Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1885 — Death of a Great Composer. [ARTICLE]

Death of a Great Composer.

A cable dispatch announces the death of Franz Abt, tfce well-known musical composer. Deceased was born at Eilenburg, Saxony, Dec. 22, 1819. The son of a clergyman, he entered the’ University of Leipsic as a theological student, but he soon abandoned theology foY music. In 1841 he became musical director of the theater at Berne, which position he resigned to accept a similar one at Zurich. In 1852 he became kappslmeister at the Brunswick court. In the death of Franz Abt music loses one of her most appreciated representatives. Twenty years ago his “When the Swallows Homeward Fly” was sung everywhere. That charming inspiration was little if any more fortunate than scores of other songs that flowed from his facile pen. He was the author of a vast number of duets, trios, ana especially of part-songs for male voices, in which line he was one of the greatest of living composers. The great merit of his music is its sweetness, its melody, its expressiyeness.