'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.
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.
ZWILLINGSBRÜDER, DIE, or The Twin Brothers. A farce in one act, words translated by Hofmann from the French, and set to music by Schubert. It contains an overture and ten numbers, and the autograph (in the Library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde at Vienna) is dated Jan. 1819. It was produced at the Kärnthnerthor theatre on June 14, 1820. Vogl sang in it, and was much applauded, but the piece did not survive more than six representations. The main incident of the plot is the same as in Box and Cox. The PF. score was published by Peters, 1872. [See Schubert, vol. iii. p. 330b, 332b.]
ZWISCHENSPIEL—something played between. The German term for Interlude. [See vol. ii. p. 7b.] That the term had sometimes a wider meaning than Interlude is evident from a notice in the 'Wiener Zeitung' for April 1, 1795, referring to the Concerto in B♭—'In the interval (zum Zwischenspiel), on the first evening, the famous Herr Beethoven won the unanimous applause of the public by an entirely new Pianoforte Concerto of his own.' Even at that early date he was der berühmte Herr Beethoven.
THE END.
