Carl Wilhelm Eduard Oestreich (1800 – 1840) was born
in Spremberg, a small town in
Eastern Germany in a family of a city musician. As
usual in such a case, he learnt several
instruments, among them piano, harp and horn. His horn
playing was brought to a masterly
level in Dresden by a member of the Court Orchestra. In
1820 Oestreich went on a concert
tour through Germany and in the same year he arrived in
Frankfurt, where he was engaged as
horn player in the orchestra o...(+)
Carl Wilhelm Eduard Oestreich (1800 – 1840) was born
in Spremberg, a small town in
Eastern Germany in a family of a city musician. As
usual in such a case, he learnt several
instruments, among them piano, harp and horn. His horn
playing was brought to a masterly
level in Dresden by a member of the Court Orchestra. In
1820 Oestreich went on a concert
tour through Germany and in the same year he arrived in
Frankfurt, where he was engaged as
horn player in the orchestra of the Frankfurt Opera.
Due to his weak health, already in 1832
he went in pension. But sometimes as temporary help he
played harp in the orchestra and he
worked as piano teacher.
Oestreich was a profilic composer. Already in the age
of 16 he composed pieces for horn and
orchestra for his brother, who also was horn player.
The majority of his compositions is
devoted to the horn, but also several operas and
musical plays, symphonies and interlude
music for orchestras, concertos for various
instruments, instrumental pieces, especially with
the participation of wind instruments, vocal music for
solo and choral singing, and piano
pieces have been preserved, mainly as manuscripts in
the Universitätsbibliothek Johann
Christian Senckenberg Frankfurt am Main.
Of special interest for us are Oestreich’s
compositions with basset horn. Since 1827 Oestreich
was member of a Freemason lodge. Similar to Mozart, he
contributed quite a lot of music for
the service in the lodge. And also similar to Mozart he
liked to use the basset horn for this
music. Oestreich used the basset horn in 48 works.
Also the present song (Universitätsbibliothek Johann
Christian Senckenberg Frankfurt am
Main, Signum D-F Mus Hs 764) with the title „Lied –
Lehre des Lebens für eine Singstimme
mit Begleitung des Pasetthorn und Piano=forte von C.
Oestreich. Zur Jahres-Schluß-Tafel im
Jahr 5833 den 25. December„ (Lied – Lesson of Life
for a singing voice with
accompaniment of the pasetthorn and piano=forte by C.
Oestreich. For the year-end table in
the year 5833, December 25th), was conceived as Masonic
music for the end of the year 1833.
The Freemasons had their own time calculation by adding
4000 to the normal year.
The extensive inscriptions in the autograph were
retained and only a few typographical errors
were corrected.
We are indebted to the Universitätsbibliothek Johann
Christian Senckenberg Frankfurt am
Main for the consent to publication.
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