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Johann Nepomuk Hummel
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Browse piano sheets by Johann Nepomuk Hummel on Zen Virtual Piano. Music came early to Hummel, who was musically precocious from the age of three, the son of a string player and conductor. Mozart, impressed by Hummel's ability, offered the eight-year-old lessons, and Hummel lived in Mozart's household, where he met da Ponte and other personalities of Vienna. Lessons with Mozart in childhood, beside later teachers Albrechtsberger, Haydn and Salieri, may suggest a schooling shaped by several teachers. After returning to Vienna in 1793 he studied with J.G. Albrechtsberger, Joseph Haydn, whom he had met in London, and Antonio Salieri. From 1804 to 1811 he led the Esterházy family's music, a post Haydn had held, but was dismissed in May 1811 for neglecting his duties. He later held Kapellmeister posts in Stuttgart and Weimar, and in Weimar, where he remained until 1837, he became a friend of Goethe. Haydn appears both as a teacher and as the previous holder of the Esterházy post, which may hint at his lasting presence in Hummel's path. A dismissal in 1811 and a later friendship with Goethe in Weimar may suggest that his fortunes varied widely between posts. His friendship with Beethoven was unsettling but lasting; he was among the pallbearers at Beethoven's funeral and improvised at a memorial concert for Beethoven. In 1828 he published a full instruction book on piano playing, Anweisung zum Pianofortespiel, which sold thousands of copies within days and introduced a new approach to fingering and ornaments. Its author held that the pianist's mechanism for fantasising had to be so developed that whatever the spirit creates could be played at once and without trouble. Improvising at a memorial concert for Beethoven, beside a method that stresses playing at once what the spirit creates, may suggest improvisation held a place in his approach to the piano. Britannica names his piano trios, sonatas, rondos and six concertos as his most important compositions, and describes them as elegant in style and virtuosic in melodic writing and ornament. The Polish Music Library calls him the last great representative of the Viennese School, working in the passage from Classicism to Romanticism with a precise, finger-based virtuoso technique. In 1832, aged 54 and in failing health, he began to devote less energy to his duties at Weimar. Memberships included the Institut de France, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and the Philharmonic Society in London, and he left part of his Weimar garden to his masonic lodge. Britannica's praise for elegance, beside the Polish Music Library's label for him as the last great Viennese School figure, may suggest two different framings of one style. A friendship with Goethe in Weimar, beside a garden left in part to his masonic lodge, may suggest a Weimar life that took in both cultural and communal ties.
Browse piano sheets by Johann Nepomuk Hummel on Zen Virtual Piano.
Music came early to Hummel, who was musically precocious from the age of three, the son of a string player and conductor. Mozart, impressed by Hummel's ability, offered the eight-year-old lessons, and Hummel lived in Mozart's household, where he met da Ponte and other personalities of Vienna. Lessons with Mozart in childhood, beside later teachers Albrechtsberger, Haydn and Salieri, may suggest a schooling shaped by several teachers.
After returning to Vienna in 1793 he studied with J.G. Albrechtsberger, Joseph Haydn, whom he had met in London, and Antonio Salieri. From 1804 to 1811 he led the Esterházy family's music, a post Haydn had held, but was dismissed in May 1811 for neglecting his duties. He later held Kapellmeister posts in Stuttgart and Weimar, and in Weimar, where he remained until 1837, he became a friend of Goethe. Haydn appears both as a teacher and as the previous holder of the Esterházy post, which may hint at his lasting presence in Hummel's path. A dismissal in 1811 and a later friendship with Goethe in Weimar may suggest that his fortunes varied widely between posts.
His friendship with Beethoven was unsettling but lasting; he was among the pallbearers at Beethoven's funeral and improvised at a memorial concert for Beethoven. In 1828 he published a full instruction book on piano playing, Anweisung zum Pianofortespiel, which sold thousands of copies within days and introduced a new approach to fingering and ornaments. Its author held that the pianist's mechanism for fantasising had to be so developed that whatever the spirit creates could be played at once and without trouble. Improvising at a memorial concert for Beethoven, beside a method that stresses playing at once what the spirit creates, may suggest improvisation held a place in his approach to the piano.
Britannica names his piano trios, sonatas, rondos and six concertos as his most important compositions, and describes them as elegant in style and virtuosic in melodic writing and ornament. The Polish Music Library calls him the last great representative of the Viennese School, working in the passage from Classicism to Romanticism with a precise, finger-based virtuoso technique. In 1832, aged 54 and in failing health, he began to devote less energy to his duties at Weimar. Memberships included the Institut de France, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and the Philharmonic Society in London, and he left part of his Weimar garden to his masonic lodge. Britannica's praise for elegance, beside the Polish Music Library's label for him as the last great Viennese School figure, may suggest two different framings of one style. A friendship with Goethe in Weimar, beside a garden left in part to his masonic lodge, may suggest a Weimar life that took in both cultural and communal ties.
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Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Common questions
Hummel was a composer and pianist who studied with Mozart and later became Kapellmeister in Weimar.
It is his 1828 instruction book for piano playing, which sold thousands of copies within days.
He kept a lasting friendship with Beethoven, served as a pallbearer at the funeral and improvised at a memorial concert.
Britannica names his piano trios, sonatas, rondos and six concertos as his most important compositions.