Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SCHRODEE-DEVRIENT SCHROTER 277
organisation of her voice and the passionate
energy of her temperament. By force of will
she accomplished more than was warranted by
'
her natural powers. A portion of her life
was exhausted in every song.' As a musical
instrument the voice was not under her
command ; as a vehicle of expression it was
completely so. It was the dramatic genius of
this artist which won for her an European
reputation. She infused a terrible earnestness
into the more pathetic impersonations, while
an almost unerring instinct of artistic fitness,
combined with a, conscientious study of the
parts, secured a perfection of performance
which reached every detail of by-play. It
could be said of her that she never ceased
learning, for she toiled at her art to the end.
'
She once wrote as follows : Art is an eternal
race, and the artist is destroyed for art as soon
as he entertains the delusion that he is at the
goal. It were certainly comfortable to lay
down the task with the costume, and let it
rest until its turn comes round again in the
repertoire. I have never been able to do this.
How often, when the public have shouted
approval and showered bouquets on me, have I
retired in confusion, asking myself: "Wilhelmine,
what have you been about again ? " —then
there would be no peace for me, but brooding
the livelong days and nights, until I had hit
upon something better.
Her good faith and earnestness led her to
condemn a fellow-actress for disrespect to her
art when she carelessly threw down behind the
scenes a handkerchief which had served on the
stage £is a Signal of Love. Schroder-Devrient's
art generally inspired others with her own
spirit. On one occasion it moved a Bluebeard
to forget the ordinary artifice used in dragging
his Marie off the stage, and to take her literally
by the hair.
'
Almost unconscious with pain
and covered with blood, the artist endured this
torture rather than spoil the effect of the tableau.'
It was easier for her to forgive an injury arising
thus from excess of feeling, than to tolerate the
inadequate support of a first tenor, ' half sponge,
half wood ' ; or to allow the sleepy acting of a
prima donna to go unpunished : as when, in
Komeo, she was guilty of tickling the feet of a
too unemotional Giulietta, during the caresses
of the last scene of Bellini's opera. (See also
Moscheles' Life, i. 270.) An audience of
'
lederne Seelen ' was her abhorrence, and the
ignorance of fashionable London in the forties
tried her sorely {lb. p. 263).
In his Modem German Music (i. 341) Chorley
enters upon an analysis of some of Madame
Schroder-Devrient's parts. He and Berlioz
(the latter in letters to the Journal des Debats,
1843) concur in condemning the mannerisms
which grew upon her as time went on. Kellstab
has devoted an article to her {Ges. Schriften,
ix.). A. von Wolzogen's With. Schroder-
Devrient (Leipzig, 1863) is the best life, and
gives a circumstantial, impartial, and interesting
account ; while Wagner's Ueber Schauspieler
und Sanger eulogises her depth of feeling and
power of interpretation, L. M. M.
SCHROETEE, Cheistoph Gottlieb, born
at Hohenstein, Saxony, August 10, 1699, long
enjoyed in Germany the honour of having
invented the pianoforte. His claims, first
published by himself in Mizler's Musikalische
Bibliothek (Leipzig, 1738) and repeated in
Marpurg's Kritisehe Briefe (Berlin, 1764) have
been examined and set aside in favour of
Cristofori. [See Pianoforte, vol. iii. pp. 718,
719.] We learn from Schroeter's autobiography
that at seven years of age he was placed as
a chorister at Dresden, under Capellmeister
Schmidt, and that Graim was his companion.
The clavichord early became his greatest
pleasure. When he lost his voice he entered
the Kreuzschule to study thorough-bass, that is,
accompaniment as then practised, and leaiTied
to quill and tune harpsichords, which led him
to the monochord and systems of temperament.
On the wish of his mother that he should study
theology, he went to Leipzig for that purpose
in 1717, but after her death resumed music,
returned to Dresden, and was accepted by Lotti
to copy for him, and write his middle parts.
It was at this time that he endeavoured to
combine the characteristics of the harpsichord
and clavichord, by inventing two hammer actions,
the models of which he deposited at the Saxon
Court in 1721 ; but immediately afterwards he
left Dresden, taking service with a Baron whom
he does not name, to travel in Germany, Holland,
and England. In 1724 he went to the University
of Jena and began writing upon musical
subjects ;
in 1726 he took the organist's place
at Minden, removing in 1732 to Nordhausen,
where he remained until his death in 1782.
[He published a treatise, Deutliche Anweisung
zum General -Bass, in 1772 at Halberstadt,
and his Letzte Beschd/tigung mit mitsikalischen
Dingen appeared posthumously in 1782. A
list of his polemical pamphlets is given in the
Quellen-Lcxikon and elsewhere.] A. j. H.
SCHROTER, Corona Elisabeth Wilhel-
MlNE, a celebrated singer of the Weimar court
in its most brilliant days, was the daughter of
a musician, Johann Friedrich Schrbter. According
to her latest biographer, Keil ( Vor hundert
Jdhren, Leipzig, 1875), Corona was born Jan.
14, 1751, at Guben, whence the family shortly
afterwards migrated to Warsaw, and finally to
Leipzig. Corona's voice was trained by her
father, and she sang when she was but fourteen
at a Leipzig Grosses Concert (1765). From
the following year until 1771 she was engaged
at these concerts, Schmehling (La Mara) being
retained as principal vocalist. Goethe had
become acquainted with Schroter in 1766 ; ten
years later he conveyed to her the offer of the