Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), German composer, pianist, and conductor, who helped inaugurate the Romantic Movement in German music.

Weber was born on November 18, 1786, in Eutin, near Lübeck. Among his teachers was the Austrian composer Michael Haydn, the brother of Joseph Haydn. At the age of 13 Weber made his debut as a pianist and wrote his first opera. At the age of 18 he became conductor at the Breslau opera house. He later worked for members of the German nobility; was conductor of the Prague opera, which he revitalized; and from 1816 was director of the newly organized German opera in Dresden, where Italian opera had long reigned supreme. He also toured extensively as a pianist.

Weber's reputation rests chiefly upon three operas, Der Freischütz (The Free-Shooter, 1821), Euryanthe (1823), and Oberon (1826). With Der Freischütz, based on German national folklore and combining legendary and supernatural elements, Weber established the Romantic school of German opera. Oberon, commissioned for the Covent Garden Theatre in London, had an English libretto; Weber learned English expressly for this commission. He died in London on June 5, 1826, shortly after the premiere of the opera.

Weber's musical innovations include the use of leitmotivs (see Motif) and, in Euryanthe, sung recitative in place of the spoken dialogue then customary in German opera. He was admired for his brilliant orchestral colouring. His influence was particularly great upon the German composer Richard Wagner. Other works by Weber include two symphonies, songs, two piano concertos, cantatas and masses, and solo piano music including the famous Invitation to the Dance (1819). His two clarinet concertos (both 1811) are the main foundation of that instrument's repertoire.