The court of saxony–dresden

Abstract

DRESDEN – SEAT OF TWO SUCCESSIVE Saxon electors from the house of Wettin and elected kings of Poland – exemplifies a brilliant European court whose cultural climate and musical excellence was, by the mid-eighteenth century, equal to the best then offered. Developments of this era owed much to the personalities, tastes, and change of confession of the rulers whose leadership covered the years of the snapshots. For more than fifty years the music of Dresden reflected first the preference for French culture of Saxon Elector Friedrich August I (1670–1733; as king of Poland titled August II ‘the Strong’). On the other hand the highly developed musical tastes of his son and successor, Electoral Pr..