Josef Forster (composer)

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Josef Forster; photographed by Joseph Albert

Josef Forster (born January 20, 1838 in Trofaiach ( Styria ), † March 23, 1917 in Vienna ) was an Austrian composer .

biography

Josef Forster was the fourth of ten children of the Bohemian teacher and organist Jakob Forster and his second wife Klara, née. Helm, the daughter of a cathedral choirist from the Göss monastery . After initial musical training at home, he became a choirboy at the Admont Abbey High School , where he received further musical training from Franz Traunbauer. From 1854 training at the teacher training institute in Graz , at the same time completing a course for church music ; afterwards technical and mathematical studies at the Joanneum, later the Technical University of Graz . It was during this time that the first attempts at composing, now lost, were made. After completing his studies in Graz, he worked as a teacher and choirmaster in Trofaiach. In 1865 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying architecture, which he soon gave up. Activity as private teacher and (unsuccessful) inventor; Registration of several patents , especially in the field of optical devices as well as gun and engine development.

Forster made his debut as a composer - initially supported by Eduard Hanslick and Felix Otto Dessoff - with two string quartets and a romantic C minor symphony, which was largely negatively received by critics (first performed in 1871 by the Vienna Philharmonic under Dessoff). Performances of his comic opera "Die Pilfahrt der Königin" (1878) at the Ringtheater , as well as the ballets "Der Spielmann" (1881) and "Die Assassinen" (1883) - based on a poem by Archduke Johann Salvator (later: Johann Orth) the Vienna Court Opera . Thanks to Johann Salvator's support, he was awarded the Tuscan Knight's Cross for civil service in 1883. An application as Kapellmeister at the Burgtheater was unsuccessful.

Forster achieved his only major public success with the one-act play "Die Rose von Pontevedra " (first performance in Gotha in 1893 ), for which he received the first prize of an opera competition announced by the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha (2nd prize for the Opera Evanthia by the German composer Paul Umlauft ). The work, which is set in Spain in the first half of the 19th century, is considered one of the few successful examples of veristic opera in German and was performed on numerous stages in the German-speaking area until 1914 (12 performances at the Vienna Court Opera) . Forster was unable to follow up on this success with later work: his opera "Der dot Mon" (premiered in 1902 at the Vienna Court Opera), based on a carnival game by Hans Sachs , fell, despite positive reviews and the support of court opera director Gustav Mahler , who himself was the First performance conducted by the audience.

In the last years of his life, Forster was primarily concerned with mathematical problems: In the erroneous conviction that he had solved the problem of Fermat's Great Theorem , he let himself into a fruitless journalistic discussion with the committee of the, which was (rightly) completely ignored by the professional world Wolfskehl Prize . Forster died largely forgotten and impoverished in Vienna in 1917. His works were no longer performed after his death, there is only one record recording of one of his compositions to this day, namely an almost two-minute excerpt from "The dot Mon", recorded in May 1902 by the world premiere singer Margarete Michalek on a "Gramophone & Typewriter "record 43316 (republished on Rubini LP GV 72 and Marston CD 53004).

Works

  • Operas: Canot [lost]; The miracle doctor; The village coquette; Ines or The Queen's Pilgrimage; Siren [fragment]; The last days of Pompeii; The Rose of Pontevedra; Maria Tudor; The dot mon; The storm surge [in revised versions also as Wiarda and Flammen und Wau]; The grand master; Secret and love [lost].
  • Operettas: Uncle Trim [fragment]; Recruit and corporal [fragment].
  • Ballets: The minstrel; The assassins; The alchemist.
  • Instrumental music: Overture in C [lost]; Symphony in C minor [lost]; Two string quartets; Minuet for four horns; Waltz series "Die Hainbacher".
  • Choral works: choral masses; Mass for male singing; Offertory; Secular choral songs: Commerslied; The Adriawacht.
  • Mathematical studies: General elementary solution to Fermat's problem: X + y = z, n> 2 using the "Descendente Infinie" by Josef Forster, Vienna 1911; The "big puzzle" solved. Detailed explanation of the brochure by Josef Forster. “General elementary solution to Fermat's problem” along with several new proofs and solution formulas with numerical examples, Vienna 1912.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Forster, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Trofaiach
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1917
Place of death Vienna