A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Redoute

by Carl Ferdinand Pohl

REDOUTE. Public assemblies at which the guests appeared with or without masks at pleasure. The word is French, and is explained by Voltaire and Littré as being derived from the Italian ridotto—perhaps with some analogy to the word 'resort.' The building used for the purpose in Vienna, erected in 1748, and rebuilt in stone in 1754, forms part of the Burg or Imperial Palace, the side of the oblong facing the Josephs-Platz. There was a grosse and a kleine Redoutensaal. In the latter Beethoven played a concerto of his own at a concert of Haydn's, Dec. 18, 1795. The rooms were used for concerts till within the last ten years. The masked balls were held there during the Carnival, from Twelfth Night to Shrove Tuesday, and occasionally in the weeks preceding Advent; some being public, i.e. open to all on payment of an entrance fee, and others private. Special nights were reserved for the court and the nobility. The 'Redoutentänze'—Minuets, Allemandes, Contredanses, Schottisches, Anglaises, and Ländler—were composed for full orchestra, and published (mostly by Artaria) for pianoforte. ^[1]Mozart, Haydn, ^[2]Beethoven, Hummel, Woelfl, Gyrowetz, and others, have left dances written for this purpose. Under the Italian form of Ridotto, the term was much employed in England in the last century.

[ C. F. P. ]

1. See Köchel's Catalogue. No. 599, etc.
2. See Nottebohm's Thematic Catalogue, Section ii, pages 135–137.