A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Neefe, Christian

NEEFE, Christian Gottlob, a musician of some distinction in his day, but whose claim to being remembered is his having been Beethoven's instructor. He was born at Chemnitz Feb. 5, 1748, the son of a poor tailor, and possessing a lovely voice sang in the church choir and learnt music in the school. His parents contrived to place him at the University of Leipzig to study jura, but the love of music was too strong, all his spare time was spent over the treatises of Marpurg and Emanuel Bach; and the acquaintance of J. A. Hiller, then cantor of Leipzig, and a leading musician of Germany, was a great incentive. He broke with law and began his musical career by writing operettas for the theatre. In 1776 he took Hiller's place as conductor of a travelling orchestra known as the Seyler Society, which made him known in the Rhine district. At Frankfort he found a wife, in 1779 settled at Bonn as conductor of another association called the 'Grossmann-Hellmuth Society,' and on Feb. 15, 1781, entered the service of the Elector, Max Friedrich, as aspirant to the post of court-organist, vice Van den Eeden. With the organ Neefe took over van den Eeden's pupil, Ludwig van Beethoven, then just entered on his eleventh year. Van den Eeden died June 29, 1782, and on April 26, 1783, Neefe was promoted to the direction of both sacred and secular music at the court. A year after this, April 15, 1784, the Elector died, the theatrical music was put down, and a series of economies begun by the new Elector Max Franz, which resulted in the reduction of Neefe's pay from 400 to 200 florins. In 1788 a new court theatre was organised, with Reicha as director, and Neefe accompanyist and stage manager. Then came the war, and in 1794 the theatre was shut up, the company disbanded, and Neefe lost his place. He led a poor existence as municipal official under the French, his family were dispersed, and at last we hear of him as conductor at the theatre at Dessau. Here his wife fell seriously ill, and ultimately he himself sank under his troubles, and died Jan. 26, 1798. Neefe was an industrious musician; the names of eight pieces are preserved which he wrote for the theatres of Leipzig and Bonn between 1772 and 1782. He wrote also for the church, and a mass of chamber-music, besides arranging and adapting many operas. He also published articles on musical subjects in the periodicals of the time, and left an autobiography which was communicated by his wife to the Allg. musikalische Zeitung of 1799 (p. 241). (See Thayer's 'Beethoven,' i. 81–85, 117, etc).

[ G. ]