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Scan 40
Cyclopedia of music and musicians, 1888
4 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1NEUKOMM, SIGISMUND, Ritter VON, born at Salzburg, July 10, 1778, died in Paris, April 3, 1858. Pupil of the organist Weissauer, whose place he often filled; then studied composition under Michael Haydn, and at the age of fifteen became university organist. He learned several other instruments, and played the flute in concerts. When eighteen years old he was made Correpetitor of the opera, but after finishing his university studies left Salzburg in 1798 for Vienna. He became the pupil of Joseph Haydn, who treated him like a son. In 1807 he went to Stockholm, where he was elected member of the Academy; then to St. Petersburg, and became there conductor of the German opera. At the time of Haydn's death he returned to Vienna, and in 1809 went to Paris, where he was intimate with Grétry, Cherubini, and other celebrities. He succeeded Dussek as pianist to Talleyrand, whom he accompanied to the Congress of Vienna, where he was commissioned to compose a Requiem in memory of Louis XVI., and where Louis XVIII. conferred upon him the Legion of Honour and a title of nobility. With Talleyrand he returned to Paris, but in 1816 he went in the suite of the Duc de Luxembourg to Brazil and was appointed court director by the Emperor Dom Pedro, with whom he went to Lisbon when the revolution of 1821 compelled him to leave Rio Janeiro. Then he returned to Talleyrand, but in 1826 travelled in Italy, in 1827 in Holland and Belgium, and in 1829 in England and Scotland. He accompanied Talleyrand on his embassy to England in 1830; in 1832 visited Germany, in 1833–34 Italy, and in 1834–35 Southern France and Algiers. Illness alone prevented him from embarking for North America in 1836, and the last years of his life were spent between London and Paris, with brief visits to other cities. For some time he was blind, but a successful operation restored his sight. In spite of the distractions of travelling he composed industriously, but, fluent and interesting as his works are, they are now almost forgotten. He cultivated the more serious kind of music, and attempted to revive the style of Palestrina. His refinement and elevated character won him many friends. Works: Alexander am Indus, opera; nine other German operas. Oratorios: Das Gesetz des alten Bundes (in English, Mount Sinai); David; Grablegung, Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Christi; Pfingsten. Cantatas: Der Ostermorgen; Circe; Music to Schiller's Braut von Messina; 15 masses; 5 Te Deums; 5 church cantatas; Morning and evening service; Many psalms; 3 Italian dramatic scenes; About two hundred songs; Duets, terzets, and choruses; Symphony; 5 overtures; 7 orchestral fantasias; 57 organ pieces; Concerto, sonatas, and other music for pianoforte; Chamber and military music, altogether more than 1,000 compositions.—Wurzbach; Mendel; Schilling; Riemann; Fétis; Rochlitz, Für Freunde der Tonkunst, iii. 226; Schebest, Aus dem Leben einer Künstlerin (Stuttgart, 1857); Illustr. Zeitg. (1858), i. 394.
3NEUPERT, (CARL FREDERIK) EDMUND, born at Christiania, Norway, April 1, 1842, died in New York, June 22, 1888. Pianist, pupil of his father until 1856, then in Berlin of Kullak and Kiel. In 1868 he became teacher of pianoforte at the Copenhagen Conservatory, and in 1880 professor at the Imperial Conservatory, Moscow, but left the latter on the death of Nicolas Rubinstein (1881) and after a visit to Norway removed in 1882 to New York, where he devoted himself to teaching and concert playing. Works: Andante fantastique; Before the Battle; Funeral March; 6 Norwegian Improvisations; Danse orientale; 4 Romances;
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