A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Queisser, Carl

by George Grove

QUEISSER, Carl Traugott, a great trombone player, was born of poor parents at Döben, near Leipzig, Jan. 11, 1800. His turn for music showed itself early, and he soon mastered all the ordinary orchestral instruments. He ultimately confined himself to the viola, and to the trombone, which he may really be said to have created, since, for instance, the solo in the Tuba mirum of Mozart's Requiem was before his time usually played on a Bassoon. In 1817 he was appointed to play violin and trombone in the town orchestra, and by 1830 had worked his way into the other orchestras of Leipzig, including that of the Gewandhaus. He played the viola in Matthäi's well-known quartet for many years; was one of the founders of the Leipzig 'Euterpe,' and led its orchestra for a long time; and in short was one of the most prominent musical figures in Leipzig during its very best period.

As a solo trombone-player he appeared frequently in the Gewandhaus Concerts, with concertos, concertinos, fantasias and variations, many of them composed expressly for him by C. G. Müller, F. David, Meyer, Kummer, and others; and the reports of these appearances rarely mention him without some term of pride or endearment. 'For fulness, purity and power of tone, lightness of lip, and extraordinary facility in passages,' says his biographer,^[1] 'he surpassed all the trombone-players of Germany.' There was a Leipzig story to the effect that at the first rehearsal of the Lobgesang, Queisser led off the Introduction as follows:—

to Mendelssohn's infinite amusement. Se non e vero, e ben trovato.

Queisser was well-known throughout Germany, but appears never to have left his native country. He died at Leipzig June 12, 1846.

[ G. ]

1. Allg. musikalische Zeitung. July 8. 1846.