Ferdinand von Weber

“ But only one of the little group, besides the subject of this sketch, has left a name to be remembered,—and that is Carl Maria von Weber. The other two may have had as noble aspirations, as untiring energy, as passionate ambitions; but Fate had decreed that Godefroy von Weber and Gänsbacher should never win the world's applause. Carl Maria and Meyerbeer were the "cronies" of the little school. They were constantly together; they built their air-castles with a view to future joint occupancy; they made their boyish vows of eternal friendship. ”

“ In the youth of Germany, especially in the students, his songs produced a sort of divine intoxication. Part of Weber's summer vacation in 1814 was passed in Berlin. Prussia was leading in the struggle to throw off the yoke of Napoleon, and Weber drank daily of the soma-juice in Körner's "Lyre and Sword." On his return trip to Prague he visited his old friend the Duke Emil August at his castle Gräfen-Tonna. From this old feudal pile he sent his settings of "Lützow's wilde Jagd" and "Das Schwertlied" to his love in Prague. The world has never ceased to marvel at the fire of those settings ”

“ These choruses for men were sung throughout the Fatherland, as they still are sung.
But from the height of glory to which he was now borne, as the living voice of the nation, he was dragged back to the depths by the little hand and the little finger-nails of Caroline, who could be jealous enough to suspect that not all the adoration Von Weber was receiving from the women of Berlin was pure and impersonal patriotism.
Von Weber had from the first insisted that no marriage of theirs could have hope of success, unless she left the stage. ”

“ From the age of sixteen to eighteen he was kapellmeister at the theatre in Breslau. After some two years of uncertainty and rather fast life he became private secretary to the Duke Ludwig of Württemberg. His life became faster. He became involved in debts. Worse, he became involved in intrigue. The king was suspicious. Weber was arrested and thrown into prison. He was cleared of the charges against him, but was banished from the kingdom. Realizing that the way of the transgressor is hard, Weber now devoted himself to serious living and the making of music. ”

“ Heinrich Joseph, one of the finest of clarinet players—'a truly great artist and glorious man' as Weber calls him—born at Potsdam Feb. 17, 1784, and educated at the oboe school there, where his ability procured him the patronage of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia. ”

“ On April 1, 1822, he was appointed one of the organists of the Chapel Royal in the room of Charles Knyvett, deceased. In 1824 he accompanied Charles Kemble to Germany to engage Weber to compose an opera for Covent Garden, and when Weber came to England in 1826 to bring out his 'Oberon' he was the guest of Sir George Smart, in whose house he died on June 5. It was mainly by the exertions of Sir George Smart and Sir Julius Benedict that the statue of Weber at Dresden was erected, the greater part of the subscriptions having been collected in England. ”

“ But personal dislikes never lasted with Spohr. He could distinguish between a man and his work, and was always a loyal friend to Weber.
The Duke's younger brother, Prince Friedrich, an admirer of Italian music, had brought a singing-master back with him from Italy, and often had Weber to go through Italian operas with him. He had a good tenor voice, and for him Weber composed an Italian scena ed aria, with chorus, from an opera 'Ines de Castro,' performed at a court-concert on Dec. 17. ”

“ At the joint expense of the Prussian government and of his patron von Altenstein, a musician, he undertook a tour through Holland, France, and Italy, in order to report on the condition of music in those countries. On his return he was commissioned to draw up a scheme for a Prussian national Conservatoire, but at the same time was offered posts at the Hague and at Dresden. The latter he accepted, replacing Marschner at the opera, where he laboured hard, producing both German and Italian operas. In 1827 he succeeded C. M. von Weber as conductor of the German Opera at Dresden. ”

“ This was a Fräulein von Belonda, maid of honour to the Duchess of Würtemberg, who took a deep interest in Carl, and persuaded the duke to make him musical director. The continual successes of the French armies overrunning Europe forbade the duke to keep up his retinue of artists. But he secured Weber a post at Stuttgart as private secretary to his brother, Ludwig, another younger brother of the King of Würtemberg, a monster of corpulence, who had to have his dining-table made crescent-wise that he might get near enough to eat. ”

