Introduction

Biography

Son of a tail­or, Neefe sang in the church choir, and orig­in­al­ly in­tende­d to stu­dy law at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leipzig.

However, mu­sic was his love, and he be­gan writ­ing op­er­et­tas. In 1779, he moved to Bonn, and in 1781, en­tered the ser­vice of Elect­or Max Fried­rich, which caused him to be­come the in­struc­tor of young Lud­wig van Beet­ho­ven.