Anna Amalia

Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was born in Wolfenbüttel in October 1739, the daughter of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia. She received an extensive musical education from childhood, studying harpsichord, piano, flute, guitar and harp. Married at sixteen to Ernst August II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, she was widowed within two years and became regent of the duchy until her son Carl August came of age in 1775.

Her years as regent and afterwards transformed the small Weimar court into one of the most influential cultural centres of late eighteenth-century Germany — the *Musenhof* or “court of muses” — drawing Goethe, Schiller, Wieland and Herder into a circle that would shape Weimar Classicism. As a composer she wrote in the *Empfindsamkeit* style, blending song and arioso, and produced two Singspiele to Goethe’s texts: *Erwin und Elmire* (1776) and *Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilern* (1778). Recent decades have brought further attributions to light from previously unidentified manuscripts.

After Carl August’s accession she withdrew from political life and toured Italy from 1788 to 1790, accompanied for part of the journey by Goethe. She returned to Weimar in 1790 and died there in April 1807. Music Preserved’s archive includes a selection of her chamber and vocal works in modern performance.