Destouches, Franz (Seraph) Von

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Destouches, Franz (Seraph) Von

Destouches, Franz (Seraph) von , German conductor and composer; b. Munich, Jan. 21, 1772; d. there, Dec. 10,1844. He was a pupil of Haydn in Vienna in 1787. He was appointed music director at Erlangen (1797), and then was second concertmaster at the Weimar theater (1799), later becoming first concertmaster and director of music (1804–08). In 1810 he was a prof, of theory at Landshut Univ. He then was a conductor at Homburg (1826–42), retiring to Munich in 1842.

Works

DRAMATIC opéra : Die Thomasnacht (Munich, Aug. 31, 1792); Das Missverstandniss, operetta (Weimar, April 27, 1805); Der Teufel und der Schneider, comic opéra (1843; not perf.). I n c i d e n t a l M u s i c To: Schiller’s version of Gozzi’s Turandot (1802); Schiller’s Die Braut von Messina (1803), Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1803), and Wilhelm Tell (1804); Kotzebue’s Die Hussiten vor Naumburg (1804); Zacharias Werner’s play Wanda, Konigin der Sarmaten (1808). OTHER: Piano Concerto; piano sonatas; fantasias; variations for piano; Piano Trio; Clarinet Concerto; Mass; oratorio, Die Anbetung am Grabe Christi.

Bibliography

E. von Destouches, F. v.D. (Munich, 1904).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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