Wagner, Karl Jakob

1772-1822

German horn-player, composer, conductor and theorist. Darmstadt was his birthplace. He received his instruction from Portmann and Abbe Vogler. At the age of eighteen he held the post of principal horn-player in the Darmstadt band. He made many tours and became widely known as a horn virtouso; but after 1805 gave his time to composition, theory and conducting. In 1808 became Court concertmaster, later was Court director. He wrote a number of operas, viz., Pygmalion, Der Zahnartz, Herodes, Nitetis, Chimene, and other works; was the author of four overtures, two symphonies, several violin sonatas, forty horn duets, and various additional compositions. Wagner published an enlarged edition of Portmann's Kurzer musikalischer Unterricht under the name of Handbuch zum Unterricht fur die Tonkunst.