Drechsler, Joseph
- Peter Branscombe
Extract
(b Vlachovo Brězí, nr Strakovice, May 26, 1782; d Vienna, Feb 27, 1852). Bohemian composer, conductor and organist active in Austria. After early musical training from his father, a Kantor and schoolmaster, he became a chorister in Passau and studied at the Benedictine monastery in Florenbach, later again in Passau and finally in Prague. In 1807 he moved to Vienna in response to an invitation to join the Theater in der Leopoldstadt, but he decided instead to maintain his independence by teaching, composing and studying. He became a répétiteur at the Court Opera in 1810, and in 1812 (or 1814) was appointed assistant Kapellmeister. The Court Opera's reduction in personnel obliged him to spend a period as conductor at Baden and Bratislava; following this ‘gypsying about’, as he called it, he was appointed organist at the Servitenkirche in Vienna in 1815. At the same time he opened a music school, where his pupils later included Johann Strauss (i). He became choirmaster at the Annakirche in ...
