weiss was born in silesia in 1778; moving to vienna, he became in the 1790s a viola player in an informal string quartet led by ignaz schuppanzigh, which played weekly for prince lichnowsky. he was later a member of count razumowsky's private string quartet, established in 1808 and led by schuppanzigh. the quartet disbanded in 1815 and schuppanzigh moved away from vienna.