ABSTRACT
The concept of an eighteenth-century musical Reichsstil, or imperial style, emanating from Vienna and disseminating at least in a northwesterly direction from the Habsburg’s capital throughout Europe, was put forward over a quarter of a century ago by F.W. Riedel. 1 Since then bits and pieces of evidence have gradually come forward, such as the recently published copy by J.S. Bach of Francesco Conti’s Languet anima mea, 2 to support the thesis that the transmission of music in a good part of eighteenth-century Europe travelled in directions that not only corresponded to the geo-political outlines of the sprawling Austrian Empire as it existed at that time, but even trespassed them.
