{{Short description|German choral conductor and composer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Siegfried Ochs | image = Siegfried Ochs (1858–1929).png | alt = | caption = In ''The Musician'', January 1909 | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1858|04|19}} | birth_place = Free City of Frankfurt | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1929|02|06|1858|04|19}} | death_place = Berlin, Weimar Republic | education = {{plainlist| * Polytechnikum Darmstadt * Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg * Königliche Hochschule für Musik }} | occupation = {{plainlist| * Composer * Choral conductor }} | website = }} '''Siegfried Ochs''' (19 April 1858 – 6 February 1929) was a German choral conductor and composer.
==Life== Born in Frankfurt, Ochs first studied medicine and chemistry at the Polytechnikum Darmstadt (today the Technische Universität Darmstadt) and at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg. He later devoted himself entirely to music, studying at the Königliche Hochschule für Musik, Berlin, under Schultze and Ernst Rudorff, and later privately under Friedrich Kiel and Heinrich Urban. In 1882, Ochs founded the Philharmonischer Chor Berlin (Philharmonic Choral Society of Berlin), which he would lead until 1920. At first an obscure organization, it became prominent through numerous performances given by Hans von Bülow, an intimate friend of Ochs. It arguably became the greatest choral society in Berlin and was distinguished for its helpful patronage of young musicians, whose compositions were performed for the first time. The choral society continues operations to present day.
Ochs died in Berlin.
==Works== Ochs was noted for humorous or parodic compositions. He wrote both the libretto and music of the three-act comic opera ''Im Namen des Gesetzes'' (Hamburg, 1888), two operettas, duets for soprano and alto, male choruses, vocal canons, and several books of songs. Many musicologists also maintain that Ochs was both composer and lyricist of the aria ''Dank sei Dir, Herr,'' still widely believed to be by Handel.<ref>{{cite web|last=Staehelin|first=Martin|title="Dank sei Dir, Herr" - Zur Erklärung einer Händel-Fälschung des frühen zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts|publisher=Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, volume 2, 1986. pp. 194-206|url=http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00055806/image_194|accessdate=31 January 2016}}. The title translates as ''"Thanks Be to Thee" - On the explanation of a Handel fake in the early twentieth century.''</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} ;Attribution *{{JewishEncyclopedia |article=Siegfried Ochs |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=20&letter=O |author= Isidore Singer and Joseph Sohn }}
==External links== * {{DNB portal|11707988X}} * {{IMSLP|id=Ochs, Siegfried|cname=Siegfried Ochs}} * [http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=478827 Guide to the Siegfried Ochs Collection] at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York. * {{PM20|FID=pe/022906}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ochs, Siegfried}} Category:1858 births Category:1929 deaths Category:19th-century German classical composers Category:19th-century German conductors (music) Category:20th-century German classical composers Category:20th-century German conductors (music) Category:Bach conductors Category:German choral conductors Category:German male classical composers Category:German male conductors (music) Category:German Romantic composers Category:People from the Free City of Frankfurt Category:19th-century German male composers Category:20th-century German male composers