Georg Dietrich Otten

Georg Dietrich Otten (born February 8, 1806 in Hamburg ; † July 28, 1890 at Vevey ) was a German composer and conductor.

Life

He studied with Friedrich Schneider in Dessau from 1828 to 1832 . In Hamburg he worked as a music teacher, choir director and conductor. Otten was friends with Johannes Brahms , who temporarily lived in Ottens house, and Robert Schumann , with whom he exchanged letters.

Together with Theodor Avé-Lallemant , the Lübeck music director Gottfried Herrmann and the music journalist August Gathy , Otten was involved in founding the North German Music Association in 1839.

From 1839 he organized and conducted concerts in Hamburg, in which between 120 and 200 singers and between 40 and 60 instrumentalists took part, mostly as charity events. Many newer and contemporary works were performed in the city for the first time. In Hamburg he also founded a second singing academy with younger singers, gave lectures on the art of music and prepared an expert opinion on church music on behalf of the church authorities after the traditional post of Hamburg church music director was not filled again after the death of Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke in 1822. The music festival in 1841 was a high point in Hamburg's musical life. a. with performances by the pianist Franz Liszt and a performance of the oratorio Messiah in the St. Michaelis Church , conducted by Friedrich Schneider , for which Otten conducted the rehearsals. The plans pursued by the Musikverein to found a conservatory in Hamburg, however, failed as a result of the Hamburg fire in early May 1842.

In 1853 Otten ran for director of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin , together with the Bautzen music director Carl Eduard Hering and the ultimately elected deputy director Eduard Grell . In 1856 Otten founded the Hamburger Musikverein, of which he remained chairman until 1863.

family

Georg Dietrich Otten had been married to Octavia Maria Schroeder, sister of Hamburg Senator Octavio Hermann Schroeder , since 1835 . The marriage resulted in three sons (Hans Georg Max, Wolfgang Alwin and Franz Raimund) and two daughters (Octavia Margarethe Constanze and Maria Elisabeth). He was the father-in-law of the lawyer Rudolf Schlesinger and the grandfather of the Magdeburg physician Max Otten .

literature

• August Gathy, GD Otten in Hamburg, in: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , Volume 38, No. 13 of March 25, 1853, pp. 140-142 online version
• Josef Sittard, History of Music and Concert Music in Hamburg from the 14th Century to the Present , Hamburg 1890, pp. 208ff. ( Digitized version )
• Kurt Stephenson, Johannes Brahms and Georg Dietrich Otten. Reprint from the 1962 festschrift for Karl Fellerer , Brahms Society, Hamburg 1972
• Gerd Nauhaus , Otten, Georg Dietrich (Biographical Note, English), in ders. (Ed.): The marriage diaries of Robert & Clara Schumann: from their wedding day through the Russia trip , Northeastern University Press, 1993, page 383.