Ignaz , Ritter von Seyfried

Ignaz Xaver von Seyfried (Vienna, 1776 – Vienna, 1841) was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and writer on music, a prominent figure in Viennese musical life at the beginning of the nineteenth century. His brother Joseph, also active in the theatre, was a prolific dramatist and librettist.

It is said that he studied keyboard with Mozart and Kozeluch, and composition with Albrechtsberger and Winter, although these teachers belong to a tradition that is not fully documented. In 1792–1793 he studied philosophy in Prague with the intention of taking up law, but he ended up devoting himself entirely to music.

From 1797 he worked as conductor at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden, under Schikaneder, and later at the Theater an der Wien, for which he supplied an enormous number of scores. His first work there was Der Friede, in May 1797, and his last came in 1827, the year after he resigned as Kapellmeister, although he went on contributing occasional pieces and arrangements for other theatres. It is estimated that his music was heard in 1,700 performances at the Theater an der Wien alone. He maintained a good relationship with Beethoven, whose Fidelio he conducted at its premiere in 1805. His versatility gave him a distinctive place in Viennese musical life, although, it seems, almost none of his output stands out for any real originality or distinction.

Among his most frequently performed works are the dramatic pieces on biblical subjects, such as Saul (1810), Abraham (1817), Die Makabäer (1818) and Noah (1819). He also composed ballets, melodramas, cantatas, symphonies, songs, concertos and marches and, especially after his retirement, a substantial body of chamber and sacred music, including some twenty masses. He also produced numerous arrangements and re-orchestrations, among them of works by Mozart and C. P. E. Bach.

His pedagogical and editorial legacy is notable: he published the complete works of Albrechtsberger, Preindl's Wiener Tonschule and Beethoven's studies of harmony and counterpoint. Of his pupils, only two are remembered by history: Karl Binder and Franz von Suppé, both cultivators of the Singspiel and the Viennese operetta. His manuscripts and printed materials are preserved in major libraries in Vienna.