Composer weber biography. Carl Maria von Weber

In the history of Western European musical culture, Weber's name is associated primarily with the creation of a romantic German opera. The premiere of his "Magic Shooter", held in Berlin on June 18, 1821 under the direction of the author, was an event of historical significance. She put an end to the long domination of foreign, primarily Italian, opera music on the stages of German theaters.

Weber's childhood passed in the atmosphere of a wandering provincial theater. His mother was a singer, and his father was a violinist and leader of a small theater troupe. The excellent knowledge of the stage, acquired in childhood, was later very useful to Weber as an opera composer. Although constant traveling interfered with the systematic study of music, at the age of 11 he became an outstanding virtuoso pianist of his time.

From the age of 18, Weber's independent activity as an opera conductor begins. For more than 10 years, he has been moving from place to place, without a permanent home and experiencing enormous financial difficulties. It was not until 1817 that he finally settled in Dresden, taking over the leadership of the German musical theater. The Dresden period was the pinnacle of his creative activity when the composer's best operas appeared: "Magic Shooter", "Euryant", "Oberon". At the same time with " magic shooter» two famous program pieces by Weber were created - piano "Invitation to Dance" And "Concert piece" for piano and orchestra. Both works demonstrate the composer's characteristic brilliant concert style.

In search of ways to create a folk-national opera, Weber turned to the latest German literature. The composer communicated personally with many German romantic writers.

Opera "Magic Shooter"

The Magic Shooter is Weber's most popular composition. Its Berlin premiere was a sensational success. Soon after, the opera toured theaters all over the world. There are several reasons for such a brilliant success:

1 -I, the most important, is a reliance on the traditions of the original German culture. Pictures of German folk life with its customs, the favorite motifs of German fairy tales, the image of the forest (as common in German folklore as the image of the open steppe in Russian folk art, or the image of the sea in English). The music of the opera is filled with melodies in the spirit of peasant German songs and dances, the sounds of a hunting horn (the most striking example is the temperamental choir of hunters from 3 days, which received world fame). All this touched the innermost strings of the German soul, everything was associated with national ideals.

“For the Germans ... here, at every step, they have their own, native, both on stage and in music, as familiar from childhood as we, for example, singing “Luchinushka” or “Kamarinsky” ... "- wrote A.N. Serov.

2 . The opera appeared in an atmosphere of patriotic upsurge caused by the liberation from Napoleonic despotism.

3 . The most important feature"Magic Shooter" is that Weber approached the outline in a completely new way. folk life. Unlike the operas of the 18th century, the characters from the people are shown not in a comedic, emphatically everyday way, but deeply poetic. Everyday scenes of folk life (a peasant holiday, a hunting competition) are written out with amazing love and sincerity. It is no coincidence that the best choral numbers - the choir of hunters, the choir of bridesmaids - have become popular. Some radically changed the traditional circle of intonations opera arias and choirs.

Plot for his opera, the composer found in the short story German writer August Apel from "The Book of Ghosts". Weber read this short story as early as 1810, but did not immediately take up composing music. The libretto was composed by the Dresden actor and writer I. Kind, using the composer's instructions. The action takes place in a Czech village in the 17th century.

In terms of genre, The Magic Shooter is a folk fairy tale opera with features of a singspiel. Her dramaturgy is based on the interweaving of three lines, each of which is associated with its own range of musical and expressive means:

• fantastic;
• folk-genre, characterizing the images of hunting life and forest nature;
• lyrical and psychological, revealing the images of the main characters - Max and Agatha.

The fantastic line of the opera is the most innovative. She had a huge impact on the whole music of the 19th century, in particular, on the fiction of Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Wagner. Its climax is in the finale of Act II (in "Wolf Gorge").

Scene in Wolf's Gorge has a through (free) structure, it consists of a number of episodes independent of the material.

In the 1st, introductory, a mysterious, sinister atmosphere reigns, a choir of invisible spirits sounds. Its creepy, "infernal" (hellish) character is created by extremely laconic expressive means: it is the alternation of two sounds - "fis" and "a" in a monotonous rhythm, harmonized by t and VII in the key of fis-moll.

2nd section - an excited dialogue between Kaspar and Samiel. Samiel is not a singing person, he only speaks, and only in his kingdom - the Wolf's Gorge, although during the opera he quite often appears on stage (passes, disappears). It is always accompanied by a short and very bright leitmotif - an ominous colorful spot (a chord and several abrupt fading sounds in the dull sound of low timbres. These are clarinets in a low register, bassoons and timpani);

Episode 3 (allegro) is dedicated to the characterization of Kaspar, who is anxiously waiting for Max;

The music of the 4th section characterizes the appearance of Max, his fear and mental struggle;

5th, final section - the episode of casting bullets - the culmination of the entire finale. It is solved almost exclusively by orchestral means. Every picturesque stage detail (the appearance of creepy ghosts, a thunderstorm, wild Hunt”, a flame erupting from the earth) receives its original musical characteristic with the help of timbre and harmonic colors. Bizarre dissonances predominate, especially diminished seventh chords, tritone combinations, chromatisms, unusual tonal comparisons. The tonal plan is built on a reduced seventh chord: Fis - a - C - Es.

