Simon Sechter

A highly prolific composer, his total output numbers more than 8,000 compositions, particularly since he sought to write a fugue every day. However, Sechter's best known works are his later (post-1825) masses and oratorios. Pond, 1871; G.

Training under Antonio Salieri is recorded. Anton Door, Adolf von Henselt and Anton Bruckner are recorded as having studied under Simon Sechter. The recorded working language is German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera. Residence is recorded at Kleine Sperlgasse 10. Employment is recorded with University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Sechter was born on 11 October 1788 in Frymburk (Friedberg) in the Kingdom of Bohemia and moved to Vienna in 1804, succeeding Jan Václav Voříšek as court organist there in 1824. In 1810 he began teaching piano and voice at an academy for blind students. In 1828 the ailing Franz Schubert had one counterpoint lesson with him. In 1851 Sechter was appointed professor of composition at the Vienna Conservatory. His final years were spent in poverty due to his involvement in a son-in-law's bankruptcy. He was succeeded at the Conservatory by Anton Bruckner, a former student whose teaching methods were based on Sechter's.

Sechter was also a composer, and in that capacity he is mostly remembered for writing about 5,000 fugues (he tried to write at least one fugue every day), but he also wrote masses and oratorios. In addition he wrote five operas: Das Testament des Magiers (1842), Ezzeline, die unglückliche Gegangene aus Deli-Katesse (1843), Ali Hitsch-Hatsch (1844), Melusine (1851), and Des Müllers Ring (?). In 1823–24, he was one of the 51 composers who composed a variation on a waltz by Anton Diabelli for Vaterländischer Künstlerverein.