Cornelius, Peter (1824–1874)

German composer and author. After failing as an actor, he began to study music, first with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin 1845–50, and from 1852 with Liszt in Weimar, where he joined the New German School of musicians and wrote eloquently about them in Schumann's Neue Zeitschrift, without however succumbing to Wagnerian influence in his own work. He sought out Wagner in Vienna in 1858 but declined to follow him to Munich in 1865 for the premiere of Tristan und Isolde.

Works Opera Der Barbier von Bagdad (1855–58), Der Cid (1860–62), Gunlöd (unfinished).

Vocal choral works Trauerchöre and Vätergruft; duets for soprano and baritone; songs including cycles Liedercyclus, Brautlieder (1856–58), and Weihnachtslieder (1859).