In Memoriam: Franz X. Streitwieser (1939-2021)

ITG mourns the passing of Franz X. Streitwieser.
Streitwieser, Franz Xaver (b Laufen, Ostbayern, Germany 16 September 1939; - d Lake Wales, Florida, USA 8 November 2021) German-born American citizen, orchestral trumpet player, instrument designer, collector.  He studied trumpet at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and earned a Magister diploma in 1961.  After coming to the USA, he studied at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, earning a MM in trumpet performance in 1980.Streitwieser was solo trumpet at the Salzburger Festspiele (1970-80), first trumpet in the Philharmonic Orchestra Freiburg in Breisgau, and a teacher at the Musikhochschule Freiburg (1966-78). In 1977, with the Freiburg instrument maker, Hans Gillhaus, he designed the Clarinhorn (a circular flugelhorn designed to perform Rococo era high horn parts).  The instrument was featured in the 1978 recording Virtuoses Clarinhorn. The Gillhaus collaboration produced a series of three-valved instruments in the 1980s and finally a four-valve model with a larger more horn-like bell in 1989.  Several composers contributed to new clarinhorn repertoire, notably Widmar Hader who composed pieces for Streitwieser’s solo appearances with the Sudetendeutche Musiktage Orchestra.  In 1978 the Strietwieser family moved to Pottstown, Pennsylvania. In 1979, they established a non-profit foundation, to support a museum of trumpets and a research library. In May 1980, the Trumpet Museum opened to the public. The collection features a balance between European and American–made brass wind instruments mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries. By 1992, the number of instruments had risen to 904 when Herbert Hyde cataloged the collection. In 1996 the collection was loaned to Musikinstrumentenmuseum, Schloss Kremsegg in Kremsmünster, Upper Austria.  Streitwieser served as a consultant at Kremsegg and continued to collect. In 2011, the collection numbered 1400 instruments and was formally gifted to Kremsegg.  Streitwieser received the Austrian Kulturmedaille des Landes in 2011. Several hundred Streitwieser instruments and related materials, not part of the Austrian collection, were donated to Polk State College in Florida in 2013. Select items from that donation are displayed in at the Lake Wales Arts Center. 
 
His writings include: 
Das Jagdhorn in Böhmen und Mähren: Volume 3 of Schriftenreihe zur sudetendeutschen Musik (Regensburg, Verlagshaus Sudetenland, 1981)
 
(with Ralph T. Dudgeon) Das Flügelhorn: die Geschichte des Flügelhorns, illustriert am Beispiel der Sammlung Streitwieser im Musikinstrumentenmuseum Schloss Kremsegg The fluegelhorn: the history of the fluegelhorn as illustrated by the Streitwieser collection in the Instrument Museum of Schloss Kremsegg  (Bergkirchen: Edition Bochinsky, 2004)
 
Recordings: Virtuoses Clarinhorn  Franz X Streitwieser (LP Laudate, 1978)
 
Franz Xaver Streitwieser died peacefully in his sleep on Monday, 8 November. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a decade ago.
 
(Source: Ralph Dudgeon)

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