The New Noble Württemberg Rules for the Guild of Cornettists

Stuttgart / Printed by Christian Gottlieb Rößlin,
Book Printer of the Court and Chancellery, 1721

English Translation by Bruce Dickey and Katharina Haun

By the grace of God, we Eberhard Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg and Teck, etc. do hereby let it be known to all, that the cornettists residing in our entire duchy and lands are humbly asked to confirm all the points that they have examined together and sent to us, which are from now on to be observed with respect to apprentices, journeymen and everything else related to their privileged art.

And we then gracefully submit that there is great worth and value in a good order, and that a lack thereof leads to all kinds of mischief; therefore we have thoroughly considered the above-mentioned points and created a set of rules which shall from now on be recognized and followed with regard to the cornettists’ art in all of the following points. 

1) Whoever in the future wishes to make a profession of the art of music and thereby be accepted as an apprentice for instruction, must first of all be born of honest parents, and document that with a legitimate certificate, which the teacher must then keep in his care and give back together with the letter of indenture, upon conclusion of the apprenticeship. 

 2) Such a youth who has been officially accepted for instruction by an upstanding and acknowledged cornettist, shall perform for this same teacher with diligence, honesty and modesty and obey him respectfully. 

 3) Such a youth, with his parents or guardians must register with his master as well as by letter with the guild treasury, no matter whether this latter be a cornettist’s son or not, so that he may study for five years after initial payment into the treasury of 30 crowns as a registration fee. And it must be registered in a special book how and in what form the contract for teaching fees has been agreed upon and on what day and year this has taken place. Moreover a regular letter of indenture must be prepared in duplicate and one copy given to the teaching master and the other to the parents or guardians of the apprentice.

 4) If, however, a prospective apprentice be poor, he may be accepted for six years of study without fee. 

 5) Should an apprentice, without sufficient grounds, leave his apprenticeship and then wish to come back to his master, he must, the first time, make up a quarter year. Should it happen a second time, a half year, and on a third time he should not be accepted again. 

 6) Should an apprentice no longer return to his master, he shall not only lose the fees he has paid, but also, after the authorities have been informed, shall be fined. In this regard, a teaching master must be required to hold onto his apprentice so that he not have grounds to go out of his service. Should this not be the case, on the judgement of the authorities, he may also be fined. 

 7) And so that, with regard to the teaching fees, both the master and the apprentice can be protected, half of the fee should be paid upon entry into the apprenticeship, and the other half when it is halfway finished. 

 8) Should the teaching master die after one year, the paid half of the fees shall be forfeited and another cornettist shall be engaged with a payment of the other half of the fees. 

9) If an apprentice should die several months after his entry into the apprenticeship period, and the first half of the teaching fees have been paid, and his parents or guardians request to get back the said fees, and the two sides cannot come to an agreement about this, then the authorities of the relevant place should decide. 

 10) After the apprenticeship has been completed, when the apprentice is let go (whereupon he has 30 crowns to pay into the treasury) and before he is recognized as a journeyman, and so that also for him this proclamation can be made, the master must, at the expense of the apprentice, have a letter of indenture prepared by which the apprentice will be bound to serve for three years away from home as journeyman to other cornettists. If he were to find a position before this time has passed, he shall claim with us for dispensation, and after getting it, he shall settle it with the musical treasury.

 11) If a master has three or four journeymen, he should also have three apprentices, but should he have one or two journeymen, then he can have two apprentices, but in the latter case, one of the apprentices should have already finished half of his apprenticeship. 

12) The journeymen must serve their master with loyalty, care and diligence and also if they have free time, they should help teach the apprentices.

 13) At the same time, if the city cornettist is absent, the oldest journeyman should serve for any weddings and other engagements that occur without complaining. The other fellow journeymen should follow his orders obediently just as if the master were present.

 14) If a journeyman should wish to leave for another engagement, he should let his master know a quarter of a year in advance or organize another capable replacement. If he fails to do so, he should, after a citation, be fined by the musical treasury.

 15) In the same way a master should not lay his journeyman off without advance warning or he should be penalized. If there is a valid reason, however, the master has the right to send his journeyman away without warning.

 16) In order to prevent a journeyman from hiding an outstanding debt or offence, each arriving journeyman should give a vow to a local official before he is taken into service. In the same way he should not part before paying his debts. Should this happen, he can be located and penalized by the help of authorities.

 17) Should a journeyman fall ill or even die, the medical or funeral costs should, if he is poor, be paid out of the musical treasury. If his parents or friends have the means, these costs should only be advanced by the treasury and his parents or friends should be asked to reimburse the money.

 18) If one has learned the cornettist’s profession and decides to change to another one, he is accountable to the latter profession and may not turn back again to the former one against penalty of a fine from the authorities. 

