at 13 he played the whole of the Well-tempered clavier without book. Composition, organ, anc clavier he learned from Friedemann and Emmanuel Bach, and the violin from Höckh and F. Benda; and in 1765, during a journey to Italy, from G. Benda, Tartini, and Pugnani. In 1766 he returned to Dessau, and became the life and soul of the music there. On Sept. 24 1774, a new theatre was opened through his exertions, to which he was soon after appointed music-director. He married his pupil, Henriette Niedhart, a fine singer, and thenceforward, with a few visits to Berlin, Dresden, etc., his life was confined to Dessau, where he died, Feb. 28, 1796. His compositions include a Psalm for solo chorus, and orchestra; several large Church Cantatas; Duodramas and Monodramas; Operas; music to Plays; Prologues and Occasional pieces, etc.; Odes and Songs (2 collections); Sonatas and Variations for the PF. solo—'4 dozen' of the former and many of the latter—Concertos, Fugues, etc., etc.; and three Sonatas for the violin solo, which have been republished by his grandson (Peters), and are now the only music by which Rust is known; that in D minor has been often played at the Monday Popular Concerts. His last composition was a violin sonata for the E string, thus anticipating Paganini. A list of his works, with every detail of his life, extending to 6½ large pages, is given in Mendel. His eldest son was drowned; the youngest, Wilhelm Karl, born at Dessau, April 29, 1787, began music very early; and besides the teaching he naturally got at home, learned thorough-bass with Türk while at Halle University. In Dec. 1807 he went to Vienna, and in time became intimate with Beethoven, who praised his playing of Bach, and recommended him strongly as a teacher. Amongst other pupils he had Baroness Ertmann and Maximilian Brentano. His letters to his sister on Beethoven are very interesting, and are given by Thayer, iii. 35–6. He remained in Vienna till 1827, when he returned to his native place, and lived there, teaching and making music, much beloved and sought after till his death, April 18, 1855. His memory appears to have been extraordinarily retentive and accurate, and an anecdote is given by his nephew in Mendel of his recollecting a composition of Palestrina's after 48 years. He published little or nothing.
Wilhelm Rust is the son of Karl Ludwig, brother of the foregoing, himself an advocate, and fine amateur-player on both violin and PF. Wilhelm was born Aug. 15, 1822, at Dessau; he learned music from his uncle, Wilhelm Karl, and F. Schneider. After a few years wandering he settled in Berlin, where he soon joined the Singakademie. He played at the Philharmonic Society of Berlin, Dec. 5, 1849, and was soon much in request as a teacher. In Jan. 1861 he became organist of the St. Luke's church, and twelvemonths afterwards director of Vierling's Bach Society, which he conducted till 1874, performing a large number of fine works by Bach and other great composers, many of them for the first time. The list of occasional concerts conducted by him is also very large. With 1870 he undertook the department of cownterpoint and composition in the Stern Conservatorium at Berlin, and in 1879 succeeded E. F. E. Richter as Cantor of the St. Thomas school, Leipzig, where he now resides. He has been long connected with the Leipzig Bachgesellschaft, and has edited vols. v, vii, ix–xxiii, and xxv. His original works have reached op. 33, of which eight are for the PF. and the rest for voices.
RUY BLAS. A play by Victor Hugo, to which Mendelssohn composed an Overture, and a Chorus for soprano voices and orchestra. The Overture (op. 95), is in C minor, and the Chorus (op. 77, no. 3) in A. Both pieces were conceived, written, copied, rehearsed, and executed, in less than a week (see Letter, March 18, 1839). The first performance was Monday, March 11, 1839. Mendelssohn brought it to London in MS. in 1844, and it was tried at a Philharmonic Rehearsal, but for some reason was not performed till a concert of Mrs. Anderson's, May 25, 1849, and is now in the library at Buckingham Palace. The MS. differs in a few passages from the published score, which was not printed till after Mendelssohn's death (No. 5 of the posth. works).
RUZICKA,[1] Wenzel, deserves a corner for his connexion with Schubert. He was born at Jarmeritz in Moravia, where his father was schoolmaster, Sept. 8, 1758, and died at Vienna, July 21, 1823. At 14 he was sent to Vienna to support himself by music, which he did, contriving at the same time to make himself a thorough proficient in the rules of composition. In 1783 he was playing the violin, and in 1797 the viola, at the Hofburg theatre. He then appears to have gone to Veszprim in Hungary, and become chorus-master and military bandmaster, and to have put, or assisted to put, the famous Rakoczy march into its present shape. And there he composed his one large work, an opera, 'Bela futás,' which was first performed at Pesth, Feb. 22, 1862, and holds a high place in Hungary. On Dec. 1, 1792, he was made Adjunct, and on April 1, 1793, First organist to the Court at Vienna, a post which he held till his death. He had a great reputation as a teacher of composition, and when Salieri discovered Schubert's easy aptitude for music he handed him to Ruzicka for instruction. Ruzicka, however, did not keep the lad long, but returned him, saying much as Holzer had done before him. 'He knows everything already, God Almighty has taught him.'—A sonata of Ruzicka's for PF. and violin is published by Mechetti.
RYAN, Michael Desmond, dramatic and musical critic, was born at Kilkenny, March 3, 1816, one of the numerous offspring of Dr. Michael Ryan, a physician of some position in the county. On the completion of his academical education at an early age, he entered the University of Edinburgh, early in the year 1832, for the purpose
- ↑ Spelt also Rucsicska, Rutschitschka, etc.
