- ments from 1804, the first important example occurred there in 1810, the
conductor being Spohr. Out of this grew many others, of which the most celebrated were the annual Lower Rhine Festivals, instituted at Dusseldorf in 1818.
Besides masters like Beethoven, Weber and Schubert, whose songs belong to the highest class, though, of course, with decided individual differences, and the many simpler writers, to be named among those busy with popular education, in this period began the fruitfulness of Marschner (d. 1861) and of Löwe (d. 1869), which reached to the middle of the century (see sec. 222).
The importance of stimulating part-singing as a popular art was beginning to be recognized afresh, and among the helpers in this direction were such writers and teachers as Friedrich Silcher (d. 1860), working first at Stuttgart and from 1817 at Tubingen, with many good collections, largely original, and Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee (d. 1868), from 1817 active at Frankfort. (See also sec. 218.)
Louis Niedermeyer (d. 1861), a Swiss by birth, in his early life was an important song-writer, working first at Geneva and from 1823 at Paris, and making excellent settings of poems by Lamartine, Hugo and other poets (mostly before 1835). His later activity was in opera and especially sacred music (see secs. 204, 221).