Weber opens up new visual possibilities for instruments, especially wind instruments: staccato horns, sustained low sounds of clarinets, unusual timbre combinations. The innovative discoveries of Weber's Wolf Valley had a tremendous impact on all the music of the 19th century, in particular, on the fantasy of Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Wagner.

The images of gloomy fantasy are contrasted with cheerful folk scenes. Their music - somewhat naive, simple-hearted, sincere - is permeated with folklore elements, characteristic melodic turns of everyday songwriting, as well as fairground music of Thuringia.

The folk-genre line is embodied in crowd scenes 1st and 3rd acts of the opera. This is a picture of a peasant holiday in a choral introduction, a scene of a competition between hunters. The march sounds like it is being performed by rural musicians. The rustic waltz is distinguished by its underlined unpretentiousness.

The main image of the opera - Max, the first typical romantic hero in music. He is endowed with the features of a psychological split: the influence of Caspar, behind whom are the forces of hell, is opposed by the purity of the loving Agatha. Full disclosure of the image of Max, as well as Agatha, is given in the scene and aria of the first act. This is a great aria-monologue, where a deep spiritual conflict is revealed.

wonderful overture"Magic Shooter" is written in sonata form with a slow start. It is built on the musical themes of the opera (this is Samiel's sinister leitmotif in the introduction, the theme of "hellish forces" (the main and connecting parts of the sonata Allegro), the themes of Max and Agatha (side part). Pushing the themes of "hellish forces" with the themes of Max and Agatha, the composer logically leads the development to the triumphant theme of Agatha, which sounds like a hymn to happiness and love.

With E.T.A. Hoffmann, Wieland, Tiek, Brentano, Arnim, Jean Paul, W. Müller.

Musical numbers alternate with spoken dialogues. Samiel is a non-singing face. In the spirit of the singspiel interpreted secondary image cheerful, frisky Ankhen.

Karl Maria Friedrich August von Weber (born November 18 or 19, 1786, Eitin - died June 5, 1826, London), baron, German composer, conductor, pianist, music writer, founder of the German romantic opera.

Weber was born into the family of a musician and theatrical entrepreneur, always immersed in various projects. Childhood and youth were spent wandering around the cities of Germany together with a small theater troupe of his father, which is why it cannot be said that he went through a systematic and strict music school in his youth. Almost the first piano teacher, with whom Weber studied for more or less a long time, was Heshkel, then, according to the theory, Mikhail Haydn, lessons were also taken from G. Vogler.

1798 - Weber's first works appeared - small fugues. Weber was then a student of the organist Kalcher in Munich. More thoroughly, the theory of composition Weber subsequently went through with Abbot Vogler, having fellow students Meyerbeer and Gottfried Weber. Weber's first stage experience was the opera Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins. Although he wrote a lot in his early youth, his first success came with his opera Das Waldmädchen (1800). The 14-year-old composer's opera was given on many stages in Europe and even in St. Petersburg. Subsequently, Weber reworked this opera, which, under the name "Sylvanas", held on for a long time on many German opera stages.

Having written the opera "Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn" (1802), symphonies, piano sonatas, the cantata "Der erste Ton", the opera "Abu Gassan" (1811), he conducted the orchestra in different cities and gave concerts.

1804 - worked as a conductor opera houses(Breslau, Bad Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin).

1805 - wrote the opera "Ryubetsal" based on the fairy tale by I. Museus.

1810 - opera "Sylvanas".

1811 - opera "Abu-Ghassan".

1813 - headed the opera house in Prague.

1814 - becomes popular after composing martial songs on the verses of Theodor Kerner: "Lützows wilde Jagd", "Schwertlied" and the cantata "Kampf und Sieg" ("Battle and Victory") (1815) on the text of Wollbruck on the occasion of the Battle of Waterloo. The jubilee overture, the masses in es and g, and the cantatas then written in Dresden were much less successful.

1817 - headed and until the end of his life directed the German musical theater in Dresden.

1819 - back in 1810, Weber drew attention to the plot of "Freischütz" ("Free shooter"); but it was not until this year that he began to write an opera based on this story, reworked by Johann Friedrich Kind. Freischütz, staged in 1821 in Berlin under the direction of the author, caused a positive sensation, and Weber's fame reached its zenith. “Our shooter hit right on target,” Weber wrote to librettist Kind. Beethoven, surprised by Weber's work, said that he did not expect this from such a gentle person and that Weber should write one opera after another.

Prior to Freischütz, Wolff's Preciosa was staged the same year, with music by Weber.

1822 - by suggestion Vienna Opera the composer wrote "Evryant" (at 18 months). But the success of the opera was no longer as brilliant as Freishütz. Weber's last work was the opera Oberon, after staging which in London in 1826 he died soon after.

Weber is justly considered a purely German composer who deeply understood the nature of national music and brought the German melody to a high artistic perfection. Throughout his entire career he remained true to the national trend, and in his operas lies the foundation on which Wagner built Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. In particular, in "Evryant" the listener is seized by exactly the musical atmosphere that he feels in the works of Wagner of the middle period. Weber is a brilliant representative of the romantic opera trend, which was in such force in the twenties of the 19th century and which later found a follower in Wagner.

