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Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia’s first seventeen years were spent under the overbearing and abusive influence of her father. He forbade the study of artistic or intellectual pursuits, which he viewed as frivolous. However, Anna Amalia and two of her siblings were very musically inclined and studied music in secret. Her elder brother, Frederick II (Frederick the Great), taught her to play the harpsichord as well as the violin and the flute, which were taboo for women at the time. After her father died, Anna Amalia was finally able to study music formally, though she didn’t begin to compose regularly until she was in her forties. Very few of her works survive today—she described herself as a perfectionist and is suspected of destroying most of her manuscripts.
Anna Amalia owned an impressive collection of musical scores that are credited with spurring the J. S. Bach revival in the mid-1800s. Anna Amalia’s Flute Sonata in F major is written in typical galant style and structure: it has three movements and a basso continuo line that steers the piece’s harmony despite its simplicity. She incorporates virtuosic ornamentation and surprising harmonic turns without breaking the Sonata’s elegant and poised character. -Alexa Raine-Wright |
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