Zumsteeg, Johann Rudolf (1760–1802)

German composer. His extended ballads were especially influential, some later being used as models by Schubert.

Zumsteeg was a fellow-pupil and friend of the playwright Schiller at the Karlschule in Stuttgart. In 1781 he entered the service of the Stuttgart court as a cellist, becoming Konzertmeister in 1792.

Works Opera and stage operas, including Das Tartarische Gesetz (1780), Le delizie campestri, o Ippolito e Atricia (1782), Armida (1785), Die Geisterinsel (after The Tempest, 1798), Das Pfauenfest and others; melodrama Tamira; incidental music to Hamlet (1785), Macbeth, Schiller's Die Räuber, and other plays.

Choral and vocal cantatas; Masses and other church music; songs and ballads Lenore (Bürger), Colma (Ossian), Die Büssende, Ritter Toggenburg (Schiller), Die Entführung.

Other ten cello concertos (1777–92).