Seuffert (organ and piano builder)

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Seuffert is the name of a German-Austrian family of organ and piano builders in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Würzburg court organ maker

The company was founded by Johann Philipp Seuffert (1693–1780), who married the widow of the Würzburg organ builder Hillenbrand in 1722 and took over his business. As early as 1731 he was given the coveted title of "Court Organ Maker of Würzburg". He built numerous organs in the Main Franconian area (e.g. in the church of St. Kilian Alsleben in the Rhön-Grabfeld district ). His eldest son Johann Ignaz Seuffert went to France as an organ builder and later settled as an organ builder in the Rhine Palatinate. His son Franz Ignaz Seuffert (1732-1810) took over his father's business. His son Franz Martin went to Vienna as a piano maker in 1804, where he opened his own piano manufacture. Franz Ignaz's older son, Johann Philipp Albert Seuffert (1763–1834), took over the Würzburg organ building company and continued to run it until 1834. In 1836 this was taken over by Balthasar Schlimbach , who continued it.

Organ building in the Rheinpfalz

The son of Johann Philipp, Johann Ignaz Seuffert, (born August 1, 1728 in Würzburg, † February 4, 1807 in Kirrweiler) went to France as a young organ builder. He later settled in Kirrweiler in the Rhineland-Palatinate and founded his own organ building workshop there. His son Bernhard Franz Seuffert (born January 11, 1873 in Kirrweiler; † August 20, 1850 in Kirrweiler) and his grandson Johann Franz SEUFFERT (born September 5, 1814 in Kirrweiler; † February 14, 1887 in Kirrweiler) led the tradition of organ building over 4 generations.

Piano manufacture in Vienna

Franz Ignaz's son, Franz Martin Seuffert (1772–1847), went to Vienna as a piano maker in 1804, where he trained as a journeyman with Anton Walter in piano making. Subsequently he worked in the company Wachtl & Comp . Founded in 1802 . on the development of an upright fortepiano, which was given the descriptive name Forte = Piano en giraffe or giraffe piano because of its special shape . However, a dispute arose over the copyright to this invention, as a result of which Martin Seuffert left the company and opened his own workshop in 1811.

After his death in 1847 it was taken over by his son Eduard Seuffert (1819–1855). He introduced the principle of the division of labor into production and developed the company into a respected company whose products have received many awards at industrial exhibitions. At the first world exhibition in London, the so-called Great Exhibition in 1851, Eduard Seuffert represented Austrian piano manufacturing as one of only five exhibitors.

Two years after Eduard Seuffert's death in 1855, his widow Rosa married the previous managing director Friedrich Ehrbar , who, after a transition period, continued to run the company under his own name and made it a major Austrian piano manufacturer.

literature

  • JF Bleyer: Historical description of the upright forte pianos, from the invention of Wachtl and Bleyer in Vienna. In: Allgemeine musical newspaper , 13th year, intelligence sheet no. XVII, Leipzig 1811.
  • Beethoven's letter with a mention of Martin Seuffert in the Beethoven archive in Bonn
  • Verena Cizek: The history of the Seuffert and Ehrbar company, along with the history of the piano as a detailed introduction. Unpublished thesis, Vienna 1989.
  • Honorable. Tradition of Viennese piano making , ed. v. Helmut Rüdiger Scholz, undated, p. 21ff.
  • Joseph Wurzbach: An attempt at a history of piano building. With particular reference to the London Great Industrial Exhibition in 1851, along with statistical references to it, sc. Vienna 1853. Reprint, Frankfurt 1998
  • Hermann Fischer , Theodor Wohnhaas : Lexicon of southern German organ builders. (= Pocket books on musicology 116). Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 1994, p. 385ff.
  • Hermann Fischer:  Seuffert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 278 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Joseph Fischhof: An attempt at a history of piano making, with particular reference to the London Great Ind. 1851, 1853, pp. 26, 30, 49, 79
  • Rosamond EM Harding: The Piano-Forte. Its History traced to the Great Exhibition of 1851 . London: Heckscher 1933. Completely revised edition 1978. Reprinted 1989, pp. 205, 242.
  • Helga Haupt: Viennese instrument maker from 1791 to 1815 . In: Studien zur Musikwissenschaft , 1960, 120–184
  • Rudolf Hopfner: Seuffert (Seifert, Seiffert) Eduard. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 12, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3580-7 , p. 199 f.
  • Rudolf Hopfner: Wiener Musikinstrumentenmacher 1766–1900 , 1999, p. 457
  • Catalog of the collection of old musical instruments, Part I: String pianos , Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum 1966, pp. 63–65.
  • Stephan von Keess: Description of the products that are produced in the factories, factories and trades of the Austrian imperial state , 1823, p. 199
  • Martha Novak-Clinkscale: Makers of the Piano 1700-1820 , 1993, p. 263
  • Helmut Ottner: Der Wiener Instrumentenbau 1815–33 (= publ. Zur Musikwiss. 9), 1977, p. 139
  • Karl Emil von Schafhäutl: The German pianoforte art. Represented at the general German industrial exhibition in Munich in 1854. From the reports of the assessment commission on musical instruments written by Dr. Schafhäutl, conservator and professor. Munich: Verlag von Georg Franz 1855.
  • Vienna. Music history. From prehistory to the present . Edited by Elisabeth Th. Fritz-Hilscher and Helmut Kretschmer. Vienna 2011, p. 578
  • Constant von Wurzbach: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Österreich , Vol. 34, Vienna 1877, p. 163f. ( Digitized version )

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