“ His objections were, however, overcome, and in 1816 Weber accepted the important post that was offered to him. In the next year he was married to Caroline Brandt, a famous singer, the modesty and innocence of whose character had acted as a charm in exorcising the effect of a previous regrettable entanglement of Weber's. The young couple, whose happiness seemed unclouded, took up their abode in Dresden, where they soon became universally popular. ”

“ One day a famous composer, named Carl von Weber, was walking in Berlin in company with his young friend and pupil, Jules Benedict, when the pair observed a slightly-built youth of about twelve years of age, with long, dark curls and bright, dark eyes, advancing towards them. ”

“ Weber knew that his days were numbered. A model husband and father, the thought of his wife and children was never absent from his mind; to provide for them to the utmost of his power was not only his most sacred duty, but his highest happiness. No one can fail to be touched by the tenderness and devotion which breathe in the letters to his wife, many of which are printed by his sons in the biography. After quitting Stuttgart, he had regulated his affairs in the most exemplary manner. He lived very comfortably in Dresden, and was able even to afford himself small luxuries. ”

“ WEBER, OTTO (1832–1888) , painter, son of Wilhelm Weber, a merchant of Berlin, was born in that city on 17 Oct. 1832. He studied under Professor Steffeck, and was also much influenced by Eugen Krüger. He became a very skilful painter of landscapes and animals, working both in oil and watercolours, and his pictures were much admired in Paris, where he resided for some years and was awarded medals at the Salon in 1864 and 1869. On the outbreak of the Franco-German war in 1870, Weber left France, and, after a stay of two years in Rome, came to London, where he settled. ”

“ The devotion of his friends, his happy family relations, the success of his published works, conspired to make Weber cheerful and joyous beyond his wont, for he was naturally of a melancholy and serious turn, disposed to look at life from its tragic side. ”

“ It was at a rehearsal of this opera, renamed "Sylvana," that the King chose to have him arrested to gratify a petty vengefulness. The work came into new notice in connection with the German celebrations of Weber's centenary in 1886 by reason of a second revision and revival after it had been forgotten for full half a century. This "revision," however, for which Ernst Pasqué and Ferdinand Langer are responsible, is almost if not quite as original a piece of work as that done by Weber in the remodeling of "Das Stumme Waldmädchen." The three-act play is expanded into one of four acts ”

“ A man loving freedom from restraint as he did, would have found it very hard to carry on his work with the cheerfulness and elasticity of spirit so remarkable in him, if he had not had a constant spring of happiness and refreshment in married life. His union with Caroline Brandt took place at Prague Nov. 4, 1817. On their wedding tour the young couple gave concerts at Darmstadt and Giessen, appeared in Gotha before the Duke, and then went home to Dresden, which they reached Dec. 20.
To the early years of his work in Dresden belong most of Weber's compositions d'occasion. ”

“ Had Wagner’s youthful enthusiasm been fired at the Dresden Kreuzschule with love for Germany and hatred of the French oppressor, a feeling which flew through the land like lightning, had the songs of Körner’s “Lyre and Sword,” set to vigorous music by Weber, inspired him, his patriotism was intensified tenfold when, returning to his native city, he came into the midst of a population that had suffered all the horrors and privations of actual war. ”

“ It was the language of M. Simon and M. Wolf, editors or owners of the two leading journals in Germany; of Max Weber of Heidelberg, the keenest intelligence I [15] have ever known; of Troeltsch, the distinguished sociologist; of Windelband, the successor of Kant and of Fichte; of Vossler of Munich, the Romance philologist, rival of such men as Ferdinand Bruneau and Joseph Bédier; of Liebermann, the celebrated Berlin painter, who has supplemented the labours of Paul Cassirer in order to introduce the work of our impressionists into Prussia; of Lichtwark, the director of the Kunsthalle in Hamburg ”

“ A fresh access of popularity came to him in Prague as a consequence of the performance of his great patriotic cantata, "Kampf und Sieg," in 1815; but Weber felt that he was justified in seeking for a position more worthy of his fame, ad in the course of the following year sent in his resignation as kapellmeister. By good fortune the corresponding post in the opera at Dresden fell vacant just at this time. The director of the Opera House was very anxious to establish German opera there in place of what had usually occupied the boards, and in Weber he found the very man to carry out such a plan. ”

