Background
The son of a brewer, he received his first music lessons from his godfather, Magdeburg singer Johann Scheffler.
The son of a brewer, he received his first music lessons from his godfather, Magdeburg singer Johann Scheffler.
His teacher Johann Schelle recognized the child"s extraordinary talent.
With Scheffler"s recommendation he was accepted at the Thomasschule zu Leipzig. As a result, Österreich left Leipzig in 1680, and moved to Hamburg where he continued his musical education. At the same time he became the violinist in the Gänsemarktoper.
In the fall of 1683 he enrolled at the University of Leipzig and a year later his talent was recognized again, this time as a tenor at the Hamburg opera.
In 1689 he was hired as Kapellmeister for the Duke of Schleswig-Gottorf. Österreich was a passionate music collector, accumulating a considerable number of works from 1670 to 1730, which form the basis of the Bokemeyer collection.
This collection is currently held at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. lieutenant is considered invaluable because it is often the only source of many works by famous composers including Dietrich Buxtehude, Nicolaus Bruhns, Johann Rosenmüller, Matthias Weckmann, Vincent Lübeck and Johann Philipp Krieger.
Foreign Osterreich, counterpoint and canon were concrete manifestations of the "order of God" (Ordnung Gottes), their elaboration revealing the divine, inscrutable essence of God"s creation, not merely as a metaphor for His order, but as the concrete actualization of that order.