Ernst Christoph Dressler

Born in Greußen, near Sondershausen in Thuringia, to Christian Ludwig Dressler and Catherine Elizabeth Renner, Dressler studied theology, jurisprudence and German poetry at the universities of Halle, Jena and Leipzig.{{cite book |last1=Wolff |first1=Helmuth Christian |title=Neue Deutsche Biographie |volume=4 |date=1959 |language=German |chapter-url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz11847.html |accessdate=9 May 2019 |chapter=Dreßler, Ernst Christoph}} In Leipzig, he educated himself in playing the violin and in singing.{{cite book |last1=Choron |first1=Alexandre |last2=Fayolle |first2=François |title=Dictionnaire historique des musiciens, artistes et amateurs, morts ou vivans |volume=1 |date=1817 |publisher=Chimot |page=191 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a789AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA191 |accessdate=11 May 2019 |language=French |chapter=Dresler, Ernest Christophe}} He moved to Bayreuth, where he took lessons from the singer Maria Giustina Turcotti, training his tenor voice,{{cite book| last1 = Kutsch| first1 = K. J.| authorlink = Karl-Josef Kutsch| last2 = Riemens| first2 = Leo| authorlink2 = Leo Riemens| entry-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dsfq_5dFeL0C&pg=1227| entry = Dressler, Ernst Christoph| title = Großes Sängerlexikon| publisher = Walter de Gruyter| edition = 4th| language = de| year = 2012| page = 1227| isbn = 978-3-59-844088-5}} and subsequently worked as a chamber musician, court singer and secretary for Margrave Friedrich Christian. When the margrave died in 1763, Dressler moved to Gotha, and in May 1764 took up similar duties for the Duke of Gotha and his wife Princess Luise Dorothea.{{cite book |last1=Lorenz |first1=Franz |title=Georg Anton Benda |date=2014 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3110841985 |page=65 |language=German |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UpbDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA65 |accessdate=10 May 2019}} He was a talented violinist, composer and writer, in addition to his ability as a tenor. He disapproved of the {{lang|it|opera buffa}} then in vogue at Gotha, and in November 1766 he resigned or was dismissed. In February 1767 he became Kapellmeister to the Prince of Fürstenberg, not at the prince's court at Donaueschingen but at Wetzlar.{{cite book |last1=Leopold |first1=Silke |last2=Pelker |first2=Bärbel |title=Süddeutsche Hofkapellen im 18. Jahrhundert: Eine Bestandsaufnahme |date=2014 |publisher=Heidelberg University Publishing |isbn=978-3-946054-78-8 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X81-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA71 |accessdate=10 May 2019 |language=German}} (footnote 91) In 1771, the prince returned to Bohemia; Dressler chose not to go with him. Instead, he worked as a singer at the Imperial Court Opera in Vienna. In 1774, he moved to the court opera in Kassel where he remained until his death.{{cite book |last1=Riemann |first1=Hugo |title=Musik-Lexikon |volume=1 |date=1916 |language=German |page=263 |publisher=Schott Music |isbn=9789925044818 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vKkUDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA263 |accessdate=10 May 2019}}

Dressler married Wilhelmine Christiane Zeitz. Two of their sons also worked for the Kassel Hofkapelle. He died in Kassel on 6 April 1779, aged 44.

Dressler published two books of songs. His best known composition is a march which was the basis of Ludwig van Beethoven's earliest work, "Nine Variations on a March by Ernst Christoph Dressler", which was published in 1782, three years after Dressler's death.{{cite book |last1=McPherson |first1=Gary E. |title=Musical Prodigies: Interpretations from Psychology, Education, Musicology, and Ethnomusicology |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0191509254 |page=582 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ATnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA582 |accessdate=9 May 2019}}

In his works on music theory, he supported efforts to create a distinct German opera independent of Italian opera. This required the establishment of permanent opera houses in Germany, rare in Germany at the time. He considered Anton Schweitzer's 1773 opera Alceste (with a libretto by Christoph Martin Wieland) a paradigm of German opera.

• {{lang|de|Melodische Lieder für das schöne Geschlecht}} (Melodious songs for the fair sex). Frankfurt, 1771
• {{lang|de|Freundschaft und Liebe}} (Friendship and love). Nuremberg, 1774

• {{lang|de|Fragmente einiger Gedanken des musikalischen Zuschauers, die bessere Aufnahme der Musik in Deutschland betreffend}} (Fragments of ideas of the musical spectator, regarding a better reception of music in Germany). Gotha, 1767
• {{lang|de|Gedanken, die Vorstellung der Alceste, ein deutsches ernsthaftes Singspiel, betreffend}} (Thoughts on the performance of Alceste, a German serious singspiel). Erfurt, 1774
• {{lang|de|Theaterschule für die Deutschen das ernsthafte Singschauspiel betreffend}} (A theatre school for the Germans, concerning the serious sung drama). Hanover, 1777

{{reflist|30em}}

{{IMSLP|work=9 Variations on a March by Dressler, WoO 63 (Beethoven, Ludwig van)|cname=Nine Variations on a March by Ernst Christoph Dressler|descr=Recordings and scores}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dressler, Ernst Christoph}}

Category:1734 births

Category:1779 deaths

Category:People from Sondershausen

Category:German Classical-period composers

Category:German male classical composers

Category:German classical violinists

Category:German male classical violinists

Category:German operatic tenors

Category:18th-century German composers