Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
WEBER, CARL MARIA FRIEDRICH ERNEST VO...
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: WAT-WIL
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:WEBER, CARL MARIA See also:FRIEDRICH ERNEST VON (1786–1826) , See also:German composer, was See also:born at See also:Eutin, near See also:Lubeck, on the 18th of See also:December 1786, of a See also:family that had See also:long been devoted to See also:art. His See also:father, See also:Baron See also:Franz Anton von Weber, a military 2 The See also:original See also:play, Gismonde of Salerne, was by five authors, and was produced in the See also:Queen's presence at the Inner See also:Temple in 1568. officer in the service of the See also:palgrave Karl Theodor, was an excellent violinist, and his See also:mother once sang on the See also:stage. His See also:cousins, Josepha, Aloysia, Constanze and Sophie, daughters of Franz Anton's See also:brother Fridolin, attained a high reputation as vocalists. The See also:great composer, See also:Mozart, after having been rejected by Aloysia, married Constanze, and thus became Franz Anton's See also:nephew by See also:marriage. Fridolin played the See also:violin nearly as well as his brother; and the whole family displayed exceptional See also:talent for See also:music. Franz Anton von Weber was a See also:man of thriftless habits and culpable eccentricity. Having been wounded at Rosbach, he quitted the See also:army, and in 1758 he was appointed See also:financial councillor to See also:Clement See also:August, elector of See also:Cologne, who for nine years overlooked his incorrigible neglect of See also:duty. But the elector's successor dismissed him in 1768; and for many years after this he lived in idleness at See also:Hildesheim, squandering the See also:property of his wife, See also:Anna de' Fumetti, and doing nothing for the support of his See also:children until 1778, when he was appointed director of the See also:opera at Lubeck. In 1779 the See also:prince See also:bishop of Eutin made him his kapellmeister, and not long afterwards his wife died of a broken See also:heart. Five years later he went to See also:Vienna, placed two of his sons under See also:Michael See also:Haydn, and in 1785 married the See also:young Viennese See also:singer Genovefa von See also:Brenner. In the following See also:year Carl Maria von Weber was born—a delicate See also:child, afflicted with congenital disease of the See also:hip-See also:joint. On his return from Vienna, Franz Anton, finding that a new kapellmeister had been chosen in his See also:place,.accepted the humbler position of " Stadt Musikant." This, however, he soon relinquished; and for some years he wandered from See also:town to town, giving dramatic performances, in See also:conjunction with the children of his first wife, wherever he could collect an See also:audience. The effect of this restless See also:life upon the little Cari Maria's See also:health and See also:education was deplorable; but, as he accompanied his father everywhere, he became familiarized with the stage from his earliest See also:infancy, and thus gained an amount of dramatic experience that laid the See also:foundation of his future greatness. Franz Anton hoped to see him develop into an See also:infant See also:prodigy, like his See also:cousin Mozart, whose marvellous career was then rapidly approaching its See also:close. In furtherance of this See also:scheme, the child was taught to sing and place his fingers upon the See also:pianoforte almost as soon as he could speak, though he was unable to walk until he was four years old. Happily his See also:power of observation and aptitude for See also:general learning were so precocious that he seems, in spite of all these disadvantages, to have instinctively educated him-self as became a See also:gentleman. In 1798 Michael Haydn taught him gratuitously at See also:Salzburg. In the See also: In 'Soo the family removed to See also:Freiberg, where the See also:Ritter von Steinsberg gave Carl Maria the libretto of an opera called Das Waldmiidchen, which the boy, though not yet fourteen years old, at once set to music, and produced in See also:November at the See also:Freiburg See also:theatre. The performance was by no means successful, and the composer_ himself was accustomed to speak of the See also:work as " a very immature See also:production " ; yet it was afterwards reproduced at See also:Chemnitz, and even at Vienna.
Carl Maria returned with his father to Salzburg in 18o1, resuming his studies under Michael Haydn. Here he composed his second opera, See also:Peter Se/mall and See also:seine Nachbarn, which was unsuccessfully produced at See also:Nuremberg in 1803. In that year he again visited Vienna, where, though See also:Joseph Haydn and See also:Albrechtsberger were both receiving pupils, his father preferredplacing him under See also:Abt See also:Vogler. Through Vogler's See also:instruments ality Carl Maria was appointed conductor of the opera at See also: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-See also:craft in musical See also:history; but he lived a sadly irregular life, contracted debts, and lost his beautiful See also:voice through accidentally drinking an See also:acid used in See also:lithography—a mishap which nearly cost him his life. These hindrances, however, did not prevent him from beginning a new opera called Riibezahl, the libretto of which was " romantic" to the last degree, and Weber worked at it enthusiastically, but it was never completed, and little of it has been preserved beyond a quintet and the masterly See also:overture, which, re-written in 1811 under the See also:title of Der Beherrscher der Geister, now ranks among its author's finest instrumental compositions.
