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634 Beer, Jacob Beer, Rachel

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

tine researches were published in various Vienna medical journals, and in the "Journal of Anatomy," London; "The Lancet," London; "Nature," London; "Science," New York; and especially in " "Wiener Medicinische Presse," of which he is editor. Bibliography: Eisenberg, Dos Geistige TT'ieii, il. 18. s. M. B.

BEER, JACOB LEYSER.

See

Meyerbeer,

GlAl'OMO.

BEER, JULES Composer son of Michael Beer, and nephew of Giacomo Meyerbeer; born 1833 in Paris, where he still (1902) resides. His first attempts at composition were two one-act comic operas, " En Etat de Siege " and " Les Roses de M. de Malesherbes," which were respectively performed before a private audience in 1859 and 1861. His next work was an opera entitled " La Fille d'Egypte, " which



was produced

at the Theatre Lyrique April 23, then attempted works of greater magnitude and in March, 1871, " Elisabeth de Hongrie, a grand opera by him, in four acts, was given at the Theatre de la Monnaie at Brussels. Beer has since produced several other operatic works, none of which, however, has met with marked success. In addition to the foregoing, he has set to music Psalm cxxxvii., a work of colossal proportions for soli, chorus, and orchestra, which was performed for the first time on Jan. 23, 1868, at Paris, with Manduit, Caron, and

He

1862.

634

contribution to Wagnerian literature entitled

"

Eva

Pogner. Bibliography Kohut, Berlllimte Isratlitische Milliner und Fraucn; Eeimann, Musik-Lexiknn, 1900; Baker, Biog.

Diet, of Musicians, 1900. J.

s.

BEER, MICHAEL German

poet





Giacomo Meyerbeer, the composer, and

So.

brother of of

Wilhelm

the astronomer; born Aug. 19, 1800, in Berlin died at Munich March 22, 1833. Beer,



At the Werder Gymnasium, Berlin, where Beer was completing the education he had received at home, he early showed a marked preference for the traamong the gedians

''



Warot as the principal soloists. Although these works are somewhat deficient when judged from a high artistic standpoint, they nevertheless deserve to be ranked far above the usual standard of amateur productions. Among the pianoforte compositions of Beer may be mentioned " La Marguerite, " " Le Chant des Feuilles, " and several other morceaux de salon.

Bibliography:

F. F. Fetis,

Biographic Universelle des

Mu-

sicians. s.

J.

MAX

BEER,

JOSEF:

So.

Austrian pianist and

born at Vienna Aug. 25, 1851. He studied with Dessoff and was still very young when, on the recommendation of Hanslick, Dessoff, and Herbeck, he on three different occasions received emolument from the Austrian government for the compositions " Ariadne auf Naxos, " " Die Auferweckung des

composer



,

Lazarus, " and a number of songs. Beer, who in 1901 was living at Vienna, is the composer of the follow" Otto der Schlitz " " Der Pfeiferkoing operas nig"; "Friedel mit der Leeren Tasche," performed at Prague, 1892; "Der Streik der Schmiede," one:

act opera,

first



performed at Augsburg, 1897.

He

also wrote the operetta, "Das Stelldichein auf der Pfahlbrlicke " the cantata, " Der Wilde Jager " the lyrical pieces, " Abendfeier, " " Eichendorffiana," " Haidebilder, " "Spielmannsweisen," "Was sich der Wald Erzahlt"; a pianoforte-suite; and several books of songs. Of these works, " Der Streik der Schmiede " is generally considered the best. In this little opera, which was also successfully performed at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, Beer displays a fine mastery of vocalization. The prize operetta, "Das Stelldichein auf der Pfahlbriicke," has likewise met with favorable recognition. Among the literary productions of Beer may be mentioned a

classical writers of an-

cient Greece

At the age wrote

he

tragedy, tra,"

duced

"

and Rome.

of eighteen his

first

Klytemnes-

which was proat the

Michael Beer.

HoftheDec.

ater, Berlin,

8,

and made a favorable youthful attempt which

1819,

—

impression. After this revealed the weak points of his insufficient training, while the success of the play encouraged him in the pursuit of a literary career he plunged with renewed fervor into his interrupted studies, following courses in history, philology, the natural sciences, and philosophy at the universities of Berlin

—

and Bonn. Beer's extensive travels through European councontributed much to the liberal character and thoroughness of his education. From his second journey to Italy he brought home a new tragedy, tries

Die Braute von Aragonien, " suggested by Goethe's Die Braut von Korinth. " It was published, simultaneously with " Kly temnestra, " in Leipsic "

ballad, "

in 1823.

The most act tragedy

was the oneWith remarkable stage-

successful of Beer's works "

Der

Paria. "

which is lacking in his later productions, he concentrated into a single act a story rich in concraft,

and full of stirring incident. It was produced for the first time Dec. 22, 1823, in Berlin, and received an ovation, Goethe himself adding warm tent

praise to the plaudits of the audience. The author pictures in vivid colors the momentous struggle

which a noble nature undergoes

in a conflict with the depressing influence of degrading circumstances. It is an eloquent and bitter outcry against the oppression of the Jews in Europe.

In 1824 Beer moved to Paris, where the large ciracquaintances and the growing fame of his brother, Giacomo Meyerbeer, threw open the doors of every salon to the young German poet. He soon cle of

learned to

know intimately a number

terateurs, artists,

and statesmen in

of eminent litand before

Paris,

the end of the year he felt as much at home in the French metropolis as at his father's home in Berlin. He rarely returned to his native city in after-days,