Der FreischÜtz, a romantic opera in three acts, book by Friedrich Kind, music by Weber, was performed at Berlin, June 18, 1821. Weber wrote in his diary that the opera was received with “incredible enthusiasm; Overture and Folksong were encored; fourteen out of seventeen music pieces were stormily applauded. Everything went exceedingly well, and was sung con amore. I was called before the curtain and took Mad. [sic] Seidler and Mlle. [sic] Eunike with me as I could not get hold of the others. Verses and wreaths came flying. ‘Soli Deo Gloria.’” Some of these verses were malicious, and reflected on Spontini, much to Weber’s distress.

Weber began work on the overture on February 22, 1820. On May 13 he noted in his diary: “Overture of Die JÄgersbraut finished, and with it the whole opera. God be praised, and to Him alone be the glory” (Die JÄgersbraut was the original title of the opera; it was kept until into the year 1820, when Weber changed it to Der FreischÜtz at the advice of Count Bruhl, Intendant of the Berlin Court theaters). Weber heard the music for the first time at a rehearsal of the Dresden Orchestra, June 10, 1820. This was the first music of the opera that he heard.

We have mentioned the success of this overture at Berlin, when it was played as the prelude to the opera and under Weber’s direction; a success that dumfounded the followers of Spontini and settled the future of German opera in the capital. And so, wherever the overture was played, the effect was overwhelming—as in London, where the opera was first performed in English, July 22 (?), 1824, at the English opera house. W. T. Parke wrote: “The music of this opera is such a continued display of science, taste, and melody as to justify any praises bestowed on it. The overture embraces most of the subjects of the airs in the opera, ingeniously interwoven with each other, and is quite original. The grandeur of some passages and the finely contrasted simplicity of others produced an effect which was irresistible. It was vehemently encored.”

Much has been written about the overture, from the rhapsody of Douglas Jerrold to Wagner’s critical remarks concerning the true reading. The enthusiasm of Berlioz is well known: “The overture is crowned Queen; today no one dreams of disputing it. It is cited as the model of the kind. The theme of the slow movement and that of the allegro are sung everywhere. There is one theme that I must mention, because it is less noticed, and also because it moves me incomparably more than all the rest. It is that long, groaning melody, thrown by the clarinet over the tremolo of the orchestra, like unto a far-off lamentation scattered by the winds in the depths of the forest. It strikes home to the heart; and for me, at least, this virginal song, which seems to breathe skyward a timid reproach, while a somber harmony shudders and threatens, is one of the most novel, poetic, and beautiful contrasts that modern art has produced in music. In this instrumental inspiration one can already recognize easily a reflection of the character of Agathe, which is soon to develop in all its passionate purity. The theme is borrowed, however, from the part of Max. It is the cry of the young hunter at the moment when, from his rocky height, he sounds with his eyes the abysses of the infernal glen. Changed a little in outline, and orchestrated in this manner, the phrase is different both in aspect and accent.” Compare with this the remarks of Berlioz in the section on the clarinet in his “Treatise on Instrumentation.” The clarinet, he says, has the precious faculty of producing “distance, echo, an echo of echo, and a twilight sound.... What more admirable example could I quote of the application of some of these shadowings than the dreamy phrase of the clarinet, accompanied by a tremolo of stringed instruments in the midst of the allegro of the overture to FreischÜtz? Does it not depict the lonely maiden, the forester’s fair betrothed, who, raising her eyes to heaven, mingles her tender lament with the noise of the dark woods agitated by the storm? O Weber!!”

The overture begins adagio, C major, 4-4. After eight measures of introduction there is a part song for four horns. This section of the overture is not connected in any way with subsequent stage action. After the quarter the Samiel motive appears, and there is the thought of Max and his temptation. The main body of the overture is molto vivace, C minor, 2-2. The sinister music rises to a climax, which is repeated during the casting of the seventh bullet in the Wolf’s Glen. In the next episode, E flat major, themes associated with Max (clarinet) and Agathe (first violins and clarinet) appear. The climax of the first section reappears, now in major, and there is use of Agathe’s theme. There is repetition of the demoniac music that introduces the allegro, and Samiel’s motive dominates the modulation to the coda, C major, fortissimo, which is the apotheosis of Agathe.