A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Zumsteeg, Johann

by Carl Ferdinand Pohl

ZUMSTEEG, Johann Rudolf, born Jan. 10, 1760, at Sachsenflur, in the Mosbach district of Baden. His father being a valet to Duke Carl of Wirtemberg, he was admitted into the Carl-schule, at 'The Solitude,' near Stuttgart, where he received a good general education, and formed a close friendship with Schiller, also a pupil there. He was originally intended for a sculptor, but the love of music proved too strong, and he studied first the cello, and then composition with Poli, whom he succeeded in 1 792 as Kapellmeister, and director of the Opera. His chief claim to a place in the history of music is that he was the pioneer of the ballad, a form afterwards carried to such perfection by Reichardt, Zelter, and, pre-eminently, Löwe. Zumsteeg's best, and in his day widest known ballads were 'Leonore,' 'Des Pfarrers Tochter von Taubenhayn,' 'Kolma,' 'Die Büsende,' 'Ritter Toggenburg,' 'Elwina,' and 'Die Entführung.' Of his operas the following were frequently performed:—'Die Geisterinsel,' 'Das Pfauenfest,' and 'Ebondokani, the Calif of Bagdad.' Other works deserving mention are—Choruses for Schiller's 'Rauber,' several church cantatas, a concerto and duet for cello.^[1]

Zumsteeg died very suddenly Jan. 27, 1802, having been present the night before at a concert given by the harmonica-player, Marianne Kirchgessner, who immediately organised a second for the benefit of the family. Breitkopf & Härtel too, who had published the greater part of Zumsteeg's ballads and songs, assisted the widow in setting up a music-shop, there being none at that time in Stuttgart. It prospered, and was kept on by the youngest son from 1821 to his death in 1859.

[ C. F. P. ]

Something has been already said on Zumsteeg's characteristics, under Song, vol. iii. p. 628b. In the ballad form he was never really successful, and his best songs belong more correctly to the Romanze. We miss in them the bold melodic principal theme, which should stand out in relief from all secondary themes and ideas, and be repeated wherever the story needs it. Löwe's ballads strikingly illustrate the value of this characteristic, and if we compare them with Zumsteeg's we shall see at once how much is lost by its absence.

In some of his ballads the details are very well and truthfully painted—for instance the fine gloomy opening^[2] phrase of the 'Pfarrers Tochter':

The subsequent little bit of melody, where the story describes the girl's innocence, is pleasing. The later passages in the poor girl's life, where her father disowns her, and finally where she murders her child and ends her miserable life on the gallows, is also powerfully given. If 'Ritter Toggenburg' and 'Leonore' are somewhat fragmentary and disconnected in form, none can deny their great wealth of melody and highly dramatic colouring. Zumsteeg's accompaniments do not differ much from those of his contemporaries, but his voice part is always written with skill and effect.

[ A. H. W. ]

1. Haydn had a high esteem for Zumsteeg. Griesinger wrote to Härtel: 'Haydn is much distressed at Zumsteeg's death; he had plenty of imagination, and a fine sense of form.'
2. Schumann possibly had this in his mind in the opening of his 'Two Grenadiers.'