Mannheim School

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Mannheim School. Name given by modern musicologists to group of 18th-cent. Ger. composers based on Mannheim and assoc. with the court of the Elector of Pfalzbayern (1724–99). Their importance, shared to some extent with similar progressives in Vienna, Italy, and Bohemia, was in laying foundation of the sym. as it was to be developed by Haydn and Mozart. They were headed by Johann W. Stamitz (1717–57), followed by Ignaz Holzbauer (1711–83, in Mannheim from 1753), F. X. Richter (1709–89, in Mannheim from 1747), Cannabich (1731–98), and Stamitz's sons Karl (1745–1801) and Anton (1754–1809). The elder Stamitz joined the Mannheim orch. in 1745, soon becoming cond. He founded a new style of perf. suited to his works. Features of this style incl. melodic prominence of vns., extended crescendi and precise dynamics, tremolando, and replacement of improvised continuo by written-out parts.

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