Description

Gustav von KREITNER (1847 – 1893).

[For the Wounded [Soldiers] in Bosnia. Concordia March].

Shanghai: Grelier & Co. 1878.

In 1877, the Austrian surveyor and geographer Gustav von Kreitner (1847 – 1893) accompanied Hungarian traveler Béla Széchenyi on a three year trip to Southeast Asia and China, which in 1881 Kreitner described in a popular travelogue Im fernen Osten. Reisen des Grafen Bela Szechenyi in Indien, Japan, China, Tibet und Birma in den Jahren 1877-1880 (In the Far East. Travels of count Bela Szechenyi in India, Japan, China, Tibet and Burma).

The print was probably made during Gustav Kreitner’s second staying in Shanghai, between September 22 and November 22, 1878, on his way back home, the two relatively non adventurous months he spent with “days at work and evenings in a pleasant company of my friends in Clubs” (Im fernen Osten, 1881, p. 350).

The music score, titled Concordia March, was written by Gustav von Kreitner for a charity event at the German club Concordia in Shanghai to gather money for wounded Austrian soldiers at Austro-Hungarian campaign in Bosnia, which lasted from 29 July to 20 October, 1878.

Upon his return to Austria Gustav Kreitner was knighted for his extraordinary achievements and was appointed a general consul in Yokohama in 1886, where he lived until the rest of his life.

The sheet is signed with a name of Klaudius (Claudius) Maretka, who advertised in newspapers in the late 19th century as a piano and organ builder from Wels in Austria. He was possibly related to a prominent Czech organ builder František Maretka from Olomouc.