Bedřich Diviš Weber (9 October 1766, Velichov, nr.

Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary (; german: Karlsbad, formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. It lies on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá. ...

25 December 1842,

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

), also known by the German form of his name, Friedrich Dionys (or Dionysius) Weber, was a

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

primarily remembered as the first Director of the

Prague Conservatory The Prague Conservatory or Prague Conservatoire ( cs, Pražská konzervatoř) is a music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, Prague Conservatory offers four or six year study courses, which can be compared to the level ...

, in whose foundation he played a leading role. Weber studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

before turning his attention definitively to

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

, studying under Abbe Vogler. He became an advocate for the music of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

after meeting him in Prague, and his compositions bear evidence of this influence, being firmly rooted in that stylistic period. He was antagonistic towards the work of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

and

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his opera ...

(no relation), although an enthusiast for the work of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

. In 1832 he conducted the first performance of Wagner's Symphony in C major, a student performance at the Prague Conservatory. As Director of both the Conservatory and the Prague Organ School he effectively controlled higher musical education in the region, so was arguably the most influential figure in the music of Prague at that time. He also wrote several

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

textbooks considered important in their time. Despite his conservative style he was happy to explore the possibilities of new instruments, such as his ''Variationen für das neu erfundene Klappenhorn'' (''Variations for the newly invented

keyed bugle The Royal Kent bugle or keyed bugle is a variant of the bugle popular in the 19th century, especially in the English Army in 1856. Its six keys allow pitch to be controlled beyond that possible with a standard bugle. History The first known me ...

''). He was a skilled writer for

brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin a ...

s and had a particular interest in new developments; he was himself responsible for a form of

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

. His best known surviving work is probably the cantata ''Böhmens Errettung''. He also composed an opera, ''König der Genien'', in 1800,Opera Composers: W
/ref> and his ''Variations for Trumpet and Orchestra'' followed his own experiments with keyed instruments, particularly his keyed horn. In 1823-24, he was one of the 50 composers who composed a variation on a waltz by

Anton Diabelli Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 17818 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote ...

for ''

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein ''Vaterländischer Künstlerverein'' was a collaborative musical publication or anthology, incorporating 83 variations for piano on a theme by Anton Diabelli, written by 51 composers living in or associated with Austria. It was published in t ...

''. One of his students, Joseph Kail, introduced the keyed horn to Vienna and went on to develop the double piston Vienna valve horn. It is reported that in 1828 a certain Herr Chlum played the ''Variations for Trumpet and Orchestra'' on a chromatic trumpet of Kail's invention, presumably the valve trumpet, making this work the earliest surviving example of such music.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Bedrich Divis 1766 births 1842 deaths 18th-century classical composers 18th-century male musicians 18th-century Bohemian musicians 19th-century classical composers 19th-century Czech musicians Czech classical composers Czech male classical composers Czech expatriates in Austria Czech opera composers Male opera composers People from Karlovy Vary District 19th-century Czech male musicians