From the Musical Production of Valentin Lechner

Abstract

The composer Valentin Lechner was working in Maribor as a professional musician („Musikmeister“) from about 1800 to 1805. His preserved, mostly sacred musical pieces would suggest that Lechner must have been an organist at Maribor parish church. The rare pieces of the preserved biographic material indicate that Lechner left Maribor in 1805 and took the post of organist at the city parish church of St. Ägydius (sv. Egidij), Klagenfurt/Celovec. The cathedral archives of Maribor contain two partly and one integrally preserved masses by Lechner (handwriting is the same in all three, yet it cannot be stated with any certainty whether it is Lechner's or belonging to a later copyist). Three masses by V. Lechner are also entered in the catalogue „Glasbeni rokopisi in tiski na Slovenskem do leta 1800“ (Music Manuscripts and Prints in Slovenia till 1800, publ. 1967). Masses by Lechner are solemn and written for soloists, mixed four-part choir, orchestra, and organ. Additionally, the cathedral archives contain Lechner 's Easter Song (Osterlied) for CATB with orchestra accompaniment. The 1967 catalogue mentioned above lists among the manuscripts kept by the Maribor cathedral archives also a Te Deum by Lechner. Another manuscript piece by Lechner preserved outside the Maribor cathedral archives is Tantum ergo kept in the archives of Vordenberg, later published in print as well.