Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 1781 – 7 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and

composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on

which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations.[1]

Diabelli was born in Mattsee near Salzburg. A musical child, he sang in the boys' choir at the Salzburg

Cathedral where he is believed to have taken music lessons with Michael Haydn. By age 19, Diabelli had

already composed several important compositions, including six masses.

Diabelli was trained to enter the priesthood and in 1800 he joined the monastery at Raitenhaslach,

Bavaria.[1] He remained there until 1803, when Bavaria closed all its monasteries.

Career

In 1803 Diabelli moved to Vienna and began teaching piano and guitar and found work as a proofreader for

a music publisher. During this period he learned the music publishing business while continuing to

compose. In 1809 he composed his comic opera, Adam in der Klemme. In 1817 he started a music

publishing business and 1818, partnered with Pietro Cappi to create the music publishing firm of Cappi &

Diabelli.

The firm, Cappi & Diabelli became well known by arranging popular pieces so they could be played by

amateurs at home. A master of promotion, Diabelli selected widely-accessible music such as famous opera

tune arrangements, dance music, or hundreds of the latest popular comic theatre songs.

The firm soon established a reputation in more serious music circles by championing the works of Franz

Schubert. It was Diabelli who first recognized the composer's potential, become the very first to publish

Schubert's work with "Der Erlkönig" in 1821. Diabelli's firm continued to publish Schubert's work until 1823

when an argument between Cappi and Schubert terminated their business. The following year, Diabelli and

Cappi parted ways, with Diabelli launching a new publishing house, Diabelli & Co, in 1824.

Following Schubert's early death in 1828, Diabelli purchased a large portion of the composer's massive

musical estate from Schubert's brother Ferdinand. As Schubert's total compositions number nearly 1000,

Diabelli's firm was able to publish "new" Schubert works for more than 30 years after the composer's

death.

Diabelli's publishing house expanded throughout his life, before he retired in 1851, leaving it under the

control of Carl Anton Spina. When Diabelli died in 1858, Spina continued to run the firm, and published

much music by Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss. In 1872, the firm was taken over by Friedrich Schreiber,

and in 1876 it merged with the firm of August Cranz, who bought the company in 1879 and ran it under his

name.

He died in Vienna at the age of 76.