Music and Diplomacy: The Correspondence of Marshal Jacob Heinrich Flemming and Other Records, 1700–1720. Part II: The Wedding Ceremony of Friedrich August and Maria Josepha in Vienna (1719)*

Abstract

In September 1718, Jacob Heinrich von Flemming, the Saxon Field Marshal and the first minister of the Saxon Privy Council, came to Vienna to complete the political negotiations between Austria, Saxony, and Poland that were to lead, inter alia, to the dynastic pact between the Wettins and the Habsburgs. This alliance was embodied in the marriage of Friedrich August (son of August II, king of Poland and elector of Saxony) and Maria Josepha (the eldest daughter of the emperor Joseph I, who died in 1711), which took place in Vienna on 20 August 1719. Flemming spent this time in Vienna not only for the purpose of intense political negotiations, secret meetings, and important public events; he was also actively involved in the social life of the city. He participated in balls, feasts, opera performances, and other entertainments in the salons of the Viennese aristocracy, and he reciprocated the same in his residence. He brought his own private music Capelle from Saxony, which accompanied most social events taking place at his Viennese headquarters. Based on Flemming’s Viennese diaries and other documentation from that time, this article represents the second and final part of a broader study on music and diplomacy through the lens of Flemming’s activities and correspondence. It recreates the musical soundscape surrounding the Saxon marshal in the Austrian capital, showing how Flemming used music as a tool to build trusting relationships (both political and social), and detailing the role the musicians played in fulfilling Flemming’s diplomatic objectives. Archival documents are used to reconstruct hitherto unknown musical aspects of the events surrounding the Vienna wedding of Friedrich August and Maria Josepha, and to provide indications about repertoire performed during Viennese marriage ceremonies of such rank.