WEBER, CARL MARIA TON, a musical composer of high eminence, was b. at Eutin in Holstein, Dec. 18, 1780. MuSical and dramatic talent had been hereditary in his family for some generations; his father, by turns officer in the army of the palatinate, finance minister of the elector of Cologne, music-director to the prince bishop of Eutin, and head of a company of strolling players, led a somewhat irregular and checkered life. Young Weber showed early a genius for music, but his instructors were often changed, in consequence of his father's change of residence. The teachers to whom he owed most were Hauschkel at Hildburg hausn Michael Haydn at Salzburg, and Valesi and Katcher at Munich. His father's impatience and want of judgment were injurious to him in many ways, particular in the efforts made to bring him before the public prematurely as a musical prodi Mack der Liebe and des Weins. g At When the e age of 18 he composed an opera called Die but 14 his second opera, Das Waldmadchen, was brought out, without much success at first; but was afterward far better received than lie himself thought it deserved. The next effort of the young opera composer was Peter &Arnett tend seine Haehbarn, composed at Salzburg en 1801, and performed at Vicuna with but indifferent success. At Vienna he became acquinted in 1803 with Joseph Haydn and the abbe Vogler, and studied for some time under the latter. In 1804 he left Vienna, to be conductor of the opera at Breslau, and while resident there com posed the greater part of his opera of Riibezukt. We next find him, in 1806, with prince Eugene of 'Witrtemberg at his court of Carlsruhe iu Silesia, where he composed two symphonies and three concertos. In 1807 he went to Stuttgart, as private secretary to duke Ludwig, becoming also musical instructor to his children; and while there he composed the opera of Silvana, and a cantata called Der erste The, overtures, choral pieces, and piano-forte works. Getting into disfavor and pecuniary embarrass ments, the result of his father's recklessness, he was dismissed the court of Wiirtem berg, and took up his residence successively in Matinhehn, Heidelberg, and Darmstadt, at which last place he composed his operetta of Abe. Hassan. He then made a musical tour through Germany, during which his concerts were everywhere well attended. From 1813 to 1816 he was director of the opera at Prague, which he entirely remodeled; and during his residence in the Bohemian capital composed Kampf and Sieg, and numer ons other songs, including that noble national series from Korner's Leierund &Me•t, which had no little influence in rousing patriotic sentiment during the war of liberation.
In 1817 he was invited to form a German opera at Dresden; and there during the remainder of his life, he held the post of Impellmeister to the king of Saxony. To this
period belong his most important compositions, including Preciosa, Der Freisehatz., Eltrgo nbbe. and Oberon. None of these works, however, were first brought out in Dres den. The music to Wolff's Preciosa the subject of which is taken from a novel by Cervantes, was first produced on the Berlin stage, where it made a powerful impression. The author's ebef-d'reuvre, the opera of Freisehiltz, the libretto or which was written by the composer's friend, Friedrich Kind, also first saw the light in the Prussian capital in 1822. It was a great success; its novelty and beauty, as well as the deep thought con tained in it, excited an extraordinary sensation throughout Germany, which soon extended to France and England. Eurytntlie, produced in Vienna in 1823, was not so warmly received. Bearing more the impress of,labor and cultivation, and less that of the composer's natural vein of romance, it has never been in such general favor hs predecessor. Oberon was written iu prospect of a visit to London ton libretto sup plied by Mr. flambe. When Weber set out for England, he was already struggling against mortal disease. On Mar. 8, 1826, he appeared at Convent Garden theater as cant doctor of a selection from Preisebutz; and on April 12, following he also conducted, on the first appearance of Oberon, with applause on both occasions, incessant and uprorions. t his benefit concert on May 26, he was hardly able to go through the duty of conduc tor; and on June 5 he was found dead in bed in the house of sir George Smart, whose guest he was. He was interred in the Roman Catholic church, Moorfields; but in 1844 his body was removed to Dresden; and a statue of him by Reichel was erected in 1860 in ,front of the Dresden theater. Weber was married in 1818 to Carolina Brandt, tut operatic singer of some note, daughter of Brandt the violinist, by whom he left a family.
The verdict of posterity, as well as of his contemporaries, has placed Weber in the first rank of musical composers. He was the first to use those bold effects of harmony and modulation whose introduction forms an era in the history of music. In his operas. the spirit of the romantic school appears in its brightest and most captivating form ; and the overtures are masterpieces of imagination, each presenting an outline of the work to which it belongs. Besides the above operas and songs, his musical works are numerous, comprising concertos for the piano-forte, clarionk, oboe, bassoon, and violoncellosympho and overtures, one of the most beautiful and characteristic of them being the overture to the .Reherrscher der Geister. Among his posthumous writings is an auto biography. His life has been written by his sou, baron Max Maria von Weber, and recently translated into English by Mr. Palgrave Simson.