on the existence of relevant primary source material.

This book would not have been published without the encouragement and advice of Michael Talbot, together with the support of Peter Holman and Wolfgang Ruf, especially during the planning and preparation stages. We are also grateful for the direct financial assistance received from the Faculty of Music, the University of Melbourne, Luther College, University of Regina, and Jane Hardie, on behalf of the Network for Early European Research, funded by the Australian Research Council.