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Hugo Riemann, a German musicologist and music theorist who is credited with the invention of roman-numeral analysis (still taught in music schools internationally), published a series of articles in the first decade of the 20th century claiming to have found "the definitive precedent to Haydn" in Johann Stamitz. In the course of several publications of Mannheim orchestral music, Riemann was tireless in proclaiming the Mannheim school the ultimate source of the classical style.

Hugo Riemann, a German musicologist and music theorist who is credited with the invention of roman-numeral analysis (still taught in music schools internationally), published a series of articles in the first decade of the 20th century claiming to have found "the definitive precedent to Haydn" in Johann Stamitz. In the course of several publications of Mannheim orchestral music, Riemann was tireless in proclaiming the Mannheim school the ultimate source of the classical style.

In truth, the relationship was more complicated. Mannheim's success was at the time mostly local, and music from Mannheim was not published and circulated. It is therefore not likely that Haydn, who did not travel far from [[Vienna]] or Eisenstadt until his old age, had ever heard their music. Mozart, on the other hand, visited Mannheim several times beginning in 1777, and wrote the opera ''Idomeneo'' in 1781 with this orchestra in mind (though they had relocated to [[Munich]] by this time).

In truth, the relationship was more complicated. Mannheim's success was at the time mostly local, and music from Mannheim was not published and circulated. It is therefore not likely that Haydn, who did not travel far from [[Vienna]] or Eisenstadt until his old age, had ever heard their music. Mozart, on the other hand, visited Mannheim several times beginning in 1777, and wrote the opera ''Idomeneo'' in 1781 with this orchestra in mind (though they had relocated to [[Munich]] by this time). He also obviously integrated many of the Mannheim mannerisms into his music.

 

Still, it is true that the classical style ''seemed'' a logical outgrowth from the Mannheim style. How could this be possible if their influence was not very wide? It is perhaps possible that because of the orchestra's pan-European makeup, they were simply ahead of the curve on the musical trends which were slowly emerging in the rest of Europe: namely, formal clarity, uncomplicated textures, and dramatic rhetorical flourishes. Recent research has shown that many of the "innovations" that Riemann trumpeted were already in evidence in Italian (and especially Neapolitan) [[opera]] of the early 18th century. Mozart himself travelled widely in his youth, and learned from Italian composers as well as Austrian, French, and German ones. So, rather than saying that Mozart learned the classical style from Mannheim, it is probably more accurate that his cosmopolitan musical education mirrored that of the Mannheim orchestra's makeup. In the sense that the classical style was a pan-European style, the Mannheim orchestra and its composers were bellwethers, and Mozart and Haydn its first great practitioners.

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