8 - On the Music for the Theatre Composed by Natives of Germany

Summary

London Institution, 21 March 1864

I have now arrived at my fourth and last division of composers for the theatre, and the list of this evening will give you names of eminent men, some indeed super-eminent, all born in Germany. As I intend, towards the close of my lecture, to take a short review of the ground we have travelled over since I began the subject, I shall not make any long introduction before proceeding to speak of the composers and their works included in the programme.

I have not thought it necessary to set down for performance specimens from thoroughly well known authors, unless with some very special object. I thought it right, however, that the whole line of German composers for the theatre should be shown, from the time of Handel to the present day.

There can be very little doubt as to the wonderful aid given by composers of Germany to the lyric drama. It is a curious fact that after the invention of the opera at Florence it was a German who made the first attempt to rival the Italian composers. This German composer, whose name was Schütz, composed an opera at Dresden about the year 1628, the libretto of which was identical with that of the first Italian opera ever given, and having the same title – Dafne.

With this exception we do not find that the Germans interfered much with the opera until shortly before the time of Handel, from which time indeed may be dated the commencement of their <reign>﹛labours﹜ as composers for the theatre.

Handel's immediate predecessor was Keiser, born in the year 1673 and who, in his time, had a splendid reputation, now very much faded, [if] not altogether gone. It is said that this Keiser composed one hundred operas and kept possession of the Hamburg stage for more than forty years. If we are to believe the famous Hasse, ‘Keiser was one of the greatest musicians the world had ever seen’. This, coming from one who himself was living in the time of Handel, must strike us with astonishment, seeing that the demand for Keiser's music in our day is extremely small, and that any thing which is really good is seldom allowed to escape.