Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg: His Short Biography and Aesthetic Representation of His Works

to music, and in the spring of life already imbibed great sentiments, noble ambition, and higher taste from similarly attuned souls.

Schiller loved and valued him greatly, and preferred to have his poems composed by him.

When Mozart appeared and broke a completely new path in the art of music, Zumsteeg followed the giant with enthusiasm on this path. He drank in his music in substance and marrow, gave up a considerable part of his previous peculiarities—in which more art and earnest study than winning popularité popularity and memorable melody were dominant—and now composed in the grand, universally beloved Mozartian manner. With his accustomed thoroughness, he knew how to combine so much grace, melody, and melting charm that one soon heard several of his pieces echoing everywhere.

Jomelli and Mozart remained his main models and prototypes in this second period; the focal points from whose streams of fire he nourished his genius. However, it was not the forms, but the spirit and the aesthetic essence of these great geniuses that he grasped and reproduced in his own creations.