ZAVERTAL, the original Bohemian name (Zavrtal[1]) of a musical family, several members of which have become prominent both in Germany and this country, (1) Josef Rudolf, horn-player, born at Polep, Leitmeritz, Bohemia, Nov. 5, 1819, was educated at the Prague Conservatorium. He entered the Austrian army as bandmaster in 1840, and gradually rose. In 1846 he established the Pension Society for bandmasters of the Austrian army. After several promotions, in 1864 he became director of military music to Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico. Shortly after this he left Austria for England, and in 1868 was made bandmaster of the 4th King's Own Regiment, and in 1871 was placed at the head of the band (wind and string) of the Royal Engineers, a post which he still holds, (2) Wenceslas Hugo, brother of the foregoing, born at Polep, Aug. 31, 1821, clarinettist and composer. He has been bandmaster of several regiments in the Austrian army, during the Franco-Italian war saw much service, and was recognised as a very eminent bandmaster. In 1866 he quitted the service, and in 1874 came to this country, where he resides at Helensburgh, near Glasgow, much esteemed as a teacher of music, and where his compositions are much relished. In 1847 he married Carlotta Maironi, an eminent musician, who died in 1873. His son, (3) Ladislaus, born at Milan Sept. 29, 1849, was taught music by his parents, and first appeared at Milan in 1864. Four years later he produced an opera at Treviso. Next year he was made conductor and composer to the theatre at Milan. In 1871 he removed to Glasgow, where he remained teaching and conducting for ten years. In 1881 he succeeded the late James Smythe as master of the Band (wind and string) of the Royal Artillery, at Woolwich. An opera of his, 'Una notte a Firenze,' was successfully produced at Prague in 1886, and another, 'Myrrha,' at the same city Nov. 7, 1886. He was created Cavaliere of the Order of the Crown of Italy.
ZELMIRA. Opera seria in 2 acts; words by Tottola, music by Rossini. Produced at Naples, Feb. 16, 1822.
ZELTER, Carl Friedrich, Director of the Berlin Singakademie, and founder of the Liedertafeln now so general throughout Germany, was born at Berlin, Dec. 11, 1758. His father, who was a mason, embodied in a series of maxims his lofty ideal of the mason's prerogatives. Carl's mother taught him 'pretty Bible sayings and severe modesty'; his father, more intent on building houses in Germany than castles in Spain, declared that 'handicraft ranks before everything; the handicraftsman is the true citizen; the law which binds him protects him,' etc., etc.—aphorisms which were soon forgotten by Carl, who practised on a small fiddle presented to him on his eighth Christmas Eve, and at ten years of age employed a whole summer in the construction of an organ 'with a pedal that could be trod upon.' He has recorded the first indelible impression that he received on hearing Graun's opera 'Phaeton,' to which his parents treated him in the Carnival of 1770. 'The grand powerful masses of tone riveted my attention far more than the melody and construction of the airs.… I thought the orchestra a riddle as wonderful as it was beautiful. I was seated amongst the musicians.… I swam in a sea of delight,' etc., etc. Of the opera itself he says little, except that the sweet unknown Italian words added to the magic of the whole, so that he afterwards agreed with the Great Frederic as to the profanity of allowing Art to speak in the vulgar tongue, and sympathised heartily with the royal dislike of the German opera. When nearly 14, his father sent him to the Gymnasium, but here, though the lessons got on tolerably well, his relations with his fellow-students were so stormy that the place became too hot to hold him; he was rusticated for a time, and a bar sinister drawn across his name—'Est petulans, petulantior, petulantissimus.' He was then handed over to the organist of the Gymnasium, who had a school of his own. This was only a temporary expedient, for Zelter returned to the Gymnasium, where some of the masters were well disposed towards him, notwithstanding his taste for practical jokes. At the age of 17, after another course of the organist's teaching, necessitated by a little affair of honour, he left school, and now his real education began. Though apprenticed to his father's trade, he was but a half-hearted mason. He made friends with any one who happened to have musical proclivities, and amongst others with the town musician, George, an original even in those days. In his household Zelter was always a welcome guest; George appreciated his musical skill and enthusiasm, and gave him free access to all his musical instruments. Meantime Zelter was ripening into a capable musician. In 1777 his apprenticeship was declared over, and a great longing seized him to join his friend Hackert, the artist, in a journey to Italy, a longing which often returned upon him through his life, though he never fulfilled it. Hackert went without him, and he remained at home to do a good deal of love-making. His love affairs, described minutely in his autobiography, are of little interest, except perhaps his flirtation with an artistic Jewess, at whose father's house Moses Mendelssohn and other scholars used to meet. The lady and her lover quarrelled over the theory of suicide, and parted company because they differed about Goethe's treatment of Werther, who, in Zelter's opinion, ought to have shot Albrecht instead of himself. The episode is worth recording, as it marks the first connection of the names of Goethe and Mendelssohn with that of Zelter. In spite of such distractions, Zelter passed his examination easily and successfully, and was made a master mason in consequence. When he was 18, his first Cantata was performed in St. George's Church, and Marpurg the theorist thought so highly of it,
- ↑ Similar travesties are found in Zlazenger, Shoobert, and other German names in the London Directory.
