Weitzmann Carl Friedrich

Weitzmann, Carl Friedrich, noted German music theorist, writer on music, and composer; b. Berlin, Aug. 10, 1808; d. there, Nov. 7, 1880. He studied violin with Henning and theory with Klein, and later, at Kassel, was a pupil of Spohr and Hauptmann. He was concertmaster in Riga (1832-34), Reval (1834-36), and St. Petersburg (1836-46). After sojourns in Paris and London (1846-48), he settled in Berlin as a teacher of composition. He was an ardent disciple and friend of Wagner and Liszt; among his posthumous papers was found the original MS of a double fugue for piano by Wagner, with corrections in the handwriting of Weinlig (Wagner’s teacher). The piece was publ. by E. Istel in Die Musik (July 1912). Weitzmann was an original thinker in his harmonic theories; made an investigation of the modulatory functions of the whole-tone scale, and interested Liszt in its use. He composed a 4^th variation to Liszt’s Todtentanz. A full exposition of his theories is found in a book by his American pupil E.M. Bowman, K.F. Weitzmann’s Manual of Musical Theory (N.Y., 1877). Weitzmann’s theoretical works include Der übermässige Dreiklang (1853), Geschichte der Septimen-Akkordes (1854), Der verminderte Septimen-Akkord (1854), Geschichte der griechischen Musik (1855), Harmoniesystem (1860), Die neue Harmonielehre im Streit mit der alten (1861), Geschichte des Klavierspiels und der Klavierlitteratur (1863, as Part III of the Lebert- Stark piano method; 2^nd ed., 1879, printed separately, with an added Geschichte des Klaviers; Eng. tr., N.Y., 1894, with a biographical sketch by Otto Lessmann; 3^rd Ger. ed., Leipzig, 1899, as Geschichte der Klaviermusik, ed. by Max Seiffert, with a suppl., Geschichte des Klaviers, by Otto Fleischer), and Der letzte der Virtuosen (on Tausig; 1868). He also wrote many essays for various musical periodicals. As a composer, he followed the fashionable Romantic trends. His works include the operas Räuberliebe (1834), Walpurgisnacht (1835), and Lorbeer und Bettelstab (1836), which he brought out in Reval, as well as 3 books of Valses nobles for Piano, and Preludes and Modulations for Piano, in 2 parts, “Classic” and “Romantic.” He also wrote 2 books of ingenious canonic Rätsel for Piano, 4-Hands, and 2 books of Kontrapunkt-Studien for Piano.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire