well for the piano and for chamber combinations, and also excellent songs and male part-songs. Among his dramatic works were Jery und Bätely (1810), Conradin von Schwaben (1812), Cordelia (1819), Libussa (1822), Der Taucher (1824), Der Verschwender (1833) and Das Nachtlager von Granada (1834), of which the last two are still given.
Ernst Theodor Hoffmann (d. 1822) pursued law, music and literature more or less together, the emphasis being upon music between 1805 and 1816. From 1808 he was theatre-director at Bamberg, from 1810 over the signature 'Kreisler' wrote witty essays for a Leipsic journal (collected, 1814), and in 1813-4 conducted opera at Leipsic and Dresden. He was brilliantly versatile. Besides other undertakings, he wrote about 10 stage-works (from 1801), such as Schärpe und Blume (1805, libretto also), Der Trank der Unsterblichkeit (1808), Aurora (1811) and his masterpiece Undine (1816). He admired Mozart so ardently that he adopted the name Amadeus. Beethoven and Weber were interested in him, and his affinity with the poet Richter ('Jean Paul') commended him strongly to Schumann. After 1816 he was in the Prussian civil service.
Adalbert Gyrowetz (d. 1850) wrote extraordinarily much and mostly very well, and yet to-day is almost forgotten. His active career extended from the lifetime of Mozart to the period of Mendelssohn. Born in Bohemia and educated at Prague, he came in 1786 to Vienna, finding cordial welcome from Mozart and his circle for his early symphonies. Under a liberal patron he spent two years in Italy, appearing as a violin-virtuoso, writing in 1787 his first quartets, and studying with Sala at Naples. In 1789 he visited Paris (where symphonies of his had been given as Haydn's) and settled in London, receiving much applause as an orchestral writer. In 1797 ill-health caused his return to Vienna, where his legal and linguistic accomplishments got him work as a diplomatic attaché. In 1804 he was given a post at the opera under Weigl, continuing till 1831. His later years were made bitter by poverty. His facility was enormous in every field—60 symphonies, about 80 chamber works, 40 piano-sonatas, 19 masses, and numerous lesser pieces, vocal and instrumental, besides some 70 stage-works. Of the latter, the first was Semiramis (1792, London, the score lost by fire before performance), and the very successful Agnes Sorel (1806), Der Augenarzt (1811), Die Prüfung (1813), Helene (1816) and Felix und Adele (1831). Beethoven highly commended Robert (1813), and Der Augenarzt held its popularity for years. His autobiography (1848) has some importance.
Although Beethoven's Fidelio (1805) can hardly be counted as a typical romantic opera, its spirit and style are not only thoroughly German, but clearly related to more fanciful works. Its moral elevation reflects the character of the composer's personality, and its dramatic intensity illustrates the German recoil from Italian frivolity.
Ludwig Spohr (d. 1859), best known as violinist and instrumental composer (see sec. 181), while concertmaster at Gotha became deeply interested in dramatic work (from 1806). In all, he wrote 10 operas, of which the finest were Faust (1818), Zemire und Azor (1819), Jessonda (1823), which he considered his masterpiece, Der Berggeist (1825) and Der Alchymist (1830). He had obvious limitations and mannerisms, but also refinement, imaginative
