Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (born around 18 or 19 November 1786 in Eutin, Bishopric of Lübeck; died 5 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic working between the late Classical and early Romantic periods. He is most famous for his operas and played a key role in shaping German Romantic opera.

His father, Franz Anton, moved the family constantly through Hamburg, Salzburg, Freiberg, Augsburg, and Vienna. Weber studied under many teachers, including his father, Johann Peter Heuschkel, Michael Haydn, Giovanni Valesi, Johann Nepomuk Kalcher, and Georg Joseph Vogler. Under Vogler, he wrote four operas, none of which survive in full. His non-operatic output was modest, including two symphonies, two clarinet concertos and a clarinet concertino, a bassoon concerto, a horn concertino, two piano concertos and a Konzertstück for piano and orchestra, piano pieces like *Invitation to the Dance*, and many works featuring the clarinet, usually written for the virtuoso Heinrich Baermann.

His mature operas—*Silvana* (1810), *Abu Hassan* (1811), *Der Freischütz* (1821), *Die drei Pintos* (composed 1820–21), *Euryanthe* (1823), and *Oberon* (1826)—strongly influenced later German composers such as Marschner, Meyerbeer, and Wagner. His piano compositions affected Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Liszt. His best-known work, *Der Freischütz*, remains one of the most important German operas.

Weber was the eldest of three children born to Franz Anton von Weber and his second wife, Genovefa Brenner, a Viennese singer. He was baptized Catholic on 20 November 1786 as Carl Friedrich Ernst; the name Maria appeared later. His siblings died in infancy. Both parents were Catholic from southern Germany. The “von” in his name was his father’s pretension—Franz Anton was not an aristocrat and claimed descent from an already-extinct noble family. In April 1779, Franz Anton became director of the prince-bishopric orchestra in Eutin, but it dissolved in 1781 due to budget cuts. He then became Eutin’s municipal music director, resigned in 1787, and founded a theatre company in Hamburg. After a short stay in Vienna, he joined the theatre company of Johann Friedrich Toscani and Peter Carl Santorini, performing in Kassel, Marburg, and Hofgeismar. He tried repeatedly to start his own lasting company but had only intermittent success.

Franz Anton’s half-brother, Franz Fridolin Weber, married Cäcilia Stamm and had four daughters—Josepha, Aloysia, Constanze, and Sophie—all notable singers. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart courted Aloysia and wrote pieces for her; after she refused him, he married Constanze. Thus Mozart’s wife was Weber’s cousin. Franz Anton, a gifted violinist, wanted to make Weber a child prodigy like Mozart. Weber was born with a congenital hip disorder and did not walk until age four, but by then he could already sing and play piano well.

Franz Anton gave Weber a broad education, often interrupted by moves. In 1796, Weber studied in Hildburghausen with oboist Johann Peter Heuschkel. After moving to Salzburg in autumn 1797, he studied from 1798 with Michael Haydn, who taught him free of charge. His time in Salzburg was darkened by his mother’s death from tuberculosis on 13 March 1798 and his one-year-old sister Antonetta’s death on 29 December 1798 in Munich. After his mother’s death, his aunt Adelaide cared for him. A visit to Joseph Haydn in Vienna, likely hoping for advanced lessons, led nowhere. In autumn 1798, Weber moved to Munich, studying singing with Johann Evangelist Wallishauser and composition with Johann Nepomuk Kalcher, who oversaw his first opera, *Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins* (now lost). Six piano fughettas by the twelve-year-old Weber were published in Leipzig. He also learned lithography in the workshop of its inventor, Alois Senefelder, and Franz Gleißner (autumn 1799), and lithographed a set of his own piano variations.

In 1800, the family moved to Freiberg, Saxony, where the 14-year-old Weber wrote the opera *Das stumme Waldmädchen*. It was performed in Freiberg, Chemnitz, Saint Petersburg (1804), Vienna (1804/1805), and Prague (1806). He also began publishing music criticism, for instance in the *Leipziger Neue Zeitung* in 1801. In 1801, the family returned to Salzburg, where Weber resumed studies with Michael Haydn and wrote his third opera, *Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn*, which his teacher approved. After a concert tour in 1802, the Webers returned to Augsburg, where *Peter Schmoll* likely premiered. In mid-1803, Weber continued his studies in Vienna with Abbé Vogler, founder of important music schools in Mannheim, Stockholm, and Darmstadt. Another of Vogler’s famous pupils in Darmstadt was Jakob Meyer Beer (later Giacomo Meyerbeer), who became a close friend; they addressed each other as “brother” in letters. Vogler then recommended the 17-year-old Weber for a post.