Franz Paul Lachner Born on April 2nd, 1803 in Rain, Germany, Franz Paul Lachner was a well known composer and musical conductor in germany during an era of the early 19th century where romantic pieces were most prominent. He was born into a family of musicians and grew up learning piano and how to read music. In 1822 his father had passed away and so he left his home and went to Munich where he would be the organist for the Zisartor theater orchestra and pursue being a music teacher as well. In the following year, in 1823, he would go on to become the organ player for the Lutheran church in Vienna, which brought him to study under other composers and conductors such as Abbe Stadler and Simon Sechter, and through them would even meet famous composer Beehtoven and Franz Schubert.  

Later on, in 1825, he would continue his career and join the staff of the Kartnerthor theater as a musical coach which would lead him to become their musical director. Eventually he would move to Berlin in hopes of furthering his career there and become a member of the conducting cast of the Mannheim Opera for two years before he would return to Munich in 1836. Following his return to Munich, Lachner would find success in the court opera of King Ludwig I. Franz Lachner became a prominent musical figure in his city by this point and would even go on to become the court opera’s conductor. In his career, Lachner achieved a lot in Munich, including becoming the director of the Musikalische Akademie and conducting at the Königliche Vokalkapelle. He would later be named the general musical director of Munich in 1862.  

Franz Lachner’s genre of music was Romantic ballads. One of his most notable pieces was Catarina Cornaro, Op.71, an overture that was performed in December 1841, at Munchen, and his seventh Orchestral suite. His musical style was inspired by other famous composers of that era such as Ludwig Van Beethoven and his friend and fellow composer Franz Schubert, and is considered a well composed and talented musician. Some of his most well-known works are his Organ pieces (Opp. 175, 176, and 177), and his wind instrumental pieces are some of his most notable and best received pieces of work. His string quartets and his eight symphonies are some examples of musical works that have been recorded and performed and would contribute to creation of a variation of German classical music called a Lied. These types of classical songs are played while telling poetry to create polyphonic music.  

In his musical career, Franz Lachner had performed numerous opera and theatre shows while in Munich and made a reputation for himself through his romantic themed works and Beethovan-inspired pieces of music. In his later life he would step down and retire with a settlement and would become a respected and well known elder statesman for music in Munich. He passed away in 1890 at the age of 87. He composed numerous successful works and wrote six operas in between the years of 1828 and 1852. He had a great-skill of how to conduct an orchestra and led a successful life as a conductor and well-known figure in music for that era.  

He was a friend of Franz Schubert, whom he outlived for a portion of his life. He looked up to him as a role model for his work. Franz Lachner completed and wrote eight symphonies, the first written in 1828, the year of Schubert’s death, and the last in 1851. His orchestral music also includes a number of suites, two harp concertos and a Flute Concerto, reflecting a technically assured style developed among his early contemporaries in Vienna and influenced by Mendelssohn, Spohr and others.  

Lachner was given good terms as part of his retirement settlement and became a respected and well known elder statesman of music by the time he passed away 23 years later. He refused to become bitter and even sought to defuse the critical battles between supporters of Brahms and Wagner as representatives of the right path in music by arranging that both of them would be presented the Royal Order of Maximilian in the late 1870’s.