Streicher, Johann Andreas

Streicher, Johann Andreas, German-born Austrian pianist, teacher, piano maker, and composer; b. Stuttgart, Dec. 13, 1761; d. Vienna, May 25, 1833. During a stay in Augsburg in 1793, he married Nannette (Maria Anna) Stein (b. Augsburg, Jan. 2, 1769; d. Vienna, Jan. 16, 1835), daughter of the piano maker Johann Andreas Stein, and then moved the business to Vienna; later it became known as Nannette Streicher geb. Stein und Sohn when their son, Johann Baptist Streicher (b. Vienna, Jan. 3, 1796; d. there, March 28, 1871), entered the business; following his parents’ death, he took complete control of the firm. He invented the piano action in which the hammer strikes from above. He was on friendly terms with Beethoven. In 1857 Streicher’s son, Emil (1836-1916), became his partner; the business was dissolved when the latter retired. His son, Theodor (b. Vienna, June 7, 1874; d. Wetzelsdorf, near Graz, May 28, 1940), was a composer. He studied elocution with Ferdinand Gregori, counterpoint and composition with Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen, voice with Ferdiana Jager, and piano and instrumentation with Ferdinand Löwe (1895-1900). He attracted wide notice as a song composer with his 30 Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1903); he wrote numerous other songs in a Romantic vein, but he was unable to sustain his early success; he also composed choral pieces and a String Sextet (1911).

Bibliography

P. Klariert, Theodore S. in seinen Liedern (Leipzig, 1911); T. Boite, Die Musiker-Familien Stein und S.(Vienna, 1917); R. Wursten, Theodor S.: His Life and Music (diss., Univ. of Wisc, 1977).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire