Gassner Ferdinand Simon

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Gassner Ferdinand Simon

Gassner, Ferdinand Simon, Austrian violinist; b. Vienna, Jan. 6, 1798; d. Karlsruhe, Feb. 25, 1851. From 1816, he was violinist at the National Theater in Mainz. In 1818 he became music director at Giessen Univ., which in 1819 made him Dr.Phil. and lecturer on music. In 1826 he joined the Court Orch. at Karlsruhe, where he became music director in 1830. He publ. the Musikalischer Hausfreund (Mainz, 1822–35) and ed. (1841–45) the Zeitschrift fur Deutschlands Musikvereine und Dilettanten. He wrote Partiturkenntniss, Ein Leitfaden zum Selbstunterricht (1838; French ed., 1851, as Traite de la partition] and Dirigent und Ripienist (1846). He also contributed to the Supplement of Schilling’s Universallexikon der Tonkunst (1842) and ed. an abridgment of the entire work (1849). He composed 2 operas, several ballets, 3 cantatas, songs, etc.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire