The Spelling of Wanhal’s Family Name

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The question of the appropriate spelling of this composer’s name has concerned me since 1949 when I first became interested in the man and his symphonies. At that time my interest was encouraged by two well-known scholars: Alfred Einstein, a native German specialist in Mozart, and his younger Danish contemporary, Jens Peter Larsen, a Joseph Haydn specialist. Einstein named him "Wanhall," and Larsen referred to him as "Vanhal." At the same time the article on "Wanhal" in Baker’s Biographical Dictionary (4th ed. 1940) listed two dissertations from German universities: "M. v. Dewitz, V[anhal], sein Leben und Klavierwerke," which was completed in 1933, and "G. Wolters, J. W[anhal] als Sinfoniker" which was never finished. Again, the lack of agreement was evident. Strangely to me (to this day) the Dewitz dissertation spelled the composers’ name, Jean Baptiste Vanhal, without any explanation for the choice of the French spelling, even though the entire book is written in German. My interest was piqued, but I quickly discovered that, in the immediate post-World War II years, the W spelling was employed by the leading musical sources such as Eitner’s Quellen-Lexikon, the leading musical dictionaries like Groves (3rd ed.), and Baker, by all the major archives such as the British Museum and the Library of Congress, and by most of the leading scholars except for Larsen.

As my investigation continued, I became increasingly aware of the V spelling, chiefly because it appeared consistently in the Breitkopf Catalog, in Burney’s articles, and from the several articles Larsen had written during his controversy with Sandberger. The problem was mentioned in my dissertation which was based on the prints and other secondary-source material then available. It recounts that I had inventoried 123 "title pages and other contemporary references" and found eleven different spellings. By the time I signed the final draft of my dissertation in 1954 I had, for unexplained reasons, adopted the V spelling.

In retrospect, my decision reflected the influence of Gracian Černušák, whose short article included in the 4th (1940) edition of Groves Dictionary identified him as VAŇHAL. Jan (Křtitel), and by Milan Poštolka’s article with the same title in MGG (a brand-new and very impressive source, ca. 1951). Later, during the post-war period, Poštolka wrote a completely revised article on "Vanhal [van Hal, Vanhall, Wanhal etc.], Johann Baptist [Jan Křtitel; Jan Ignatius]" that was included in the 1980 edition of The New Groves, and that began by characterizing him as a "Czech composer and music teacher active in Vienna."

My personal respect and high regard for Dr. PoÅ¡tolka, as well as my gratitude for his cooperation, have been previously stated and are not questioned here. But his and Gracian ÄŒernušák’s attempts to portray Wanhal as a Czech composer were simply not valid, because the Czech nation did not exist during Wanhal’s lifetime and would not even have been comprehended. Nor would Wanhal have seen the modern-day Czech spelling of the middle name, KÅ™titel. He would have seen Baptist as he himself wrote it or the the Latin, Ignatius, which appears in various family records cited in FiÅ¡erVanhal. The use of KÅ™titel in present day sources has given a distorted impression to many modern scholars.¹

The V spelling even gives the impression that he was a non-Germanic composer (since several of the German writers, such as Forkel and Junker, reflect the influence of Burney’s Tagebuch, rather than their normal phonetic response). Wanhal’s home was, however, Vienna from the time he was twenty-one until he died fifty-three years later in 1813. He was, therefore, a Viennese composer who was born in Bohemia, a kingdom that was part of the Hapsburg’s Austrian Monarchy. Incidentally, the illustration used in the New Groves article seems, in a perverse way, to accentuate the inaccurate characterization of Wanhal: it reproduces J. J. Hummel’s print of a symphony by Rosetti (that was pirated from a French print of Bailleux) and ascribes it to "Vanhal." The practices of the eighteenth-century music publishers still cause confusion! Even more distressing is the same print's reappearance in the most recent edition of The New Grove, 2^nd edition.

Regarding the preferred spelling of Wanhal’s family name, it gradually became clear to me that the support for the V spelling stemmed from two sources: attempts, in a politically critical period for Czechs, to portray Wanhal as a Czech composer, and the mechanics of phonetics. In the former case, the two scholars, Černušák and Poštolka, I concluded, had merely surrendered to the dictates of a political regime which governed their very existence (one of the unfortunate and little recognized results of those terrible years). The latter is equally simple: the pronunciation of V is automatically depicted as W in the minds of persons whose native language is German and as V in most others’.

To return to the eighteenth century: Burney, whose brief account of his 1772 visit to "Vanhal" literally determined the opinions and attitudes of his many readers, also influenced the way his name was spelled. The influence even extended to the non-Viennese German-speaking critics who bought the German edition (Tagebuch . . . published in 1773, the same year as the original English edition of The Present State . . .). During his short stay in Vienna Burney may never have seen the way Wanhal or the Viennese spelled his name. If so, he would have seen Wanhal or Wanhall.

The French, too, were influenced by the "V" which was visualized by the sound of Wanhal’s name. Their confusion is reflected on many of their title pages and the catalogs they printed with the performance parts of his symphonies. The single column of symphonies in the catalog included with Bailleux’s op. 25 has, e.g., three different versions of the name: Wanhall, Vanhal, and Vanhall. The phonetic spelling with V was used almost exclusively by the English publishers, and even those Germans, who were influenced by the French. One of the most important was Hummel, whose title pages were in French, and who pirated directly from the prints of Bailleux in the 1780's. The music handler Breitkopf was quite likely also influenced by the French; the consistent use of VANHALL in his catalog provided the largest number of "V" spellings for the survey I made in 1954. Jens Peter Larsen probably spelled it with a V for the same phonetic reasons. These multiple uses of the V spelling were, therefore, an innocent by-product of the phonetic phenomenon that occurred outside of the Viennese sphere where Wanhal was active.

