Joseph Drechsler

Joseph Drechsler (1844)

Joseph Drechsler (born May 26, 1782 in Wällischbirken , Bohemia , † February 27, 1852 in Vienna ) was a composer and music teacher .

Life

Drechsler received his first musical instruction from his father, who was a cantor and school teacher in Drechsler's hometown. At the age of 10 he became a choirboy in Passau , later he learned harmony and figured bass with a certain Grotius in the "Benedictine monastery Florenbach". (It is well to Vornbach am Inn . Grotius probably a Latinization of Grotz, the organist of this monastery was.) In Passau, he studied philosophy , then went to Prague to join the theology to dedicate, but turned as too young for consecration , finally to jurisprudence . During his stay in Prague he was likely to have developed a lively compositional activity, a Missa Solemnis (1804), various works for pianoforte and a romance for voice and piano originate from this period .

Drechsler did not finish his studies, however, but followed a call from theater director Karl Friedrich Hensler to Vienna as Kapellmeister at the Leopoldstadt Theater in 1807 . Obviously there were conditions there that Drechsler did not like, so that he decided not to take up the position and to live on private music lessons. In 1810 he became a répétiteur at the kk Hofopertheater and in 1812 was promoted to Kapellmeister adjunct. This year also marks his first Singspiel “Die Feldmühle”, which was performed in the Kärntnertortheater on September 29th. Due to restrictions at the court opera theater, Drechsler lost this position again and became orchestra director at the theaters in Baden and Pressburg. Tired of “this messing around”, as he himself called it, he accepted the position of organist at the Servite Church in Vienna (1815). At the same time he opened a music school and gave lessons in figured bass and organ . In the following year he became regenschori in the Church of St. Anna and a few years later (1823) Kapellmeister at the University Church and the parish at the court.

But he did not give up his opera and theater ambitions either. From 1821 to 1822 he was Kapellmeister in the Theater in der Josefstadt , where in October 1822 his music for “The Image of the Prince” by Karl Meisl was performed together with Beethoven's “ The Consecration of the House ”. Beethoven and Drechsler knew each other personally, as entries in Beethoven's conversation notebooks show. In 1822 Drechsler became Kapellmeister in the Leopoldstadt Theater. During his employment at this theater he composed the music for 35 operas , singspiele , operettas and plays , including three works by Ferdinand Raimund , namely: " The diamond of the ghost king " (1824), " The girl from the fairy world " (1826) and " The ominous magic crown ”(1829).

In 1830 Drechsler gave up this position again, however, as important members of the ensemble had left the theater and devoted themselves mainly to teaching, in addition to which he held the office of regenschori of the church at the court. His theoretical teaching works, an organ school and a guide to preluding, which were published without a year, probably fall during this time. He had published a theory of harmony and basso continuo as early as 1816.

In 1844, after the death of the previous Kapellmeister Johann Baptist Gänsbacher, he took up the position of Cathedral Kapellmeister at St. Stephan , for which he had previously applied unsuccessfully in 1823. He held this post until the end of his life on February 27, 1852, at the age of seventy. He was buried at the Sankt Marxer Friedhof in Vienna.

In 1894, Drechslergasse in Vienna- Penzing (14th district) was named after him.

plant

The emphasis of Joseph Drechsler's work is certainly in two areas: On the one hand in the area of ​​stage works, the quantity of which is striking (Drechsler has set to music around 50 stage works), but which can certainly maintain a certain level. These include: “Claudine von Villabella” based on a text by Goethe , the three aforementioned settings of texts by Ferdinand Raimund and countless others. However, in the music for Raimund's pieces, melodies are often composed that come from the poet himself and that Drechsler then used as the basis for his compositions. In his autobiography, Raimund writes that he “... wrote down the melodies right away when composing many songs.” For example, the melody of the song “Brüderlein fein” was created by Raimund himself, but some other wise men can also be clearly attributed to Raimund. In a letter he wrote “... I will also sing the pieces of music from my own head to Müller ( Wenzel Müller , 1767–1835, another composer Raimund's theater pieces).” So it is certain that Raimund himself has a certain share in the music, Drechsler probably always had to add the “rest” of the composition. In contrast to other band masters and stage composers (such as Wenzel Müller), Drechsler tries to stand out from the purely folk element and to give his music something operatic.

