DITTERSDORF, KARL DITTERS VON (i 799), Austrian composer and violinist, was born in Vienna on Nov. 2, 1739, his father's name being Ditters. He took the name of Dit tersdorf on his ennoblement in 1773. The boy Ditters was a bril liant violinist and attracted the attention of Prince Joseph Fred erick of Hildburghausen (17 02-1787 ), who gave the boy, now eleven years old, a place in his private orchestra—the first of the kind established in Vienna. Later he obtained a place in the Vien na opera; and subsequently in 1761 he accompanied Gluck to Italy where his violin-playing won him great renown. He became conductor of the orchestra of the bishop of Grosswardein, a Hun garian magnate, at Pressburg. He set up a private stage in the episcopal palace, and wrote for it his first "opera buffa," Amore in musica. His first oratorio, Isacco figura del Redentore, was also written during this time ; but the scandal of performances of light opera by the bishop's company, even on fast days and during Ad vent, outweighed this pious effort; the Empress Maria Theresa sharply called the bishop to order ; and he, in a huff, dismissed his orchestra (1769). After a short interlude, Ditters was again in the service of an ecclesiastical patron, Count von Schafgotsch, prince bishop of Breslau, at his estate of Johannisberg in Silesia. At Johannisberg Ditters also produced a comic opera, Il Viaggia tore arnericano and an oratorio, Davide. The title role of Davide was taken by Signora Nicolini, whom Ditters married. In his oratorio Ester was produced in Vienna. After the peace of Teschen (1779) he again became conductor of the reconsti tuted orchestra of the bishop of Breslau. From this time forward his output was enormous. In 178o ten months sufficed for the production of his Giobbe (Job) and four operas, three of which, Doktor and Apotheke (1786), Das Rotkiippchen (1788) and Hieronymus Knicker (1789) had a great success. But when the bishop died in 1795 his successor dismissed the composer with a small money gift. Poor and broken in health, he accepted the asylum offered to him by Ignaz Freiherr von Stillfried, on his estate near Neuhaus in Bohemia, where he continued to write operas, symphonies and pianoforte pieces. He died on Oct. 1, praying "God's reward" for whoever should save his family from starvation. On his death-bed he dictated to his son his Selbstbiographie (autobiography).
While in the work of Boccherini we trace the influence of Haydn as a force tending to disintegrate the polyphonic suite forms of instrumental music, in Dittersdorf on the other hand we see the popular conception of the modern sonata and dramatic style. Six of Dittersdorf's symphonies on the Metamorphoses of Ovid were republished in 1899 (ed. J. Liebeskind, Leipzig), the centenary of his death. The end of the representation of the con version of the Lycian peasants into frogs is prophetically and ridiculously Wagnerian in its ingenious expansion of rhythm and eminently expert orchestration.
See his Selbstbiographie, published at Leipzig, i8oi (English trans lation by A. D. Coleridge, 1896) ; an article in the Rivista musicale, vi. 72 7 ; the article "Dittersdorf" in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians; K. Kalbs Dittersdorfiana (two), with bibliography ; and L. Riedinger, Karl von Dittersdorf als Opernkomponist (i9i4).