nomer; another, Michael, achieved
distinction as a dramatic poet; while the eldest, Jacob, was the
composer, who gained his renown under the Italianized name of Giacomo
Meyerbeer, a part of the surname having been adopted from that of the
rich banker Meyer, who left the musician a great fortune.

Meyerbeer was born at Berlin, September 5, 1794, and was a musical
prodigy from his earliest years. When only four years old he would
repeat on the piano the airs he heard from the hand-organs, composing
his own accompaniment. At five he took lessons of Lanska, a pupil of
Clementi, and at six he made his appearance at a concert. Three years
afterward the critics spoke of him as one of the best pianists in
Berlin. He studied successively under the greatest masters of the time,
Clemcnti, Bernhard Anselm Weber, and Abbe Vogler. While in the latter's
school at Darmstadt, he had for fellow pupils Carl von Weber, Winter,
and Gansbachcr. Every morning the abbe called together his pupils after
mass, gave them some theoretical instruction, then assigned each one a
theme for composition. There was great emulation and friendship between
Meyerbeer and Weber, which afterward cooled, however, owing to Weber's
disgust at Meyerbeer's lavish catering to an extravagant taste. Weber's
severe and bitter criticisms were not forgiven by the Franco-German
composer.

Meyerbeer's first work was the oratorio "Gott und die Natur," which was
performed before the Grand Duke with such success as to gain for him
the appointment of court composer. Meyerbeer's concerts at Darmstadt
and Berlin were brilliant exhibitions; and Moscheles, no mean judge, has
told us that if Meyerbeer had devoted himself to the piano, no performer
in Europe could have surpassed him. By advice of Salieri, whom Meyerbeer
met in Vienna, he proceeded to Italy to study the cultivation of
the voice; for he seems in early life to have clearly recognized how
necessary it is for the operatic composer to understand this, though,
in after-years, he treated the voice as ruthlessly in many of his most
important arias and scenas as he would a brass instrument. He arrived in
Vienna just as the Rossini madness was at its height, and his own blood
was fired to compose operas _a la Rossini_ for the Italian theatres.
So he proceeded with prodigious industry to turn out operas. In 1818 he
wrote "Romilda e Costanza" for Padua; in 1819, "Semiramide" for Turin;
in 1820, "Emma di Resburgo" for Venice; in