1826.} 
which he successively prosecuted his studies 
under Michael Haydn, Kalcher, and Vog- 
ler. His first publication appeared in 1798, 
and consisted of six fugues in four parts, 
distinguished for purity and correctness, 
and which received a favourable notice in 
the “ Musikalische Zeitung.’’ It was while 
with Kalcher that he began to devote him- 
self exclusively to the study of operatic 
music, and it was under the inspection of 
that master that his opera of Die Macht 
der Leibe und des Weins, (the Power of 
Love and Wine) was written. This, with 
& mass, and some other pieces composed at 
the same period, was subsequently destroy- 
ed. In 1800, he produced his opera of 
Das Waldmadchen (the Girl of the Wood) 
which was performed with great success 
at Vienna, Prague, and St. Petersburgh. 
Considering it, however, as an immature 
performance, Weber used every elfort to 
check its circulation, and having carefully 
revised and re-arranged it, it was re-pub- 
lished in the year 1806, under the title of 
“ Sylvana.”’ A notice of this opera in the 
“ Musikalische Zeitung,” suggested to the 
mind of Weber the idea of composing in 
an entirely new style, and of reviving the 
use of the ancient wind instruments. With 
this view, he composed, in 1801, the opera 
of “‘ Peter Schnell and his Neighbours.” 
Although it met with little success on its 
performance at Augsburg, the high praise 
conferred upon it by Michael Haydn, shews 
it to have been a.work of great merit. 
In the progress of a journey which he 
made in 1802 to Leipsic, Hamburgh, and 
Holstein, he collected and studied all the 
works which treated of the theory of music; 
but, entertaining doubts as to the correct- 
ness of the rules laid down in most of them, 
he recommenced the study of harmony from 
its very elements, with the view of forming 
a system of his own, in which he combined 
Many original ideas with the best rules of 
the ancient, and the improvements of the 
modern masters. His analysis of Sebastian 
Bach’s “ Vogler, 12 Chorale,’’ is a work 
of much research, and of great utility. In 
the year 1804, on the completion of iis 
musical education under the Abbé Vogler, 
he accepted tlie offer of the directorship of 
music at Breslau, where he resided until 
the year 1806, when the commencement 
of the war in Prussia obliged him to leave 
that city. While at Breslau, he composed 
his opera of “‘ Riibezahl,” or Number Nip. 
In 1806, he accepted an offer from the 
Duke of Wurtemberg, and removed to 
Carlsruhe in Silesia, where he composed two 
symphonies, several concertos, and other 
pieces. He also produced his “ Sylvana,” 
_. a Cantata, ‘‘ Der erste Ton,’’ some over- 
ures, and several solo pieces for the piayo- 
In 1810, he made a successful tour 
ough Frankfort, Munich, and Berlin, 
and on his return composed, under the 
Abbe Vogler, his operetta of Abon Hassan. 
Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 
10 
In 1813, Weber visited Prague, where 
for three years he was engaged in remodel- 
ing the opera of that city. At Prague he 
composed his Cantata, Kampf und Sieg, 
anda melo-drama, entitled Preciosa, or, the 
Gypsey Girl. The German cities now vied 
with each other in making him the most 
advantageous offers, all of which he refused, 
until invited to Dresden, for the purpose of 
forming there a German opera. This ap- 
pointment he held until his death. 
His celebrated opera of Der Freischiitz 
was produced at Berlin, on the 21st of 
June 182]; and in November 1823, his 
Euryanthe was performed at Vienna, but 
did not succeed Der Freischiitz first ap- 
peared in an English dress at the English 
Opera House, in the summer of the year 
1824, where its success was such as to in- 
duce the managers of Covent Garden and 
Drury Lane Theatres to bring it out at their 
respective houses in the ensuing winter. 
With some slight alterations in the story, 
and aided by the most magnificent scenery, 
the popularity of Der Freischiitz was un- 
equalled and led to an invitation to its 
author to visit England, to compose an 
opera expressly for the English stage. 
The offer was accepted, and he fulfilled his 
engagement by the production of Oberon, 
which was performed at Covent Gardenon 
the 12th of May, in the present year. 
His health was evidently much impaired 
previously to his arrival in England, and, 
since his residence in this country, it 
gradually become worse until the 3d of 
June, when his disorder (a pulmonary af- 
fection of long standing) received so sudden 
and violent an accession, as to preclude all 
hope of recovery. On the morning of Mon- 
day, June 5, he died at the house of Sir 
G. Smart, in Great Portland Street. He 
was found dead upon his pillow, his head 
resting upon his hand, as though he had 
passed from life without a struggle. The 
following Wednesday, June 7, had been 
fixed upon for an attempt to revisit his 
native country. 
The opera of Der Freischiitz, with all the 
original music, was to have been performed 
at Covent Garden Theatre, for the benefit 
and under the superintendence of the com- 
poser, but his increasing indisposition pre- 
venting his attendance, it was postpened. 
On the 26th of May, Weber gave a concert 
at the Argyll Rooms, at which he presided. 
Amongst other new compositions with 
which he delighted the audience, was a song 
from Lalla Rookh, composed for Miss 
Stephens, and which he himself aceompa- 
nied on the piano-forte. The melody only 
of this song has been committed to paper, 
the composer supplying the accompani- 
ments from memory. Weber is understood 
to have left but one work in manuscript, of 
any importance, a production which wag to 
be entitled ‘‘ Kunstler Laben’” (Life of Ar- 
tists) upon which he had been employed 
several years. It consists of a narrative of 
