weber bigrafija

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WEBER, CARL MARIA FRIEDRICH ERNEST VON (1786-1826), German

composer, was born at Eutin, near Lbeck, on the 18th of December 1786, of

a family that had long been devoted to art. His father, Baron Franz Anton von

Weber, a military officer in the service of the palgrave Karl Theodor, was an

excellent violinist, and his mother once sang on the stage. His cousins,

Josepha, Aloysia, Constanze and Sophie, daughters of Franz Anton's brother

Fridolin, attained a high reputation as vocalists. The great composer, Mozart,

after having been rejected by Aloysia, married Constanze, and thus became

Franz Anton's nephew by marriage. Fridolin played the violin nearly as well as

his brother; and the whole family displayed exceptional talent for music. Franz

Anton von Weber was a man of thriftless habits and culpable eccentricity.

Having been wounded at Rosbach, he quitted the army, and in 1758 he wasappointed financial councillor to Clement August, elector of Cologne, who for

nine years overlooked his incorrigible neglect of duty. But the elector's

successor dismissed him in 1768; and for many years after this he lived in

idleness at Hildesheim, squandering the property of his wife, Anna de'

Fumetti, and doing nothing for the support of his children until 1778, when he

was appointed director of the opera at Lbeck. In 1779 the prince bishop of

Eutin made him his kapellmeister, and not long afterwards his wife died of a

broken heart. Five years later he went to Vienna, placed two of his sons underMichael Haydn, and in 1785 married the young Viennese singer Genovefa von

Brenner. In the following year Carl Maria von Weber was born a delicate

child, afflicted with congenital disease of the hip-joint.

On his return from Vienna, Franz Anton, finding that a new kapellmeister had

been chosen in his place, accepted the humbler position of Stadt Musikant.

This, however, he soon relinquished; and for some years he wandered from

town to town, giving dramatic performances, in conjunction with the children of

his first wife, wherever he could collect an audience. The effect of this restless

life upon the little Carl Maria's health and education was deplorable; but, as he

accompanied his father everywhere, he became familiarized with the stage

from his earliest infancy, and thus gained an amount of dramatic experience

that laid the foundation of his future greatness. Franz Anton hoped to see him

develop into an infant prodigy, like his cousin Mozart, whose marvellous

career was then rapidly approaching its close. In furtherance of this scheme,

the child was taught to sing and place his fingers upon the pianoforte almost

as soon as he could speak, though he was unable to walk until he was four


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years old. Happily his power of observation and aptitude for general learning

were so precocious that he seems, in spite of all these disadvantages, to have

instinctively educated himself as became a gentleman. In 1798 Michael Haydn

taught him gratuitously at Salzburg. In the March of that year his mother died.

In April the family visited Vienna, removing in the autumn to Munich. Here the

child's first composition a set of Six Fughettas was published, with a

pompous dedication to his half-brother Edmund; and here also he took

lessons in singing and in composition. Soon afterwards he began to play

successfully in public, and his father compelled him to write incessantly.

Among the compositions of this period were a mass and an opera Die

Macht der Liebe und des Weins now destroyed. A set of Variations for the

Pianoforte, composed a little later, was lithographed by Carl Maria himself,under the guidance of Alois Senefelder, the inventor of the process, in which

both the father and the child took great interest.

In 1800 the family removed to Freiberg, where the Ritter von Steinsberg gave

Carl Maria the libretto of an opera called DasWaldmdchen, which the boy,

though not yet fourteen years old, at once set to music, and produced in

November at the Freiburg theatre. The performance was by no means

successful, and the composer himself was accustomed to speak of the work

as a very immature production; yet it was afterwards reproduced at

Chemnitz, and even at Vienna.

Carl Maria returned with his father to Salzburg in 1801, resuming his studies

under Michael Haydn. Here he composed his second opera, Peter Schmoll

und seine Nachbarn, which was unsuccessfully produced at Nuremberg in

1803. In that year he again visited Vienna, where, though Joseph Haydn and

Albrechtsberger were both receiving pupils, his father preferred placing him

under Abt Vogler. Through Vogler's instrumentality Carl Maria was appointedconductor of the opera at Breslau, before he had completed his eighteenth

year. In this capacity he greatly enlarged his experience of the stage, so that

he ranks among the greatest masters of stage-craft in musical history; but he

lived a sadly irregular life, contracted debts, and lost his beautiful voice

through accidentally drinking an acid used in lithography a mishap which

nearly cost him his life. These hindrances, however, did not prevent him from

beginning a new opera called Rbezahl, the libretto of which was romantic to

the last degree, and Weber worked at it enthusiastically, but it was nevercompleted, and little of it has been preserve beyond a quintet and the masterly


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overture, which, re-written in 1811 under the title of Der Beherrscher der

Geister, now ranks among its author's finest instrumental compositions.

Quitting Breslau in 1806, Weber removed in the following year to Stuttgart,

where he had been offered the post of private secretary to Duke Ludwig,brother of Frederick, king of Wrtemberg. The appointment was a disastrous

one. The stipend attached to it was insufficient to meet the twofold demands

of the young man's new social position and the thriftlessness of his father,

who was entirely dependent upon him for support. Court life at Stuttgart was

uncongenial to him, though he yielded to its temptations. The king hated him

and his practical jokes. He fell hopelessly into debt, and, worse than all,

became involved in a fatal intimacy with Margarethe Lang, a singer at the

opera. Notwithstanding these distractions he worked hard, and in 1809 re-modelled Das Waldmdchen, under the title of Sylvana,[1] and prepared to

produce it at the court theatre. But a dreadful calamity prevented its

performance. Franz Anton had misappropriated a large sum of money placed

in the young secretary's hands for the purpose of clearing a mortgage upon

one of the duke's estates.[2] Both father and son were charged with

embezzlement, and, on the 9th of February 1810, they were arrested at the

theatre, during a rehearsal of Sylvana, and thrown by the king's order into

prison. No one doubted Weber's innocence, but after a summary trial he and

his father were ordered to quit the country, and on the 27th of February they

began a new life at Mannheim.

Having provided a comfortable home for his father, and begun a new comic

opera, in one act, called Abu Hassan, Weber removed to Darmstadt in order

to be near his old master Abt Vogler, and his fellow-pupils Meyerbeer and

Gnsbacher. On the 16th of September 1810, he reproduced Sylvana at

Frankfort, but with very doubtful success. Abu Hassanwas completed atDarmstadt in January 1811, after many interruptions, one of which (his

attraction to the story of Der Freischtz see below) exercised a memorable

influence upon his later career.

Weber started in February 1811 on an extended artistic tour, during which he

made many influential friends, and on the 4th of June brought out Abu Hassan

with marked success at Munich. His father died at Mannheim in 1812, and

after this he had no settled home, until in 1813 his wanderings were brought to

an end by the unexpected offer of an appointment as kapellmeister at Prague,


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coupled with the duty of entirely remodelling the performances at the opera-

house. The terms were so liberal that he accepted at once, engaged a new

company of performers, and directed them with uninterrupted success until

the autumn of 1816. During this period he composed no new operas, but he

had already written much of his best pianoforte music, and played it with

never-failing success, while the disturbed state of Europe inspired him with

some of the finest patriotic melodies in existence. First among these stand ten

songs from Krner's Leyerund Schwerdt, including Vater, ich rufe dich, and

Ltzow's wilde Jagd; and in no respect inferior to these are the splendid

choruses in his cantata Kampf und Sieg, which was first performed at Prague,

on the 22nd of December 1815.

Weber resigned his office at Prague on the 30th of September 1816, and onthe 21st of December, Frederick Augustus, king of Saxony, appointed him

kapellmeister at the German opera at Dresden. The Italian operas performed

at the court theatre were superintended by Morlacchi, whose jealous and

intriguing disposition gave endless trouble. The king, however, placed the two

kapellmeisters on an exact equality both of title and salary, and Weber found

ample opportunity for the exercise of his remarkable power of organization

and control. He now gave his close attention to the story of Der Freischtz,

which he had previously meditated turning into an opera, and, with the

assistance of Friedrich Kind, he produced an admirable libretto, under the title

of Des Jgers Braut. No subject could have been better fitted than this to

serve as a vehicle for the new art-form which, under Weber's skilful

management, developed into the type of romantic opera. He had dealt with

the supernatural in Rbezahl, and in Sylvanawith the pomp and circumstance

of chivalry; but the shadowy impersonations in Rbezahlare scarcely less

human than the heroine who invokes them; and the music of Sylvanamight

easily have been adapted to a story of the 19th century. But Weber now knew

better than to let the fiend in Der Freischtzsing; with three soft strokes of a

drum below an unchanging dismal chord he brings him straight to us from the

nether world. Every note in Euryanthebreathes the spirit of medieval

romance; and the fairies in Oberonhave an actuality quite distinct from the

tinsel of the stage. This uncompromising reality, even in face of the unreal,

forms the strongest characteristic of the pure romantic school, as Weber

understood and created it. It treats its wildest subjects in earnest, and without

a doubt as to the reality of the scenes it ventures to depict, or the truthfulness


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of their dramatic interpretation.

