father's folly and eccentricity, he was indebted to
him for an excellent training in the art of which he was to become
so brilliant an ornament. He had excellent masters in singing and the
piano, as also in drawing and engraving. So he grew up a melancholy,
imaginative, recluse, absorbed in his studies, and living in a
dream-land of his own, which he peopled with ideal creations. His
passionate love of Nature, tinged with old German superstition, planted
in his imagination those fruitful germs which bore such rich results in
after-years.

In 1797 Weber studied the piano and composition under Ilanschkel, a
thoroughly scientific musician, and found in his severe drill a happy
counter-balancing influence to the more desultory studies which had
preceded. Major Weber's restless tendencies did not permit his family
to remain long in one place. In 1798 they moved to Salzburg, where
young Weber was placed at the musical institute of which Michael Haydn,
brother of the great Joseph, was director. Here a variety of misfortunes
assailed the Weber family. Major Franz Anton was unsuccessful in all
his theatrical undertakings, and extreme poverty stared them all in the
face. The gentle mother, too, whom Karl so dearly loved, sickened and
died. This was a terrible blow to the affectionate boy, from which he
did not soon recover.

The next resting-place in the pilgrimage of the Weber family was Munich,
where Major Weber, who, however flagrant his shortcomings in other ways,
was resolved that the musical powers of his son should be thoroughly
trained, placed him under the care of the organist Kalcher for studies
in composition.

For several years, Karl was obliged to lead the same shifting, nomadic
sort of life, never stopping long, but dragged hither and thither in
obedience to his father's vagaries and necessities, but always studying
under the best masters who could be obtained. While under Kalcher,
several masses, sonatas, trios, and an opera, "Die Macht der Liebe und
des Weins" ("The Might of Love and Wine"), were written. Another opera,
"Das Waldmaed-chen" ("The Forest Maiden"), was composed and produced
when he was fourteen; and two years later in Salzburg he composed "Peter
Schmoll und seine Nachbarn," an operetta, which exacted warm praise from
Michael Haydn.

At the age of seventeen he became the pupil of the great teacher Abbe
Vogler, under whose charge also Meyerbeer was then studying. Our young
composer worked with gr