Karl Maria von Weber was born in Eutin, Oldenburg, Germany, on November
18, 1786. His father, who played the violin in small theaters, was
determined to make his son a musical prodigy, subjecting him from
childhood on to severe discipline, and to intensive study with Karl’s
stepbrother, J. P. Heuschkel and Michael Haydn. Weber made public
appearances as pianist in early boyhood. His first opera was written
when he was only thirteen, and at fourteen his second opera was
performed in Chemnitz, Freiberg, and Vienna. An even more comprehensive
period of study than heretofore followed in Munich with Abbé Vogler.
After that, in 1804, Weber was appointed conductor of the Breslau City
Theater. In 1806 he became Musik Intendant to the Duke of Wuerttemberg,
and in 1807 private secretary and music master to Duke Ludwig in
Stuttgart. From 1813 to 1816 he was the music director of German Opera
in Prague and in 1817 musical director of German Opera in Dresden. It
was in this last post that he created the first of his unqualified
masterworks, the opera _Der Freischuetz_, introduced with phenomenal
success in Berlin on June 18, 1821. It was with this work that German
Romantic opera was born, grounded in Germanic nationalism, filled with
the German love for the legendary and the supernatural, and
characterized by its use of German landscapes and backgrounds. Weber
wrote two more masterworks with which his high station in opera was
solidified: _Euryanthe_, introduced in Vienna on October 25, 1823, and
_Oberon_, first heard in London, on April 12, 1826. In London, attending
the première of the latter opera, Weber succumbed to his last sickness
on June 5, 1826. His body was transferred to Dresden where it was buried
to special ceremonies at which Wagner delivered the eulogy.
Weber’s monumental contributions to opera in general, and German opera,
in particular, do not fall within the scope of this volume; neither do
the three masterworks with which he gained immortality. In music in a
lighter vein he was most significant for being one of the first to
create waltz music within an extended structure. The most popular of
these compositions was the _Invitation to the Dance_ (_Aufforderung zum
Tanz_), written in 1819 as a “rondo brilliant” in D-flat major, for
piano solo. It has since become celebrated in several orchestral
transcriptions, notably those by Berlioz and Felix Weingartner. This
work is one of the first in music history in which several different
waltz tunes are combined into a single cohesive composition, preceded by
an introduction and concluding with an epilogue. The introduction
consists of a subdued, well-mannered melody, simulating the request to a
lady by a young man for a dance, and the acceptance. Several waltz
melodies follow, to which this couple dance. The epilogue consists of a
return of the introduction, this time with the gentleman thanking the
lady for having danced with him.
The _Jubilee Overture_ (_Jubel_), op. 59, for orchestra is another of
Weber’s more popular creations, this time in a stirring style. He wrote
it in 1818 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the ascension to
the throne by the King of Saxony. A slow introduction leads to the main
body of the overture in which the main theme is forcefully stated by the
full orchestra. By contrast there later appears a light-hearted tune,
soon given considerable prominence in the development section. When both
ideas have been repeated, a climax is reached with a statement of the
English anthem, “God Save the King” in the wind instruments accompanied
by the strings.