Weber, (Jacob) Gottfried

Weber, (Jacob) Gottfried, eminent German music theorist and composer; b. Freinsheim, near Mannheim, March 1, 1779; d. Kreuznach, Sept. 21, 1839. He studied law at Heidelberg and Göttingen, and filled positions as judge in Mannheim (1802), Mainz (1814), and Darmstadt (1818); was appointed General State Prosecutor of Hesse in 1832. He was an excellent amateur pianist and also played the flute and the cello. In 1806 he founded a musical society called “Conservator ium” in Mannheim, and in 1824 he began the magazine Caecilia, which he ed. until his death. He made a thorough study of the theoretical works of Marpurg, Kirnberger, Abbé Vogler, and others, and then brought out his important treatise Versuch einer geordneten Theorie der Tonsetzkunst (3 vols., 1817-21; 2^nd ed. in 4 vols., 1824; 3^rd ed. in 4 vols., 1830-32), in which he introduced the now widely accepted symbols for designating the major keys with capital letters and minor keys with small letters, Roman figures for degrees of the scale, etc. It was publ. in Eng. in Boston (1846) and London (1851). His other writings include Über chronometrische Tempobezeichnung (Mainz, 1817), Allgemeine Musiklehre zum Selbstunterricht für Lehrer und Lernende (Darmstadt, 1822; 3^rd ed., 1831), Ergebnisse der bisherigen Forschungen über die Echtheit des Mozart’sehen Requiems (Mainz, 1826), Weitere Ergebnisse der weiteren Forschungen über die Echtheit des Mozart’sehen Requiems (Mainz, 1827), and Generalbasslehre zum Selbstunterricht (Mainz, 1833). He composed 2 masses, a requiem mass, a Te Deum, and other sacred works, some chamber music, and songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire