Schelble, Johann Nepomuk

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Schelble, Johann Nepomuk

Schelble, Johann Nepomuk, German singer, conductor, pedagogue, and composer; b. Hiifingen, May 16, 1789; d. there, Aug. 6, 1837. He studied with Weisse in Donaueschingen, Volger in Darmstadt, and Krebs in Stuttgart, where he then sang as a tenor and baritone at the court and opera (1808–14); also was a teacher at the Royal Musical Inst. (from 1812). From 1814 to 1816 he was in Vienna and became a close friend of Beethoven; settled in Frankfurt am Main, where he founded the Cacilien-Verein (1818), and sang at the Frankfurt am Main theater (1817–19). His methods for teaching the musical rudiments and training the sense of absolute pitch were much admired; he enjoyed the esteem of many musicians of his time; Mendelssohn paid tribute to him in his correspondence. In addition to various didactic works, he also composed vocal and chamber music.

Bibliography

K. Lang, Die Gehörsentwicklungs-Methode von S. (Braunschweig, 1873); O. Bormann, J.N. S. 1789–1837 (diss., Univ. of Frankfurt am Main, 1926).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire