Tartini taught him for nothing, and a Saxon musician named Hunt gave him pecuniary assistance. During his stay of three years in Padua he made the acquaintance of Hasse. He next went to Naples with a pupil named Pitscher, to study dramatic music for six months; and then, armed with a recommendation from Tartini, visited Padre Martini at Bologna, and received from him some instruction in counterpoint. During a lengthened stay at Venice he produced his first opera at San Samuele. In 1763 he returned home, and through the influence of the Electress was appointed court composer of sacred music. Soon after we find him again in Italy, composing 'Achille in Sciro' for Palermo, and 'Alessandro nelle Indie' for Venice. In 1769 he produced 'La Clemenza di Tito' (Metastasio's text) in Dresden, and in 1772 'Solimanno' and 'Nozze disturbate' in Venice, and 'Armida' in Padua. On his return to Dresden he declined a flattering invitation from Frederic the Great to Berlin, and was rewarded by the Elector with the title of Capellmeister, and a salary of 1200 thalers. During a temporary residence in Stockholm he produced in Swedish 'Amphion,' 'Gustav Wasa,' and 'Cora,' his best and most popular work, published for P.F. In 1786 he was raised to the dignity of Obercapellmeister, with a salary of 2000 thalers, for his refusal of a brilliant position at Copenhagen. In 1793 he produced 'Protesilao,' an opera, at Berlin, and an oratorio 'Davidde in Terebinto' at Potsdam, for which he received a gold snuff-box with 400 Friedrichs d'or from the King Frederic William II, who also induced Hummel to take lessons from him. His last opera was produced April 25, 1801, at Dresden, where he died of apoplexy on the 23rd of the following October. For further particulars the reader is referred to Meissner's 'Bruchstücke aus Naumann's Lebensgeschichte' (Prague, 1803–4).
Naumann was also a prolific composer of church music; 11 oratorios, and 21 masses, with Te Deums, and smaller church-pieces, being preserved in Dresden. The court chapel still performs some of his compositions, but the single work of his now known beyond Dresden is his setting of Klopstock's 'Vater unser,' an effective composition for its day. Though a good musician, capable of turning his talents to account, he had not a particle of genius. Entirely uninfluenced by the works of Haydn and Mozart, he trudged on to the end of his life in the footsteps of Hasse and Graun. On hearing for the first time one of J. A. Hiller's performances of the 'Messiah' he expressed the strongest disapproval of the music, a fact which speaks for itself.
The Library of the Sacred Harmonic Society contains a Mass of his (in G) published in London with an accompaniment arranged by Edmund Harris; and 'The Pilgrims at the Holy Sepulchre,' an oratorio, edited with a biography by Mainzer. By his marriage with the daughter of Admiral Grotschilling he left three sons, the eldest of whom, Karl Friederich, became a well known mineralogist, whose son Ernst, born Aug. 15, 1832, studied the organ with Johann Schneider, and composition with Hauptmann, and has been since 1860 professor, organist, and musikdirector at Jena. He published an excellent treatise 'Ueber die verschiedenen Bestimmungen der Tonverhältnisse' (Leipzig, 1858), as well as some music, among which may be named a string quintet, and a serenade for strings and wind.
The elder Naumann's second son, Moritz Ernst Adolf, a well-known physician and professor in Bonn, was father to Dr. Emil, pupil of Mendelssohn and Hauptmann, and a composer of merit, born Sept. 8, 1827, in Berlin, where he holds the sinecure post of court-director of sacred music. He lives chiefly in Dresden, engaged in musical literature. Readers of Mendelssohn's letters will not forget the excellent counsels which he addresses to his young friend in a letter dated March 1845. His last work is 'Die moderne musikalische Zopf' (1880), a pamphlet of conservative tendency. He succeeded W. Rust as organist of S. Thomas's, Leipzig (March 1880), on the promotion of the latter to be Cantor. [App. p.728 "Add that Dr. Emil Naumann's exhaustive 'History of Music' has been translated by Ferdinand Praeger, edited and furnished with very necessary additional chapters on English music by Sir F. A. G. Ouseley, and published by Cassell & Co. (1886). The author died June 23, 1888."]
The third brother, Constantin August, was a mathematician and astronomer.
[ F. G. ]
NAVA, Gaetano. A distinguished Italian teacher of singing, and writer of vocal exercises, born at Milan 1802 [App. p.728 "May 16"]. His father, Antonio, taught and composed for the French guitar, then a favourite instrument, but the son received a college education previous to entering the Milan Conservatoire under Federici. Here in 1837 Nava was appointed professor, retaining his connection with the institution where he gave instruction both in harmony and in singing for 38 years, that is up to the time of his death in 1875 [App. p.728 "March 31"]. His skill as a vocal teacher, enhanced by his cultivated intelligence and uncommon earnestness and honesty of purpose brought him a large clientèle of private pupils. Distinguished among these stands our own countryman, Charles Santley. None of Nava's scholars have achieved a more brilliant reputation than that eminent barytone; nor could a better exemplification be desired of the master's method of careful vocal development, as opposed to the forcing system. Nava's works, published at Milan, by the firms Ricordi, Lucca, and Conti, comprise numerous books of solfeggi and vocalizzi, several masses and separate pieces of vocal church music, and a Method of Singing that has appeared also in London and at Leipzig.
[ B. T. ]
NAVOIGILLE, whose real name was Guillaume Julien, was born at Givet about 1745; came to Paris, was adopted by an Italian, patronised by Monsigny, entered the band of the Duke of Orleans, and opened a free violin school, in which Boucher, the well-known virtuoso, was educated. He composed duets and trios for strings, and two theatrical pieces, the music of which largely consisted of well-known airs. Navoigille died in Paris, Nov. 1811. He was a good leader, but his name would have been forgotten, but for the mistake committed by Fétis in attributing to him the authorship of the 'Marseillaise.'
[ G. C. ]
