Christian Gottlob Neefe was born in Chemnitz in Saxony on 5 February 1748, was given a musical education and began composing at twelve. He read law at Leipzig University but returned to music as a pupil of Johann Adam Hiller, under whom he wrote his first comic operas. In 1776 he joined Abel Seyler’s theatrical company, then in Dresden, inheriting the post of musical director from Hiller, and later became court organist in Bonn. There he was prefect of the local chapter of the Illuminati, the Minervalkirche Stagira. He died in Dessau on 28 January 1798, eight days before his fiftieth birthday.

He was Beethoven’s principal keyboard teacher in Bonn and helped him get his first works into print — the connection for which he is chiefly remembered. His own catalogue is centred on the stage: his best-known work is the Singspiel Adelheit von Veltheim of 1780. He also left twelve piano sonatas, a Rondo in C major, variations on the priests’ march from Die Zauberflöte, and the 1776 Flensburg publication of Klopstock odes as a serenade for piano and voice.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Gottlob_Neefe
• https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q213556