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Scan 418
Dictionary of music and musicians, 1908
22 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 364. See the scan on archive.org.
1and did his best to make him known by singing his songs both in public and private. The 'Erlkönig' was first introduced by him to the general public at a musical entertainment at the Kärnthnerthor Theatre (March 7, 1821), though it had been sung before at a soirée of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Jan. 25) by Herr von Gymnich, an excellent amateur. Vogl in his diary calls Schubert's compositions 'truly divine inspirations, utterances of a musical clairvoyance,' and Schubert, writing to his brother Ferdinand, says, 'when Vogl sings and I accompany him we seem for the moment to be one, which strikes the good people here as something quite unheard of.' In the summer of 1825 the two friends met at Steyer, and made a walking tour through Upper Austria and Styria, singing Schubert's songs like a couple of wandering minstrels at all their resting-places, whether monasteries or private houses. Schubert publicly testified his esteem by dedicating to Vogl three Lieder (op. 6), published in 1821.
3Vogl's early conventual education left its traces in his fondness for serious study, to which all his spare time was devoted, his favourite authors being Goethe and the Greek classics. In 1823 he went to Italy, and on his return in the following spring astonished his friends by announcing his marriage with the daughter of the former director of the Belvedere, whom he had long treated as a sort of pupil. One of his last appearances in public was at a soirée of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in 1833, when he sang the 'Wanderer.' His last years were passed in great bodily suffering, cheered only by intellectual occupation. He died in 1840, Nov. 19, on the same day on which his friend Schubert had departed twelve years before, and was buried in the churchyard of Matzleinsdorf, where rest Gluck and his wife (1787), Salieri (1825), and the eminent singers Forti (1859), Staudigl (1861), and Ander (1864). The inscription on his tombstone runs—
5Here lies Joh. Michael Vogl,
6the German minstrel,
7born 10 Aug. 1768, died 19 Nov. 1840.
8To the revered and tenderly loved
9Husband and Father. C. F. P.
11VOGLER, GEORGE JOSEPH, the Abbé, is one of the most curious figures in the annals of music. Born at Würzburg on June 15, 1749, he evinced from an early age a religious cast of mind and an aptitude for music, and his attachment to the organ dated from his tenth year. Both his father and his stepfather, one Wenceslaus Stautinger, were violin-makers. While learning the organ his stepfather let him have pedals attached to his harpsichord, and Vogler practised with such determination all night that no one would live on the floor below.
13At the same time his independent turn of mind exhibited itself. He elaborated a new system of fingering, and contrived to learn the violin and other instruments without a teacher; and even while a pupil at the Jesuits' College he played much in the churches, and made a name for himself in the contrapuntal preludes which were regarded as the test of an organist's skill.1 How long this sort of life lasted is not very clear, but Vogler himself declares that he was at Würzburg as late as 1769.
15His departure must have taken place very shortly after this. He proceeded in the first place to Bamberg to study law. In 1771 he went from Bamberg to Mannheim, then one of the chief musical centres of Germany, and obtained permission to compose a ballet for the Court Theatre, which produced such an impression that the Elector, Karl Theodor, was led to provide him with funds to go to Bologna and study counterpoint under Padre Martini. Starting about the beginning of 1773 Vogler travelled by way of Venice. He there met Hasse, and also a pupil of Padre Vallotti, from whom he first heard of the system of harmony that he subsequently advocated with such vehemence.2 The original object of his journey was not achieved, for, though kindly received by Martini, they speedily conceived a repugnance for each other. Vogler could not tolerate a slow and graduated course of counterpoint; and Martini complained that his pupil had neither perseverance nor aptitude. Vogler soon abandoned the trial, and repaired to Padua with a view of studying for orders, and learning composition from Vallotti, who had been for nearly fifty years musical director of San Antonio. But the old organist's method of teaching was wholly distasteful to his disciple, and in five months Vogler went on to Rome, where he was ordained priest at the end of 1773.3 In the Papal city he was made Apostolic Protonotary and Chamberlain to the Pope, knight of the Order of the Golden Spur, and member of the Academy of the Arcadians. He also found time to gain some instruction from the Bohemian musician Mysliweczek, and armed with these ecclesiastical credentials and musical experience he returned in 1775 to Mannheim.4 The Elector at once appointed him Court Chaplain, and he proceeded forthwith to compose a 'Miserere' with orchestral accompaniments, and was made second capellmeister, a result partly owing to the influence of some ladies of the court, if Mozart may be trusted.5 It was at Mannheim that he first put himself forward as a teacher, and established the first of his three schools. He maintained that most previous teachers had pursued erroneous methods, and promised to make his pupils composers by a quicker system.
171 See also Graduale (De Profundis) of the Missa Pastorica.
182 The account in the text follows the statements usually made with reference to Vogler's proceedings at Bologna and Padua. But in the Musikalische Correspondenz of Spires for 1790, No. 15. Professor Christmann asserts that the Elector Palatine himself directly recommended Vogler to Vallotti.
193 A. M. Z. vol. vi. p. 250.
204 According to a statement in his Choral System (p. 6), it was in this year that he learnt the basis for his system from Vallotti.
215 Letter, Nov. 13, 1777.
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