19) When one finishes his years of learning and travel as is required and is accepted as a city cornettist, he must pass an examination in the presence of a deputy of the magistrate, as well as a neighboring cornettist and a journeyman. He must also pay two gulden into the musical treasury.

 [And then]

20) Viigilant care should be exercised that the journeymen and apprentices should behave honorably at weddings and other events, that they should not curse or swear or drink excessively. Anyone who transgresses shall be fined 45 kr. to the musical treasury. 

21) None in this profession, whether master, journeyman, or apprentice should dare to play, at outside events, the bagpipes of whatever sort including the Polish Böck, lyres, triangle and similar non-musical instruments. Transgressors will be fined two gulden after being brought before the representatives of the guild. 

 22) As stated in the decree of June 17, 1719, playing at weddings and other permitted dances is only allowed to properly accepted cornettists and not to pipers and other minstrels. These fumblers must desist or be punished with an arbitrary fine.

 23) Should a cornettist, in a city or department where he is properly responsible, take over the weddings and other engagements of another cornettist, he is obliged to pay a small fine for this outrage, which is to be settled with us.

 24) If it is not possible for a cornettist to play at all the weddings, he is authorized to engage other neighboring cornettists or their journeymen in his place.

 25) To people who are poor, the cornettist should not go with many, but only go with about two journeymen, and

 26) In order not to burden anyone with the payment, our “merciful decree” (gnädigste Verordnung) states that cornettists from employers in cities and villages, where many instruments are being played, should receive 1 fl. no matter whether it is a master, a journeyman or an apprentice. If they only need violins they should just ask for 40 kr. and from the common folk in the countryside only 30 kr.

 27) It is forbidden upon fine and exclusion from the profession, for a journeyman or apprentice to teach anyone, whoever they might be, to play the cornett or the trombone, unless in a remote little village one or two honest craftsman would like to play in church for the honor of God and would like to learn such an instrument, in which case they may learn the trombone but not the cornett.

 28) Also, where in small towns there are one or two honest citizens who have some knowledge of music and who would like to play not only in the Holy Mass but every now and then also in other events, and the cornettist in loco has no journeymen, he should be allowed to do that, and even to ask another honest citizen to join him. But if a cornettist has time and space to ask his neighboring musicians and does not do that, but takes such a citizen instead, he should pay 2 fl. into the musical treasury. He must, however, in no case ask a piper or minstrel, as that would never be allowed.

 29) Should a cornettist ask a neighboring colleague to play at a wedding or other event, and the latter promises to be there at a certain time and then does not show up, he should be properly fined by the local officials (unless he has a valid excuse for his absence).

 30) Should it be necessary for a cornettist to be replaced by an assistant, out of reasons of old age or indisposition, it is in no way allowed that he teach, employ or release an apprentice. These things are still responsibilities of the aged cornettist unless he gives these powers voluntarily to the assistant, or he is dying, in which case everything follows the prescribed path.

 31) Every cornettist should pay properly his journeyman and also his neighboring colleagues from the same profession for weddings and other events without giving himself an advantage or reducing it. In such a case, he should not only pay the musical treasury 2 fl. but his journeymen should also be allowed to leave immediately until the fine is paid off.

 32) In case it should happen, that cornettists in the land are getting into fights or quarrels or one or the other of them is acting against the Art and it came to the attention of the musical treasury, the proper authorities should examine, consider and respectively punish those responsible.

 33) In our city of Stuttgart a musical treasury has been created with the Stadt-Musico (the head municiple musician) responsible for its administration and accounting. Yearly, every cornettist shall pay 1 fl. and every journeyman 30 kr. as a guild membership fee.

 34) To uphold the welfare of the profession a general assembly will take place every other year in Stuttgart during Lent in the presence of one of the magistrates. New members will be accepted and those whose actions have broken the rules will be spoken to. The guild rules will be read and afterwards there will be a round whereby complaints will be dealt with,  outstanding payments will be collected, and the salary of the Stadt-Musico will be deducted and justified. Should extraordinary matters of urgency come up, it is possible that the profession will organize a meeting at another time.

35) At assemblies of this sort the masters and the journeymen should always present themselves humbly and respectfully. They should not complain or make other indecent comments. Should they do such, masters will need to pay 1 fl., journeymen 45 kr. as a punishment. Should anyone be aware of a punishable offence but does not state it at the general assembly, he should also pay the same penalty. From all the penalties one third should go to the general fund (“Rent-Cammer”), the second to the collection for those in financial distress (“die armen Casten”) and the third part to the profession.

 If we now want to see the present decree taken seriously in all of its points, everyone has to follow it, the authorities must uphold it and no one should work against it in any way. We reserve the possibility of amendments  to these rules to change, reduce or broaden them,  or to remove parts of them if necessary.

 To verify this document we have placed next to our baronial signature, the seal of our chancellery. This happened in Ludwigsburg, August 18th, anno 1721.

Eberhard Ludwig.