Karl Bernhard Wessely, also ''Carl Bernhard Wessely'' (Berlin 1 September 1768 –
Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...
11 July 1826), was a German composer. He was born to a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish family in Berlin associated with intellectual circles, both Jewish and Christian: his father was
Naphtali Hirz Wessely
Naphtali Hirz (Hartwig) Wessely ( yi, נפתלי הירץ וויזעל, translit=Naftali Hirtz Vizel; 9 December 1725 – 28 February 1805) was an 18th-century German-Jewish Hebraist and educationist.
Family history
One of Wessely's ancestors, ...
. Wessely was conductor and
Hofkapellmeister
(, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...
of
Prince Henry of Prussia in
Rheinsberg
Rheinsberg () is a town and a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is located on lake and the river Rhin, approximately 20 km north-east of Neuruppin and 75 km north-west of Berlin.
History
F ...
. He composed, among other pieces, a cantata mourning of the death of
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or ' ...
, (''Sulamith und Eusebia '', 1786).
Life
Born in Berlin, Wessely was a student of
J. A. Schulz. He became music director at the Royal National Theater in Berlin in 1788, and became court music director in
Rheinsberg
Rheinsberg () is a town and a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is located on lake and the river Rhin, approximately 20 km north-east of Neuruppin and 75 km north-west of Berlin.
History
F ...
in 1796. After the prince's death in 1802 he largely gave up his musical career and became a low-ranking civil servant in Berlin and later in Potsdam, where he founded a club for classical music, which he headed until his death. He was a member of the Berlin
Freemason's Lodge "Friedrich Wilhelm zur gekrönten Gerechtigkeit".
operone.de Wessely, Carl Bernhard
on operone
Wessely composed several operas, ballet and incidental music for the theatre, Lieder, funeral cantatas and string quartets. He was also active as a musicological writer and supplied journal articles, especially for the ''Archiv der Zeit'' and the ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
The ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' (''General music newspaper'') was a German-language periodical published in the 19th century. Comini (2008) has called it "the foremost German-language musical periodical of its time". It reviewed musical e ...
''.
Wessely died in Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...
at the age of 57.
Further reading
* Salomon Wininger
Salomon Wininger (; 13 December 1877, Gura Humora, Bukovina – December 1968, in Ramat Gan, Israel) was an Austrian-Jewish biographer. He has been called one of the greatest Jewish biographers of all time.
Before World War I, Wininger lived in ...
: ''Große Jüdische National-Biographie.'' Vol. VI, page 271.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wessely, Karl Bernhard
German composers
Ballet composers
German conductors (music)
German Freemasons
1768 births
1826 deaths
Musicians from Berlin
Jewish composers