Weber wrote the first note of the music of Der Freischtzon the 2nd of July

beginning with the duet which opens the second act. But so numerous were

the interruptions caused by Morlacchi's intrigues, the insolence of unfriendlycourtiers, and the attacks of jealous critics that nearly three years elapsed

before the piece was completed. In the meantime the performances at the

opera-house were no less successfully remodelled at Dresden than they had

already been at Prague, though the work of reformation was far more difficult;

for the new kapellmeister was surrounded by enemies who openly subjected

him to every possible annoyance, and even the king himself was at one time

strongly prejudiced against him. Happily, he no longer stood alone in the

world. Having, after much difficulty, broken off his liaisonwith MargaretheLand, he married the singer Carolina Brandt, a noble-minded woman and

consummate artist, who was well able to repay him for the part he had long

played in her mental development. The new opera was completed on the 13th

of May 1820, on which day Weber wrote the last note of the overture which

it was his custom to postpone until the rest of the music was finished. There is

abundant evidence to prove that he was well satisfied with the result of his

labours; but he gave himself no rest. He had engaged to compose the music

to Wolff's Gipsy drama, Preciosa. Two months later this also was finished, and

both pieces ready for the stage.

In consequence of the unsatisfactory state of affairs at Dresden, it had been

arranged that both Preciosaand Der Freischtz no longer known by its

original title, Des Jgers Braut should be produced at Berlin. In February

1821 Sir Julius Benedict was accepted by Weber as a pupil; and to his pen we

owe a delightful account of the rehearsals and first performance of his

master's chef-d'uvre. Preciosawas produced with great success at the oldBerlin opera-house on the 14th of June 1821. On the 18th of June, the

anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, the opening of the new

Schauspielhaus was celebrated by the production of Der Freischtz. Much

anxiety was caused by unforeseen difficulties at the rehearsals; yet, so calm

was Weber's mind that he devoted his leisure time to the composition of his

Concertstckin F minor one of his finest pianoforte pieces. Until the last

moment his friends were anxious; the author was not; and the result justified

his confidence in his own powers. The success of the piece was triumphant.The work was received with equal enthusiasm at Vienna on the 3rd of


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October, and at Dresden on the 26th of January 1822. Yet Weber's position

as kapellmeister was not much improved by his success, though, in order to

remain faithful to his engagements, he had refused tempting offers at Berlin

and Cassel, and, at the last-named place, had installed Ludwig Spohr in a

position much more advantageous than his own.

For his next opera Weber accepted a libretto based, by Frau Wilhelmine von

Chezy, on the story of Euryanthe, as originally told in the 13th century, in

Gilbert de Montreuil's Roman de laViolette, and repeated with alterations in

the Decamerone, in Shakespeare's Cymbeline, and in several later forms. In

place of the ghostly horrors of Der Freischtz, the romantic element was here

supplied by the chivalric pomp of the middle ages. The libretto is in one

respect superior to that of Der Freischtz, inasmuch as it substitutes elaboraterecitative for the spoken dialogue peculiar to the German Schauspiel and

French opera comique. It is, in fact, a grand opera in every sense of the

words, the prototype of the music drama perfected fifty years later by

Wagner. The overture as usual, written last presents a feature that has

never been imitated. During its performance the curtain temporarily rises, to

exhibit, in a tableau vivant, the scene in the sepulchral vault upon which the

whole story turns. This direction is now rarely carried out; but Weber himself

well knew how much the interest of the piece depended on it. The work was

produced at the Krntnerthor theatre in Vienna, on the 25th of October 1823,

and received with enthusiasm.