“ The Prince is about to banish him from his service, when the hermit appears and intercedes for the unfortunate youth. The Prince is mollified, and it is decided that Max shall have a year's probation, after which he shall be permitted to take the post of chief huntsman and marry Agathe.
'Der Freischütz' is, upon the whole, the most thoroughly characteristic of Weber's works. The famous passage for the horns, with which the overture opens, strikes the note of mystery and romance which echoes through the work. ”

“ On a trip to Heidelberg he made the acquaintance of Alexander von Dusch, a brother-in-law of Gottfried Weber, and a cello-player of great taste, who after finishing his studies at Easter, 1810, came to settle in Mannheim. The three friends spent a few happy weeks in lively intellectual intercourse, and in April Weber moved to Darmstadt, where Vogler had been living since 1807. Here he met his friends Gänsbacher and Meyerbeer from Berlin. Weber did not return to the old relations of master and pupil with Vogler, but sought to profit by intercourse with him. ”

“ It was in Dresden that Weber made the acquaintance of Johann Friedrich Kind, whose literary ability and intimate knowledge of the stage strongly recommended him to Weber as a collaborator. In casting about for an operatic subject, the composer came upon the forgotten sketch of "Der Freischütz." Kind was delighted with the story, and in two months delivered over to Weber a complete libretto, which elicited a ready response from the musician. From this time until the summer of 1820 the composition of this opera was Weber's chief thought. ”

“ Deep sympathy reigned everywhere; all the musicians adored Weber; and the towns-people, members of whom had known that lovable man personally, did honour to Germany’s great son, for national sentiment played an important part in the matter. You know that in ordinary conversation, the strong accent of the Leipzic dialect is the common speech of Richard Wagner, but when delivering his oration, his utterance was pure German, his measured periods were declaimed in slow, clear, ringing tones, showing unmistakable evidence of histrionic power. ”

“ Nowadays the opera is neglected, but we often hear the overture. It is to be noted that the overtures to each of Weber's operas contain the leading themes and melodies of the operas themselves, showing with what skill the artist wrought. When Weber's widow presented the original score of "Der Freischütz" to the Royal Library in Berlin, it was found there was not a single erasure or correction in the whole work.
On June 18, 1821, came the first performance of Weber's masterpiece, "Der Freischütz." ”

“ I recognized in a motor the Very High Born, his High Mightiness, the owner of the earth, the Prince of Auersperg."
Weber took another drink of coffee.
"An able man and one of our most bitter enemies," he said. "A foe of democracy everywhere. I think he was to have been made governor of Paris, and then Paris would have known that it had a governor. ”

“ Courts and princes had done their best to ruin Weber, but to his lasting credit he came unhurt from the ordeal. After such trying experiences he began a new life. He was no longer a parasite, dancing attendance in the antechambers of royalty, but a musician, enthusiastic for his art and eager to perfect himself in all that could assist the development of his genius. He himself realized what an escape he had had. In his diary at the close of 1810 he wrote: "God has sent me many sorrows and disappointments, but he has also thrown me with good people, who have made life worth living. ”

“ For him, therefore, a fine ensemble is the prime necessity.' It had been so much the habit hitherto in Dresden for society to look to the Court, and mould its tastes in accordance with those set in fashion from above, that it was almost an impossibility for a Court official to talk about his work as if he were in any sense personally responsible for it, or wished to be considered the head of his own institution. People were aware that Weber had been leading a free and restless life as an independent artist ”

“ In talking of Weber, people have in their minds, as a rule, only the last period of his life, beginning with 'Der Freischütz,' and ending with 'Oberon,' but from that point of view the work becomes too prominent, and the man of too little importance. As a man his versatile gifts made more effect in the first half of his artistic career than in the second. His artistic wanderings gave the keynote to the ideal life of Germany at that period, and for the first time rounded it off, so to speak, into a full chord. ”