Gottfried Preyer (1807-1901)

[John H White]

I've lately been reading some of Robert Schumann's writings on composers and music in which he mention's Gottfried Preyer's entry in the Vienna symphony competition of 1834 as having been performed a number of times in Vienna having been published in full score.  As Schumann was writing his piece about it in 1839 and the composer lived on until 1901 it would seem that he would have had plenty of time to write further symphonies if he were so inclined.  So far I've found little about him in Wikipedia and in IMSLP he is only represented by the score of a double fugue for keyboard dedicated to his teacher , Simon Sechter.  I'm wondering if there are still copies of the above mentioned symphony gathering dust in some library or other and whether there just be any further orchestral music surviving from this composer.

[Gareth Vaughan]

British Library has a number of his published scores, including the "Erste Sinfionie" in D minor (Partitur). There is no sign of any further symphonies.

[eschiss1]

A search in the searchable database digitized "version" of the printed publication Hofmeisters Monatsberichte suggests a fair number of works were published (mostly brief- not unusual for a composer of the day, and ...well- so?), though, from "Des Nachbars Nachtigall" Op.1 published 1838 on. His symphony no.1 Op.16, D minor, was published by Diabelli in 1839. There's also a Missa solemnis Op.70 (self-published it seems, in 1855) listed (and another mass, Op.73 along with some other liturgical works amongst the many brief songs and a few brief or brief-ish one assumes piano works. 1894 saw the publication of "Kirchenkompositionen hrsg. vom Kirchenmusik-Verein an der Votiv-Kirche in Wien, redig. v. Theobald Kretschmann" with his Op.86 & 89 Masses No.1&2 (not sure what happened to Op.70? then), Op.85 Dankmesse, Op.73 Missa No.4(?) (hrm- ok..), and several briefer liturgical works (maybe Op.70 was reopused and Op.73 renumbered on consultation with the composer?... hrmmm.)

[SadRobotSings]

The National Library of the Netherlands has a copy of the Symphony too, as well as a few songs I think (Op. 28, 43, 64). Looks like his last name is sometimes spelled Preijer?

[eschiss1]

BTW also a lot of Preyer in manuscript (this includes manuscript copies of published works, btw, when we say "in manuscript", esp. regarding this source) at various libraries listed @ RISM (RISM)

(149 Gottfried Preyer items in their database in all, not all necessarily corresponding to different pieces of music- perhaps different copies of the same piece, &c...)  - many of them liturgical works in manuscript copies at libraries (church and university &c) in Austria.

Hrm, and as often with them, the Dutch Royal Library has not only a copy of the symphony but score -and- parts, too, which is a good thing.

[eschiss1]

Was Carl Adolph Preyer (1863-1947) a relative of his, I wonder?

[John H White]

Many thanks, gentlemen, for all this extra information. Maybe it would be possible  to get IMSLP to obtain a copy of the score and parts form one of the sources mentioned.

[eschiss1]

I think that I can speak on behalf of IMSLP if only insofar as saying that we'd be delighted if someone would indeed scan and upload the material. (IMSLP itself doesn't phone up other libraries, shoot the breeze and then put in a request for such things, however, I hope that's clear... so to speak...)

[eschiss1]

Some brief songs by Preyer in English translation (at least, assuming this is the same "G. Preyer") are in the Library of Congress American Memory collection, so there's some music by him digitized, anyway, which I think better than none. (They also have some music by C.A. Preyer- less surprising, since he resided in the US.) (Specifically by G. Preyer "Ob sie wohl kommen wird", "Jedem das seine".)

[Elroel]

In Dutch, the vocal 'y' differs from the double vocal 'ij'.  The sound is the same though, and the 'y' originally was not included in the 'abc'.
That the name of Preyer, has also been found as Preijer, is most probably caused by the writing of a dutch clerk.
Nowadays it is more often the opposite way: using 'y' for 'ij'. In the esarler dictionaries the entry was just before the 'z'. Now you find there  it under 'i'.