Schneider, Friedrich (EN)

Schneider, Johann Christian Friedrich, *3 January 1786 Altwaltersdorf (now Waltersdorf, near Żytawa), †23 November 1853 Dessau, German composer, conductor, pianist and teacher. Initially, he studied music with his father, organist Johann Gottlob Schneider (1753–1840), and from 1798 in Zittau, where he graduated from junior high school. In 1805, he entered the University of Leipzig, where he met, among others, A.E. Müller and F. Rochlitz; he also served as organist in the university church (1807), bandmaster of Sekondas Operntruppe (1810), organist in the church of St. Thomas (1813), from 1817 music director at the city theatre. In 1820, he became bandmaster of the court orchestra in Dessau, where he founded, among others, Singakademies and numerous singing societies, in 1829 a music school (his students included R. Franz); moreover, for about 30 years, he performed as a conductor at over 80 music festivals in Germany. His son Theodor Schneider (1827–1909) was a cellist and conductor in Dessau, from 1860 in Chemnitz.

Among F. Schneider’s compositions, the oratorios are the most important; Das Weltgericht, performed on 6 March 1820 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, is considered an important link between the oratorios of Haydn and Mendelssohn. Valued as a conductor, Schneider also went down in pianistic history as the first performer of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major (Leipzig 1811).

Literature: W. Neumann Friedrich Schneider. Eine Biographie, «Die Componisten der Neueren Zeit» IV, Kassel 1854; F. Kempe Friedrich Schneider als Mensch und Künstler, Dessau 1859, Berlin 21864; K. Hoede Friedrich Schneider und die Zerbster Liedertafel, Zerbst 1927; H. Lomnitzer Das musikalische Werk Friedrich Schneiders 1786–1853, insbesondere die Oratorien, 1 vol., Marburg 1961 (contains an autobiography, a list of works, and a bibliography); M. Geck Friedrich Schneiders “Weltgericht”, in: Studien zur Trivialmusik des 19. Jahrhunderts, «Studien zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts» VIII, ed. C. Dahlhaus, Ratyzbona 1967.