The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Niedermeyer, Louis

NIEDERMEYER, nē'dĕr-mī-ĕr, Louis, Swiss composer: b. Nyon, 27 April 1802; d. Paris, 14 March 1861. He studied under Moscheles in Vienna, and in Italy with Fioravanti and Zingarelli and settled in Paris. He met with no great success in operatic music, such as ‘Marie Stuart’ (1844) and ‘La Fronde’ (1853), and thereafter devoted himself to religious music, his true vocation, not only composing but teaching and editing a journal called La Meîtrise. His opera ‘Stradella’ and his melody for Lamartine's ‘Lac’ are his best compositions of a secular sort. His training school for religious music was aided by the French government.