Lickl, Johann Georg

Lickl, Johann Georg, Austrian conductor and composer; b. Korneuburg, Lower Austria, April 11, 1769; d. Fünfkirchen, May 12, 1843. He studied music with the Korneuburg church organist Witzig, then went to Vienna (1785), where he continued his studies with Albrechtsberger and Haydn. He subsequently was active as a teacher and as organist at the Carmelite Church in the Leopoldstadt. He became associated around 1789 with Schikaneder’s Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden, where he contributed numbers to popular Singspiels or wrote entire scores for them. His Der Brigitten-Kirchtag (July 3, 1802) was composed for the new Theater an der Wien, and his comic opera Slawina von Pommern (Feb. 29, 1812) for the Leopoldstadt Theater. He served as regens chori at Fünfkirchen Cathedral (from 1805), producing much sacred music. He publ. arrangements for piano and harmonium of popular classics in Wiener Salon-Musik. He had 2 sons: Karl Georg Lickl (b. Vienna, Oct. 28, 1801; d. there, Aug. 3, 1877), a civil servant who became well known as a physharmonica player and composer for the instrument, and Aegidius (Ferdinand) Karl Lickl (b. Vienna, Sept. 1, 1803; d. Trieste, July 22, 1864), who studied with his father, appeared as a pianist, and then settled in Trieste as a teacher, conductor, and composer; he wrote the opera La disfida Berletta (1848) and sacred music.

Works

dramatic (all first perf. in Vienna): Die verdeckten Sachen, Singspiel (Sept. 25, 1789; in collaboration with F. Gerl and B. Schack): Der Zauberpfeil, oder Das kabinett der Wahrheit, opera (June 9, 1793); Das Zingeunrermädchen, Lustspiel mit Gesang (Nov. 10, 1793); Die Hauschaltung nach der Mode, oder der 30-jährige Bernhardt, Singspiel (March 15, 1794); Der Bruder von Kagran, comic opera (June 2, 1797); Der Kampf mit dem Fürsten der Finsternis, comic opera (April 20, 1799); Fausts Leben, Taten und Höllenfahrt, romantisches Schauspiel mit Gesang (June 28, 1799); Der vermeinte Hexenmeister, ländliche Operette (March 29, 1800); Der Orgelspieler, oder Die Abenteuer im Gebirge, komisches Singspiel (Aug. 2, 1800); Der Durchmarsch, Singspiel (Dec. 27, 1800); Der Brigitten-Kirchtag, Singspiel (July 3, 1802); Slawina von Pommern, comic opera (Feb. 29, 1812).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire