Sigismund von Neukomm

Sigismund Neukomm or Sigismund Ritter von Neukomm [after ennoblement as a knight] (10 July 1778, in Salzburg – 3 April 1858, in Paris) was an Austrian composer, conductor and pianist. He was a transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic periods of music. Education Neukomm first studied with the Salzburg organist Franz Xaver Weissauer and later studied theory under Michael Haydn and Leopold Mozart, though his studies at Salzburg University (from 1790) were in philosophy and mathematics. He became honorary organist at the Salzburg University Church in 1792, and was appointed chorus-master at the Salzburg court theater in 1796. Haydn and Vienna Neukomm left Salzburg at the end of March 1797, moving to Vienna in order to study with Joseph Haydn; his studies lasted seven years. Neukomm venerated his teacher, as is known from the many remarks he made to others and from the many times he dedicated his musical activities to Haydn. He performed a number of services for his teacher, making arrangements of The Creation, Il ritorno di Tobia, The Seasons and the cantata Arianna a Naxos, as well as transcriptions of various symphonies for harmonium and piano. By 1804, when the declining Haydn was no longer able to compose, he took over the task of making arrangements of 43 Scottish folk songs. In 1814 Neukomm was responsible for erecting a tombstone to the memory of Haydn over his first grave in the Hundsturm cemetery in Vienna. The inscription included a puzzle canon composed by Neukomm himself. He was in regular contact with the composer in the last months of his life, visiting him every day between mid-November 1808 and February 1809. In Vienna Neukomm also gave piano and singing lessons; his pupils included Anna Milder and Franz Xaver Mozart. Travels On 5 May 1804 he left Vienna for St Petersburg. Neukomm conducted German opera in the city from 1804 to 1809.