Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

EELATIVE
EELLSTABB
adjustment of such relations is as vital to
operas, oratorios, cantatas, and all other forms
of vocal music, as to the purely instrumental
forms.
The same order of relations appears in all
parts of the art ; for instance, the alternation
of discord and concord is the same relation,
implying contrast and connection, analogous to
the relation between suspense or expectation
and its relief ; and, to speak generally, the art
of the composer is in a sense the discovery
and exposition of intelligible relations in the
multifarious material at his command, and a
complete explanation of the word would amount
to a complete theory of music. o. H. H. p.
EELATIVE is the word used to express the
connection between a major and a minor key
which have the same signature ; A minor is the
' relative
'
minor of 0, C the ' relative major
'
of A minor. In other words, the relative
minor of any key is that which has its keynote
on the submediant of the major key. The term
is used to distinguish this minor key from the
other, which is ^perhaps as closely allied to
the major, that which has the same keynote
as the major, and is consequently called the
' tonic ' minor. The ' tonic ' minor of is C
minor, the ' tonic ' major of minor is C ; in
this case, the key -signature is of course
changed. , M.
EELLSTAB, Johann Ka.el Fkibdeich, was
born in Berlin, Feb. 27, 1759. His father, »
printer, wished him to succeed to the business,
but from boyhood his whole thoughts were
devoted to music. He was on the point of
starting for Hamburg to complete, with Em;
mauuel Bach, his musical studies begun with
Agricola and Fasch, when the death of his father
forced him to take up the business. He added
a music-printing and publishing branch ; was
the first to establish a musical lending library
(1783); founded a Concert -Society, on the
model of Hiller's at Leipzig, and called it
'Concerts for connoisseurs and amateurs,' an
unusually distinctive title for those days. The
first concert took place April 16, 1787, at the
Englisohes Haus, and in course of time the
following ' works were performed ; Salieri's
'Armida,'Schulz's 'Athalia,' Naumann's 'Cora,'
Hasse's 'Conversione di San Agostino,' Bach's
' Magnificat,' and Gluck's
'
Aloeste,' which was
thus first introduced to Berlin. The Society
at last merged in the Singakaderaie. He wrote
musical critiques for the Berlin paper, signed
with his initials ;
and had concerts every other
Sunday during the winter at his own house, at
which such works as Haydn's ' Seasons ' were
performed ; but these meetings were stopped
by the entry of the French in 1806, when he
frequently had twenty men and a dozen horses
quartered on him ; lost not only his music but
aD his capital, and had to close his printingpress.
In time, he resumed his concerts ; in
1809 gave lectures on harmony; in 1811
travelled to Italv. Not long after his return
he was struck with apoplexy while walking at
Charlottenburg, August 19, 1813,and was found
dead on the road some hours afterwards. As
a composer he left three cantatas, a ' Passion,'
a Te Deum, and a Mass. Also an opera ; songs
too numerous to specify ; vocal scores of Graun's
'
Tod Jesu,' and Gluck's Iphig^nie ' ' ; and a
'
German libretto of Gluck's Orphfe ' apparently
from his own pen. Of instrumental music he
published—marches for PF., symphonies and
overtures ; a series of pieces with characteristic
titles, 'Obstinacy,' 'Sensibility,' etc. ; twentyfour
short pieces for PF., vioUn and baas, etc.
Also Versuch Wber die Vererinigung der mus. vmd
oraiorischen Deklamaiion (1785) ; Ueber die
Bemerlcwngen emer Jteisenden . . , (1789)
(see Ebiohakdt) ; and Anleitv/ng fur Clamerspieler
(1790). These works, for the most
part bibliographical curiosities, are very instructive.
Eellstab had three daughters, of whom
CAKOLi:gE, bom April 18, 1794, died Feb. 17,
1813, was a singer, distinguished for her extraordinary
compass. His son,
Hbinmoh Fbibdeich Ludwig, born April
13, 1799, in Berlin, though delicate in health,
and destined for practical music, was compelled
by the times to join the army, where he became
ensign and lieutenant. In 1816, after the
peace, he took lessons on the piano from Ludwig
Berger, and in 1819 and 1820 studied theory
with Bernhard Klein. At the same time he
taught mathematics and history in the Brigadeschule
till 1821, when he retired from the army
to devote himself to literature, ultimately settling
in Berlin (1823). He also composed much
part-music for the jungere ' Liedertafel,' which
he founded in conjunction with G. Beichardt
in 1819, wrote a libretto, 'Dido,' for B. Klein,
and contributed to Marx's Musikseiiimg. A
pamphlet on Madame Sontag (Senriette, oder die
achone Sdngerin) procured him three months'
imprisonment in 1 826, on account of its satirical
allusions to a well-known diplomatist. In
1 826 he joined the staff of the Vbssische Zeitv/ag,
and in a short time completely led the public
opinion on music in Berlin. His first article
was a report on a performance of ' Euryanthe,'
Oct. 31, 1826. Two years later he wrote a
cantata for Humboldt's congress of physicists,
which Mendelssohn set to music.
Eellstab was a warm supporter of classical
music, and strongly condemned all undue attempts
at effect. He quarrelled with Spontini
over his ' Agnes von Hohenstauffen ' (Berlin
Musikalische Zeitwng for 1827, Nos. 23, 24,
26, and 29), and the controversy was maintained
with much bitterness until Spontini left Berlin,
,when Eellstab, in his pamphlet Ueber mein
Verhaltniss als KrUiker zu fferrn Spontin/i,
(1827) acknowledged that he had gone too far.