DAVID OTT

David Ott (fl. Philadelphia 1777-1800 and perhaps longer) was a composer, organist, and schoolteacher. From 1775 until shortly after 1800, Ott served Zion Lutheran congregation in Philadelphia, teaching in the school there, conducting the choir, playing the organ, and composing, sometimes setting to music original hymns and devotional texts by the church's pastor, Justus Henry Christian Helmuth. In 1790 he composed an anthem for the dedication of the new organ built for the church by David Tannenberg. A David Ott arrived in Philadelphia on a ship from Rotterdam, 1 Oct. 1770. Also a David Ott is listed in Philadelphia directories of 1796-97 and 1801-9, the latter listings identifying him as a gold refiner. This Ott died before March 1810, because the directory lists his widow-identified in the 1811 directory as Catherine-at the same address. If the musical David Ott is the subject of these references he can be listed as having flourished in Philadelphia, ca. 1770-1809; d. there between 1 March 1809 and 1 March 1810.

          Sonneck-Upton. Also Census 1790, Pennsylvania, p. 231, col. 3; Philadelphia Dir., 1791-1810; Rupp 1927, p. 391; Wolf 1972a, p. 628-45. On the organ at Zion Church, see Armstrong 1967, p. 44-47, 100-1.

          See No. 405.

ASMI p. 482