German composer and teacher; b. Berlin, Dec. 11, 1758; d. there, May 15, 1832. The son of a mason, Zelter was brought up in the same trade, but his musical inclinations soon asserted themselves. He began training in piano and violin at 17, and from 1779 he was a part-time violinist in the Doebbelin Theater orchestra in Berlin.

From 1784 to 1786 Zelter was a pupil of C.F.C. Fasch. In 1786 he brought out a funeral CANTATA on the death of Frederick the Great. In 1791 he joined the Singverein (later Singakademie) conducted by Fasch, often acting as his deputy, and succeeding him as its conductor in 1800. He was elected associate of the Royal Academy of the Arts in Berlin in 1806, becoming a professor in 1809. In 1807 he organized a Ripienschule for orchestral practice, and in 1809 he founded the Berlin Liedertafel, a pioneer men's choral society that became famous. Similar organizations were subsequently formed throughout Germany, and later in the U.S.

Zelter composed about 100 men's choruses for the Liedertafel. In 1822 he founded the Royal Institute for Church Music in Berlin, of which he was director until his death (the institute was later reorganized as the Akademie für Kirchenund Schulmusik). His students included FELIX MENDELSSOHN, GIACOMO MEYERBEER, Carl Loewe, and Otto Nicolai. Goethe greatly admired Zelters musical settings of his poems, preferring them to FRANZ SCHUBERT'S and LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN's. This predilection led to their friendship, which was reflected in a voluminous correspondence, Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Zelter (six volumes, Berlin, 1833-34).

Zelter's songs are historically important, because they form a link between old BALLAD types and the new art of the LIED, which found its flowering in Schubert and ROBERT SCHUMANN. Zelter's settings of Goethe's König von Thule and of Es ist ein Schuss gefallen became extremely popular. Among his other compositions are a viola CONCERTO (1779), keyboard pieces, and choral works.