Zeuner, (Charles) Heinrich Christoph

Composer

b Eisleben, Saxony, Germany 1795, d nr Delaware River, Philadelphia, USA 1857. Having been a court musician for the German military, Changing his original first name to Charles when emigrating to N America, he settled c1830 in Boston, Mass, where he developed his organ-playing gifts. This included being organist for the Handel and Haydn Soc from that time. He published The American Harp followed by The Ancient Lyre, composed the earliest known American voluntaries to reach publication, and possibly also the earliest extant organ concerto in the USA. In 1854 or earlier he moved to Philadelphia, playing and teaching for at least 3 congregations but never staying for long in any single church appointment, since his quick temper usually led to trouble. After he broke into an impromptu fugue in the middle of his Sunday voluntary, a church official asked if the organ was out of order—at which Zeuner walked out, never to return. He died in his early 60s, having left his boarding house and taken his own life in the nearby woods. No.501.