Weber's talent is in full swing in his last three operas: "Magic Arrow", "Euryant" and "Oberon". It is extremely varied. Dramatic moments, love, the subtleties of musical expression, the fantasy element - everything was available. wide talent composer. Most various images outlined by this musical poet with great sensitivity, rare expression, with great melody. A patriot at heart, he not only developed folk melodies, but also created his own in a purely folk spirit. Occasionally, his vocal melody at a fast pace suffers from some instrumentality: it seems to be written not for the voice, but for an instrument to which technical difficulties are more accessible. As a symphonist, Weber mastered the orchestral palette to perfection. His orchestral painting is full of imagination and is distinguished by a peculiar coloring. Weber is predominantly an opera composer; symphonic works, written by him for the concert stage, are far inferior to his opera overtures. In the field of song and instrumental chamber music, namely piano compositions, this composer left wonderful examples.

Biography

Weber was born into the family of a musician and theatrical entrepreneur, always immersed in various projects. Childhood and youth were spent wandering around the cities of Germany together with a small theater troupe of his father, which is why it cannot be said that he went through a systematic and strict music school in his youth. Almost the first piano teacher, with whom Weber studied for more or less a long time, was Johann Peter Heushkel, then, according to theory, Michael Haydn, lessons were also taken from G. Vogler. - the first works of Weber appeared - small fugues. Weber was then a student of the organist Kalcher in Munich. More thoroughly the theory of composition Weber subsequently went through with Abbot Vogler, having fellow students Meyerbeer and Gottfried Weber; at the same time he studied piano with Franz Lauska. Weber's first stage experience was the opera Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins. Although he wrote a lot in his early youth, his first success came with his opera Das Waldmädchen (1800). The 14-year-old composer's opera was given on many stages in Europe and even in St. Petersburg. Subsequently, Weber reworked this opera, which, under the name "Sylvanas", held on for a long time on many German opera stages.

Having written the opera "Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn" (1802), symphonies, piano sonatas, the cantata "Der erste Ton", the opera "Abu Hassan" (1811), he conducted the orchestra in different cities and gave concerts.

Max Weber, his son wrote a biography of his famous father.

Compositions

• Hinterlassene Schriften, ed. Hellem (Dresden, 1828);
• Karl Maria von W. Ein Lebensbild", Max Maria von W. (1864);
• Webergedenkbuch by Kohut (1887);
• "Reisebriefe von Karl Maria von W. an seine Gattin" (Leipzig, 1886);
• Chronol. thematischer Katalog der Werke von Karl Maria von W." (Berlin, 1871).

Of the works of Weber, in addition to those mentioned above, we point out the concertos for piano and orchestra, op. 11, op. 32; "Concert-stuck", op. 79; string Quartet, string trio, six sonatas for piano and violin, op. 10; grand concert duet for clarinet and piano, op. 48; sonatas op. 24, 49, 70; polonaises, rondos, variations for piano, 2 concertos for clarinet and orchestra, Variations for clarinet and piano, Concertino for clarinet and orchestra; andante and rondo for bassoon and orchestra, concerto for bassoon, "Aufforderung zum Tanz" ("Invitation à la danse"), etc.

operas

• "Forest Girl" (German) Das Waldmadchen), 1800 - isolated fragments survive
• "Peter Schmol and his Neighbors" (German) Peter Schmoll and Seine Nachbarn ), 1802
• "Rubetzal" (German) Rubezahl), 1805 - isolated fragments survive
• "Sylvanas" (German) Silvana), 1810
• "Abu Hasan" (German) Abu Hassan), 1811
• "Free Shooter" (German) Der Freischutz), 1821
• "Three Pintos" (German) Die drei Pintos) - not finished; completed by Mahler in 1888.
• Evryanta (German) Euryanthe), 1823
• "Oberon" (German) Oberon), 1826

In astronomy

• The asteroid (527) Evryanta is named after the protagonist of Carl Weber's opera "Evryanta" (English)
• The asteroid 528 Rezia is named after the heroine of Karl Weber's Oberon. (English) Russian , opened in 1904
• The asteroid (529) Preciosa is named after the heroine of Karl Weber's opera Preciosa. (English) Russian opened in 1904.
• Asteroids named after heroines of Carl Weber's opera Abu Hasan (865) Zubaid (English) Russian and (866) Fatma (English) Russian opened in 1917.

Bibliography

Dresden. Grave of Carl Maria von Weber and his family

• Ferman V., Opera Theatre, M., 1961;
• Khokhlovkina A., Western European Opera, M., 1962:
• Koenigsberg A., Carl-Maria Weber, M. - L., 1965;
• Bialik M. G. Weber's Opera in Russia // F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Traditions of Musical Professionalism: Collection scientific papers/ Comp. G. I. Ganzburg. - Kharkov, 1995. - C. 90 - 103.
• Laux K., C. M. von Weber, Lpz., 1966;
• Moser H. J.. C. M. von Weber. Leben und Werk, 2 Aufl., Lpz., 1955.

