A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Belcke, Friedrich

BELCKE, Friedrich August, a celebrated trombone player, son of the town musician at Lucka in Saxony, and born May 27, 1795. The boy at an early age showed a fondness for brass instruments, and was a good horn-player before he took up the trombone, on which he soon reached a pitch of excellence before unknown. He first joined the Gewandhaus orchestra in Leipsic, and then obtained a permanent post in the royal band at Berlin. Frequent tours made him widely known. In 1838 he left the Berlin band of his own accord and retired to his native place, where he died Dec. 10, 1874. By trombone-players his compositions are well known and highly valued. He it is of whom Schumann pleasantly says, in his essay on 'The Comic in Music' (Ges. Schriften, i. 185),

'There is a phrase in the finale of Beethoven's eighth symphony which always makes the members of a well-known orchestra laugh, because they insist upon it that in this figure they hear the name of Belcke, one of the best of their number.'

[ A. M. ]