Joseph Gottwald

Joseph Gottwald (born August 6, 1754 in Wilhelmsthal , Grafschaft Glatz , † June 25, 1833 in Breslau ) was a German composer and organist at the Breslau Cathedral .

Life

Joseph Gottwald was the son of a mill owner. His father first taught him to play the piano, the village teacher Rupprecht the organ. Since his musical enthusiasm was recognized early on, his father gave him to training and as a choirboy to the Dominicans in Wroclaw.

There he perfected his organ playing so far that after his voice broke (at the age of 15-16) he could be employed as an organist in the Dominican Church. At that time he made friends with the medical student Amand Schmidt, who encouraged him to learn music theory in self-study; for this he lent him the necessary books.

At the age of 29 he applied for the vacant post of cathedral organist of the then combined cathedral and cruciform church and was able to prevail in the competition on July 23, 1783 against three other candidates. He held this office for almost 50 years. From 1819 he was only organist at the now separate St. Johannes Cathedral , while the Kreuzkirche had been secularized in the meantime in 1810 and later devolved. As a result, his already modest income of originally only 150 Reichstalers per year fell. For a long time he was considered the best organist in Silesia .

Since the Catholic Church had to save on art and music because of secularization , he rarely had the opportunity to show his skills to the full. After the death of long-time cathedral music director Johann Georg Clement in 1794, the office remained vacant until 1805 for reasons of economy.

Around 1830 Gottwald was assigned the coadiutor Joseph Franz Wolf , who would later replace him entirely. Joseph Gottwald played his organ almost until his death.

Carl Julius Adolph Hugo Hoffmann describes him as a "truly pious and childlike-religious character". Joseph Gottwald was married to NN Schiffner on October 21, 1784. No further information is known.

Diaries

Joseph Gottwald left a witness of the times in the form of his diaries, which he wrote between 1783 and 1831. They are in the Archbishop's Archives in Wroclaw. The years 1815–1823 are missing.

The fact that he wrote little about himself and his work is a testament to his modesty. He often commented on all sorts of “peculiarities”, such as natural phenomena, such as B. the Oder flood, the ice drift, earthquakes and weather anomalies. Every inhumanity, arbitrariness and barbarity and the militaristic behavior of Prussia outraged him. He criticized Napoleon for being crowned emperor. He considered the proclamation of the Brieger Republic (September 4, 1797) to be a conspiracy. But the French occupation of Wroclaw managed to get by without any patriotic lament.

The death notes take up a lot of space, often with short comments, which express his opinion, especially in the case of musicians: Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg (1802) attested "great knowledge". For him Mozart was "the great composer". He wrote to Johann Adam Hiller on June 16, 1804, "How much the great man had contributed to practical and theoretical music is well known." Haydn "died in the 79th year of his glorious age."

He praised Carl Maria von Weber while he punished some colleagues he least valued by not mentioning them, e. B. Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf or Joseph Ignaz Schnabel . After all, he also wrote about Beethoven: “26.III.1827. Did the great piano player die in Vienna, who broke new ground in writing symphonies, as his last 4 or 5 prove? ”However, he would hardly have met him without the unloved Schnabel.

Create

As a cathedral organist, Gottwald only wrote church music. Carl Julius Adolph Hugo Hoffmann lists the following works: 10 hymns, two Vespers, three fasting masses , six offerings. A complete list of his works is missing.

A large part of the work published by Moritz Brosig is attributed to him : Seven easily executable Latin church chants (graduals, offerings) for mixed choir and organ .

literature

• Lothar Hoffmann inheritance law (Ed.): Schlesischens Musiklexikon . Weißner, Augsburg 2001, ISBN 3-89639-242-5 , pp. 216 ff .
• Carl Julius Adolph Hugo Hoffmann: The Silesian Tonkünstler; A contribution to art history ... Anderholz, Oppeln 1830, p. 137 ff .