FREE ESSAY ON WEBER, CARL MARIA VON

WEBER, CARL MARIA VON

Weber, Carl Maria von 
(1786 - 1826) 
Carl Maria von Weber, a cousin of Mozart's wife Constanze, was trained as a musician from
his childhood, the son of a versatile musician who had founded his own travelling theatre
company. He made a favourable impression as a pianist and then as a music director,
notably in the opera-houses of Prague and Dresden. Here he introduced various reforms and
was a pioneer of the craft of conducting without the use of violin or keyboard
instrument. As a composer he won a lasting reputation with the first important Romantic
German opera, Der Freischutz. 
Operas
The opera Der Freischutz (The Marksman), first staged in Berlin in 1821, blends many of
the ingredients typical of German Romanticism, simple peasant virtues mingling with the
magic and latent evil of the forest, where the hero's magic bullets are forged at
midnight. The grand heroic-Romantic opera Euryanthe is better known for its overture as
is the opera Oberon, written for London in 1826. 
Orchestral Music 
Weber's two concertos and the concertino for clarinet were written for the clarinettist
Heinrich Baermann. Weber also wrote two piano concertos and a Konzertstuck for piano and
orchestra for his own use, as well as a useful Horn Concertino and Bassoon Concerto. His
Aufforderung zum Tanze (Invitation to the Dance) is well known in an orchestral version
of a work originally written for piano. Recommended Recordings 
Clarinet Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Concertino 
Naxos 8.550378 
Invitation to the Dance 
Naxos 8.550081 
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 
Polonaise brillante, Op. 72 
Konzertstuck, Op. 79 
Naxos 8.550959 
Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 
Dances and Marches from Die Drei Pintos, Turandot & Silvana 
Naxos 8.550928 
Chamber Music 
Weber's chamber music includes a Clarinet Quintet and a Grand Duo Concertant for clarinet
and piano, successors to the concertos and concertino for Baermann. Recommended Recording

Grand Duo Concertant Op. 48 
Quintet Op. 34 / Variations Op. Posth & Op. 33 
Naxos 8.553122 
Piano Music 
Aufforderung zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance) is a charming programme piece following
the progress of an invitation to dance, as a young man escorts his partner to the
dance-floor and engages in polite conversation. Weber's other piano compositions include
four sonatas for the instrument. Recommended Recordings 
Piano Works Vol. 1 
Sonata, Op. 24 / Variations Opp. 2 & 40 
Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65 
Naxos 8.550988 
Piano Works Vol. 2 
Sonata, Op. 39 / Variations Opp. 6 & 55 Grande Polonaise, Op. 21 
Naxos 8.550989 
Piano Works Vol. 3 
Sonata, Op. 49 / Variations, Opp. 5, 7, 9 Momento capriccioso, Op. 12 
Naxos 8.550990 
Piano Works Vol. 4 
Sonata, Op. 70 / Variations, Op. 28 Les Adieux, Op. 81 / Rondo brillante Polacca
brillante 
Naxos 8.553006 
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Introduction
(born Eutin, ?18 November 1786; died London, 5 June 1826). 
He studied in Salzburg (with Michael Haydn), Munich (J.N. Kalcher) and Vienna (Abbe
Vogler), becoming Kapellmeister at Breslau (1804) and working for a time at Wurttemberg
(1806) and Stuttgart (1807). With help from Franz Danzi, intellectual stimulation from
his friends Gansbacher, Meyerbeer, Gottfried Weber and Alexander von Dusch and the
encouragement of concert and operatic successes in Munich (especially Abu Hassan), Prague
and Berlin, he settled down as opera director in Prague (1813-16). There he
systematically reorganized the theatre's operations and built up the nucleus of a German
company, concentrating on works, mostly French, that offered an example for the
development of a German operatic tradition. But his searching reforms (extending to
scenery, lighting, orchestral seating, rehearsal schedules and salaries) led to
resentment. Not until his appointment as Royal Saxon Kapellmeister at Dresden (1817) and
the unprecedented triumph of Der Freischutz (1821) in Berlin and throughout Germany did
his championship of a true German opera win popular support. Official opposition
continued, both from the Italian opera establishment in Dresden and from Spontini in
Berlin; Weber answered critics with the grand heroic opera Euryanthe (1823, Vienna). His
rapidly deteriorating health and his concem to provide for his family induced him to
accept the invitation to write an English opera for London; he produced Oberon at Covent
Garden in April 1826. Despite an enthusiastic English reception and every care for his
health, this last joumey hastened his decline; he died from tuberculosis, at 39. 
Weber's Romantic leanings can be seen in the novel emotional flavour of his music and its
relevance to emergent German nationalism, his delicate receptivity to nature and to
literary and pictorial impressions, his parallel activities as critic, virtuoso pianist
and Kapellmeister, his dedication to the evolution of a new kind of opera uniting all the
arts and above all his wish to communicate feeling. His role as a father-figure of
musical Romanticism was acknowledged by those who succeeded him in the movement, from
Berlioz and Wagner to Debussy and Mahler. His melodic and harmonic style is rooted in
classical principles, but as he matured he experimented with chromaticism (the diminished
7th chord was a particular favourite). He also was among the subtlest of orchestrators,
writing for unusual but dramatically apt and vivid instrumental combinations (clarinet
and hom, muted and unmuted strings etc). All his most successful music, including the
songs and concertos, is to some degree dramatically inspired. 
Weber won his widest audience with Freischutz, outwardly a Singspiel celebrating German
folklore and country life, using an idiom touched by German folksong. Through his skilful
use of motifs and his careful harmonic, visual and instrumental designs notably for the
Wolf's Glen scene, the outstanding example in music of the early Romantic treatment of
the sinister and the supernatural - he gave this work a new creative status. Euryanthe,
despite a weak libretto, makes a further advance in the unity of harmonic and formal
structures, moving towards continuous, freely composed opera. In Oberon Weber reverted to
separate numbers to suit English taste, yet the work retains his characteristically
subtle motivic handling and depiction of both natural and supernatural elements. Of his
other works, some of the German songs, the colouristic Konzertstuck for piano and
orchestra, the dramatic clarinet and bassoon concertos and the virtuoso Grand duo
concertant for clarinet and piano deserve special mention. 
Bibliography
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