Notes

Links

• Weber's artwork at Classical Connect Free library classical music on Classical Connect
• Summary (synopsis) of the opera "Free Shooter" on the site "100 operas"
• Carl Maria Weber: sheet music of works at the International Music Score Library Project

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See what "Weber, Carl Maria von" is in other dictionaries:

- (Weber, Carl Maria von) CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786 1826), the founder of German romantic opera. Karl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was born in Eutin (Oldenburg, now the land of Schleswig Holstein), November 18 or 19, 1786. His father, Baron Franz ... ... Collier Encyclopedia

- (Weber) (1786 1826), German composer and conductor, music critic. Founder of German romantic opera. 10 operas (The Free Shooter, 1821; Evryant, 1823; Oberon, 1826), virtuoso concert pieces for piano. ("Invitation to ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Weber Karl Maria von (18 or 11/19/1786, Eitin, ‒ 5/6/1826, London), German composer, conductor, pianist, music writer. Founder of the German romantic opera. Born into the family of a musician and theatrical entrepreneur. Childhood and ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

The famous German composer, conductor, pianist and public figure who contributed to raising the level musical life in Germany and the growth of prestige and importance national art, Carl Maria von Weber was born on December 18, 1786 in the Holstein town of Eitin in the family of a provincial entrepreneur, music loving and theater.

Being by origin a native of craft circles, the composer's father liked to flaunt in front of the public a non-existent title of nobility, family coat of arms and the prefix "background" to the surname Weber.

Karl Maria's mother, who came from a family of wood carvers, inherited excellent vocal abilities from her parents, for some time she even worked in the theater as a professional singer.

Together with itinerant artists, the Weber family moved from place to place, so even in early childhood, Karl Maria got used to the theater environment and got acquainted with the manners of nomadic troupes. The result of such a life was the necessary knowledge of the theater and the laws of the stage for an opera composer, as well as rich musical experience.

Little Karl Maria had two hobbies - music and painting. The boy painted in oils, painted miniatures, he also succeeded in engraving compositions, in addition, he knew how to play on some musical instruments, including the piano.

In 1798, the twelve-year-old Weber was lucky enough to become in Salzburg a student of Mikhail Haydn, the younger brother of the famous Joseph Haydn. The lessons in theory and composition ended with the writing of six fughettas under the guidance of a teacher, which, thanks to the efforts of his father, were published in the Universal Musical Gazette.

The departure of the Weber family from Salzburg caused a change in music teachers. The unsystematic and variegated musical education was compensated by the versatile talent of the young Karl Maria. By the age of 14, he had written quite a few works, including several sonatas and variations for piano, a number of chamber compositions, a mass and the opera The Power of Love and Hate, which became Weber's first such work.

Nevertheless, in those years, a talented young man gained great fame as a performer and writer. popular songs. Moving from one city to another, he performed his own and other people's works to the accompaniment of a piano or guitar. Like his mother, Carl Maria Weber had a unique voice, greatly weakened by acid poisoning.

Neither the difficult financial situation, nor constant moving could seriously affect the creative productivity of the gifted composer. Written in 1800, the opera "The Forest Girl" and the singsch-pil "Peter Schmol and his neighbors" received favorable reviews from Weber's former teacher, Mikhail Haydn. This was followed by numerous waltzes, ecossaises, four-hand pieces for piano and songs.

Already in the early, immature operatic works of Weber, a certain creative line can be traced - an appeal to the national democratic genre theatrical art(all operas are written in the form of a singspiel - an everyday performance in which musical episodes and conversational dialogues coexist) and an inclination towards fantasy.

Among the numerous teachers of Weber, the collector of folk melodies Abbe Vogler, the most popular scientific theorist and composer of his time, deserves special attention. Throughout 1803, under the guidance of Vogler, the young man studied the work of outstanding composers, made a detailed analysis of their works and gained experience to write his great works. In addition, the Vogler school contributed to the growth of Weber's interest in folk art.

In 1804, the young composer moved to Breslau, where he got a job as a bandmaster and began updating the operatic repertoire of the local theater. His active work in this direction met with resistance from singers and orchestra members, and Weber resigned.

However, the difficult financial situation forced him to agree to any proposals: for several years he was Kapellmeister in Karlsruhe, then - the personal secretary of the Duke of Württemberg in Stuttgart. But Weber could not say goodbye to music: he continued to compose instrumental works, experimented in the genre of opera (Sylvanas).

In 1810, a young man was arrested on suspicion of participating in court swindles and expelled from Stuttgart. Weber again became an itinerant musician, traveling with concerts in numerous German and Swiss cities.

It was this talented composer who initiated the creation of the Harmonic Society in Darmstadt, designed to support and promote the works of its members through propaganda and criticism in the press. The charter of the society was drawn up, and the creation of a “musical topography of Germany” was also planned, allowing artists to correctly navigate in a particular city.

During this period, Weber's passion for folk music intensified. IN free time the composer went to the surrounding villages to "collect melodies". Sometimes, under the impression of what he heard, he immediately composed songs and performed them to the accompaniment of a guitar, causing exclamations of approval from the audience.

During the same period of creative activity, he developed literary talent composer. Numerous articles, reviews and letters characterized Weber as an intelligent, thoughtful person, an opponent of routine, standing at the forefront.

