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Josef Schreier

born: 1718-01-02
birthplace: Drevohostice u Prerova

Moravian schoolmaster who composed folk operettas and church music. Little is known about his life. His father Jan Jiri Schreier married Alzbeta Telepova from Drevohostice. The first note of his son Josef, born 1718, appears in the register of the village Bilovec by Uherske Hradiste in 1740 only, regarding his marriage to Anna, daughter of the late rector Mikulas Bures, after whom Josef took the rector's position. This way he secured the job of teacher and choir master in his age of 22. The husband and wife Schreier served baptism for the local folk, too. They themselves had 12 children. There are no more notes of Schreiers in Bilovice register after 1760. Later news were found in Slovakia about Schreier's compositions and his son Jan(1744-1811) who, after entering the Piaristic Order adopted the name Norbert and became a notable Slovak philosopher, composer, theologist, national revivalist, schoolmaster of the Piaristic High School in Banska Stiavnica. It is thus possible that Josef Schreier's life ended in Slovakia which was a part of the Hungarian Empire at that time.
He has been attributed folk operettas, even in the Hana (special Moravian) dialect (Josef Jungmann: History of Czech Literature, 1825) and two masses which are the masterpieces of Moravian Church music of that time.
The personality and works of Josef Schreier in relation to his birthplace Drevohostice were discovered by professor Jan Trojan Ph.D. (1926) of Janacek Academy of Performing Arts Brno who dedicated several years of his academic life to this topic, searching Moravian and Slovakian archives. Modern age premieres of Josef Schreier's works were initiated by the teacher from Drevohostice, Mgr. Zdenek Smiricky (1946).

Work:

Missa solemnis
Missa pastoralis in C boemica
Pastorela in D
Landembork (Operetta in Hana Dialect; the authorship uncertain)
Aurea libertas
Veritas exulans

Sources:

Wikipedia (in Czech)

Jan Trojan: Missa pastoralis boemica Josefa Schreiera, Hudebni veda, c. 1, 1983

Germer Marc: The Austro - Bohemian Pastorella and Pastoral Mass to C 1780 , Ann Arbor, 1989

Kacic Ladislav: Die Musik der Jesuitendramen in der Slowakei ( 1600 - 1773 ), Ethnologische, historische und systematische Musikwissenschaft,Bratislava 1998

Jan Trojan:Kantori na Morave a ve Slezsku v 17. a 18. stoleti, Brno, 2000

Jan Trojan: Josef Schreier ( 1718 - ? ) Podivuhodne osudy zivota a dila zapomenuteho moravskeho skladatele a kantora ( monografie, Votobia Olomouc 2005)

Jan Trojan: Ceske zpevohry 18. stoleti, Brno , 2007

J.Trojan, Z.Smiricky: Josef Schreier-Missa pastoralis /in C boemica/-Osudy moravske vanocni mse z 18.stoleti-Z mozaiky pametihodnosti mestecka Drevohostice,2008

consultation: Natural History Society Zerotin, Drevohostice (Mgr. Zdenek Smiricky, Mr. Miroslav Malovec)

Samples:

Missa pastoralis in C Boemica - 8.Dona nobis pacem (Smiseny pevecky sbor Unicov, orchestr ZUS Unicov, varjany L.Smetanova,bas Ladislav Petru; z CD Moravske vanocni mse, 2006)