He was
director of music at St. Stephen's and was in great demand as a teacher.
Some of his pupils became distinguished musicians, among them Huemmel,
Seyfried and Weigl. He excelled in counterpoint, and was a prolific
composer, although his works are but little known at the present day. He
was set in his ways, a strict disciplinarian, conservative to the
backbone, and upward of sixty years of age. We can readily believe there
were stormy times during these lessons. There is no doubt however, that
Beethoven learned a great deal from him, as is evident from the
exercises still in existence from this period, embracing the various
forms of fugue and counterpoint, simple, double, and triple, canon and
imitation. He was thorough in his teaching and Beethoven was eager to
learn, so they had at least one point in common, and the pupil made
rapid headway. But his originality and fertility in ideas, which showed
itself at times in a disregard for established forms when his genius was
hampered thereby--qualities which even in Albrechtsberger's lifetime
were to place his pupil on a pinnacle above all other composers of the
period, were neither understood nor approved by the teacher.
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