As a champion of national music, Weber paid tribute and foreign art. He especially appreciated the work of such French composers of the revolutionary period as Cherubini, Megul, Gretry, and others. Special articles and essays were devoted to them, and their works were performed. Special interest V literary heritage Carl Maria von Weber calls autobiographical novel"The Life of a Musician", which tells about the difficult fate of a vagabond composer.

The composer did not forget about music either. His works of 1810 - 1812 are distinguished by greater independence and skill. An important step towards creative maturity became comic opera"Abu Ghassan", which traces the images of the most significant works of the master.

Weber spent the period from 1813 to 1816 in Prague as the head of the opera house, the following years he worked in Dresden, and everywhere his reform plans met with stubborn resistance among theater bureaucrats.

The growth of patriotic sentiment in Germany in the early 1820s proved to be a saving grace for the work of Carl Maria von Weber. Writing music for the romantic-patriotic poems of Theodor Kerner, who participated in the war of liberation in 1813 against Napoleon, brought the composer the laurels of a national artist.

Another patriotic work by Weber was the cantata "Battle and Victory", written and performed in 1815 in Prague. Attached to it summary content that contributes to a better understanding of the work by the public. In the future, similar explanations were compiled for larger works.

The Prague period marked the beginning of the creative maturity of the talented German composer. Particularly noteworthy are the works of piano music written by him at that time, in which new elements of musical speech and texture of style were introduced.

Weber's move to Dresden in 1817 marked the beginning of a settled family life(by that time the composer had already married his beloved woman - the former singer of the Prague Opera Caroline Brandt). Active activity advanced composer and here found few like-minded people among the influential people of the state.

In those years, traditional Italian opera was preferred in the Saxon capital. Created in early XIX century, the German national opera was deprived of the support of the royal court and aristocratic patrons.

Weber had to do a lot to assert the priority of national art over Italian. He managed to collect good team, to achieve its artistic coherence and to stage Mozart's opera "Fidelio", as well as works by French composers Megul ("Joseph in Egypt"), Cherubini ("Lodoisku"), etc.

The Dresden period was the pinnacle of the creative activity of Karl Maria Weber and the final decade of his life. During this time, the best piano and operatic works: numerous sonatas for piano, "Invitation to the Dance", "Concerto-piece" for piano and orchestra, as well as the operas "Freischütz", "Magic Shooter", "Euryant" and "Oberon", indicating the path and directions for the further development of operatic art Germany.

The production of "The Magic Shooter" brought Weber worldwide fame and fame. The idea to write an opera based on the plot of the folk tale about the "black hunter" originated with the composer as early as 1810, but the vigorous social activity prevented the implementation of this plan. Only in Dresden did Weber again turn to several fairy story"The Magic Shooter", at his request, the poet F. Kind wrote the libretto of the opera.

Events unfold in the Czech region of Bohemia. The main characters of the work are the hunter Max, the daughter of the count's forester Agatha, the reveler and gambler Caspar, Agatha's father, Kuno, and Prince Ottokar.

The first act begins with joyful greetings from the winner of the shooting competition, Kilian, and the sad wailing of a young hunter who has been defeated in the preliminary tournament. Such a fate in the final of the competition violates all of Max's plans: according to the old hunting custom, his marriage to the beautiful Agatha will become impossible. The girl's father and several hunters console the unfortunate man.

Soon the fun stops, everyone leaves, and Max is left alone. His solitude is violated by the reveler Kaspar, who sold his soul to the devil. Pretending to be a friend, he promises to help the young hunter and informs him about magic bullets that should be cast at night in the Wolf Valley - a cursed place frequented by evil spirits.

Max doubts, however, deftly playing on feeling young man to Agatha, Caspar persuades him to go to the valley. Max retires from the stage, and the clever gambler triumphs in advance of his deliverance from the approaching hour of reckoning.

The actions of the second act take place in the forester's house and in the gloomy Wolf Valley. Agatha is sad in her room, even the cheerful chatter of her carefree flirtatious friend Ankhen cannot distract her from her sad thoughts.

Agatha is waiting for Max. Overwhelmed with gloomy forebodings, she goes to the balcony and calls on heaven to dispel her worries. Max enters, trying not to frighten his beloved, and tells her about the reason for his sadness. Agatha and Ankhen persuade him not to go to a terrible place, but Max, who made a promise to Kaspar, leaves.

At the end of the second act, a gloomy valley opens up to the eyes of the audience, the silence of which is interrupted by the ominous cries of invisible spirits. At midnight, the black hunter Samyel, the herald of death, appears before Kaspar, who is preparing for witchcraft spells. Kaspar's soul must go to hell, but he asks for a reprieve, sacrificing Max to the devil instead of himself, who tomorrow will kill Agatha with a magic bullet. Samiel agrees to this sacrifice and disappears with a clap of thunder.

Soon, Max descends from the top of the cliff into the valley. The forces of good are trying to save him by sending images of his mother and Agatha, but too late - Max sells his soul to the devil. The finale of the second act is the scene of casting magic bullets.

The third and final act of the opera is dedicated to last day competition, which should end with the wedding of Max and Agatha. The girl who saw at night prophetic dream, again in sorrow. Ankhen's efforts to cheer up her friend are in vain, her anxiety for her beloved does not go away. The girls who appear soon present flowers to Agatha. She opens the box and finds a funeral dress instead of a wedding wreath.

