Oakeley, Sir Herbert (Stanley)



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Oeser, Fritz


(b Gera, 18 May 1911; d Kassel, 23 Feb 1982). German musicologist and editor. He studied at the Realgymnasium, the university and the conservatory in Leipzig; among his teachers in musicology were Helmuth Schultz and Theodor Kroyer. In 1938 he joined the staff of the Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag, Leipzig. Following military service during World War II, he became director of the Brucknerverlag, Wiesbaden, in 1947; the firm became Alkor-Edition, Kassel, in 1955. He retired in 1971. Oeser’s main areas of study were Bruckner’s music, Czech music, and Russian and French opera in the 19th century; among his writings, mostly on operatic subjects, is a study of the texts of Bruckner’s symphonies, Die Klangstruktur der Bruckner-Symphonie (Leipzig, 1939, 2/1941), with which he obtained the doctorate at Leipzig University in 1939. He edited several orchestral works, notably Bruckner’s Third Symphony (1878 version; Wiesbaden, 1950), made a number of German translations of operas and prepared performing versions of several operas, including Gounod’s Faust (Kassel, 1972) and Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann (Kassel, 1975). The most important is that of Bizet’s Carmen (Kassel, 1964; see Oeser’s article ‘Neu entdeckte “Carmen”’, Musica, xviii (1964), 108–14), in which much music traditionally omitted is restored; his edition has however been criticized for misrepresenting Bizet’s final intentions (see W. Dean: ‘The True Carmen?’, MT, cvi (1965), 846–55, rev., Essays on Opera, Oxford, 1990, 281–300; for biography see H. Vogt: ‘Fritz Oeser’, Musica, xxxvi (1982), 194–6).

BENJAMIN KORSTVEDT


Oesterreicher, Georg


(b Wiebelsheim, nr Windsheim, Franconia, 1563; d Windsheim, 9 Jan 1621). German composer, music editor, poet and schoolmaster. From 1585 he studied at Wittenberg University. In 1588 he became teacher at the grammer school of the imperial town of Windsheim and in 1608 was promoted Kantor. In this post he produced numerous German and Latin school plays, which gained wide recognition. He edited a hymnal for the town of Windsheim, Geistliche Lieder aus dem Catechismo … zugericht (Giessen, 1614), which is lost, but the posthumous second edition, Ein recht christlich Gesangbüchlein (Rothenburg ober der Tauber, 1623), survives. Alongside many hymns then in general use, it contains texts and unharmonized melodies by Oesterreicher himself. Several of these melodies appear too in the Ansbach, Rothenburg and Heilbronn hymnbooks of that period. Oesterreicher also composed the music for the funeral service of Margarethe Barbara Seubold at Ansbach in 1620. The ‘Cantor-Büchlein’ of 1615 that Gerber attributed to him is probably identical with the 1614 edition of the Windsheim hymnal, which was listed in 1615 in the catalogue of the Frankfurt Book Fair. (EitnerQ; GerberNL; GöhlerV; ZahnM)

FRANZ KRAUTWURST


Oestvig, Karl Aagaard


(b Christiania, 17 May 1889; d Oslo, 21 July 1968). Norwegian tenor. He studied at Cologne and made his début in 1914 at Stuttgart, where he sang the Lay brother/Giovanni in the first performance of Max von Schillings’s Mona Lisa (1915). Engaged at the Vienna Staatsoper from 1919 to 1927, he created the role of the Emperor in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919); from 1927 to 1930 he sang at the Berlin Städtische Oper. His repertory included Tamino, Lohengrin, Walther, Parsifal, Don José, Hoffmann, Paul in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos and Max in Krenek’s Jonny spielt auf, which he sang at Munich on 16 June 1928, when the performance was interrupted by a Nazi demonstration. A very stylish singer, he brought a lyrical approach even to his heavier, more dramatic roles. In 1932 he retired to Oslo, where he taught singing and produced opera.

BIBLIOGRAPHY


H. Wagner: 200 Jahre Münchner Theaterchronik, 1750–1950 (Munich, 1958, 2/1965)

ELIZABETH FORBES


Oettingen.


Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Wallerstein were two small German courts in Swabia, south of Ansbach; the former had a brief musical importance in the late 17th century and the latter was particularly prominent in the late 18th century. The house of Oettingen, whose history dates from the mid-12th century, was divided during the 16th century into Protestant and Catholic branches, with Oettingen belonging to the former, Wallerstein to the latter.

A court Kapelle is known to have existed in Oettingen during the reigns of both Albrecht Ernst I (1674 to his death in 1683) and his successor, Albrecht Ernst II (1683–1731). The most important musician active in Oettingen was Johann Georg Conradi (see Jung), the son of the Oettingen organist Caspar Conrad, who was Kapellmeister from 1671. From 1689 the court Kapelle consisted of about a dozen musicians, and court opera performances are known at least for the period 1699–1703 (see Brockpähler). Conradi, who left Oettingen in 1683, was succeeded by Jakob Christian Hertel. However, at the end of Conradi’s successful career as a Hamburg opera composer, he returned to Oettingen as Kapellmeister in 1698. He was succeeded in about 1699 by his son Johann Melchior, who remained in the post until the court was dissolved in 1732 and joined to that of Oettingen-Wallerstein.

Musical institutions at Wallerstein were greatly strengthened during the reign of Count Philipp Karl (1745–66), though the music was mainly functional, for church and for entertainment during dinner and after the hunt. The count’s Hofmusik, primarily wind players and mainly Bohemians, included some of Germany’s finest horn players (e.g. Friedrich Domnich and Johann Türrschmidt, both founders of important families of horn players), and the composers Ignaz Klauseck (at Wallerstein from 1747 to 1751) and Franz Xaver Pokorny (employed there from about 1751 to 1770).

After Philipp Karl’s death (1766) his widow, Countess Juliane Charlotte, acted as regent for her son. Under the countess’s administration conditions deteriorated and many musicians left Wallerstein. A turning-point in Wallerstein’s musical history occurred in 1773 when Kraft Ernst assumed control of the countship, which one year later was elevated to a princedom. Almost immediately the new prince began to form a Hofkapelle. His musical training by several of his father’s court musicians and at the imperial Savoyische Ritterakademie in Vienna enabled him to make a good selection. To the unpretentious group of musicians inherited from his father, he added several acknowledged virtuosos, including Antonio Rosetti (Anton Rösler, violone), Josef Reicha (cello), Anton Janitsch (violin), Joseph Fiala (oboe) and Johann Nisle (horn). To complete his ensembles he employed household servants who could double as musicians.

After the death in 1776 of Kraft Ernst's young wife, Maria Theresa, born princess of Thurn und Taxis, the court entered an extended period of mourning, putting a temporary halt to the development of the Kapelle. Several musicians left, and others were given permission to travel. It was during this period that Mozart, on his way to Mannheim, stopped at Hohenaltheim, the prince's Lustschloss. The prince, who was still in mourning, would hear no music, and Mozart left without performing for the court. By 1780 Kraft Ernst was again ready to focus his attention on music. New talent was hired for the Hofkapelle. Significant in this group were Franz Zwierzina and Joseph Nagel (horn), Christoph Hoppius (bassoon) and Gottfried Klier (oboe). Wallerstein's musical reputation grew rapidly; by 1784 C.F.D. Schubart wrote that ‘music flourishes there in a most excellent degree’. In the mid- to late 1780s the Wallerstein court orchestra numbered approximately 24 members, being a combination of professional performers and house servants with some musical skill (see Rosetti and Musikalische Realzeitung).

As at Mannheim several members of the Wallerstein orchestra were also active as composers, in fact a virtual school of composers developed there during the 1770s and the 1780s, headed by Intendant Ignaz von Beecke and Kapellmeister Antonio Rosetti and including Josef Reicha, Joseph Fiala, Georg Feldmayr, Paul Wineberger, Franz Zwierzina, Anton Hutti, Joseph Nagel and Friedrich Witt. The court music library, originally housed in Schloss Harburg (now in D-Au) includes, in addition to the works of these ‘house composers’, others by most of the popular composers of the time, including a large collection of Haydn’s symphonies, some commissioned by Kraft Ernst.

