He was only 14 when he took over as organist at Trier Cathedral: the position had fallen vacant three years earlier through the early death of the previous incumbent, his father.
[1][2][3][4] Johann Georg Gerhard Schmitt was born at Zurlaubener Ufer [de], a riverside fishing hamlet on the northern edge of Trier (into which it has subsequently been subsumed).
[1][5] Two hundred years later, there is still a hotel on the site: it is now named "Gasthaus Mosellied", after a song which during the nineteenth century became one of Schmitt's more widely appreciated compositions.
[6] The elder Johann Georg Schmitt combined his business as an hotelier with the post of Trier Cathedral organist between 1810 and his death in 1832.
Worse still, he took to incorporating folksy and frivolous elements in the improvised organ passages played before and after services or while the priests celebrated and administered the Eucharist.
Inspired by Cecilian Movement which were by now spreading north across Germany, he almost immediately, in 1839, arranged for the cathedral to incorporate orchestral music in worship.
When Schneider reacted to these "artistic differences" by complaining to the cathedral authorities he generally found them supportive, and in 1842 Schmitt was summarily dismissed.
Schmitt's submission only came second in the competition, and the prize of 1350 bottles of local wine was accordingly shipped to Dresden, home of Julius Otto [de], the composer of the winning melody (which according to one possibly scurrilous suggestion he had "borrowed" from his father).
Revolution returned to the streets of Paris early in 1848: in August 1848 Schmitt, whose studying and teaching work had been disrupted by the political developments of the time, set off for the America.
[10] Towards the end of 1849 Schmitt returned to Paris, "lured", according to one source, by the offer of the organist's post at Saint-Sulpice, filling the position vacated through the death earlier that year of Louis-Nicolas Séjan.
The resulting 100 register instrument was sufficiently impressive to persuade one of Schmitt's most illustrious successors at Saint-Sulpice, Charles-Marie Widor, to remain in post for more than 60 years, and can still be enjoyed today (2021): it has "never been electrified", though necessary maintenance has been undertaken during the intervening century and a half: most notably a meticulous and "respectful" dusting exercise was performed between 1988 and 1991.
[14] When Schmitt left his job at Saint-Sulpice at the end of April 1863, the move was made at the instigation of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who indicate that he would prefer that his "masterwork of an instrument" should be entrusted to the hands (and feet) of his friend Alfred Lefébure-Wély.
A number of friends and colleagues among the leading Paris church organists of the time contributed, including César Franck, Alexis Chauvet, Charles Colin [fr] and Camille Saint-Saëns.
But a breakthrough into the world of the French musical stage nevertheless eluded him, while the continuing success in western Germany of the "Mosellied" always remained something of a "one-off".
[5] Commercial success for a man whose name and demeanour marked him out as a "German" composer became harder after the humiliation of military defeat at Sedan and the ensuing four month Siege of Paris.
[5] "Le Sinai", a "dramatic symphony" composed by Schmitt in 1879, was re-discovered performed at Trier in 2014 as part of the Mosel Music Festival [de].
[b] An organ recital was given at Saint-Sulpice in October 2000 by Josef Still [de], the organist from the Trier Cathedral in order to celebrate the (then imminent) centenary of Schmitt's death.