The Virtuoso of Submissiveness

This chapter turns to Fux’s engagement with the imperial liturgy and his vigilant custodianship of its received musical traditions. It argues that the principal reception history of Fux as a composer, vested in the ongoing Complete Edition of his works (Gesamtausgabe) inadequately comprehends his actual significance because it privileges his compositions as self-standing musical works. By deconstructing this reception history we can distinguish between Fux’s habitual obedience to the dynastic style (which resulted in a large but blandly-achieved corpus of liturgical music) and two agents of musical refuge which satisfied (by contrast) the composer’s longing for musical form. The first of these is Palestrina and the “stile antico,” through which Fux achieved a much finer corpus of sacred works. The second is the Da capo aria as a model of tonal discourse through which Fux discovered an alternative to the restless changes of texture and technique demanded by the imperial liturgy. Both agents draw Fux into the orbit of Bach. This chapter closes with a comparative analysis of three Da capo arias by each composer. This analysis affirms that the intimacy between musical servitude and imaginative autonomy is of no less significance than the difference between them.