The prince encouraged travelling musicians to perform at Wallerstein and among his more illustrious guests were Jan Zach in 1773, Beethoven in 1787 and Haydn on his first journey to London in 1791. Haydn is reputed to have said on hearing the Wallerstein orchestra that ‘no orchestra plays my music with such precision as this ensemble’.

After Kraft Ernst’s death in 1802 the Wallerstein Hofkapelle entered a period of steady decline and was eventually dissolved. In 1806 Oettingen-Wallerstein was incorporated into the state of Bavaria and the increased financial burdens of the following years forced Kraft Ernst’s widow, Countess Wilhelmine Friederike, to release most of the court musicians. A reorganization of the Hofkapelle was attempted under Prince Ludwig Kraft in 1812, the court music director being Xaver Hammer, a local musician. The Weimar composer Franz Seraph von Destouches was connected with the court during this period. In a further attempt to revitalize the court music Prince Ludwig established a quartet school under Hammer’s direction in 1817, but Hammer died the following year and the venture failed. Hammer was replaced by Johannes Andreas Amon from Bamberg. In the next few years the prince spent more and more time away from court and finally, in 1821, court concerts were discontinued. After Amon’s death (1825) virtually all secular music at Wallerstein ceased. Wallerstein’s last Kapellmeister, Johann Michael Mettenleiter, died in 1859. The decline of Wallerstein’s music coincided with the end of the tradition of court music in Germany. For an illustration of the wind band at Oettingen-Wallerstein in about 1783 see Harmoniemusik.

The town of Oettingen is the seat of the well-known firm of organ builders, g.f. Steinmeyer (founded 1847), which has been responsible for the building of almost 2400 organs, including the cathedral organs of Bamberg, Munich, Speyer, Passau and Trondheim.

BIBLIOGRAPHY


A. Rosetti: Bemerkung zu Errichtung einer Kirchen Musik nit Zuziehung des Hof-Orchestre (MS, Wallerstein Archive, D-Au, 1785)

‘Nachricht von der fürstl. Wallersteinischen Hofkapelle’, Musikalische Realzeitung, i/7 (1788), 52–3



P. Weinberger: Die fürstliche Hofkapelle in Wallerstein von 1780 bis 1840 (MS, Wallerstein Archive, D-Au)

L. Schiedermair: ‘Die Blütezeit der Öttingen-Wallerstein’schen Hofkapelle’, SIMG, ix (1907–8), 83–130

A. Diemand: ‘Josef Haydn und der Wallersteiner Hof’, Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Schwaben und Neuburg, xlv (1920–22), 1–40

R. Brockpähler: Handbuch zur Geschichte der Barockoper in Deutschland (Emsdetten, 1964)

H.R. Jung: ‘Johann Georg Conradi (um 1648 bis 1699)’, BMw, xiii (1971), 31–55; xiv (1972), 1–62

J.P. Piersol: The Oettingen-Wallerstein Hofkapelle and its Wind Music (diss., U. of Iowa, 1972)

V. von Volckamer: ‘Geschichte des Musikalienbestandes’, Thematischer Katalog der Musikhandschriften der fürstlich Oettingen-Wallerstein'schen Bibliothek Schloss Harburg, ed. G. Haberkamp (Munich, 1976), ix–xvii

S.E. Murray: ‘Bohemian Musicians in South German Hofkapellen during the Late Eighteenth Century’, HV, xv (1978), 153–73

S.E. Murray: Introduction to Seven Symphonies from the Court of Oettingen-Wallerstein, 1773–1795, The Symphony 1720–1840, ser. C, vi (New York, 1981), xi–xlvii

F. Little: The String Quartet at the Oettingen-Wallerstein Court: Ignaz von Beecke and his Contemporaries (New York and London, 1989)

STERLING E. MURRAY




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