Eduard Constantin Lewy (3 March 1796 – 3 June 1846) was a French-born
horn
Horn may refer to:
Common uses
* Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide
** Horn antenna
** Horn loudspeaker
** Vehicle horn
** Train horn
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals
* Horn (instrument), a family ...
player. He lived in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, Austria, for most of his career.
Life
Lewy was born in
Saint-Avold
Saint-Avold (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Sänt Avuur'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
It is situated east of Metz, France and southwest of Saarbrücken, Germany.
History
The Saint-Avold area ha ...
, in the
Moselle
The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...
department of France. He had early musical training from his father, who was a cellist in the ducal court of
Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken (; ; , ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach (Blies), Schwarzbach River.
Name
The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; older forms of the name include Middl ...
. Aged 14 he entered the
Paris Conservatoire
The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...
, where he studied the horn with Frédéric Nicolas Duvernoy. He also played violin and cello, and played in string quartets. From 1812 to 1815 he served in the French military, and became a regimental bandmaster and trumpet major. He made concert tours of France and Switzerland; he settled in
Basel
Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
and from about 1817 played horn in the orchestra there. During this period in Basel he married Johanna Weiler."Lewy (Levy, Lévy, Levi), Familie" ''
Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon
The ''Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon'Oesterreichisch'' with ''Oe'' is the spelling of the print and online output. (, ) is a five-volume music encyclopedia founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Commission for Music Research. It was offic ...
Online''. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
In 1822 he moved to Vienna, appointed by Conradin Kreutzer, at that time the conductor at the
Court Theatre
A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and administer justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law.
Courts general ...
, to be horn player in the theatre orchestra. In 1824 at the Court Theatre, as first horn, he took part in the premiere of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. From about this time he was also a private teacher in Vienna; from 1829 he taught at the Vienna Conservatory. In 1846 he became a member of the Wiener Hofmusikkapelle, but is thought to have been a substitute there from 1835.
From 1826 he gave concerts in Vienna with his brother Josef Rudolf Lewy, also a horn player. and from 1836 gave very well-received concerts in Vienna with his children: