Johann Dubez

Pencil drawing after a portrait

Johann Dubez (* 8. March 1828 in Neulerchenfeld in Vienna ; † 27. October 1891 in Währing ) was an Austrian composer and harp - zither -, concertina - and guitar virtuoso .

Life

Dubez 'birthplace Neulerchenfeld was outside the so-called line wall, the tax limit for food and gastronomy. This favored a specific inn culture and thus also a largely folk-musical musical life at the gates of Vienna. Johann Strauss (father) and the brothers Johann and Josef Schrammel performed there during the 19th century.

How Dubez came to music is largely unclear. It is certain that from 1840 he received guitar lessons from Johann Kaspar Mertz . Dubez 'siblings, Anna, Peter and Josef, were also professional musicians. Anna Dubez worked as a harpist in the orchestra of the grand ducal court in Schwerin, and occasionally took part as a zither player in Strauss' performances and tours. She was obviously a recognized virtuoso, because Charles Oberthür dedicated at least one work for harp to her. Josef Dubez was Kapellmeister of the Deutschmeister and lived in Budapest in the 1870s. Peter Dubez was also a harpist. He arranged harp parts for Richard Wagner and was in contact with Franz Liszt, from whose piano works he also composed harp arrangements.

Because of the problematic economic conditions in Neulerchenfeld, the young Johann Dubez was forced to earn his living at an early age. From 1847 he was noted as a violinist in the orchestra of the theater in der Josefstadt . During this time he also appeared as a guitarist. In addition to the teaching relationship with Mertz, the relationship with Giulio Regondi should also be mentioned. He gave a concert in Vienna in the winter of 1840/41 and is likely to have met Dubez there. There are numerous indications that support a friendship or teaching relationship with Regondi. Regondi probably stayed in Vienna later and met with Dubez from time to time during these stays. What is remarkable is the fact that Dubez also played the English concertina played by Regondi , an instrument that was otherwise not represented in Vienna. This can serve as one of the clearest indications of a direct relationship between the two musicians. In addition, Dubez may have played works by Regondi in his first concerts.

Dubez also played the harp intensely. The harp was in a similar situation to the guitar in the second half of the 19th century. After the death of the famous harpist Elias Parish Alvars , Dubez worked as his successor in the service of Countess Johanna von Esterházy in Hietzing .

In the 1850s, the zither developed into a fashion instrument in Vienna. Dubez recognized the signs of the times, the crisis of the guitar and the harp, and became involved in the zither. Not only as a composer and practicing zither virtuoso, but also as an organizer and functionary, he was the president of the First Vienna Zither Club and thus helped to establish the zither in the city's musical life. He resigned from this position in 1886.

In the 1870s Dubez led a string quartet he founded . Concerts have been handed down in the contemporary Viennese press. However, the competitive situation in Vienna was extraordinary for this line-up; the Hellmesberger Quartet , the Joachim Quartet and the Florentine Quartet founded by Jean Becker , the best quartet combinations of the time, gave concerts in a comparable context . After the death of second violinist Henri Clerc, the quartet disbanded, and Dubez has since performed mainly on guitar, harp, zither and concertina.

Dubez 'tour in 1882 to the countries of the Balkans and Turkey is remarkable. There he was awarded the Order of Mecidiye Nişanı by Sultan Abdülhamit II . This was not his first extensive concert tour. He had traveled to Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany before. Further concert tours took him to Italy. All of these concert tours can be explained by his connections to the highest circles in Viennese society. His students (in the broader sense) included Countess Esterházy, the Serbian Prince Mihailo Obrenović and members of the Viennese money nobility, such as Anna Ephrussi from the banking family of the same name and the Serbian government banker Demeter Theodor Tirka. This explains that Dubez appeared before the members of the ruling houses of Serbia, Romania and Turkey on the 1882 journey.

Dubez died on October 27, 1891 in Währing and is buried in Vienna's central cemetery.

meaning

Dubez's importance can be explained by his work on the various instruments. As a representative of the concertina, he stands as a singular phenomenon; the concertina played by Dubez is identical to the English type of Wheaton's concertina.

Both as a guitarist and as a harpist Dubez worked at a time when these two instruments were overtaken by developments in the piano. Neither guitar nor harp concerts were represented to a large extent in Vienna in the second half of the 19th century. Nevertheless Dubez asserted himself with these instruments and, above all, as a guitarist, had a connection function between the heyday of the guitar in Vienna (until around 1830) and the revival of guitar playing around 1900. His guitar works reflect the influences of Regondi and Mertz and are among the most virtuoso Works in all literature. Nevertheless, it is almost exclusively music that takes into account the taste of the time - it is mostly operatic potpourris and paraphrases .

In his functions as president of the Vienna Zither Associations, the 1st Vienna Zither Club and the Vienna Zither Association, he held an outstanding position as a zither player and composer. This enabled him to maintain contact with the imperial court - the Empress herself was an enthusiastic zither player - and to make the zither heard in the highest circles.

Literature and works

• Michael Sieberichs-Nau: Johann Dubez. Biography and catalog raisonné . Vienna 2009

Works

• Sheet music editions: Fantaisie sur des motifs hongrois. Edited by Michael Sieberichs-Nau. Chanterelle Verlag, Heidelberg 2009, ECH 438
• Fantaisie sur des motifs hongrois. Ed. Matanya Ophee. Editions Orphee

Michael Sieberichs-Nau's biography contains a comprehensive catalog of works. With the exception of the violin and string quartet, Dubez composed for all the instruments he played as a soloist, the few works for the concertina have been lost.

An extensive inventory of manuscripts (partly autograph) is in the Swedish Music Collection ( Statens Musikbibliotek ) in Stockholm and is available for download as a PDF digitized free of charge. Another large collection of works, especially harp and zither works, is in the major Viennese libraries, the Vienna library, the Austrian national library and the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.

Web links

• Works by and about Johann Dubez in the catalog of the German National Library
• Further information on the website of Michael Sieberichs-Nau
• Manuscripts in the Swedish Music Collection in Stockholm
• Prints in the Rischel & Birket-Smith Collection in the Royal Library of Copenhagen

Footnotes and individual references

1. ^ Sieberichs-Nau, Michael: Johann Dubez. Biography and catalog raisonné. Vienna 2009 (music publisher Alexander Mayer)
2. ↑ The name refers to Bohemia, Moravia or Schlesen, where the name often appears in place names. See Art. Dubečno
3. ↑ In the programs of his first concerts, a fantasy about "The Huguenots" is mentioned. Regondi also played such a work - among other things during his concert tour in Vienna. Neither Regondi nor Dubez have received any manuscripts, but it is quite likely that the work in Dubez's programs was Regondi's version.
4. ^ Mayer, Alexander: Historical and sociological aspects of the zither in wine / The zither in Ottakring. Vienna 2007 (music publisher Alexander Mayer)