Stadler, Abbé Maximilian (actually, Johann Karl Dominik)

Stadler, Abbé Maximilian (actually, Johann Karl Dominik), prominent Austrian keyboard player, music historian, and composer; b. Melk, Aug. 4, 1748; d. Vienna, Nov. 8, 1833. He began his musical training with Johann Leuthner, a bass at the Melk Benedictine abbey, then went as a choirboy in 1758 to Lilienfeld, where he received instruction in violin, clavichord, and organ; concurrently took music lessons with Albrechtsberger in Melk, and completed his education at the Jesuit Coll. in Vienna in 1762. In 1766 he returned to Melk and became a novice; took his vows in 1767 and was made a priest in 1772; then was head of the abbey’s theological studies. After being made chaplain in Wullersdorf in 1783, he was elected prior of Melk in 1784. In 1786 he became abbot of Lilienfeld and in 1789 in Kremsmünster. After a sojourn in Linz (1791–96), he settled in Vienna. In 1803 he was secularized and was given the titular canonry of Linz; was parish priest in Alt-Lerchenfeld (1803–10) and Grosskrut (1810–15); then was again active in Vienna. He was esteemed as a keyboard player and composer by his contemporaries; his oratorio Die Befreiung von Jerusalem (1813) was widely performed in his day. His Materialen zur Geschichte der Musik unter den österreichischen Regenten (c. 1816–25) is duly recognized as the first Austrian history of music. He was a friend of Mozart, and took care of Mozart’s MS of the Requiem, which he copied at Mozart’s death. When the authenticity of the work was called into question by Gottfried Weber and others, Stadler publ. a pamphlet in its defense, Vertheidigung der Echtheit des Mozartschen Requiems (Vienna, 1825; supplement, 1826). His own compositions include, in addition to the above-cited oratorio, a Singspiel, Das Studenten-Valete (Melk, Sept. 6, 1781), incidental music, numerous sacred works, secular cantatas, lieder, orch. and chamber music pieces, keyboard works, and completions and arrangements of works by other composers.

Writings

Anleitung zur musikalischen Composition durch Würfelspiel (MS, e. 1780); Erklärung, wir man aus … Ziffer-und Notentabellen eine Menuet herauswürfeln könne (Vienna, 1781); Priorats-Ephemeriden (MS, 1784–86); Beschreibung der Fragmente aus Mozart’s Nachlass (MS, c. 1798); Fragmente von Singstücken (MS, c. 1798); Fragmente einiger Mozartischen Klavierstucke, die von einem Liebhaber der Musik vollendet worden (MS; ed. in Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, XXI, 1966); Materialen zur Geschichte der Musik unter den österreichischen Regenten (MS, c. 1816–25; ed. by K. Wagner, Kassel, 1974); Eigenhändig geschriebene Selbst-Biographie des Hochwürdigen Herrn Maximilian Stadler (MS, c. 1816–26; ed. in Mozart-Jahrbuch 1957); Vertheidigung der Echtheit des Mozartschen Requiems (Vienna, 1825; supplement 1826); Nachtrag zur Vertheidigung (Vienna, 1827); Zweyter und letzter Nachtrag zur Vertheidigung … sammt Nachbericht über die Ausgabe … durch Herrn André in Offenbach, nebst Ehrenrettung Mozart’s und vier fremden Briefen (Vienna, 1827); Biographische Notizen über Abbé Maximilian Stadler von ihm selbst aufgezeichnet (MS, c. 1833; ed. in Mozart-Jahrbuch 1964).

Bibliography

H. Säbel, M. S.s weltliche Werke und seine Beziehungen zur Wiener Klassik (diss., Univ. of Cologne, 1941); K. Wagner, A.M.S. (Kassel, 1974).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire