Ignaz von Seyfried

Ignaz Xaver Ritter von Seyfried (August 15, 1776 – August 27, 1841) was an Austrian musician, conductor and composer.

Von Seyfried was born in Vienna. According to a statement in his handwritten memoirs [David J. Buch, "Three posthumous Reports concerning Mozart in his late Viennese Years", "Eighteenth-Century Music" 2/1, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 127.] he was a pupil of both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Albrechtsberger. He published Albrechtsberger's complete written works after his death. His own pupils included Franz von Suppé, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, and Eduard Marxsen.

As conductor

In his youth Seyfried served as the assistant conductor for Emanuel Schikaneder's opera troupe at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, becoming musical director in 1797 and serving (in its new building, the Theater an der Wien) until 1826. [Grove] . His memoirs offer accounts of the first production, under Schikaneder's auspices, of Mozart's "The Magic Flute", as well as a curious anecdote concerning the composer's death a few weeks later; see Death of Mozart. [Excerpts from the memoirs as they concern Mozart are given in Deutsch 1965.]

In 1805, von Seyfried conducted the première of the original version of Beethoven's "Fidelio". Seyfried's memoirs also include some striking tales about Beethoven; see Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven) and Choral Fantasy (Beethoven).

As composer

Of his musical works, the "Grove Dictionary" says: "his versatility won him a unique place in Vienna's musical life; however, almost none of his music is marked by real originality or distinction."

Notes

References

*Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965) "Mozart: A Documentary Biography". Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
*"Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", online edition. Copyright 2008 by Oxford University Press. Article "Ignaz Seyfried", written by Peter Branscombe.