Christian Gottlob Neefe

Christian Gottlob Neefe (Chemnitz, 1748 – Dessau, 1798) was a German composer whose significance rests on three fronts: his lieder and Singspiele, his work as a teacher, and his having been Beethoven's first teacher in Bonn. He lived through the transition between the court music of the eighteenth century and the new forms of the Romantic song, which is why his output is now read as a link between the two eras.

His training was largely self-taught. He received his first lessons from local organists and singers, and by the age of twelve he was already composing. He studied law at the University of Leipzig between 1769 and 1771, but continued to learn music with J. A. Hiller, under whose guidance he moved towards the theatre. In 1776 he succeeded Seyler as musical director of Seyler's company, and in 1779 he joined the Grossmann-Hellmut company, moving to Bonn. There, around 1780, he began teaching the young Beethoven piano, organ, continuo and composition, and also introduced him to Bach's Das wohltemperirte Clavier and C. P. E. Bach's Gellert-Lieder. From 1782 he served as court organist, and in 1783–84 he deputised for Lucchesi as Kapellmeister during the latter's journey to Italy.

The death of Elector Max Friedrich in 1784 completely changed his situation. The Grossmann theatre closed, his salary as organist was reduced, and he had to support himself with private lessons. The dissolution of the court shortly before the French invasion of 1794 left him without employment, and the occupying authorities offered him only a minor post. At the end of 1796 he took over the musical direction of the theatre in Dessau, but he fell seriously ill and died shortly afterwards.

In the theatrical field, the most prominent works are Adelheit von Veltheim, the most popular of his stage works, and Sophonisbe, a monodrama in which he made use of melodrama in the manner of Benda. He also prepared vocal and piano reductions of five operas by Mozart for the publisher Simrock. His lieder, among them the Serenaten of 1777 and the Klopstock odes, show a clear inclination towards dramatic effect and a search for new forms. His prefaces to the editions of the odes address questions such as the relationship between word and music. His legacy endures above all through his influence on later song, especially that of Schubert, and through the early training he gave Beethoven.