are 'IX Toccate e fughe per l'organo' (Lotter, Augsburg 1747), dedicated to Archbishop Jacob Ernst. They passed through many editions, and are also printed in Commer's 'Musica sacra,' vol. i. Nägeli's edition contains only the nine fugues. The last fugue, in E minor, was published (in E♭ minor) as Bach's in Griepenkerl's edition of Bach's works (Book ix, No. 13), an error which has since been corrected. Haffner published sonatas in G and A, and Schott 2 motets, 'Qui coufidunt' and 'Sicut mater consolatur,' for 3 voices, with clavier accompaniment. To Leopold Mozart's collection for the Hornwerk at Hohen-Salzburg, 'Der Morgen und der Abend' (Letter 1759), Eberlin also contributed 5 pieces. Fétis, in his 'Biographie universelle,' gives a list of his church compositions in MS. in the libraries of Berlin and Vienna, and of the Latin dramas he composed for the pupils of the Benedictine monastery at Salzburg (1745–60), of which, however, the words only are extant. Proske's library contains the autographs of 13 oratorios, including the 'Componimento sacro,' performed with great success at Salzburg in 1747. The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde at Vienna possesses a copy of a mass and a fugue for two choirs with double orchestra. Eberlin's strict writing was so much prized by Mozart, that about 1777 he copied 13 of his pieces (mostly church-music in 4 parts) together with some by M. Haydn, into a MS. book which he kept for his own instruction, and which still exists. He afterwards (1782) however wrote to his sister that Eberlin's fugues could not be ranked with those of Bach and Handel♭'All honour to his 4-part pieces; but his clavier fugues are merely extended Versetti.' Marpurg was the first to proclaim his merit ('Kritische Beiträge,' Berlin 1757, vol.iii. Stück 3, p. 183), and says that he wrote as much and as rapidly as Scarlatti and Telemann.
EBERS, Carl Friedrich, son of a teacher of English at Cassel, born March 20 [App. p.625 "25"], 1770, a man evidently of great ability, but as evidently of little morale, taking any post that offered, and keeping none; doing any work that turned up to keep body and soul together, and at length dying in great poverty at Berlin, Sept. 9, 1836. Some of his arrangements have survived, but his compositions—half-a-dozen operas, symphonies, overtures, dance music, wind-instrument ditto, and, in short, pieces of every size and form—have all disappeared, with the exception of a little drinking song, 'Wir sind die Könige der Welt,' which has hit the true popular vein.
One occurrence, in which he succeeded in annoying a better man than himself, is worth perpetuating as a specimen of the man. In the number of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung for 11 Dec. 1816 appears a notice from C. M. von Weber to the following effect:—'Herr Hofmeister of Leipzig has published a quintet of mine (op. 34) for clarinet and strings, arranged as a solo sonata for piano, with the following misleading title, "Sonata for the P.F., arranged by C. F. Ebers from a Quintuor for Clarinet by C. M. de Weber, op. 34." I requested Herr Hofmeister to withdraw the publication on the ground that it was inaccurate and unfair, and most damaging to the original work; but he has vouchsafed me only a curt statement that if the arranger is to blame I may criticise him as severely as I like, but that to him as publisher it is a matter of no moment. I have therefore no other course than to protest with all my might against the arrangement, abstaining from all comment, except to mention that without counting engravers' blunders, my melodies have been unnecessarily altered 41 times, that in 3 places one bar has been omitted, in another place 4 bars, in another 8, and in another 11.—C. M. von Weber, Berlin, Nov. 22, 1816.' This drew forth a reply from Ebers addressed to 'the lovers of music,' and appearing in the next No. of the 'Zeitung':—'Herr Schlesinger of Berlin has published as op. 34 of C. M. von Weber a Quintet for Clarinet and Strings—where five people play together I believe it is called a quintet—which is so absolutely incorrectly engraved that no clarinet player not previously acquainted with the work can possibly detect and avoid the mistakes in certain places—such as bar 60 of the second part of the first allegro. I took the trouble to put the thing into score, and found the melodies pretty and not bad for the piano; and, as every man is free to arrange as he likes, I turned it into a solo sonata, which I can conscientiously recommend to the lovers of music without any further remarks. As clarinet passages however are not always suitable for the piano, I have taken the liberty to alter and omit where I found mere repetitions without effect. This has been done with intelligence, and it is absurd to talk of disfigurement. Mozart and Haydn were great men, who sought their effects by other means than noise and display, oddity or absurdity; they gladly welcomed arrangements of their works, as Beethoven himself does every day. But should it still annoy Herr Weber to see his child in a new dress, and should he therefore withdraw his paternity from it, I shall then have to ask the public to acknowledge me as its foster father. But the public has a right to insist that Herr Schlesinger shall free his publications from mistakes, for as long as one work remains unconnected he is open to the remark of ne sutor ultra crepidam.—Leipzig, 6 Dec. 1816.'
EBERS, John, born in England of German parents about 1785, originally a bookseller; undertook the management of the opera at the King's Theatre in 1821, with Ayrton as musical director. He engaged Garcia, Galli, Mme. Camporesi, Pasta, and other celebrated singers, besides Rossini (1824), but the expenses were so enormous, that in seven years he was completely ruined. He published 'Seven Years at the King's Theatre' (London, H. Ainsworth, 1828), an interesting record of Italian opera at that time in London.
EBERWEIN, Traugott Maximillian, violinist and composer, of great note in his day, though now quite forgotten, born at Weimar 1775 [App. p.625 "Oct. 27"]. At
