This summer there is to be a concert every Sunday in the Augarten. A certain [Phillip] Martin organized last winter a series
of amateur concerts, which took place every Friday in the Mehlgrube. You know that there are a great many amateurs in Vienna,
and some very good ones too, both men and women. But so far the concerts have not been properly arranged. Well, this Martin
has now got permission from the Emperor under charter (with promise of gracious patronage) to give 12 concerts in the Augarten
and four grand Serenades in the finest open places of the city...I am taking an interest in it and am associated with it.
Mozart in a letter to his father, May 8, 1782
Welcome to the official website of Hellgate Harmonie. Hellgate Harmonie is a collaborative of New York City amateur and
freelance pro wind musicians with a passion for this great art form. Our goal is to perform as much as possible in the Harmonie's
natural habitat: beer gardens, bars, restaurants.
By way of explanation, "Hellgate" is the name of the confluence of the the Harlem and East Rivers
off the coast of Astoria in New York City. It's also the name of an imposing railroad bridge that carries Amtrak and freight.
It's near where we got our start during a series of legendary performances at the Bohemian Hall Beer Garden during the Summer
of 2005.
"Harmonie" describes a late 18th, early 19th Century wind band phenomenon, or "craze," in Viennese, Bohemian
and Moravian court society. Mozart was perhaps its best known practitioner.
The standard Viennese Harmonie consisted of pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns. A double bass or contrabassoon
was often added to provide extra depth to the sound. Sextet variations, excluding either clarinets or oboes, were also popular.
Often, the Harmonies were led by musician-servants("Kapellmeister" or "Leibkammerdiener") who also provided fresh compositions
for the organization. Triebensee, Wendt (oboists) and Heidenreich (clarinetist) were most prominent. They also arranged
popular operas of the day for the wind ensemble. Even Mozart, who composed the two greatest works for Harmonie (Serenades
in Eb Major and C Minor), wrote of the need to transcribe his own opera, "Entfuehrung aus dem Serail," for Harmonie before
someone else did and enjoyed the profit (20 July 1782). As it turns out, it is not certain that Mozart ever did transcribe
Seraglio for Harmonie (it doesn't seem to have survived, if he did), but Wendt 's version exists, and all the other major
Mozart operas are available today in Harmonie transcriptions by either Wendt, Triebensee or Heidenreich.
Harmonie is essentially music to accompany festivitiy - celebrations, weddings, dinner parties. Again, it was Mozart
who wrote an on-stage Harmonie into the dinner scene finale of Don Giovanni. The band plays opera transcriptions, of course,
including one from Mozart's own Marriage of Figaro.
The Napoleonic wars marked the end of the Harmonie craze. Middle
European royalty could no long afford to employ large scale wind bands in their courts. While composing for wind octet continued
well after 1804, the level of output declined dramatically, and the era of Harmonie was over.
(sources: Leeson, Whitwell)
I retain for instance among my domestic servants a gardner..., weaver..., a cabinet maker... and a stone cutter... to which
I would add a vigneron. In a country where, like yours, music is cultivated and practised by every class of men, I suppose
there might be found persons of those trades who could perform on the French horn, clarinet or hautboy and bassoon, so that
one might have a band of two French horns, two clarinets and hautboys and a bassoon without enlarging their domest (sic) expences.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to a European Friend
During the summer months, if the weather is fine, one comes almost daily [upon] serenades performed in the streets... However,
these do not, as in Italy or Spain, consist simply of a singer accompanied by a guitar or mandora... here serenades are not
a means for declaring one's love, for which there are a thousand more comfortable opportunities; but these serenades consist
of trios, quartets, mostly from operas... played by wind instruments.
