'B-Composers' or: How can you become a 'Kleinmeister'?

Abstract

Filling gaps between the “Great Composers” so called “Kleinmeister” cause various problems in writing about the history of music. On the one hand one-sided perspectives will be the result as long as the works of “Kleinmeister” are to be discussed with standards of qualities that have been developed with regard to “top compositions”. On the other hand a deficient sighting of sources often complicates the estimation of those composers, who certainly have not reached an outstanding position within the common repertory, however as a foil of contemporary artistic work allow the “great” works of the prominent ones to stand out. Such difficulties in methodical and archival accesses will firstly be considered by examining the Salzburg surroundings of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and the Linz surroundings of Anton Bruckner. A catalogue of criteria determining a composer’s being treated as a “Kleinmeister” shall arise and make up the basis to discuss significance and liking when speaking about “Kleinmeister” in musicological studies.