Friedrich Christian Hermann Uber (April 22, 1781-March 2, 1822) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, who also served as the cantor

Cantor (church)

A cantor is the chief singer employed in a church with responsibilities for the ecclesiastical choir; also called the precentor....

 of the Kreuzkirche

Kreuzkirche

The Church of the Cross in Dresden is the largest church in Saxony, and home to the Dresdner Kreuzchor boy choir. Known since the early 12th century, it was officially dedicated on 10 June 1388 to the Holy Cross. Since 1491, it has burned down five times...

 in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

.

Born in Breslau (modern Wrocław), he was the son of lawyer and music-lover Christian Benjamin

Christian Benjamin Uber

Christian Benjamin Uber was a German jurist, composer, and lover of music.Professionally, he served as a high government official in his native Breslau for much of his career. He studied music with Daniel Gottlob Türk, and was known as a talented amateur musician who regularly organized music...

 (born Hermann) Uber; his brother Alexander

Alexander Uber

Alexander Uber was a German cello virtuoso, composer, and Kapellmeister; he was a student of Johannes Jäger. Among his compositions are a cello concerto, a set of variations for cello and orchestra, several instrumental works, and some Lieder...

 was a noted cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 virtuoso

Virtuoso

A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...

. He studied law in Halle (Saale)

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt

Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...

, before receiving a musical education from Daniel Gottlob Türk

Daniel Gottlob Türk

Daniel Gottlob Türk was a notable composer, organist, and music professor of the Classical Period.Born in Claußnitz, Saxony, Türk studied organ under his father and later under Johann Adam Hiller. It was Hiller who recommended Türk for his first professional position at Halle University, in...

. He then received placement as a chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

ian at the court of Prince Louis Ferdinand

Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1772-1806)

Friedrich Ludwig Christian, commonly known as Louis Ferdinand , was a prince of Prussia and a soldier in the Napoleonic Wars....

; beginning in 1807 he served as a first violinist in the orchestra in Braunschweig

Staatsorchester Braunschweig

The Staatsorchester Braunschweig is a German orchestra. It was founded in 1587 by Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel as his court orchestra. It worked with Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss. It lost its independence as a court orchestra in 1918 and became the orchestra of the Braunschweiger...

. In 1808, on the orders of Jérôme Bonaparte

Jérôme Bonaparte

Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, French Prince, King of Westphalia, 1st Prince of Montfort was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him king of Westphalia...

, he was appointed Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...

 of the opera in Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

.

Starting from 1814 he was appointed by king Jérôme Bonaparte as Opernkapellmeister to Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

. Since 1814 he was Kapellmeister of the theatre in Mainz

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

, and in 1816 he became music director of a group of theaters in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. From 1818 until his death he served as music director of the Kreuzkirche; at the same time he worked as its cantor.

Uber composed French

French Opera

French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen...

 and German opera

German opera

Opera in German is the opera of the German-speaking countries, most notably Germany and Austria...

s, intermezzi

Intermezzo

In music, an intermezzo , in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work...

, cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....

s, a Passion

Passion (Christianity)

The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...

, and a violin concerto

Violin concerto

A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...

. Stylistically, he was a Romantic

Romantic music

Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....

. He died in Dresden in 1822.