Scan 74
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
10 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 54. See the scan on archive.org.
1Meyer-Olbersleben
2ture as well as some chamber-music; piano-pieces; songs; choruses; a piano trio; some pieces for piano and cello; a cantata, The Blind Elf; and many other vocal and instrumental pieces.
4Meyerbeer (mi'-ër-bär), Giacomo. 1791-1864.
5"The idol of the Parisian public, the Monarch of the Grand Opera," as Hervey calls him, did more to advance the opera of the Nineteenth Century than any other composer except Wagner. He was born at Berlin, and was of Jewish extraction, his name being properly Jakob Liebmann Beer. The prefix Meyer was added on the death of a rich relative who left Jakob his fortune on that condition. The Jakob became Giacomo after Meyerbeer's sojourn in Italy. His father, Herz Beer, was a wealthy banker, his mother, Amalie Wulf, was a refined and well-educated woman, and two of his brothers became famous like himself, Wilhelm as an astronomer, and Michael as a poet. When a very young child Meyerbeer showed a remarkable talent for music, which was encouraged by his parents, and when he was only seven years old, he made his debut as a pianist, playing one of Mozart's concertos. He studied first under Lauska. At the age of nine he had made wonderful progress. He studied composition for some time under Zelter, whom he thoroughly disliked, and finally gave up in favor of Bernard Anselm Weber, who was then directing the Berlin Opera. Weber proved to be a devoted teacher to the young Meyerbeer, and at one time sent a fugue of his pupil's, which he thought admirable work, to Vogler. The Abbé, far from commending it, finally returned it with a treatise of the fugue, and a fugue by himself on the same theme, showing the numerous errors which he thought the young composer's work contained. Meyerbeer then wrote another fugue, using the Abbé's suggestions, and this so pleased the old man that he invited Meyerbeer to spend two years with him at Darmstadt as a pupil and member of his household. There the young man worked with unlimited diligence, wrote a fugue or other sacred composition every day for the instructor's criticism, and formed his life-long friendship with Carl Marie von Weber. His first published works were Sacred Songs of Klopstock, and an oratorio, God and Nature, which was played before the Grand Duke, and won for the writer the position of composer to the court.
7His first opera, Jephthah's Vow, which appeared at Munich in 1813, was not a success, owing probably to its oratorio form and biblical subject. A comic opera, Alimelek, or The Two Caliphs, given at Stuttgart the same year, was received a little better. Meyerbeer then went to Vienna as a concert pianist and produced The Two Caliphs there, but it failed again. The young musician was by this time becoming thoroughly discouraged, and was on the point of giving up music entirely when he was advised by Salieri to go to Italy and make a thorough study of the voice before writing any more operas. In 1815 he went to Venice and there he soon abandoned the scholasticism of Abbé Vogler and adapted himself to the flowing extravagant style of Rossini, who then held supreme power over Italian Opera. Meyerbeer actually succeeded in rivaling him and gained at once the public admiration and immediate success which was his aim throughout his life. Among his Italian works were Romilda e Costanza, given at Padua in 1818 with Pisaroni in the leading part; Semiramide riconosciuta; Eduardo e Cristina; Emma di Resburgo, played in Germany as Emma von Leicester; Margherita d'Anjou, written for Scala, which was the best example of his work of this period; L'esule di Granata; Almansor; and the beginning of Crociato.
9This borrowed success so easily attained, did not content the composer long, however. His German friends had become dissatisfied with him, among them Carl von Weber, who did everything in his power to induce him to return to his native land and to devote himself to her musical advancement. Meyerbeer then tried to produce a three-act opera, Das Brandenburger Thor, at Berlin, but failed, and having finished Crociato, which he had begun in Italy, he brought it out at Vienna, where it caused such a sensation that the composer was crowned on the stage. It was the last of his Italian triumphs and has been called the link between his period of "wild oats" as he considered his Italian
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