A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sonnleithner

by Carl Ferdinand Pohl

SONNLEITHNER, a noted Viennese family of musical amateurs. The first, Christoph, born May 28, 1734, at Szegedin, came to Vienna at 2 years old and learned music from his uncle Leopold Sonnleithner, choir-master of a church in the suburbs. He also studied law, became an advocate of some eminence, was employed by Prince Esterhazy, and thus came into contact with Haydn. He composed several symphonies, which his friend Von Kees (often mentioned in Haydn's life) frequently played with his orchestra; and also 36 quartets, mostly for the Emperor Joseph, who used to call him his favourite composer. His church-compositions, remarkable for purity of form and warmth of feeling, have survived in the great ecclesiastical institutions of Austria, and are still performed at High Mass. Christoph Sonnleithner died Dec. 25, 1786. His daughter, Anna, was the mother of Grillparzer the poet. His son Ignaz, Doctor of Laws and professor of commercial science (ennobled 1828) was an energetic member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, and took part in their concerts as principal bass-singer. At the musical evenings held at his house, the so-called 'Gundelhof,' in 1815–24, in which his son, Leopold, took part as chorus-singer, Schubert's 'Prometheus,' though only with piano-accompaniment, was first heard (July 24, 1816), as were also the part-songs 'das Dörfchen' (1819), 'Gesang der Geister über den Wassern' (1821), the 23rd Psalm for female voices (1822). The 'Erlkönig' was sung there for the first time on Dec. 1, 1820, by Gymnich. Ignaz died in 1831. A second son, Joseph, born 1766, devoted himself with success to literature and the fine arts, and in 1799 was sent abroad by the Emperor Franz to collect portraits and biographies of savants and artists for his private library. During this tour he made the acquaintance of Gerber and Zelter. In 1804 he succeeded Kotzebue as secretary of the court-theatres, and as such had the entire management of both houses till 1814, and also of that 'an der Wien' till 1807. He directed his endeavours principally to German opera, and himself wrote or translated several librettos, including Beethoven's 'Leonore' from the French of du Bouilly (the title of which was changed against the composer's wish to 'Fidelio');^[1] 'Agnes Sorel' and others for Gyrowetz; 'Kaiser Hadrian,' and 'Die Weihe der Zukunft'—a pièce d'occasion for the visit of the Allies—for Weigl; 'Faniska' for Cherubini; an oratorio, 'Die vier letzten Dinge,' for Eybler, and numerous plays from various languages. He was the first editor of the favourite pocket-book 'Aglaia,' and he also edited the Viennese 'Theater-Almanach' for 1794, 95, and 96, which contains valuable biographies, and articles on the then condition of music in Vienna. For his services as founder (1811) and honorary secretary of the 'Gesellschaft adeliger Frauen zur Beförderung der Guten und Nützlichen'^[2] he was made a counsellor. With indefatigable energy he next applied himself to founding (1813) the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, and continued to act as its honorary secretary till his death, devoting himself unremittingly to the welfare of the society. Another institution in which he took equal interest was the Conservatorium, founded in 1817.^[3] The formation of the archives, and especially of the library, was almost entirely his work, through his acquisition of Gerber's literary remains in 1819, and his legacy of 41 MS. vols. in his own hand, full of valuable materials for the history of music. He lived in close friendship with Schubert and Grillparzer up to his death, which took place Dec. 26, 1835. He received the Danebrog Order, and honorary diplomas from several musical societies. His nephew, Leopold Edler von Sonnleithner, son of Ignaz, advocate and eminent amateur, born Nov. 15, 1797, was a great friend of the sisters Fröhlich, Schubert, Schwind the painter, and Grillparzer. He took great care to preserve Schubert's songs, and to introduce the composer to the musical world, by publishing, with the help of other friends, his 'Erlkönig' and other early songs, for the first time. The 'Erlkönig' was sung by Gymnich^[4] at a soirée of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Jan. 25, 1821, and for the first time in public on the 7th of March following, at the old Kärnthnerthor theatre, by Vogl with immense success. As member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (from 1860 an honorary one), Sonnleithner took an unwearied interest in the concerns of the society, to whose archives he left, among other papers, his highly valuable notes on the operas produced, on concerts, and other musical events in Vienna. His numerous articles on music are scattered through various periodicals. He was an intimate friend of Otto Jahn's, and furnished him with much valuable material for the life of Mozart, as Jahn acknowledges in his preface. Leopold von Sonnleithner was Ritter of the Order of the Iron Crown, an honorary member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, and of the Musikvereine of Salzburg, Innsbruck, etc. He died March 3, 1873, and with him disappeared a most persevering investigator and collector of facts connected with the history of music in Vienna, a class which daily becomes rarer, though its labours were never of more value than in the present age of new appearances and general progress.

[ C. F. P. ]

1. Revised by Treitschke for the revival of the opera in 1814. [See vol. i. p. 191.]
2. Society of ladies for the encouragement of the good and the useful.
3. The first scheme of instruction was drawn up by Hofrath von Mosel.
4. August von Gymnich, an imperial official, and a much esteemed tenor, died Oct. 6, 1821, aged 36.