Neefe, Christian Gottlob (1748–1798)

German conductor and composer. He studied in Leipzig under Hiller, whom he succeeded as conductor of a touring opera company in 1776. He settled in Bonn in 1779, where he was appointed court organist three years later. Beethoven was his pupil from the age of 11. The French occupation of Bonn in 1794 cost him his post, and from 1796 he was music director of the Bossann theatre company in Dessau.

Works Opera and stage music operas Die Apotheke (1771), Adelheid von Veltheim, Amors Guckkasten (1772), Die Einsprüche (1772), Heinrich und Lyda (1776), Sophonisbe, Zemire und Azor (1776), and others; incidental music for Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Other church music, chamber music.