During the 1770s, Zander was employed as kammarmusicus (chamber musician) by Swedish Duke Carl (later Charles XIII, brother to King Gustav III) and was, beginning in 1784, conductor at Carl Stenborg’s theatre. Zander was a prolific teacher as well, and was employed in 1785 as a violin teacher at the educational institution of Kungliga Musikaliska akademien (the Royal Swedish Academy of Music). One year later, he also became a teacher at the music school started by the hovkapellmästare (chief conductor of the Royal Court Orchestra), Abbé Vogler, at the Kungliga Teatern (the Royal Opera). It is difficult to determine just how long Zander worked as a teacher. Zander was elected into the Kungliga Musikaliska akademien in 1788, and was a member of the society Par Bricole, and the music and literary society Utile Dulci, playing cello in the orchestra of the latter.

Work

Johan Zander had a diversified career. He was both an orchestra and a chamber ensemble musician, but also appeared frequently as a soloist. It was not at all uncommon, during the latter part of the 18^th century, to have such a versatile career in music. Several of Zander’s colleagues in Hovkapellet also played in the orchestra of Stenborgska teatern, and gave solo concerts. However, there were not many like Zander, as he was also a concertmaster, conductor, teacher and composer.

We find Zander fairly often in concert announcements from the middle of the 1700s. He played solo works for violin and viola and performed as a soloist in concertos for violin, viola and cello – several of these concertos were reported to have been written by him. He is also said to have composed an oboe concerto, but it is more likely that his father wrote it. As a part of his duties at Hovkapellet, Zander also conducted concerts, which is confirmed by several concert announcements. But he had other conducting engagements as well. According to records from the Kungliga Musikaliska akademien, Zander was responsible for the academy’s subscription concerts. Unfortunately, no programmes from these concerts in 1793 were saved.

One rather unusual concert was given on 25 January 1784, in the great hall of Riddarhuset (the House of Nobility). In celebration of the birthday of King Gustav III, the hovkapellmästare, Francesco Antonio Uttini, conducted a concert comprised entirely of works by Johan Zander: arias, recitatives, duets, and trios, as well as a violin solo performed by Zander himself. The concert closed with a choir. The programme suggests that Zander was a respected composer also within the court.

Stage music

Zander made his debut as a theatre composer in 1781 at Stenborgska teatern, with an opéra comique in one act, Kopparslagaren, with text by Carl Envallsson. The work became a huge success, playing in several theatres in Sweden, and became a part of the theatre’s repertoire up until 1790. The music demonstrates that Zander was an experienced orchestra musician whose instrumental finesse and singable melodies highlighted the text. Perhaps the success of the piece contributed to the fact that Zander became the leader of the theatre’s orchestra in 1784. He collaborated on several occasions with Carl Envallsson, who was employed at the theatre. Zander wrote the music to the comic opera, Njugg spar och fan tar (1784), and the divertissement Herregårdshögtidligheten. Perhaps Envallsson’s most popular work, the vaudeville Kronfogdarne (1787), begins with an original and characteristically Zander-composed overture. The 19th-century-theatre historian, Johan Flodmark, describes the music as giving ‘this entertaining comic opera an idyllic and cheerful colouring, which lends it a pleasing charm’. This overture is Zander’s most-played work. Zander also collaborated with Didric Gabriel Björn on the comedy Landstigningen (1788) as well as setting music to the comic opera Lisette.

One of Zander’s responsibilities was to contribute incidental music and songs to the plays. In 1788, he wrote a number of pieces for Maskeraden, and a polska (literally Polish dance – couple dancing originating in Poland which spread throughout Europe) for the vaudeville, Tillfälle gör tjuven. François-André Danican Philidor’s Tom Jones was given a new aria in 1790, and in the same year, Zander reworked the music to the first Swedish comic opera, Syrinx (1747), which also received several new song numbers. In 1791, he contributed similarly to Äventyraren eller Resan till månens ö.

In 1791, Zander resumed his collaboration with Envallsson, who had translated the libretto to Carl Ditter von Dittersdorf’s opera, Doktor und Apotheker, which was re-titled as Den tokroliga natte. Zander wrote completely new music for it. This was his most ambitious work, detailed and through-composed with larger and more uniform musical sections. Despite all his work, the performance was a fiasco, and was booed by the audience, who preferred the original music. However, Zander went on to write music for two more stage works. For Den förförda flickan, a drama by Didric Gabriel Björn written in the new ‘bourgeois-sentimental’ style, from 1791, and he once again wrote in a very detailed way, through-composed and dramatic. The year before, he had written couplets and songs for the play Kvinnorna och förtroendet.

It was common to have incidental music at the theatre, and according to the programmes, Zander often played solo pieces for violin or viola – probably his own works – but also conducted the newest symphonies by Haydn and Carl Stamitz. Zander is believed to have left Stenborgska teatern in 1794. A benefit performance was given for him at the theatre on 23 November 1793, and after that, his name disappears from the programme guide. Zander still had his post at Hovkapellet and performed in the autumn of 1794 as a soloist, playing his own violin concerto.

Zander’s stage music was inspired by contemporary French opera composers, especially his overtures. Haydn was another influence. Zander’s theatre music was perhaps not so personal, but shows, with its varying motifs and diverse use of instrumentation, how skilfully it interacted with the text and moved the dramatic action forward.

Orchestra music, chamber works and songs

Unfortunately, all the solo concertos that Zander composed seem to have been lost. The only major orchestral work that is preserved is a symphony in B-flat major in four movements, written for the society Utile Dulci in 1785. Like much of his theatre music, the symphony is inspired by Haydn’s works, which Zander often conducted. But in the symphony, one can even find influences from other composers of the Viennese classical school. With his richly contrasting instrumentation, where the theme switches from the wind instruments to the strings, his careful voice leading and the melodiously rich bass line, a picture of a seasoned and, for his time, very original composer emerges.

Minor works for piano, piano and violin and even one for harp were printed in Olof Åhlströms’s publication, Musikaliskt tidsfördrif. A few songs with piano accompaniment, as well as arias have also been preserved. Chamber music pieces include three string quartets, which were likely written during the 1770s. According to Swedish composer and musicologist Lennart Hedwall, these pieces are ‘pleasant entertaining music’ but they are stylistically fairly immature with lower harmony parts that lack autonomy.

Conclusion

Zander was known and appreciated as a theatre composer in his time. However, his musical comedies and vaudevilles, because of their texts, are closely tied to the era in which they were written. Three of these were still being performed after the composer’s death: Kopparslagaren, Kronfogdarne and Njug spar och fan tar. Kronfogdarne was especially popular and was played as late as in the 1840s. From Zander’s minor works, some of his songs were reproduced in various collections throughout the 1800s and two of his overtures – to Kopparslagaren and Lisette – were published as late as in 1988.

Veslemøy Heintz © 2013
Trans. Jill Ann Johnson