Weber's third and last dramatic masterpiece was an English opera, written for

Covent Garden theatre, upon a libretto adapted by Planche from Wieland's

Oberon. It was disfigured by the spoken dialogue abandoned in Euryanthe;

but in musical beauty it is quite equal to it, while its fairies and mermaids are

as vividly real as the spectres in Der Freischtz. Though already far gone inconsumption, Weber began to compose the music on the 23rd of January

1825. Charles Kemble had offered him 1000 for the work, and he could not

afford to rest. He finished the overture in London, at the house of Sir George

Smart, soon after his arrival, in March 1826; and on the 12th of April the work

was produced with triumphant success. But it cost the composer his life.

Wearied out with rehearsals and performances of the opera, and concerts at

which he was received with rapturous applause, he grew daily perceptibly

weaker; and, notwithstanding the care of his kind host, Sir George Smart, andhis family, he was found dead in his bed on the morning of the 5th of June


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1826. For eighteen years his remains rested in a temporary grave in

Moorfields chapel; but in 1844 they were removed and placed in the family

vault at Dresden, Wagner making an eloquent speech.

Besides his three great dramatic masterpieces and the other works already mentioned,Weber wrote two masses, two symphonies, eight cantatas, and a large number of songs,

orchestral and pianoforte pieces, and music of other kinds, amounting altogether to more

than 250 compositions. (W. S. R.)

Weber's style rises, in his three greatest works, to heights which show his

kinship with the great classics and the great moderns. His intellect was quick

and clear; but yet finer was the force of character with which he overcame the

disadvantages of his feeble health, desultory education and the mistakes of

his youth. With such gifts of intellect and character, every moment of his short

life was precious to the world; and it is impossible not to regret the placing ofhis training in the hands of Abt Vogler. Weber's master was an amiable

charlatan, whose weakness as a teacher was thoroughly exposed, in perfect

innocence, by his two illustrious pupils. Meyerbeer wished to be famous as the

maker of a new epoch in opera. Weber could not help being so in reality. But

he was sadly hampered by his master's inability to teach realities instead of

appearances; and to this impediment alone must we assign the fact that his

masterpieces do not begin earlier in his career. With extraordinary rapidity and

thoroughness he learnt English a year before his death in order to compose

Oberon, with the result that there is only one obvious mistake in the whole

work, and the general correctness of declamation is higher than in most of his

German works. This is typical-of Weber's general culture, mental energy and

determination; points in which, as in many traits in his music, he strikingly

resembles Wagner. But all his determination could not quite repair the defects

of his purely musical training, and though his weaknesses are not of glaring

effect in opera, still there are moments when even the stage cannot explain

them away. Thus the finale of Der Freischtzbreaks down so obviously that

no one thinks of it as anything but a perfunctory winding-up of the story,

though it really might have made quite a fine subject for musical treatment. In

EuryantheWeber attained his full power, and his inspiration did not leave himin the lurch where this work needed large musical designs. But the libretto was

full of absurdities; especially in the last act, which not even nine remodellings

under Weber's direction could redeem. Yet it is easy to see why it fascinated

him, for, whatever may be said against it from the standpoints of probability

and literary merit, its emotional contrasts are highly musical. Indeed it is

through them that the defects invite criticism.

Oberonis spoilt by the old local tradition of English opera according to which

its libretto admitted of no music during the action of the drama. Thus Weberhad in it no opportunity for his musical stage-craft; apart from the fact that the
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:William_Smyth_Rockstrohttp://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:William_Smyth_Rockstro


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action itself is entirely without dramatic motive and passion, since the

characters are simply shifted from Bordeaux to Bagdad whenever Oberon

waves his wand.

Many attempts have been made to improve the libretti of EuryantheandOberon, but none are quite successful, for Weber has taken a great artist's

pains in making the best of bad material. All that can be said against Weber's

achievements only reveals the more emphatically how noble and how

complete in essentials was his success and his claim to immortality. His

pianoforte works, while showing his helplessness in purely musical form, more

than bear out his contemporary reputation as a very great pianoforte player.

They have a pronounced theatrical tendency which, in the case of such pieces

of gay romanticism as the Invitation la danseand the Concertstck, isamusing and by no means inartistic. In orchestration Weber is one of the

greatest masters. His treatment of the voice is bold and interesting, but very

rash; and his declamation of words is often incorrect. His influence on the

music of his own day is comparable to his influence on posterity; for he was

not only a most efficient director but a very persuasive journalist; and (in spite

of the inexperience that made him disapprove of Beethoven) for all good

music other than his own he showed a growing enthusiasm that was

infectious. (D. F. T.)
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Donald_Francis_Toveyhttp://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Donald_Francis_Tovey

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