Christian Frederik Barth

Christian Frederik Barth was a Danish oboist and composer born in Copenhagen in 1787 and died in Middelfart, on the island of Funen, in 1861. He belonged to a generation of Danish musicians who made the oboe an instrument of great international prestige in the first half of the nineteenth century, and his name is associated with both performance and composition.

The son of the oboist Christian Samuel Barth, he received his first lessons from his father. He made his debut as an oboist at the age of fourteen and, the following year, joined the Royal Danish Orchestra at just fifteen. In 1804 he won a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Berlin, where he gave concerts with considerable success. Back in Copenhagen, at eighteen, he was appointed principal oboe. His frequent tours of Europe brought him international fame as one of the great performers of his instrument.

In Denmark his technique left a lasting mark, and his most distinguished pupil was the court oboist Christian Schiemann. As a composer, his published works include five oboe concertos, the Rondeau suisse for oboe and orchestra, a divertimento for oboe and string quartet, a sonata for oboe and piano, the Grande sinfonie for wind instruments and an overture in E major for orchestra.

He retired from the Royal Danish Orchestra in 1841 and, according to his sources, did not return to music during the last twenty years of his life.