Franz de Paula Raab

Franz de Paula Raab was born in Pausram, now Puzdřany, on 8 February 1764 and died in Seitenstetten on 21 May 1804. The son of a peasant, he began his musical training as an apprentice in Purgstall, in Lower Austria, a practical occupation that brought him early into the musical life of the region.

Around 1780 he obtained a post as bass singer at the Benedictine abbey of Seitenstetten, where in 1788 he succeeded Christian Widmann as organist and composer. In 1794 he received composition lessons from Albrechtsberger in Vienna, which completed a technical preparation that is reflected in his religious works. In sacred music he closely followed the style of Michael Haydn, paying careful attention to liturgical requirements. His secular output includes patriotic pieces written during the wars with France and functional music intended for use in the monastery.

His music was performed in Seitenstetten until 1875. Almost all of his work survives in manuscript, scattered across Austrian and German archives, and its importance lies above all in the testimony it offers to the religious practice of an Austrian monastery at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century.