Joseph Schuster (11 August 174824 July 1812) was a German

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 ...

Life and career

Schuster was born in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, where he received his first musical training from his father, a court musician, and from

Johann Georg Schürer Johann Georg Schürer (1720 – 16 February 1786) was a German baroque composer. He was born in Bohemia, and died in Dresden, aged about 65. Operas * ''Astrea placata ovvero La felicità della terra,'' (libretto Biaggio Campagnari), 7 October ...

. Thanks to a scholarship from the Saxon

Prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prince ...

s, he was able to study with

Giovanni Battista Martini Giovanni Battista or Giambattista Martini, O.F.M. Conv. (24 April 1706 – 3 August 1784), also known as Padre Martini, was an Italian Conventual Franciscan friar, who was a leading musician, composer, and music historian of the period ...

and

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

in Venice with G. Pera from 1765 to 1768. In 1776 he completed his first

opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abo ...

''Didone abbandonata,'' after a libretto by

Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early life Me ...

. It was given at the

Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent t ...

in Naples and by all accounts a great success. In the same year, the opera seria ''

Demofoonte ''Demofonte'' (also ''Demofoonte''; ''Il Demofoonte''; ''Demofoonte, ré di Tracia'' ing of Thrace ''Démophon''; ''Demophontes''; or ''Dirce, L'usurpatore innocente'' irce, the Innocent Usurper is an opera seria libretto by Metastasio. The lib ...

'' premiered in

Forlì Forlì ( , ; rgn, Furlè ; la, Forum Livii) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. It is the central city of Romagna. The city is situated along the Via E ...

. In the following years, Schuster's position was solidified with operatic successes in Naples and Venice. He was also recognized in Germany as an accomplished composer and his ''

singspiel A Singspiel (; plural: ; ) is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, which is alternated with ensembles, songs, ballads, and arias which were often strophic, or folk-like ...

,'' '' Der Alchymist, oder Der Liebesteufel'' is considered one of the finest examples of the art form. Most of his works are assigned to the

opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...

, but he also composed religious works, chamber music and orchestral music. Schuster's work is also found in the

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

s appendix of the Köchel catalogue (No. 210 et seq,), and for a long time the "Milan Quartets" (1772–73) were viewed as

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 ...

works. Schuster composed these works around 1780, which were long considered to be copies of Mozart originals. The musicologist

Ludwig Finscher Ludwig Finscher (14 March 193030 June 2020) was a German musicologist. He was a professor of music history at the University of Heidelberg from 1981 to 1995 and editor of the encyclopedia ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart''. He is respecte ...

was able to uncover the true origin (in ''The Music Research,'' 1966). Schuster died at Dresden.

Selected works

* Oratorio - ''

La passione di Gesù Cristo LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

'' 1778, Dresden. * La fedeltà in amore, Opera buffa, Dresda 1773 * L'idolo cinese, Opera buffa, Dresda 1776 * La Didone abbandonata, Opera seria, Napoli 1776 * Demofoonte, Opera seria, Forlì 1776 * L'amore artigiano, Opera buffa, Venezia 1776 * La schiava liberata, Opera seria-comica, Dresden 1777 * Der Alchymist oder Der Liebesteufel, Singspiel, Dresden 1778 * Die wüste Insel, Singspiel (after Metastasio, L'Isola disabitata), Leipzig 1779 * Bradamante, Dramma per musica, Padova 1779 * Creso in Media, Opera seria, Napoli 1779 * Amor e Psyche, Opera seria, Napoli 1780 * Ester, Oratorio, Venezia 1781 * Il marito indolente, Opera buffa, Dresden 1782 * Rübezahl ossia Il vero amore, Opera buffa, Dresden 1789 * Osmano dey d'Algeri, Opera buffa, Dresden 1800 * Il giorno natalizio, Opera buffa (Pasticcio), Dresden 1802 * Quartetti Nr. 1-6 „Quartetti Padovani“ * 6 Divertimenti da camera per pianoforte e violino, 1777, Kassel

Sources

* Burde, Ines: "Joseph Schuster", ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 2006. — Is. 15, pg. 353–355 * Ongley, Laurie: ''Liturgical Musc in late eighteenth-century Dresden: Johann Gottlieb Naumann, Joseph Schuster, and Franz Seydelmann''. New Heaven, 1992.

External links

* * * * * 1748 births 1812 deaths German Classical-period composers German opera composers Male opera composers German male classical composers 19th-century German male musicians String quartet composers {{Germany-composer-stub

Life and career

Selected works

Sources

Further reading

External links