A capella four-voice male voice choirs replaced the previous choral forms of a mix of male, female and children's voices. National musical education was supposed to be promoted along with the political and social Enlightenment. Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758–1832) and above all Friedrich Silcher (1789–1860) were instrumental in influencing the development of a choral life, where choirs took root with a constitution, committee and – in the full flush of enthusiasm – showed all the "bells and whistles" of an organisation.