Marschner, Heinrich (August) (1795–1861)

German composer. He wrote 13 operas, including Hans Heiling 1833, and is regarded as the most important German opera composer between Weber and Wagner.

As a boy he played the piano, sang soprano, and composed tentatively without much instruction. In 1813 he was sent to Leipzig to study law, but met Johann Rochlitz, who induced him to take up music. In 1816 he went to Vienna and Pressburg with a Hungarian, Count de Varkony, and settled in Pressburg, where he composed several operas. In 1823 he became assistant conductor to Weber and Francesco Morlacchi at Dresden. In 1827 he became conductor of the Leipzig theatre and from 1831 to 1859 court conductor at Hanover. He married four times.

Works Opera Saidar, Heinrich IV und Aubigné (1820), Der Kyffhäuserberg (1822), Der Holzdieb (1825), Lucretia, Der Vampyr (1828), Der Templer und die Jüdin (after Scott's Ivanhoe, 1829), Des Falkners Braut (1832), Hans Heiling (1833), Der Bäbu (1838), Das Schloss am Aetna, Kaiser Adolf von Nassau (1845), Austin, Sangeskönig Hiarne (1863).

Other incidental music to Kleist's Prinz Friedrich von Homburg and other plays; overture on ‘God Save the King’ and other orchestral works; male-voice choruses; sonatas; songs.