There is a change of scenery, which marks the finale of the third act and the entire opera. In front of Prince Ottokar, his courtiers and the forester Kuno, hunters demonstrate their skills, among them Max. The young man must make the last shot, the target is a dove flying from bush to bush. Max takes aim, and at that moment Agatha appears behind the bushes. Magic force takes the muzzle of the gun to the side, and the bullet hits Kaspar, who is hiding in a tree. Mortally wounded, he falls to the ground, his soul sent to hell, accompanied by Samiel.

Prince Ottokar demands an explanation for what happened. Max tells about the events of the previous night, the enraged prince sentences him to exile, the young hunter must forever forget about marriage with Agatha. The intercession of those present cannot mitigate the punishment.

Only the appearance of a bearer of wisdom and justice changes the situation. The hermit pronounces his verdict: to delay the wedding of Max and Agatha for a year. Such a generous decision becomes the cause of universal joy and rejoicing, all those gathered praise God and his mercy.

The successful conclusion of the opera corresponds to the moral idea presented in the form of a struggle between good and evil and victory. good forces. A certain amount of abstractness and idealization of real life can be traced here, at the same time, there are moments in the work that meet the requirements of progressive art: showing folk life and the originality of its way of life, appealing to the characters of the peasant-burgher environment. Fiction driven by commitment to folk beliefs and traditions, devoid of any mysticism; in addition, the poetic image of nature brings a fresh stream to the composition.

The dramatic line in The Magic Arrow develops sequentially: Act I is the plot of the drama, the desire of evil forces to take possession of a wavering soul; II act - the struggle of light and darkness; III act- the climax, ending with the triumph of virtue.

dramatic action here unfolds to musical material going in large layers. For disclosure ideological sense works and combining it with the help of musical and thematic connections, Weber uses the principle of leitmotif: a brief leitmotif, constantly accompanying the character, concretizes one or another image (for example, the image of Samiel, personifying dark, mysterious forces).

A new, purely romantic means of expression is the general mood for the entire opera, subordinated to the "sound of the forest", with which all the events are connected.

The life of nature in "The Magic Shooter" has two sides: one of them, connected with the idyllic depiction of the patriarchal life of hunters, is revealed in folk songs and melodies, as well as in the sound of horns; the second side, connected with the ideas of the demonic, dark forces of the forest, manifests itself in a unique combination of orchestral timbres and an alarming syncopated rhythm.

The overture to "The Magic Shooter", written in sonata form, reveals the ideological concept of the whole work, its content and the course of events. Here, in contrast, the main themes of the opera appear, which at the same time are the musical characteristics of the main characters, which are developed in portrait arias.

The strongest source of romantic expressiveness in The Magic Shooter is rightfully considered the orchestra. Weber was able to identify and use certain features and expressive properties of individual instruments. In some scenes, the orchestra plays an independent role and is the main means of musical development of the opera (the scene in the Wolf Valley, etc.).

The success of The Magic Shooter was stunning: the opera was staged in many cities, arias from this work were sung on city streets. Thus, Weber was rewarded a hundredfold for all the humiliations and trials that fell to his lot in Dresden.

In 1822, F. Barbaia, an entrepreneur at the Vienna Court Opera House, suggested that Weber compose a grand opera. A few months later, Eurytana, written in the genre of a knightly romantic opera, was sent to the Austrian capital.

The legendary plot with some mystical mystery, the desire for heroics and special attention to the psychological characteristics of the characters, the predominance of feelings and reflections on the development of the action - these features, outlined by the composer in this work, later become characteristic features of the German romantic opera.

In the autumn of 1823, Eurytana premiered in Vienna, attended by Weber himself. Having caused a storm of delight among the adherents of the national art, the opera did not receive such wide recognition as The Magic Shooter.

This circumstance had a rather depressing effect on the composer, in addition, a severe lung disease inherited from his mother made itself felt. Increasing seizures caused long breaks in Weber's work. So, between the writing of "Evrytana" and the start of work on "Oberon" about 18 months passed.

The last opera was written by Weber at the request of Covent Garden, one of the largest opera houses in London. Realizing the proximity of death, the composer sought to finish his work as soon as possible. last work so that the family would not be left without a livelihood after his death. The same reason forced him to go to London to direct the production of the fairy tale opera Oberon.

In this work, which consists of several separate paintings, fantastic events and real life are intertwined with great artistic freedom, everyday German music coexists with "Eastern exoticism".

When writing Oberon, the composer did not set himself any special dramatic tasks, he wanted to write a cheerful opera extravaganza filled with a relaxed fresh melody. The brilliance and lightness of the orchestral color used in writing this work had a significant impact on the improvement of romantic orchestral writing and left a special imprint on the scores of such romantic composers as Berlioz, Mendelssohn and others.

The musical merits of Weber's last operas found their most striking expression in the overtures, which were also recognized as independent program symphonic works. At the same time, certain shortcomings in the libretto and dramaturgy limited the number of productions of Evritana and Oberon on the stages of opera houses.

