For Stuttgard the violoncellists Zumpsteeg and Kaufmann deserve consideration.
Joh. Rudolph Zumpsteeg was the more important. He was born on January 10, 1760, at Sachsenflur, in the Odenwald, and died on January 27, 1802, at Stuttgard. The royal Kapellmeister Poli (at Wurtemburg) was his teacher. Under his direction Zumpsteeg became not only an excellent performer, but also a creditable composer of music. He received a learned education at the Karlschule, where he entered into friendly relations with Schiller, and set to music many of his poems. He made himself particularly known through ballad compositions, which were first attempted by him.
After he had quitted the Karlschule, Zumpsteeg devoted himself entirely and actively to art. Up to the year 1792 he was simply member of the Stuttgard Court band, of which he became the head after the decease of his master, Poli. Zumpsteeg played the violoncello with “deep feeling, rare precision, and decisive power,” as Gerber remarks. He wrote for it a Concerto, Sonatas, a Duet, and a Trio.
Johann Kaufmann, born in 1760, was likewise a pupil at the Karlschule, whence also came—
Ernst Häusler, born in 1761, in Stuttgard. He led a somewhat variable life. In the year 1788 he went on an artistic tour, during which he played especially in Vienna and Berlin. Soon after he took an engagement in the band of the Prince of Donaueschingen. But in 1791 he relinquished this position in order to obey a summons to Zurich. Thence, six years later, he returned to his native town, and in 1801 went to Augsburg, and, in 1802, to Vienna, to hold concerts. Finally he assumed the office of choir director at the Evangelical Church at Augsburg, in which place he died on February 28, 1837.
The Electoral Kapelle at Mannheim possessed in Carl Lochner, born about 1760, died 1795, as well as in Peter Ritter, remarkable cellists. Ritter, born at Mannheim in 1760, must have had higher claims to distinction on account of his musical education than Lochner, for he was promoted to the direction of the opera at the theatre of his birthplace. With the exception of a journey to Berlin, undertaken in the year 1785, where he played before the Court, he seems to have pursued uninterruptedly his official duties.
To the Mannheim orchestra belonged the violoncellists, Johann Fürst, Ludwig Simon, and Anton Schwarz, already mentioned.
As an offspring of Mannheim, Franz Danzi must also be mentioned, the son of the first violoncellist in the orchestra there, Innocenz Danzi. His father gave him instruction on the cello, and Abt Vogler in composition. He soon made such rapid progress in playing that already, in 1778, he was received into the Electoral Kapelle, which, as is known, was transferred to Munich about this time in consequence of the union of Bavaria with the Palatinate. He immediately began his work as a composer for the opera. Meantime, in the year 1790, he was united in matrimony to the exquisite singer, Margaretha Marchand, daughter of the Opera Director in Munich. The following year the young couple went to Leipsic and Prague, where Danzi conducted the opera of Guardassoni’s Italian Opera Company, while his wife took part as a singer. In 1794-1795 he travelled with his wife in Italy, and in 1797 they both returned to Munich on account of the failing condition of the latter’s health. Danzi was immediately appointed Vice-Kapellmeister, and displayed most praiseworthy activity. He was, however, so overcome by the death, in 1799, of the partner of his life, that for many years he seemed unable to perform the duties of his vocation, and as it was repugnant to his feelings to take up work again in the place where his family happiness had been wrecked, he obeyed a summons to Stuttgard as Court Kapellmeister. He there remained a year, at the end of which he assumed the direction of the opera at Carlsruhe. Danzi was born May 15, 1763, and died April 13, 1826.
In the chapel at Mainz, in the year 1783 to 1784, there were the clever cellist and lutist, Joh. Christian Gottlieb Schindler, the brothers Joseph and Andreas Schwachhofer, and at the Court of Treves was also at that time Carl Caspar Eder, born 1751 in Bavaria, who made himself known as a cello player in several tours.
To the Electoral Kapelle at Bonn belonged Joseph Reicha and Maximilian Willman.