Nevertheless, an intrusion of the V spelling into the Viennese consciousness can be seen by comparing two issues of the Wiener Diarium. The copyist Simon Haschke’s advertisement for "Musikalien . . . der besten Meister . . ." on the last page of "Num. 3 Sonnabend den 9. Jänner 1768," includes Wanhal among the composers listed—the first time his name appears in that important chronicle. The V spelling, Vanhall, first appears in the guise of Oeuvre I and II printed in Paris by Huberty and advertised in the Wiener Diarium edition of February 1770. Regardless, the native Viennese, represented by publications such as the Wiener Diarium, the Vaterländische Blätter für den österreichischen Kaiserstaat, Der Aufmerksame, and Wurzbach’s Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Oesterreich, commonly printed the name with a W—the music publishers overwhelmingly preferred it. That would have been, and would be the, natural reaction of any German-speaking person who was not influenced otherwise.

By now, the bias of the articles in MGG, NG, the Dewitz dissertation (with the name spelled in French), and perhaps to some extent, my own dissertation,² have helped to establish a foothold for the V spelling that is possibly stronger than the W spelling in the minds of the present-day scholarly community. The W spelling was, notwithstanding, used in Alexander Weinmann’s recent catalog of all Wanhal’s compositions other than the symphonies, and is still found in new publications, and current sourcebooks—and is cross referenced in the ones that do not.

An analogous situation would be if the name of Jan Stamic, a Bohemian-born composer, were spelled that way in MGG and NG. It is not; that spelling is not even cited among the names which follow that entry in either publication; it is presented as Johann Stamitz—as he was called during his mature years in Germany. Similarly (and perversely) inconsistent is that in both publications the name of the Bohemian lexicographer, Dlabačz, is spelled in the Czech version, Dlabač—even though he himself spelled it in the German form in his own Lexikon.

Wanhal’s situation is akin to that of Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart who, in 1770, decided that he wanted to be called Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, and Carl Ditters who signed himself as Carl Dittersdorf (and is now universally recognized as Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf), and Anton Rössler from Leitmeritz, Bohemia who chose to be known as Antonio Rosetti (the identity that is likewise accepted by all). Unfortunately for Wanhal, he has not been accorded a similar privilege. In fact he seems to be unique— the only composer who is remembered by a name that was chosen in modern times for political purposes.

As a postscript to this discussion about the preferred spelling of Wanhal’s family name, another element must also be mentioned: that variant spellings of his first and second names were also used at the time: Giovanni, and Battista. Both are sometimes found on titles pages of symphonies copied by Viennese copyists. Giovanni very frequently appears on title pages of later symphonies, apparently copied after Wanhal’s sojourn in Italy was completed. Its abbreviation "G." is also seen on the title page of Artaria’s print of the op. 33 quartets, reproduced here. The purpose in all of these cases was clearly to exploit the glamorous aura generated by Wanhal’s Italian connection. Artaria, by including three languages: Italian with the G, German with the W, and Bohemian with the dot over the n, adds an interesting twist to the considerations of the most appropriate spelling of Wanhal’s name. Artaria was, of course, trying to turn it to his own advantage. It may be added to the list of techniques used by eighteenth-century publishers to promote their products.

From title page to Artaria's print of Wanhal's String Quartets, Op. 33.

It should further be noted that the few family ancestral records, chosen by Fišer and reproduced in his dissertation, range from 1677 to 1760 and include at least as many W’s (Wanhals) as V’s (Vanhals). If the V spelling is eventually proven to have been the original form, it must be recognized that the germanization process was obviously well under way long before Wanhal departed from Bohemia ca. 1760. He most likely spelled it with a W even before he arrived in Vienna because he wanted to assume a new identity. Whether or not he always included the dotted n (the earlier version of the modern haček) cannot now be determined, but I strongly believe that, by carefully writing it with the dot over the n and thus mixing the German and Bohemian languages, he was declaring that he was a Viennese composer who was proud of his Bohemian heritage.

In the years since 1967 when I returned to the studies which led to BryanWanhal, I have sought to establish direct contacts with Wanhal, through as much primary material as I could find. Fortunately, I have found a few autograph signatures. All but one of the examples known to me are reproduced in Fig. 7.1. in Appendix D of BryanWanhal.³ Three of them clearly include the n with a dot; the fourth one, written on his death bed, lacks the dot, but the signature appears weak and wavering. As he wrote he may have been taking his last breath. The x’s even suggest that his hand was guided by one of the witnesses, or that the name was actually written by someone else. Regardless, four of the extant autographs were signed during his mature years and are spelled "Wanhal." It is the most direct contact I have found to him and it shows that he preferred to be known as Johann Baptist Wanhal—with the dot over the n.

 

^{1 The situation was noted by David Wyn Jones, who wryly commented in his dissertation that "The modern Czech spelling of the composer’s name is Jan Křtitel Vaňhal, and mis-applied pedantry sometimes prompted by overzealous nationalism has occasionally led to the adoption of this form." See JonesVanhalQuartets, 42-43.}

^{2 The spelling used with my edition of five symphonies (VanhalFiveSymphonies) was used in spite of my protest—as may be seen in fn. no. 2 on page xli. Similarly, the bibliographic citation of my dissertation in NG as Vaňhal was determined by Poštolka.}

^{3 In the days immediately before submitting the final version of BryanWanhal to Pendragon Press, I saw another Wanhal autograph in the Library of Congress. At this juncture there is no time to analyze and report its contents—other than to note that, in this document, dated 1789, Wanhal added one more instance of the way he preferred to spell his family name: Wanhal. See Appendix D of BryanWanhal, Autographs, footnote no. 1.}

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