Raimund Pechotsch

Raimund Leo Pechotsch (June 1864 – 20 January 1941) was a composer of romantic and incidental musical theatre pieces. He was a Roman Catholic who also conducted liturgical music.[1]

Raimund Pechotsch

Life

Pechotsch was born in Vienna, his father Adalbert Pechotsch being a composer of some note.[1] He studied at the Vienna Conservatoire and privately under Eduard Remenyi. He was one of three brothers who were members of the Austrian Strauss Band in 1880: Raimund on first violin; Adolf and Rupert both on contra-bass and trumpet.[2] The band had been contracted to perform at the Melbourne Exhibition of 1881.[3] He remained in Australia, but moved to Sydney.

He was in Brisbane then left for New Zealand 1889.[4]

Pechotsch was musical director for Australian stage producer Oscar Asche.[5] Raimund also worked for music publisher Palings and taught violin and piano in Sydney for many years.[6]

Pechotsch wrote incidental music for Walter Howard's 1910 play The Prince and the Beggar Maid[7] which was very successful in London and Australia.[8] He also wrote music (orchestrated for ensemble of twenty) to accompany "Pete" a Lewis Parker stage adaptation of Hall Caine's novel The Manxman.[9]

Later in life he remarried Alice McCarthy, the daughter of fellow Australian composer Dr William Charles MacCarthy.[10]

Works
  • The cycling schottische
  • A lost love with words by Frederick Augustus Packer
  • Emu waltz (1896)
  • For thee : song with violin obligato with words by Ernest Glanville-Hicks (father of Peggy Glanville-Hicks)
  • Fire a shot for the Empire with foreign journalist Dulcie Deamer[11]
  • To a butterfly with Australian poet Agnes Littlejohn (1865-1944)[12][13]
  • Sympathy Waltz
  • Gem Waltz
  • Cradle song : Chant du berceau, written for Hall Caine's Pete[1]
  • Romance, for violin with piano accompaniment
  • Liebslied (1915), written after the death of his son[1]
  • My love and I (boat song) with lyrics by Marie Van Brakkel
  • Tears and pearls with lyrics by Henry C. de Witt
  • Monsieur Beaucaire waltz

Family

On 17 September 1885 Pechotsch married Mary Elizabeth Curtis (born 1858 – 23 December), née Dolman, widow of Peter Campbell Curtis and mother of William John Curtis, KC.(1 September 1881 – 24 May 1940)[1]

  • Raimund Adalbert Pechotsch, aka Jan Rudenyi, (born 1 August 1886 – February 1915) was feted as a violin prodigy,[14] having received his entire musical training from his father.
He had ten years education in Europe and returned to Australia in his twenties.[15]
  • Eric Joachim Pechotsch, aka Eric Mareo (30 September 1891 – 1958), as a boy was a charming singer of humorous songs[16] and later as musical director of the Ernest Rolls Revue and in 1935 of his own orchestra, a dandy who affected a long white cigarette holder and conducted with a tinsel-covered baton.[17] He was convicted in Auckland, New Zealand, of the murder of his second wife Thelma née Trott, who died 15 April 1935 by Veronal poisoning. Thelma's lesbian lover Freda Stark was a key witness at the trial.[18]

Around 1938 he married again, to the widow O'Hara, née MacCarthy, daughter of Dr Charles MacCarthy, an Irish Home Rule activist.[1] MacCarthy was frequently written M'Carthy.

He had two brothers in Australia:

  • Rupert Joseph Pechotsch ( –1941) married Ada Euphemia Norris (c. 1863 – 15 March 1944) on 28 February 1882[19] lived Numurkah, Victoria, later Highett, Victoria insolvent 1916
  • Adolf Pechotsch (c. 1856 – October 1902) married Matilda Eppin (c. 1861 – 13 March 1885); and a second time to the widow Waldock c. 1896.[20]

References
  1. "All About People: Tittle Tattle". The Catholic Press. No. 2080. New South Wales, Australia. 30 January 1941. p. 14. Retrieved 16 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. "The Austrian Strauss Band". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 10, 706. Victoria, Australia. 11 October 1880. p. 6. Retrieved 9 February 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. "Herr Pechotsch". The Daily Telegraph. No. 5967. New South Wales, Australia. 29 July 1898. p. 5. Retrieved 9 February 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "Pechotsch Farewell". The Telegraph (Brisbane). No. 5, 285. Queensland, Australia. 20 September 1889. p. 2. Retrieved 9 February 2021 – via Trove.
  5. "Return of Herr Raimund Pechotsch". The Sunday Sun. No. 304. New South Wales, Australia. 24 January 1909. p. 1. Retrieved 16 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Mr Raimund Pechotsch". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 28, 365. New South Wales, Australia. 1 December 1928. p. 10. Retrieved 16 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. Pechotsch, Raimund, -1941, The prince and the beggar maid [music] : patrol march / by Raimond Pechotsch, Stanley Mullen{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "The Prince and the Beggar Maid". The Register (Adelaide). Vol. XCI, no. 26, 557. South Australia. 29 September 1926. p. 13. Retrieved 16 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Trove".
  10. "Of General Interest". The Advocate. Vol. LXXIV, no. 4564. Victoria, Australia. 6 February 1941. p. 6. Retrieved 16 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. Pechotsch, Raimund, -1941; Deamer, Dulcie, 1890-1972 (1914), Fire a shot for the Empire [music] / words by Dulcie Deamer ; music by Raimund Pechotsch{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. "The Lost Emerald" (Agnes Littlejohn)". The World's News. No. 1204. New South Wales, Australia. 10 January 1925. p. 14. Retrieved 16 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. Pechotsch, Raimund, -1941; Littlejohn, Agnes, To a butterfly [music] : song / words by Agnes Littlejohn ; music by Raimund Pechotsch, Nicholson & Co{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. "Raimund Pechotsch". Truth. No. 366. New South Wales, Australia. 1 August 1897. p. 2. Retrieved 22 November 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. "Fine Composer". The Sunday Times. No. 2235. New South Wales, Australia. 26 May 1929. p. 6. Retrieved 16 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. "Sydney Shows". Punch (Melbourne). Victoria, Australia. 13 June 1901. p. 24. Retrieved 9 February 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. "Ch. 4 — Who was Eric Mareo?". The Trials of Eric Mareo. Retrieved 10 February 2021 – via New Zealand Electronic Text Collection.
  18. "Ch. 1 — Introduction". The Trials of Eric Mareo. Retrieved 10 February 2021 – via New Zealand Electronic Text Collection.
  19. "Family Notices". The Herald (Victoria). No. 20, 852. Victoria, Australia. 16 March 1944. p. 4. Retrieved 10 February 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. "Professor Adolf Pechotsch". Alexandra and Yea Standard, Gobur, Thornton And Acheron Express. Vol. 20, no. 1026. Victoria, Australia. 17 October 1902. p. 2. Retrieved 9 February 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
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