Carl Maria von Weber, a cousin of Mozart's wife Constanze Weber and the son of a versatile musician who had founded his own travelling theatre company, was trained as a musician from childhood.

He made a favourable impression as a pianist and held various musical posts in Prague, Dresden and elsewhere.

Weber’s opera Der Freischuetz (The Marksman), first staged in Berlin in 1821, blends many of the ingredients typical of German Romanticism, simple peasant virtues mingled with the magic and latent evil of the forest where the hero's magic bullets are forged at midnight.

- MIDI FILE - from "Freisch黷z": Overture (10'28'')

The grand heroic-Romantic opera Euryanthe is better known for its overture as is the opera Oberon, written for London in 1826.

- MIDI FILE - from "Euriante": Ouverture (8'04'')

Weber's two concertos and the concertino for clarinet were written for the clarinettist Heinrich Baermann.

Weber also wrote two piano concertos and a Konzertstueck for piano and orchestra for his own use, as well as a useful Horn Concertino and Bassoon Concerto.

His Aufforderung zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance) is well known in an orchestral version of a work originally written for piano.

- MIDI FILE -"Aufforderung zum Tanz" (9'57'')

Weber's chamber music includes a Clarinet Quintet and a Grand Duo Concertant for clarinet and piano, successors to the concertos and concertino for Baermann.

- MIDI FILE - from "Gran Duo Concertante" for clarinet and p.no: 1th Mov. (6'22'')

- MIDI FILE - Concertino for clarinet (8'03'')

Aufforderung zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance) is a charming programme piece following the progress of an invitation to dance, as a young man escorts his partner to the dance-floor and engages in polite conversation.