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📖 "Weber, who seems to whisper in my ear like a familiar spirit, inhabiting a happy sphere where he awaits to console me."
📖 "Karl Maria Friedrich Ernst, Freiherr von, the great composer of Der Freischütz and Euryanthe, the first representative of the so-called Romantic School. His father, Franz Anton von Weber, a cousin of Mozart's wife, Constance von Weber, was originally an officer, later on administrative official, then musical director, and, finally, theatre manager at Meiningen, Hildburghausen, Salzburg, etc. (from 1787) ; and as such, he led a restless and changeful life. The son, therefore, when he was very young saw a good deal of the world. He received his first musical training from his step-brother Fridoliu (b. 1761, musical director and singer, etc., at his father's theatre, who died at an advanced age in Hamburg, where he had been active for a long time as viola player); then especially in pianoforte, from J. P. Heuschkelat Hildburghausen (1796); jn theory, from Michael Haydn at Salzburg (1797); also 1798-1800 from the court organist, J.N. Kalcher (theory) and Valesi (singing). He was an important personage in the history of lithography, for he essentially improved this art, which had been discovered not long before by Senefelder; the father hoped for great success from it, and removed for that purpose in 1800 with his family to Freiberg-i.-S. in order to work at lithography on a large scale. This, however, did not last long. Already in 1801 we find the family in Salzburg, with Weber for the second time as pupil of M. Haydn, in 1802 in Hamburg, and in 1803 in Augsburg and Vienna. In this last town, J. Haydn having declined. Abbe Vogler became W.'s teacher, and already at the expiration of one year, procured for his pupil the post of capellmeister at the town theatre, Breslau (1804); Weber exchanged this post in 1806 for that of music intendant to Prince Eugen von Wurtemberg at Carlsruhe (Silesia); and when the Prince joined the army Weber went with his father to Stuttgart as secretary to Prince Ludwig and as music teacher to his daughters. Weber lost this post in 1810 through an 'indiscretion' of his old father, for which both were expelled from Wurtemberg. In Stuttgart Weber had written his first grand opera, Silvana, which was produced at Frankfort in 1810, and achieved great success. Weber had previously attempted dramatic composition, first in 1799 with Die Macht der Liebe, which was never heard, since, together with other early works, it perished by fire; then in 1800, with the Waldmadchen, which was performed at Chemnitz, Vienna, Prague, and Petersburg (he used the libretto again for Silvana) ; in 1802, with Peter Schmou mid seine Nachbdm (Augsburg) ; Rubezahl (1804), begun at Breslau, was not completed (the revised overture appeared under the title 'Beherrscher der Geister'). After the Stuttgart period followed Mannheim, then Darmstadt, where Weber renewed his studies under Vogler. Here he entered into friendly relalations with Meyerbeer, Gansbacher, but espepecially with Gottfried W. (q.v.). His next opera in one act, Abu Hassan, was produced in 1811, Munich. Silvana was put on the Berlin stage in 1812 with some additional numbers. Weber stayed about this time at Munich, Leipzig, Berlin, also at the courts of Gotha and Weimar. In 1813 he was appointed capellmeister of the State theatre, Prague, where he distinguished himself by his labours, until he received an offer from the King of Saxony to organise and direct the German Opera about to be established in Dresden (1816). In 1817 he married the singer Caroline Brandt, and accepted the post thus offered; he fulfilled his difficult task in a most satisfactory manner, and gained for the new national institution a high reputation by the side of Italian Opera under Morlacchi. Up to this moment, Weber was no popular celebrity, although in 1814 his setting to music of the songs from Korner's 'Leier und Schwert' had quickly made his name known; but all this was suddenly changed when Der Freischütz was produced for the first time at Berlin, June 18, 1821. The German saga chosen for the subject proved a very happy one, and gained for Weber the title of father of the so-called Romantic School Preciosa (with musical numbers inserted) had preceded Der Freischutz at Copenhagen, Oct. 8, 1820, and at Berlin, March 14, 1821 ; a comic opera, Die drei Pintos, remained unfinished (revised by Weber's grandson, Carl von Weber, and produced by G. Mahler, Leipzig, 1888). On the other hand, at the invitation of the 'Karnthnerthortheater,' Vienna, Weber wrote a grand opera, Ettryanthe, a work which in many details, as well as in the general disposition, recalls Wagner's Lohengrin; this was first produced Oct. 25, 1823, Vienna. Its success, at first enormous, soon subsided. Rossini then reigned supreme in Vienna. (The work was brought out at Berlin on Christmas Eve, 1825, and here the enthusiasm was much greater, and also more lasting.) In the following year (1824) Weber was forced to go to Marienbad on account of his health failing; and in 1825 he was again obliged to interrupt his work on Oberon, which had been commissioned for Covent Garden Theatre, London, in order to try a fresh cure at Ems. He was very ill (consumptive) when he travelled to London in 1826 to direct the performance of Oberon, which took place on April 12 of that year ; and six weeks later he was a dying man, and quite incapable of work; his life passed away like a tale that is told. His mortal remains were deposited in Moorfields Chapel, to the tones of Mozart's Requiem, but were removed to Dresden in 1844. (Cf. R. Wagner.) A statue by Rietschel was erected to the composer's memory at Dresden in 1860. Dictionary of Music (1896)
Carl Maria von Weber 📖 "What love is to man, music is to the arts and to mankind. Music is love itself - it is the purest, most ethereal language of passion, showing in a thousand ways all possible changes of color and feeling; and though true in only a single instance, it yet can be understood by thousands of men - who all feel differently."
📖 "An artist's sphere of influence is the world."
📖 "No fate holds more splendour for an artist, than the one which greets his effort with such enthousiasm!"
📖 "The hardest thing is to endure the applause of fools, and patiently suffer the booing, while with the bravissimo of the foolish one would rather strike them between the ears."
📖 "Delude not yourself with the notion that you may be untrue and uncertain in trifles and in important things the contrary. Trifles make up existence, and give the observer the measure by which to try us; and the fearful power of habit, after a time, suffers not the best will to ripen into action."
📖 "The art of music, rather more daughter than imitator of nature, in her impressive and mysterious language minding and educating us, rouses directly our temper and rules us to the depths of our souls."
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Piano Music by Carl Maria von Weber
Some Recordings of Carl Maria von Weber's Piano Music VIDEO
VIDEO
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