David A Apell

David A Apell, private counsellor of the prince of Hesse, member of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, of the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna, etc., was born at Cassel. In his earliest childhood he studied music alone and without a teacher, and was able to play sonatas and concertos on the piano before he began to take lessons. At eighteen years of age he commenced a course of study with the organist Muller. The more he advanced, the greater was his desire to compose. About 1780 he set himself seriously to writing, and very soon sent some of his compositions to the Academy of Bologna. The Academy of Stockholm gave him a diploma; and the pope, to whom he had sent a mass, wrote him a flattering letter, and made him Knight of the Golden Spur. He wrote many fine pieces for the church, besides operas, sonatas, and collections of airs in German, French, and Italian.