1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Abt, Franz

ABT, FRANZ (1819–1885), German composer, was born on the 22nd of December 1819 at Eilenburg, Saxony, and died at Wiesbaden on the 31st of March 1885. The best of his popular songs have become part of the recognized art-folk-music of Germany; his vocal works, solos, part-songs, &c., enjoyed an extraordinary vogue all over Europe in the middle of the 19th century, but in spite of their facile tunefulness have few qualities of lasting beauty. Abt was kapellmeister at Bernburg in 1841, at Zurich in the same year and at Brunswick from 1852 to 1882, when he retired to Wiesbaden.