Biography

  • Born

    17 March 1664

  • Born In

    Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

  • Died

    6 June 1735 (aged 71)

Georg Österreich (baptized on 17 March 1664 – 6 June 1735) was a German Baroque composer and collector. He is regarded as the founder of the so-called Bokemeyer collection (German: Sämmlung Bokemeyer) which is now housed in the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin and is considered one of the most important music collections of the late 17th and early 18th century.

Harald Kümmerling, a musicologist who has researched and catalogued the Bokemeyer collection, wrote in the musical encyclopedia Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, was critical of Österreich's work, saying "Österreich, like, Gustaf Düben was a great collector but a sterile composer."

It is true, Düben's and Österreich's passion for collecting - Düben in Sweden and Österreich in Gottorf and Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel - is almost unique in the history of music. These great musical libraries are of enormous value, providing unique insight into the musical practice of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Thanks to his collection, the works of famous composers like Dietrich Buxtehude, Nicolaus Bruhns, Johann Rosenmüller, Matthias Weckmann, Vincent Lübeck, and Johann Philipp Krieger, among others have been preserved.

For Osterreich, counterpoint and canon were concrete manifestations of the "order of God" (Ordnung Gottes), their elaboration revealing the divine, inscrutable essence of God's creation, not merely as a metaphor for His order, but as the concrete actualization of that order. Österreich was certainly not an particularly innovative composer but he understand his work very well and was held in high regard during his lifetime.

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