Friedrich Schneider (1786–1853) was eminent as a teacher and conductor, and as a composer excelled in the church and oratorio style. His oratorios, “Das Weltgericht” and “The Deluge,” are his best known works. (Robert Franz was one of his pupils.) Bernhard Klein (1793–1832) was also a worthy representative of the sacred style. His oratorio of “Job,” his motets and other church compositions are pure and religious in feeling.
Moritz Hauptmann (1792–1868), one of the most eminent musical theorists of the nineteenth century, was also a composer of true merit. His earlier compositions were mainly for the violin, in which he showed his affinity with Spohr. His vocal works are more important, and include two masses, motets, three-part vocal canons, and sacred songs; these works hold a place among classical church music.
Eduard Grell (1800–86), director of the Berlin Singakademie, was an able representative of a capella choral music. His sixteen-part mass is a masterpiece of polyphonic skill.
Friedrich Kiel (1821–85) is pre-eminent among recent masters of sacred music for his depth of religious feeling and perfect polyphonic art. His “Requiem,” “Missa Solemnis” and oratorio, “Christus,” are noble and profound works.
Albert Becker (born 1834), the well-known Berlin conductor, is the composer of a “Reformation Cantata” and “Mass in B flat minor” which take high rank among compositions of their class. Among numberless works for male voices, none have been more highly esteemed than those of Carl Friedrich Zöllner (1800–60) and Heinrich Esser (1818–75). The latter is distinguished for his refined and melodious style. His numerous songs and part songs are universal favorites, and are held in high esteem by cultivated musicians. His symphonies and suites are also well known. Wagner entrusted Esser with the arrangement of his “Meistersinger” for the piano. Esser’s arrangements for orchestra of Bach’s organ “Passacaglia” and “Toccata in F” are skilfully done.
The lighter style of opera has been well represented in Germany, during the present century, by Lortzing, Flotow, Von Suppe, Brühl, Johann Strauss and others.
Albert Lortzing (1803–51) is known and loved by all Germans in his operas, “Die beiden Schützen,” “Czar und Zimmermann,” “Der Wildschütz” and “Der Waffenschmied.” These are stock pieces in the repertory of every German theatre, and never fail to delight audiences. The “Czar und Zimmermann” is a universal favorite. His serious opera, “Undine,” on the contrary, is a labored effort in an uncongenial field; but it has succeeded in holding its place on the German stage. As a composer of comic opera, Lortzing is thoroughly delightful in his naturalness and straightforwardness. His opera texts—written by himself—are full of movement and variety, and their naïveté is never synonymous with dulness. His “character” rôles are especially full of possibilities for clever actors. Lortzing’s pleasing operas have shed the light of wholesome and lively entertainment into many millions of lives.
The “Nachtlager in Granada,” by Conradin Kreutzer (1782–1849), is familiar enough to all German theatregoers, although its composer has retained his popularity rather by his songs and male choruses.
More famous than Lortzing, though less meritorious, was Friedrich Flotow (1812–83). Of his fifteen or more operas, “Stradella” and “Martha” are the only ones universally known. The artistic aim of Flotow was not high, yet his talent enabled him to make a distinct contribution to the “light literature” of music. Certain of the melodies of “Stradella” and “Martha” have more sentiment than is usual with the music of this class. Nevertheless, the popularity of these two operas seems to be on the wane, and it is possible that Flotow may be known only by name to the next generation.
