A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ebers, Carl

by George Grove

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.'

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