Josef Triebensee (also written Trübensee; 21 November 1772 – 22 April 1846) was a Czech-Austrian composer and oboist.
Josef Triebensee (also written Trübensee; 21 November 1772 – 22 April 1846) was a Czech-Austrian composer and oboist.
Triebensee was born on 21 November 1772 in Třeboň in Bohemia. He studied composition with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and oboe with his father, Georg Triebensee (1746–1813) who served in the private orchestra of Prince Schwarzenberg, and then from 1782 to 1806 as first oboist of the Austrian Emperor's Harmonie (wind band). Concurrently, he also served as principal oboist at the Burgtheater in Vienna with Johann Went playing 2nd oboe. Josef II had basically poached the principal oboe, principal cor anglais and principal bassoonist from the Schwarzenberg Harmonie (founded 1771) to head up his own Harmonie.
Triebensee was the second oboist, with Olivier Hue, at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna in 1791 when he played in the premiere of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte—explaining the peculiar difficulty of the second oboe parts in that work. He then became second oboist at the Kärntnertortheater in 1793 moving up to 1st oboe in 1794. He was also 1st Oboe in Prince Liechtenstein's Harmonie at Feldsberg, and in 1796 became its Kapellmeister.
In 1796, Triebensee played 2nd oboe to his father who was on 1st oboe playing in the National Theatre Orchestra in Vienna. The Jahrbuch de Tonkunst in Wien und Prag declared "The Triebensees in the National Theatre Orchestra, father and son, are two great Artistes on the Oboe, which they also play with a most soulful feeling. The son has also written some beautiful compositions, principally for Harmonie music."
In 1809, Triebensee left Prince Lichtenstein's Harmonie when it was disbanded. In 1811, he joined the private orchestra of Count Hunyady, whilst also working as a theatre composer in Brno. From 1816 to his retirement in 1836, he was director of the Prague Opera, where he succeeded composer Carl Maria von Weber. Unlike Weber, his operas found little success. In this period he often played as soloist in the concerts of the Tonkünstler Societät.
In January 1816, Triebensee performed his own 'Variations on the beloved melody "Redoute Deutschen" for Oboe and Orchestra. From 1817 until his retirement in 1836, he was appointed senior Professor of Singing at Prague Conservatory. In 1816, Triebensee succeeded Weber as Director of Prague Opera, a position that he held until his retirement in 1836. He died in Prague on 22 April 1846.
Triebensee's most important compositions were two sets of Harmoniemusik, the second appearing in 32 installments of ten or more movements. He wrote 12 comic operas for Vienna and Prague as well as vocal, orchestral, and chamber works.
Chamber music
Menuetto con Variazioni in F
| Year | Title | acts | première | libretto |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1798 | Die Liebe macht kurzen Prozess (or: Heirat auf gewisse Art); (with Matthäus Stegmayer, Joseph Wölfl, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Joh. B. Henneberg, Franz Xaver Süßmayr and Jakob Haibel) |
2 | March 26, 1798, Vienna, Theater auf der Wieden | Joachim Perinet |
| 1798 | Jägerfreude. Eine kleine Kantate in zwey Abtheilungen. Widmung: Fürst Alois von Liechtenstein Wien 1798 | 2 | Matthäus Stegmayer (Schauspieler) | |
| 1799 | Der rote Geist im Donnergebirge (2 cd act composed by Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried) |
2 | June 5, 1799, Vienna, Theater auf der Wieden | Matthäus Stegmayer |
| 1820 | Divoká honba - Die wilde Jagd | March 8, 1820, Prague, State Opera (Stavovské divadlo) | Sebastian Willibald Schiessler | |
| 1820–1821 | Manželé podle módy - Die Ehemänner nach der Mode | 3 | January 31, 1821, Prague, State Opera (Stavovské divadlo) | J. von Seyfried |
| 1823 | Telemach na ostrově Ogygisa - Telemach auf der Insel Ogygia | 2 | January 10, 1824, Prague, State Theatre (Stavovské divadlo) | K.J. Schikaneder |
