Carl Maria von Weber Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

The Father of German Romantic Opera

The premiere of the opera Der Freischütz in Berlin on June 18, 1821, was more than just a successful first night; it was a watershed moment in German cultural history. The audience was electrified. Here at last was an opera that spoke to them in their own language, with a story drawn from their own folklore, set in their own forests, and filled with melodies that sounded like their own folk songs. The opera’s terrifying "Wolf's Glen" scene, with its supernatural horrors and groundbreaking orchestral effects, was a stroke of genius. The work's composer, Carl Maria von Weber, was hailed as a national hero. In a world where opera was dominated by Italian composers, Weber had created a powerful and distinctly German work of art, single-handedly inventing the genre of German Romantic opera.

A Theatrical Upbringing

Carl Maria von Weber was born into the theater. His father, Franz Anton Weber, was a violinist, impresario, and the director of a traveling theater troupe. (Franz Anton's brother was the father of Constanze Mozart, making Carl Maria a cousin-by-marriage to the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). The elder Weber, desperate to have a child prodigy of his own, pushed his son into a musical career from a young age. Weber's childhood was chaotic and nomadic, moving from town to town with the family's struggling theater company. This unorthodox upbringing gave him an unparalleled, hands-on education in every aspect of stagecraft.

The Virtuoso and the Kapellmeister

Weber was a brilliant piano virtuoso, famous for his large hands and dazzling technique. He was also a fine guitarist and singer. As a young man, he began to make a name for himself as a composer and as a dynamic, reform-minded opera director. He held posts as Kapellmeister (music director) in cities like Breslau and Prague, where he worked tirelessly to raise artistic standards. He was often a disruptive force, fighting with conservative singers and administrators to achieve his artistic vision. This experience as a practical man of the theater gave him a deep understanding of dramatic effect and orchestration.

Der Freischütz and the Birth of a Genre

After years of moving from post to post, Weber was appointed director of the prestigious Dresden opera in 1817, where he was charged with building a strong German opera company to compete with the city’s dominant Italian opera. It was here that he composed his masterpiece. Der Freischütz (The Freeshooter or The Magic Marksman) was the perfect opera at the perfect time. Based on a German folk tale, it tells the story of a young hunter who, in order to win a shooting contest and the hand of his beloved, makes a pact with the devil to obtain magic bullets.

The opera's success was monumental because it tapped into the burgeoning spirit of German Romanticism and nationalism. Its celebration of nature, its use of the supernatural, and its simple, folk-like melodies created a new and distinctly German operatic world. It laid the essential foundation for the great German operas that would follow, most notably those of Richard Wagner, who revered Weber as his direct musical ancestor.

A Champion of the Winds

Weber had a special gift for writing for wind instruments. He was close friends with many of the leading wind virtuosos of his day and wrote a series of brilliant concertos for them that remain at the very heart of their repertoire. For the clarinetist Heinrich Baermann, he wrote two magnificent concertos and a concertino that explore the full expressive and technical range of the instrument. He also wrote a wonderful and witty concerto for the bassoon and a virtuosic concertino for the horn. In these works, Weber demonstrated a profound understanding of the unique character and color of each instrument. He is also remembered for his brilliant piano piece, Aufforderung zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance), one of the first concert waltzes, which was later famously orchestrated by Hector Berlioz.

A Final Triumph in London

Despite his success, Weber's life was a constant struggle with finances and failing health. He suffered from tuberculosis, which grew progressively worse throughout his life. In 1826, knowing he was desperately ill, he accepted a lucrative commission to compose a new opera, Oberon, for Covent Garden in London. He traveled to London to oversee the premiere, leaving his family behind in Germany.

The premiere of Oberon was a triumph, and Weber was celebrated by the London public. But the strain of the journey and the relentless work had destroyed his health. Just a few weeks after the premiere, on the morning of June 5, 1826, he was found dead in his bed at the age of just 39. He was buried in London, far from home. Nearly twenty years later, Richard Wagner, in a grand patriotic gesture, arranged to have Weber's remains brought back to Germany and interred in Dresden, a final homecoming for the composer who had given German opera its voice.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

• References and Further Reading

• Warrack, John. Carl Maria von Weber. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1976.

• Weber, Max Maria von. Carl Maria von Weber: The Life of an Artist. Translated by J. Palgrave Simpson. Chapman and Hall, 1865. (A biography by the composer's son).

• Brown, Clive. "Weber, Carl Maria von." In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. Macmillan Publishers, 2001.