Franz Seraph von Destouches

Franz Seraph von Destouches (Munich, 1772 – Munich, 1844) was a German composer active in the musical life of Bavaria, Thuringia and several minor courts of southern Germany, during the transition from Classicism to Romanticism. His name is chiefly associated with the theatre in Weimar, where he worked in the circle of Goethe.

He received lessons from Haydn in Vienna in 1787 and, it seems, also from Mozart, although this is not known for certain. His first opera, Die Thomasnacht, was premiered at the Salvatortheater in Munich in 1792. After several tours as a pianist, he served as musical director to the widowed Margravine Sophie Caroline in Erlangen from 1797 to 1799, and then joined the orchestra of the Weimar theatre as second concertino.

In Weimar he composed incidental music for works by Schiller, among them The Bride of Messina, The Maid of Orleans and Wilhelm Tell, as well as pieces for plays by Kotzebue and Zacharias Werner. He also wrote a second opera, Das Missverständnis, performed in 1805, and the oratorio Die Anbetung am Grabe Jesu Christi, with a libretto by Herder.

From 1810 he taught music theory at the university of Landshut. In 1820 he was appointed Kapellmeister of the small chapel of Landgrave Frederick V of Hesse-Homburg, in Bad Homburg. He probably retired in 1841 and returned to his native city.

His output includes sonatas, variations and pieces for piano, trios, concertos for piano and for clarinet, a symphony in C major, overtures, ballets, marches, a cantata of 1844 and masses, many of which survive in manuscript. His significance lies more in regional musical life and in his stage music than in a work of wider reach.