Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/554

 530 S T E S T E and three fine madrigals. The MSS. of these are still in existence ; and the British Museum possesses a very fine Confitebor, for three voices and orchestra, of about the same period. All these compositions are very much in advance of the age in which they were written ; and in his operas Steffani shows an appreciation of the demands of the stage very remarkable indeed at a period at which the musical drama was gradually approaching the character of a mere formal concert, with scenery and dresses. But for the MSS. at Buckingham palace, these operas would be utterly unknown ; but Steffani will never cease to be remembered by his beautiful chamber duets, which, like those of his contemporary Carlo Maria Clari (1669-1745), are chiefly written in the form of cantatas for two voices, accompanied by a figured bass. The British Museum possesses more than a hundred of these charming compositions, 1 some of which were published at Munich in 1679. Steffani visited Italy for the last time in 1729, in which year Handel, who always gratefully remembered the kindness he had received from him at Hanover, once more met him at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. This was the last time the two composers were destined to meet. Steffani returned soon afterwards to Hanover, and died in 1730 while engaged in the transaction of some diplomatic business at Frankfort. STEIBELT, DANIEL (c. 1760-1823), pianist and com- poser, was born between the years 1755 and 1765 at Berlin, where he studied, at the expense of the crown prince Frederick William, under Kirnberger. Very little is known of his artistic life before 1790, when he settled in Paris, and attained great popularity as a virtuoso by means " of a pianoforte sonata called La Coquette, which he composed, in conjunction with Hermann, for Queen Marie Antoinette, and almost equal credit as a dramatic composer by an opera entitled Romeo et Juliette, produced at the Theatre Feydeau in 1793. In 1796 Steibelt re- moved to London, where his pianoforte playing attracted an amount of attention which in 1798 was raised to an absolute furore by the production of his concerto (No. 3, in Eb) containing the famous "Storm Rondo" a work that ensured his popularity, in spite of the far higher claims of Clemen ti, Dussek, and John Baptist Cramer, whose attainments as virtuosi, composers, and thoroughly accomplished artists were infinitely superior to his own. In the following year Steibelt started on a professional tour in Germany ; and, after playing with some success in Hamburg, Dresden, Prague, and Berlin, he arrived in May 1800 at Vienna, where, with the arrogance which formed one of the most prominent characteristics of his nature, he challenged Beethoven to a trial of skill, which naturally resulted in his irretrievable discomfiture. His position in Germany being no longer tenable after this pitiful failure, he retired to Paris, and during the next eight years lived alternately in that city and in London, where his reputation continued undiminished. In 1808 he was invited by the emperor Alexander to St Peters- burg, and there he resided, in the enjoyment of a lucrative appointment, until his death on September 20, 1823. Besides his dramatic music, Steibelt left behind him an enormous number of compositions for the pianoforte, many of which exhibit a certain amount of originality, though they can scarcely be regarded as works of genius. His playing, though exceedingly brilliant, was wanting in the higher qualities which so strikingly characterized that of his contemporaries, John Cramer and Muzio Clementi ; but he was undoubtedly gifted with talents of a very high order, and the reputation he enjoyed was fairly earned and honourably maintained to the end. STEIN, HEINRICH FRIEDRICH KARL, BARON VOM UND ZUM (1757-1831), one of the greatest of German statesmen, and perhaps the most influential forerunner of Bismarck in 1 Add. MSS. 5055 sq. the creation of German unity, was born at Nassau on October 26, 1757. He was a member of the independent noblesse or knighthood of the German empire (Reichsritter- schaft), and his ancient family seat, Burg Stein, lies on a hill rising above the Lahn opposite Nassau. In his auto- biogvaphy he speaks of his parents as " pious and genuinely German," and ascribes to their teaching his own religious and patriotic feelings, his sense of the dignity of his family and order, and his conviction of the duty of devoting his life to the public weal. Though the youngest but one of ten children, Stein was selected by his parents as the " Stamuihalter," or representative and maintainer of the family name and dignity, and his elder brothers acqui- esced in this arrangement. From 1773 to 1777 Stein studied political economy, jurisprudence, and history at the university of Gottingen, where he made his first acquaintance with English insti- tutions, his knowledge and appreciation of which are often manifest in his later career. His original intention was to qualify for an appointment in the imperial courts, but this sphere of work was little to his taste, and in 1780 ho took the step, somewhat unusual for an imperial knight, of entering the service of Prussia. He became an official in the mining department, and by 1784 had risen to be head of the administration of mines and manufactures for Westphalia. In 1796 he was made supreme presi- dent of the provincial chambers of Westphalia, an appoint- ment which gave him opportunity to evince his great administrative talents. In 1785 his administrative career was interrupted for a short time by a diplomatic mission to the elector of Mainz, and in 1786-87 he made a long professional tour in England, chiefly in the mining districts. In 1804 Stein was created a minister of state, with the portfolio of excise, customs, manufactures, and trade. In this capacity he abolished the internal customs duties throughout Prussia, and effected several other needed reforms ; but he was unable to modify the general disas- trous tenour of the Prussian policy, which was now ripen- ing for the catastrophe of Jena, Stein's remonstrances with the king and his strictures upon the course of the administration were couched in the most open and unspar- ing language, and they were specially directed against the system of government through privy cabinet counsellors, who had practically come to supplant the ministers with- out possessing either an official knowledge of affairs or a ministerial responsibility. He refused to join in the reconstituted ministry after Jena unless this abuse were done away with, and Frederick William III., already wounded by the frankness of Stem's criticism, sent him his dismissal in a most ungracious form (January 3, 1807). When the king, however, found himself left in the lurch by his ally Russia, at the peace of Tilsit (July 9, 1807), he turned in despair to the strong and candid counsellor he had dismissed half a year before, and invited Stein to re-enter his service, practically on his own terms. Curiously enough Stein's appointment as minister pre- sident was encouraged by Napoleon, who seems to have seen in him merely the clever organizer and financier, who would most easily put Prussia in a position to pay the enormous war indemnity levied on it. Stein took office on October 4, 1807, and at once began that weighty series of organic reforms with which his name is most indis- solubly connected. The emancipation edict appeared on October 9, 1807, a few days after the formal receipt of his powers, and the municipal ordinance was published on November 19, 1808. In the interim he co-operated zealously with Scharnhorst in the reconstitution of the army, carried out a number of important financial and ad- ministrative reforms, and prepared the way for a thorough