Johann Christian Lobe was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and music theorist

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

.

Born in Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

, Lobe was either self-taught as a musician (Anon. 1885–92) or had music lessons from the age of seven (Brandt 2001). In 1810, he became violinist in the Weimar Court Orchestra (Anon. 1885–92), or else was a flautist and joined the Weimar orchestra in 1811 (Brandt 2001). He composed many musical works before 1819 (Brandt 2001), and debuted as a composer in 1821, with the opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 Wittekind, which was followed by a number of others, including Die Flibustier (1830) and Die Fürstin von Granada (1833), as well as some orchestral works (Anon. 1885–92). Die Fürstin von Grenada was especially successful (Brandt 2001). Either in 1842 (Anon. 1885–92) or 1845 (Brandt 2001) he retired from his position in the Weimar orchestra, was appointed a professor and in 1846 moved to Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, where he worked as a music-composition teacher and music critic (Anon. 1885–92; Brandt 2001). He is today best remembered for his writings on music, of which his most important work is Lehrbuch der musikalischen Komposition (Textbook on Music Composition, 4 vols., 1850–67). He died in Leipzig in 1881.

Selected writings

• Lehrbuch der musikalischen Komposition (1850–67)
• Katechismus der Musik (1851)
• Fliegende Blätter für Musik (editor, 1853–57)
• Aus dem Leben eines Musikers (1859)
• Musikalische Briefe eines Wohlbekannten (1860)
• Vereinfachte Harmonielehre (1861)
• Konsonanzen und Dissonanzen (1869)
• Katechismus der Kompositionslehre (1882)