Quitting Breslau in 18o6, Weber removed in the following year to See also:Stuttgart, where he had been offered the See also:post of private secretary to See also:Duke See also:Ludwig, brother of See also:Frederick, See also: The king hated him and his See also:practical jokes. He See also:fell hopelessly into See also:debt, and, worse than all, became involved in a fatal intimacy with Margarethe See also:Lang, a singer at the opera. Notwithstanding these distractions he worked hard, and in 18o9 re-modelled Das Waldm¢dchen, under the title of Sylvana,' and prepared to produce it at the court theatre. But a dreadful calamity prevented its performance. Franz Anton had misappropriated a large sum of See also:money placed in the young secretary's hands for the purpose of clearing a See also:mortgage upon one of the duke's estates.2 - Both father and son were charged with See also:embezzlement, and, on the 9th of See also:February 181o, they were arrested at the theatre, during a See also:rehearsal of Sylvana, and thrown by the king's See also:order into See also:prison. No one doubted Weber's innocence, but after a See also:summary trial he and his father were ordered to quit the See also:country, and on the 27th of February they began a new life at See also:Mannheim. Having provided a comfortable See also:home for his father, and begun a new comic opera, in one See also:act, called See also:Abu See also:Hassan, Weber re-moved to See also:Darmstadt in order to be near his old See also:master Abt Vogler, and his See also:fellow-pupils See also:Meyerbeer and See also:Gansbacher. On the 16th of See also:September 181o, he reproduced Sylvana at See also:Frankfort, but with very doubtful success. Abu Hassan was completed at Darmstadt in See also:January 1811, after many interruptions, one of which (his attraction to the See also:story of Der Freischiitz—see below) exercised a memorable See also:influence upon his later career. Weber started in February 1811 on an extended See also:artistic tour, during which he made many influential See also:friends, and on the 4th of See also: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 See also:Prague, coupled with the duty of entirely remodelling the performances at the opera-See also:house. The terms were so liberal that he accepted at once, engaged a new See also: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 See also:state of See also:Europe inspired him with some bf the finest patriotic melodies in existence. First among these stand ten songs from Korner's Leyer and Schwerdt, including " Vater, ich rufe dich," and " See also:Lutzow's See also:wilde Jagd " ; and in no respect inferior to these are the splendid choruses in his See also:cantata Kampf and Sieg, which was first per-formed at Prague, on the 22nd of December 1815. Weber resigned his See also:office at Prague on the 3oth of September ' As the MS. of Das Waldmadchen has been lost, it is impossible now to determine its exact relation to the later work. 2 See also:Spitta gives a different See also:account of the occurrence, and attributes the See also:robbery to a servant. 1816, and on the 21st of December, Frederick See also:Augustus, king of See also:Saxony, appointed him kapellmeister at the German opera at See also:Dresden. The See also: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 kapelimeisters on an exact equality both of title and See also:salary, and Weber found ample opportunity for the exercise of his remarkable power of organization and See also:control. He now gave his close See also:attention to the story of Der See also:Freischutz, which he had previously meditated turning into an opera, and, with the assistance of Friedrich See also:Kind, he produced an admirable libretto, under the title of Des _lagers Braut. No subject could have been better fitted than this to serve as a vehicle for the new art-See also:form which, under Weber's skilful management, See also:developed into the type of "romantic opera." He had dealt with the supernatural in Riibezahl, and in Sylvania with the pomp and circumstance of See also:chivalry; but the shadowy impersonations in Riibezahl are scarcely less human than the heroine who invokes them; and the music of Sylvana might easily have been adapted to a story of the 19th See also:century. But Weber now knew better than to let the fiend in Der Freischutz sing; with three soft strokes of a See also:drum below an unchanging See also:dismal chord he brings him straight to us from the nether See also:world. Every See also:note in Euryanthe breathes the spirit of See also:medieval See also:romance; and the fairies in See also:Oberon have an actuality quite distinct from the tinsel of the stage. This uncompromising reality, even in See also: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 See also:earnest, and without a doubt as to the reality of the scenes it ventures to depict, or the truthfulness of their dramatic See also:interpretation. Weber wrote the first note of the music of Der Freischutz on the 2nd of See also:July—beginning with the See also:duet which opens the second act. But so numerous were the interruptions caused by Morlacchi's intrigues, the insolence of unfriendly courtiers, 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 See also: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 See also:time strongly prejudiced against him. Happily, he no longer stood alone in the world. Having, after much difficulty, broken off his liaison with Margarethe See also:Land, he married the singer Carolina Brandt, a See also:noble-minded woman and See also:con-summate artist, who was well able to repay him for the See also:part he had long played in