Hard work in London, coupled with frequent overloads, finally undermined the health of the famous composer, July 5, 1826 was the last day of his life: Carl Maria von Weber died of consumption before reaching the age of forty.

In 1841, at the initiative of the advanced public figures in Germany, the question was raised about the transfer of the ashes of a talented composer to his homeland, and three years later his remains returned to Dresden.

Childhood

Max Weber was born on April 21, 1864 in Erfurt (Thuringia). He was the eldest child of seven children. His father was Max Weber the Elder, a prominent civil servant and member of the National Liberal Party, and his mother was Helena (née Fallenstein), whose family was French Huguenot emigrants. In 1868, his brother Alfred was born, who later also became a well-known sociologist and economist. In 1869 the Weber family moved to Charlottenburg (a suburb of Berlin). At the age of four, Max Weber contracted meningitis. At the age of 13, he already read the works of the philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer, Benedict Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, and also literary authors such as Johann Wolfgang Goethe.

Education

In 1882 he graduated from the gymnasium in Charlottenburg and entered the Faculty of Law Heidelberg University. After a year of military service, he transferred to the University of Berlin. Simultaneously with his studies, he worked as a junior lawyer. In 1886, Weber passed the bar secretary examination, which is similar to the bar association examination in British and American legal systems. During the second half of the 1880s, Weber continued to study law and history. He received his LL.D. in 1889 with a dissertation on the history of law, "The History of Trading Companies in the Middle Ages". His supervisor was Levin Goldshmidt, an authoritative scholar in the field of commercial law. Two years later, Weber completed his habilitation The Significance of the Agrarian History of Rome for State and Private Law, working with August Meitzen. After that, he received a position as Privatdozent at the University of Berlin, where he lectured and advised the government.

Job

In the period between his doctoral dissertation and habilitation, Weber became interested in social policy. In 1888 he joined the Union for Social Policy, a new professional association of German economists associated with the historical school, who saw the role of economics primarily in finding solutions to social problems, and who carried out large-scale statistical studies of economic problems. In 1890, the association developed a research program to study the "Polish Question", or Ostflucht: the influx of Polish farm workers into eastern Germany while local workers left for the booming industrial cities. Weber directed this research and wrote most of the final report, which caused considerable controversy and marked the beginning of Weber's fame as a sociologist. From 1893 to 1899 Weber was a member of the Pan-German League, an organization that opposed the influx of Polish workers.

In 1893 he married his second cousin Marianne Schnitger, a future women's rights activist.

In 1894-1896 he was a professor of national economy at Freiburg, from 1896 at Heidelberg, from 1919 at the University of Munich. One of the founders of the "German Sociological Society" (1909). Since 1918 professor national economy at the University of Vienna. In 1919, he was an adviser to the German delegation at the Versailles negotiations.

Main theoretical work Weber: "The Stock Exchange and Its Significance", "History of Economics", "Science as a Vocation and Profession", "Politics as a Vocation and Profession", "On Some Categories of Understanding Sociology", "Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism".

Last years

Scientific activity

The formation of the philosophical views of Max Weber was influenced primarily by the concept of “understanding” developed by Wilhelm Dilthey and the principle of dividing the sciences into the sciences of nature (nomothetic, aimed at studying patterns) and the sciences of the spirit (idiographic, aimed at studying unique phenomena), developed by the Baden school of neo-Kantianism (Rikkert and Windelband).

Weber made a significant contribution to such areas of social knowledge as general sociology, methodology social cognition, political sociology, sociology of law, sociology of religion, sociology of music, economic sociology, theory of capitalism.

Understanding sociology. Theory of social action

Weber called his concept "understanding sociology". Sociology analyzes social action and tries to explain its cause. Understanding means knowing a social action through its subjectively implied meaning, i.e., the meaning that its subject himself puts into this action. Therefore, sociology reflects the entire diversity of ideas and worldviews that regulate human activity, i.e., the entire diversity human culture. Unlike his contemporaries, Weber did not seek to build sociology on the model of the natural sciences, referring it to the humanities or, in his terms, to the cultural sciences, which, both in methodology and in subject matter, constitute an autonomous field of knowledge.

All scientific categories are only constructions of our thinking. "Society", "state", "institution" are just words, so they should not be attributed ontological characteristics. Only real fact public life is a social action. Any society is a cumulative product of the interaction of specific individuals. Social action is the atom of social life, and it is to it that the sociologist's gaze should be directed. The actions of the subjects are considered as motivated, having meaning and orientation to others, these actions can be analyzed by deciphering the meanings and meanings that the subjects attach to these actions. Social action, writes Weber, is an action that is related in meaning to the actions of other people and focuses on them.

That is, Weber identifies 2 signs of social action:

1. meaningful character;
2. focus on the expected reaction of others.

The main categories of understanding sociology are behavior, action, and social action. Behavior is the most general category of activity, which becomes an action if the actor associates a subjective meaning with it. We can talk about social action when the action is correlated with the actions of other people and focuses on them. Combinations of social actions form "semantic connections" on the basis of which social relations and institutions are formed.

The result of understanding according to Weber is a hypothesis high degree probability, which then must be confirmed by objective scientific methods.