On the other hand, Drechsler was a respected music teacher, as his teaching works show. Even Johann Strauss (son) was a gifted pupil of the bandmaster. With his application for the concession "to be allowed to hold musical entertainments in inns", a testimony from Joseph Drechsler was enclosed, attesting to his innate talent and constant progress. He also got an improved new edition of Ignaz Pleyel's piano school .

In addition, he was also active in completely different areas of music with success. He wrote ten major and six minor masses , a requiem , other sacred vocal compositions, three cantatas , one of them for the inauguration of the newly built synagogue. There is also some instrumental music by the composer, namely string quartets , organ fugues , piano sonatas and other piano works. He also followed Anton Diabelli's (1781–1858) request to write a variation on his waltz , and delivered an impressive piece that was published in 1824 together with the other contributions as Volume 2 of the publication Vaterländischer Künstlerverein ; On this occasion, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his famous “ Diabelli Variations ”, which filled Volume 1. Drechsler also composed songs , arias and choirs outside of his stage works.

Theoretical writings

Joseph Drechsler was not only a composer and musician, but also a music teacher who not only opened courses for organ and figured bass at the normal school St. Anna in 1815, but also wrote various textbooks. On the one hand he worked on the piano school of the composer, publisher and piano manufacturer Ignaz Pleyel (1757–1831) and re- edited it , on the other hand he wrote a small organ school himself. He also wrote a theory of harmony (1816) and a guide to preluding (n.d.). The “theoretical-practical guide, to be able to fantasize or prelude without knowing the counterpoint” was written “as a guide to the public lectures in harmony and organ playing at St. Anna”, as Drechsler noted on the title page. The little booklet (76 pages) teaches harmonic improvisation without, however, making knowledge of counterpoint unnecessary. These instructions, and probably Drechsler's other textbooks as well, are not presented as learned theoretical writings, but as simple learning aids for everyone.

reception

Joseph Drechsler is the main character in the folk piece with music in one act, Brüderlein fein by Leo Fall (music) and HE Falschholz (libretto).

literature

• Gottfried Johann Dlabacž, General historical artist lexicon for Bohemia, Vol. 1 (Prague 1815, reprint: Hildesheim 1973), Sp. 339.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Drechsler, Joseph . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 3rd part. Typogr.-literar.-artist publishing house. Establishment (L. C. Zamarski, C. Dittmarsch & Comp.), Vienna 1858, p. 380 f. ( Digitized version ).
• François-Joseph Fétis , Biography universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique. Vol. 3 (Paris 1869) p. 55.
• Hermann Mendel - August Reissmann, Musikalisches Konversationslexikon. An encyclopedia of the entire musical sciences Vol. 3 (Berlin 1880) p. 242.
• Alfred Orel, art. Turner. In: Music in the past and present. Edited by Friedrich Blume Vol. 3 (Kassel 1954) Col. 743.
• Alfred Orel, Introduction to Raimund GA Vol. 6. S. XVIII.
• Karl Maria Pisarowitz:  Drechsler, Joseph. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 106 ( digitized version ).
• Elmar Seidel, A Viennese harmony and basso continuo from the Beethoven and Schubert times. In: Federhofer Festschrift. Edited by Friedrich Wilhelm Riedel and Hubert Unverricht (Mainz 1971) pp. 217–228.
• Ludwig van Beethoven's conversation books. Edited by Karl-Heinz Köhler Vol. 2 (Leipzig 1976).
• Walter Senn, Art. Gänsbacher. In: Music in the past and present . Edited by Friedrich Blume Vol. 4 (Kassel 1955) Col. 1232.
• Franz Stieger, Opera Lexicon. Part II, Vol. 1 (Tutzing 1977) p. 285 f.
• Alexander Weinmann - John Warrock, Art. Anton Diabelli. In: The new Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Edited by Stanley Sadie Vol. 5 (London 1980) p. 414.
• Eva Kitzler: Joseph Drechsler and his church music . Dissertation, University of Vienna 1983 (2 volumes).

Web links

• Works by and about Joseph Drechsler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Joseph Drechsler  in the German Digital Library
• Entry on Joseph Drechsler in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )