Emanuel Förster was a man of kind nature whose opus is presently almost completely forgotten. He was born in the province of Schlezien and had started composing early and moreover prior to receiving any music instruction. During his teens he was a military musician in the Prussian army and only after his discharge did he get a chance to start his formal training in harmony with organist Pausewang of Mittewalde.
After this initial instruction he has probably moved to Prague where he met local musicians and likely also got married. In 1776 he moved to Vienna to continue with his career and education. The contemporary records point that in the following decades he became quite well known and admired by Viennese public (1).
A unique trait of his life would be his close friendship with Beethoven, as Förster became one of the first teachers of young Beethoven in Vienna. Also, by some chance Förster has lived for a while in the apartment within the same building where Beethoven resided - a coincidence that has probably facilitated their contacts. Later has this friendship grown and along allowed the Förster's home to become one of the most favorite places in Vienna for the soirées and other informal gatherings of professional musicians and music lovers (2).
Beethoven has held Förster in high esteem all his life and in his later career he would frequently send extra students to his "old teacher". In that regard Weigl informs us that Beethoven and Förster have often enjoyed meaningful discussions over compositional technique and form (3). This would imply a high regard of Beethoven toward Förster's opinion and composition skills which - as is commonly known - is not something Beethoven would often bestow of his colleagues.
With his early works Förster was well appreciated and respected in Vienna, yet surprisingly with his later ones, where he in some way actually follows Beethoven's own style, his works have found less of an approval. To add yet another interesting observation - Förster himself has admired more Beethoven's early style while he considered his later works to be ever more difficult to understand and appreciate.
For the history of Viennese bass Förster is interesting particularly through his Notturno for 11 instruments, which appears to have been performed at the same time when Beethoven's Septet op. 20 was being written (4). Since we know that Beethoven's Septet was preformed by Johann Dietzl - a Haydn's bassist associated with Viennese tuning tradition - this record may indicate a possibility that the same bassist may have also played the Notturno part on Viennese bass (5). However it should be noted that this work has been published in 1795 and therefore was probably written even earlier during Förster's pre-Vienna years. More on this interesting piece can be found in the works section.
Otherwise, it would appear that Förster's Octet (1802) could have also been performed with the Viennese bass, since the time and place of its origination would assume the same group of musicians associated with the Notturno and Septet Vienna performances of 1800.
Focht, Josef. Der Wiener Kontrabass. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1999.
Weigl, Karl. "Emanuel Aloys Forster". Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft, 6. Jahrg., H. 2. (Jan., 1905): 274-314.
5. Focht: Beethoven p. 93
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