Weber distinguishes four types of social action in descending order of their meaningfulness and intelligibility:

1. goal-rational - when objects or people are interpreted as a means to achieve their own rational goals. The subject accurately represents the goal and chooses the best option to achieve it. This is a pure model of formal-instrumental life orientation, such actions are most often found in the field of economic practice.
2. value-rational - is determined by a conscious belief in the value of a certain action, regardless of its success, is performed in the name of some value, and its achievement is more important than side effects (for example, the captain is the last to leave a sinking ship);
3. traditional - determined by tradition or habit. The individual simply reproduces that template social activity, which was used in similar situations earlier by him or others (a peasant goes to the fair at the same time as his fathers and grandfathers).
4. affective - determined by emotions;

According to Weber, a social relationship is a system of social actions, social relationships include such concepts as struggle, love, friendship, competition, exchange, etc. The social relationship, perceived by the individual as mandatory, acquires the status of a legitimate social order. In accordance with the types of social actions, four types of legal (legitimate) order are distinguished: traditional, affective, value-rational and legal.

Method of sociology

Weber's method of sociology is determined, in addition to the concept of understanding, by the doctrine of the ideal type, as well as by the postulate of freedom from value judgments. Ideal type according to Weber captures " cultural meaning» of one or another phenomenon, and the ideal type becomes a heuristic hypothesis capable of ordering the diversity of historical material without being tied to some predetermined scheme. With regard to the principle of freedom from value judgments, Weber distinguishes two problems: the problem of freedom from value judgments in the strict sense, and the problem of the relationship between knowledge and value. In the first case, one should strictly distinguish between the established facts and their assessment from the worldview positions of the researcher. In the second, we are talking about the theoretical problem of analyzing the connection of any cognition with the values ​​of the cognizer, that is, the problem of the interdependence of science and the cultural context. Weber puts forward the concept of "cognitive interest", which determines the choice and method of studying an empirical object in each specific case, and the concept of "value idea", which is determined by a specific way of seeing the world in a given cultural context. In the "sciences of culture" this problem is of particular importance, because in this case, values ​​act as necessary condition the possibility of the existence of such sciences: we, existing in a certain culture, cannot study the world without evaluating it and without endowing it with meaning. In this case, therefore, we are not talking about the subjective predilections of this or that scientist, but first of all about the “zeitgeist” of this or that culture: it is he who plays a key role in the formation of “value ideas”.

These theoretical postulates allow Weber to interpret the sociology of economics in a "culturological" way. Weber distinguishes two ideal typical organizations of economic behavior: traditional and goal-oriented. The first has existed since antiquity, the second develops in modern times. The overcoming of traditionalism is associated with the development of a modern rational capitalist economy, which presupposes the existence of certain types of social relations and certain forms of social order. Analyzing these forms, Weber comes to two conclusions: the ideal type of capitalism is described by him as the triumph of rationality in all spheres. economic life, and such a development cannot be explained solely by economic reasons. In the latter case, Weber argues with Marxism.

"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism"

In his work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber tries to explain the genesis of modern capitalism by linking this problem with the sociology of religion, in particular Protestantism. He sees a connection between code of ethics Protestant denominations and the spirit of a capitalist economy based on the ideal of the rationalist entrepreneur. In Protestantism, in contrast to Catholicism, the emphasis is not on the study of dogma, but on moral practice, expressed in the worldly service of a person, in the fulfillment of his worldly duty. This is what Weber called "worldly asceticism." The parallels between the Protestant emphasis on secular service and the ideal of capitalist rationality allowed Weber to link the Reformation and the emergence of capitalism: Protestantism stimulated the emergence of forms of behavior specific to capitalism in everyday life and economic life. The minimization of dogma and ritual, the rationalization of life in Protestantism according to Weber became part of the process of "disenchantment of the world", begun by the Hebrew prophets and ancient Greek scientists and culminating in the modern capitalist world. This process is associated with the liberation of man from magical superstitions, the autonomy of the individual, faith in scientific progress and rational knowledge.

At the same time, it is necessary to note the extreme caution of Weber himself in this matter, who emphasized that “we are by no means inclined to defend such an absurd doctrinaire thesis that the “capitalist spirit” (in the sense in which we temporarily use this concept) could arise only as a result of the influence of certain aspects of the reformation, as if capitalism as an economic system is a product of the reformation.

Sociology of power

In the sociology of power, Weber also follows his own method. In accordance with it, three types of legitimation of power (domination) are distinguished:

1. rational, based on the belief in the legality of the existing order and the legitimate right of those in power to give orders;
2. traditional, based on the belief in the sanctity of traditions and the right to rule those who received power in accordance with this tradition;
3. charismatic, based on belief in supernatural holiness, heroism, genius. or some other dignity of the ruler and his power, not subject to precise definition or understandable explanation.

In this context, the Weberian theory of rational bureaucracy associated with the first type of power is formulated. In his analysis of democracy, Weber formulates the existence of two types of this type of government: “plebiscite leader democracy” and various forms of “leaderless democracy”, the purpose of which is to minimize direct forms of domination of man over man through the development of rational forms of representation, collegiality and differentiation of powers.

Weber's writings had a significant impact on the sociology of the 20th century and continue to be relevant today.