Biography
Claus Nielsen Schall (April 28, 1757 - August 10, 1835) was a Danish violinist and composer.
As a boy little Claus danced and played the violin at his father’s dancing lessons. The bright lad managed to win a wealthy patron over, resulting in a sort of apprenticeship in the central administration; but the boy was more inclined towards the stage. Fifteen years old, he joined the ballet as a figurant. The sound basis created in his father’s establishment was of great use to him, and soon he had learned to dance small solo parts.
Read full biography ↓
On 20 October 1775 the ballet master Galeotti, who had just arrived in the country, found himself in a tight corner: His first ballet “The King Goes Hunting” was to be performed in the evening, and a rehearsal was to be held in the morning. The rehearser had, however, suddenly fallen ill, and the music was nowhere to be found. Enter eighteen-year-old Claus Schall, who had on occasion worked as a supplementary musician; he was able to play the entire ballet on his violin by heart; the rehearsal was saved. But in the evening the problem remained: the orchestra was usually conducted by the rehearser at ballet performances, and he was none the better in the course of the day. Nobody dared take responsibility for the performance, but - again - in came young Schall to save everybody’s bacon. He succeeded with flying colours, and when Galeotti’s second ballet was performed, the composer of the music was the very Claus Schall. Instrumentation was carried out by kapellmeister Scalabrini.
Thus, three chords in Schall’s talent were struck: that of the violinist, the orchestral leader and that of the composer. And now his career gathered momentum. Already the following year, he became first rehearser of the ballet; in 1779 he was appointed court violinist (permanent position at the court orchestra), married in the same year, and in 1792 he became leader of the orchestra. Only 23 years old in 1780, he was appointed chief conductor in the King’s Club, one of the numerous music societies of the time. During a long journey abroad in 1789 he met Mozart in Prague, an event whose memory he cherished for the rest of his life.
Concomitant with his work as an active musician and orchestral leader, Schall found time and energy for extensive work as a composer, often under the inspiration of his three much-admired models: Gluck, Haydn og Mozart. He engaged in an extraordinarily productive collaboration with ballet master Galeotti, and together the two men brought the Danish ballet to the high level that was to be continued and further consolidated by Bournonville. While largely an autodidactic and without in-depth theoretical education, Schall delivered music over a 30-year period for countless popular ballets. During the time up until the turn of the century, tastes were leaning towards the merry and pastoral, but in 1801 Schall and Galeotti heralded a new era with their “Lagertha”: the tragic ballet with choruses and songs made its entry. With greater depth and dramatic clout than his previous works, Schall delivered his very best. For use in the homes, he arranged several of his ballets for the piano; in ad-dition, he wrote operas and Singspiele, violin concertos, a symphony, a bassoon concerto, not to mention cantatas, dances, songs, piano pieces, violin solos and studies for the violin
In the years 1818-1934, Schall was leader of the Royal Orchestra. Employing his energy, musicianship and unquestionable capacity as a teacher and leader, however not without skirmishes with representatives of the other artistic branches of the theatre, he brought the orchestra to European fame. The high level of the orchestra's playing impressed Weber when he visited Copenhagen in the early 20s, where the overture of his “Der Freischütz” was performed for the first time under Schall’s baton.
The old master died on 10 August 1835 having indefatigably served music for almost 60 years.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.