The court of Brandenburg-Prussia

THE PrussiaN HOHENZOLLERN KINGS were descendants of the 'Great Elector' Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg (r. 1640-88) and his first wife, Luise Henriette of Orange (1627-1667). UnderElector Friedrich III - crowned as Prussian King Friedrich I in 1701 - and his second wife, Sophie Charlotte (d. 1705), music rose to a central place in Hohenzollern court life. Under Friedrich Wilhelm I (r. 1713-40), music was all but exiled to the military. Yet chamber music continued to be fostered by Queen Sophie Dorothea (1687-1757), daughter of King George I of England, who supported her children's musical education. Crown Prince Friedrich (1712-1786) and Princesses Wilhelmine (1709-1758), Luise Ulrike (1720-1782), and Anna Amalie (1723-1787) became accomplished musicians and significant patrons of the arts. During the 1730s Friedrich and his sister Wilhelmine (Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth from 1735) would establish significant Hofkapellen of their own. Under Friedrich II (king from 1740), Prussia became a major European power with a corresponding cultural agenda. The court orchestra flourished until the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756, and the capital became a centre for public and private music making. Friedrich's younger brothers, Princes August Wilhelm, Ferdinand, and Heinrich, also established Hofkapellen, and his youngest sister Princess Amalie playedseveral instruments, composed, and developed a keen interest in contrapuntal music, collecting scores that served as a foundation for the cultivation of music by Handel and members of the Bach family.