her See also:mental development. The new opera was completed on the 13th of May 182o, on which See also:day Weber wrote the last note of the overture—which it was his See also:custom to postpone until the See also:rest of the music was finished. There is abundant See also: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 See also:Wolff's Gipsy See also: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 Preciosa and Der Freischiitzno longer known by its original title, Des Jagers Braut—should be produced at See also:Berlin. In February 1821 See also:Sir See also:Julius See also:Benedict was accepted by Weber as a See also:pupil; and to his See also:pen we owe a delightful account of the rehearsals and first performance of his master's chef -d'ceuvre. Preciosa was produced with great success at the old Berlin opera-house on the 14th of June 1821. On the 18th of June, the anniversary of the See also:battle of See also:Waterloo, the opening of the new " Schauspielhaus " was celebrated by the production of Der Freischutz. Much anxiety was caused by unforeseen difficulties at the rehearsals; yet, so See also:calm was Weber's mind that he devoted his leisure time to the composition of his Concerts/lick in F See also: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 See also:powers.
C. VON 457
The success of the piece was triumphant. The work was received with equal See also:enthusiasm at Vienna on the 3rd of See also: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 See also:Cassel, and, at the last-named place, had installed Ludwig See also:Spohr in a position much more advantageous than his own.
For his next opera Weber accepted a libretto based, by Frau Wilhelmine von See also:Chezy, on the story of Euryanthe, as originally told in the 13th century, in See also: The overture—as usual, written last—presents a feature that has never been imitated. During its performance the See also:curtain temporarily rises, to exhibit, in a tableau vivant, the See also: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 Karntnerthor theatre in Vienna, on the 25th of October 1823, and received with enthusiasm.
Weber's third and last dramatic masterpiece was an See also:English opera, written for Covent See also:Garden theatre, upon a libretto adapted by See also:Planche from See also: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 Freischutz. Though already far gone. in See also:consumption, Weber began to compose the music on the 23rd of January 1825. See also: Besides his three great dramatic masterpieces and the other See also: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 See also:style rises, in his three greatest works, to heights which show his kinship with the great See also:classics and the great moderns. His See also:intellect was See also:quick and clear; but yet finer was the force of See also: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 See also:short life was See also:precious to the world; and it is impossible not to regret the placing of his training in the hands of Abt Vogler. Weber's master was an amiable See also: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 See also:epoch in opera. Weber could not help being so in reality. But he was sadly hampered by his master's inability to See also: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 extra-See also:ordinary rapidity and thoroughness he learnt English a year before his See also:death in order to compose Oberon, with the result that there is only one obvious See also: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 See also: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 See also:finale of Der Freischutz breaks 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 See also:fine subject for musical treatment. In Euryanthe Weber attained his full power, and his See also:inspiration did not leave him in the See also: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 See also:probability and See also:literary merit, its emotional contrasts are highly musical. Indeed it is through them that the defects invite See also:criticism. Oberon is spoilt by the old See also:local tradition of English opera according to which its libretto admitted of no music during the See also:action of the drama. Thus Weber had in it no opportunity for his musical stage-craft; apart from the fact that the action itself is entirely without dramatic See also:motive and See also:passion, since the characters are simply shifted from See also:Bordeaux to See also:Bagdad whenever Oberon waves his wand. Many attempts have been made to improve the libretti of Euryanthe and Oberon, but none are quite successful, for Weber has taken a great artist's pains in making the best of See also:bad material. All that can be said against Weber's achievements only reveals the more emphatically how noble and how See also:complete in essentials was his success and his claim to See also:immortality. His pianoforte works, while showing his helplessness in purely musical form, more than See also:bear out his contemporary reputation as a very great pianoforte player. They have a pronounced theatrical tendency which, in the See also:case of such pieces of See also:gay romanticism as the Invitation a la dense and the Concertstuck, is amusing and by no means inartistic. In orchestration Weber is one of the greatest masters. His treatment of the voice is bold arid 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 See also:Beethoven) for all See also:good music other than his own he showed a growing enthusiasm that was infectious. (D. F. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] WEBBE, WILLIAM (fl. 1586) |
[next] WEBER, WILHELM EDUARD (1804-1891) |