Müller, Wenzel

Extract

(b Tyrnau [now Mestectro Trnávkal], Sept 26, 1759; d Baden, nr Vienna, Aug 3, 1835). Austrian composer. He studied music with the schoolmaster at Chornitz (Kornice), south-east Moravia, and could soon play all the instruments of the orchestra. At the age of 12 he wrote a mass for the ordination of an older brother. He was sent to the Benedictine foundation of Raigern (Rajhrad), near Brno, where he concentrated on mastering wind instruments; taught and encouraged by the choirmaster, Maurus Haberbauer, he also composed. When the prelate went to Johannisberg, the seat of the Prince-Bishop of Breslau, he took Müller with him and Dittersdorf became his teacher. In 1782 Müller joined Waizhofer’s theatre company at Brno as third violinist and composed a successful Singspiel, Das verfehlte Rendezvous, oder Die weiblichen Jäger. Encouraged by the comic actor and singer Anton Baumann, and by the new theatre director Bergopzoomer, Müller made excellent progress. The story that Emperor Joseph II, impressed by Müller, determined to send him to Italy to study must be discounted on grounds of chronology. But in ...