Foerster, Emanuel Aloys

1748-1823

His name is sometimes spelled Forster. He was born at Neurath, in Austrian Silesia. He was a German composer and writer, who composed much chamber-music, also works for the piano and voice, some of which have retained their popularity until the present day. He is also the author of Anleitung zum General-Bass, published at Leipsic. He was chiefly self-taught and became an exceedingly good teacher of theory from 1776 in Vienna, in which city his death occurred. Among Foerster's works are forty-eight violin quartets; quartets for strings alone and for piano and strings? piano sextets; and variations and sonatas for the piano. He first worked under his father as an accountant, and then served in the Prussian army before taking up music as a profession. He composed the variations in A on an air from Sard's opera, I finti Eredi, which were long attributed to Mozart and were extremely popular. Foerster was highly esteemed by Beethoven and other musicians.