A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Petzmayer, Johann

by J. A. Fuller-Maitland

PETZMAYER, Johann, born in Vienna, 1803, the son of an innkeeper. When he was 18 years old he obtained a common zither, and taught himself to play it with such success that his performances brought a considerable amount of custom to his father. His fame spread in higher quarters, and it was not long before he became the fashion in Vienna. He even played before the Emperor. In later life he took to the bowed zither (Streich-Zither) instead of the ordinary kind he had previously used. In 1833 he made a successful tour in Germany, and in 1837 was made Kammervirtuos to Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. He was living in Munich in 1870. (Wurzbach's Biographisches Lexicon, vol. 22.).

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