Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/419

WEBER. and to the greater importance assigned to the instrumental part of an opera. The change was at first strongly opposed, and he was obliged for the time to desist by the King's express command. Bit by bit, however, he made the changes he wanted, and his new arrangement having proved itself perfect, was permanently maintained.

Weber's work in Dresden very nearly came to an end in a few months' time, for on June 27, 1817, a Capellmeistership in Berlin fell vacant, and Count Brühl the Intendant at once entered into negotiations with him on the subject. It was an appointment he was strongly inclined to accept. Berlin had many attractions for him, and so far society in Dresden had done little to make his residence there agreeable. The burning of the Berlin theatre on July 31, however, put a stop to the negotiations, and though several times renewed, nothing came of them. One result at any rate was that his appointment at Dresden was made for life, and that he was also admitted to a share in the direction of the musical services at the Catholic Chapel Royal. He conducted for the first time Sept. 24, 1817, the music being a Salve Regina by Schuster and a litany by Naumann, for whose church music Weber had a great admiration. It is an evidence of his devout turn of mind that before this his first official participation in divine service he confessed and received the Communion. Now that he was often called on to compose for Court festivities, the duties of his post became varied and extensive, and absorbed much time. His colleague Morlacchi had frequent leave of absence, and passed long periods of time in Italy (e.g. from Sept. 1817 to June 1818), and then all his work fell upon Weber. A man loving freedom from restraint as he did, would have found it very hard to carry on his work with the cheerfulness and elasticity of spirit so remarkable in him, if he had not had a constant spring of happiness and refreshment in married life. His union with Caroline Brandt took place at Prague Nov. 4, 1817. On their wedding tour the young couple gave concerts at Darmstadt and Giessen, appeared in Gotha before the Duke, and then went home to Dresden, which they reached Dec. 20.

To the early years of his work in Dresden belong most of Weber's compositions d'occasion. His sincere devotion to the royal family made him hail opportunities of showing his loyalty, so that several of these works were undertaken of his own motion, and did not always meet with proper acknowledgment. The fullest year in this respect was that of 1818, the 50th anniversary of the King's accession. Besides two or three smaller works, Weber composed a grand Mass in E♭ for the King's name-day, and for the accession-day (Sept. 20) a grand Jubel-cantata, which the King did not allow to be performed, so he added the well-known Jubel-overture. The Mass in G may also be counted as belonging to this year, since it was finished on Jan. 4, 1819, for the golden wedding of the King and Queen. These official duties were not despatched perfunctorily, or as mere obligations. Into each he put his full strength, though well aware, as he wrote to Gänsbacher (Aug. 24, 1818), 'that they were but creatures of a day in the world of art, and from their ephemeral nature always disheartening.' Shortly after the performance of the Mass in G he was asked to write a festival opera for the marriage of Prince Friedrich August. He took up the idea with great earnestness, chose for his subject the tale of Alcindor in the Arabian Nights, and had already begun to think out the music, when he found (June 28) that his commission had been withdrawn, and Morlacchi requested to prepare an Italian piece for the ceremony (Oct. 9). Had 'Alcindor' been written, Weber and Spontini might have been directly rivals, for Spontini's opera of that name, composed a few years later at Berlin, is drawn from the same source. Perhaps also the work on which Weber's world-wide fame rests, and which was to give him a triumph over Spontini, might have taken another form, or never have been written at all. He had already been at work on it for two years. Soon after his removal to Dresden he became intimate with Friedrich Kind, who, after throwing up his employment as an advocate in Leipzig, had been living in Dresden solely by literature. Weber having proposed to him to write a libretto, Kind heartily assented, and the two agreed on Apel's novel of 'Der Freischütz,' which came out in 1810 and had excited Weber's attention. Kind wrote the play in seven days; on Feb. 21, 1817, he and Weber sketched the plan together, and by March 1 the complete libretto was in Weber's hands. The composition did not proceed with equal celerity; on the contrary, Weber took longer over this than over any other of his operas. Bit by bit, and with many interruptions, it advanced to completion. The sketch of the first number—the duet between Agathe and Aennchen, with which the second act begins—was written July 2 and 3, 1817. Nothing more was done that year, except the sketch of the terzet and chorus in the 1st Act ('O, diese Sonne') and Agathe's grand air in the 2nd (Aug. 6 to 25). In 1818 he only worked at the opera on three days (April 17, 21, and 22) On March 13, 1819, he wrote the sketch of Caspar's air in D minor, which ends the 1st Act. Then follows another six months' pause, after which he set to work continuously on Sept. 17, and the last number, the overture, was completed on May 13, 1820. The Court compositions of 1818 may have hindered his progress in that year, but in the summer of 1819, without any pressure from without, solely following the bent of his own genius, he wrote several of his finest PF. compositions for 2 and 4 hands, including the Rondo in E♭, op. 62, the 'Aufforderung zum Tanze,' op. 65, and the Polacca brillante in E, op. 72. The PF. Trio also, and many charming Lieder belong to this summer, which Weber passed, like those of 1822, 1823, and 1824, in a little country place, Hosterwitz, near Pillnitz. By the time Der