Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and writer whose stage works helped establish German Romantic opera. Born in Eutin in 1786 into an itinerant theatrical family, he received musical instruction from several teachers, including Michael Haydn and Georg Joseph Vogler. His early career combined composition with conducting and theatrical administration in several German-speaking cities.

Weber became especially influential through operas such as Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, and Oberon. In 1817 he became music director of the German opera at the Dresden court, where he worked to develop a distinctly German operatic repertory. Der Freischütz, first performed in 1821, became a landmark of Romantic opera through its use of folk-like melody, dramatic orchestration, and supernatural atmosphere.

His final opera, Oberon, was commissioned for London and premiered at Covent Garden on April 12, 1826. Weber traveled to London despite serious illness, completed the work there, and conducted performances before dying on June 5, 1826. Later hymn editors adapted melodic material associated with Oberon for congregational use.

The hymn tune SEYMOUR belongs to that afterlife of Weber’s music. Hymnary identifies Weber as the source composer and records the tune as an arrangement from his 1826 music. Henry W. Greatorex later published the melody for hymn use in 1851, so Greatorex is properly described as arranger or publisher rather than as the original composer of the source melody.