Johann Nepomuk Hummel (14 November 1778 – 17 October 1837) was an Austrian composer and pianist. His music shows the change from the Classical period to the Romantic period. He was a student of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri, and Joseph Haydn. Hummel had a big influence on later piano music in the nineteenth century, especially in the works of Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, and Felix Mendelssohn.
Life
Johann Nepomuk Hummel was born in Pressburg, Kingdom of Hungary (now Bratislava, Slovakia). Unlike many children of his time, he was an only child. He was named after the Czech patron saint John of Nepomuk. His father, Johannes Hummel, was a violinist and music teacher who worked in the household orchestra of Count Grassalkovich. Later, he became the orchestra director at the Pressburg Theatre and then the music director at a military academy in Wartberg (now Senec, Slovakia) around 1780. After the academy closed due to reforms by Joseph II, the family moved to Vienna in late 1786 or early 1787. There, Johannes became the music director at the Theater auf der Wieden and later at the Apollo-Tanzsaal. His mother, Margarethe Sommer Hummel, was the widow of a wigmaker named Josef Ludwig. Johannes and Margarethe married just four months before Hummel was born.
Hummel was a child prodigy. At age eight, he received music lessons from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was impressed by his talent. Mozart taught and housed Hummel for two years without charge. Hummel made his first concert appearance at age nine during one of Mozart’s concerts.
Hummel’s father then took him on a European tour, arriving in London in 1790. There, he studied with Muzio Clementi. Hummel performed at the Hanover Square Rooms, playing a piano concerto by Mozart and a sonata of his own. In 1791, at the same venue, the 13-year-old Hummel premiered a piano trio by Joseph Haydn.
He returned to Vienna in 1793, giving concerts along the way. After returning, he studied with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Joseph Haydn, and Antonio Salieri. Around this time, Ludwig van Beethoven arrived in Vienna and also studied with Haydn and Albrechtsberger. Hummel and Beethoven became friends, and Hummel participated in several performances of Beethoven’s orchestral work Wellingtons Sieg.
On May 16, 1813, Hummel married the opera singer Elisabeth Röckel. The following year, at her request, the couple toured Russia and other parts of Europe. They had two sons. The younger son, Carl (1821–1907), became a well-known landscape painter. The older son, Eduard, worked as a pianist, conductor, and composer. He moved to the United States and died in Troy, New York.
Hummel visited Beethoven in Vienna several times with his wife Elisabeth and his pupil Ferdinand Hiller. Later, Hummel performed at Beethoven’s memorial concert.
Hummel became friends with Franz Schubert, who dedicated his last three piano sonatas to Hummel. However, both men died before the sonatas were first published. The publishers changed the dedication to Robert Schumann.
In 1804, Haydn appointed Hummel as his successor as Konzertmeister of Prince Esterházy’s estate in Eisenstadt. Although Hummel took over many duties of the Kapellmeister (music director) because Haydn’s health was poor, he was still called Konzertmeister out of respect for Haydn. He received the title of Kapellmeister only after Haydn died in May 1809. Hummel served Prince Esterházy for seven years before being dismissed in May 1811 for neglecting his duties.
Later, Hummel held the position of Kapellmeister in Stuttgart from 1816 to 1818 and in Weimar from 1819 to 1837. In Weimar, he formed a friendship with the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Hummel helped create one of the first musicians’ pension schemes by organizing benefit concert tours to raise funds. He also played a key role in establishing principles of intellectual property and copyright law to protect musicians’ rights.
In 1825, the Parisian music-publishing firm of Aristide Farrenc announced it had acquired the French publishing rights for all future works by Hummel. In 1830, Hummel gave three concerts in Paris. At one of them, a rondo by Hummel was performed by Aristide Farrenc’s wife, the composer Louise Farrenc, who also asked Hummel for his comments on her keyboard technique.
In 1832, at age 54 and in poor health, Hummel began to focus less on his duties as music director in Weimar. After Goethe’s death in March 1832, Hummel had less contact with local theatrical circles and entered partial retirement until his death in 1837.
Near the end of his life, Hummel observed the rise of a new generation of young composers and virtuosos. His music gradually fell out of fashion, as his disciplined, classical style contrasted with the more dramatic performances of composers like Franz Liszt. He composed less but remained respected. Hummel died peacefully in Weimar on October 17, 1837. Like Haydn, Mozart, and other notable composers, Hummel was a Freemason. He left part of his garden behind his Weimar home to his Masonic lodge. His grave is in the Historical Cemetery in Weimar.
Although Hummel died famous, his reputation faded quickly with the rise of the Romantic period, as his classical style was seen as outdated. Later, during the classical revival of the early 20th century, Hummel was overlooked. Like Haydn, his musical revival occurred later in the 20th century, overshadowed by Mozart and Beethoven. However, due to more recordings and performances, his music has returned to the classical repertoire.
Notable students of Hummel include Ferdinand Hiller and Alexander Müller.
Music
Hummel’s music developed differently from Beethoven’s. Looking ahead, Hummel embraced modern styles through works like his Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor, Op. 81, which Robert Schumann admired, and his Fantasy, Op. 18, which greatly influenced Franz Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy for piano. These pieces show how Hummel challenged traditional harmonic structures and expanded the sonata form.
Hummel’s main body of work was for the piano, on which he was one of the most skilled musicians of his time. He composed eight piano concertos, a double concerto for violin and piano, ten piano sonatas, eight piano trios, a piano quartet, two piano septets, a piano quintet, and four pieces for hand piano. Of his eight piano concertos, the first two were early works (S. 4/ WoO 24 and S. 5), while the remaining six were numbered and published with opus numbers (Opp. 36, 85 (No. 2 in A minor), 89, 110, 113, and posth). His most frequently performed piano concerto is No. 5 in A-flat, Op. 113.
In addition to the piano, Hummel wrote a wind octet, a cello sonata, a mandolin concerto, a mandolin sonata, a Trumpet Concerto in E major (originally written for a keyed trumpet, now commonly played in E-flat major), a "Grand Bassoon Concerto" in F, a quartet for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, 22 operas and Singspiels, masses, and other works. He also composed a variation on a theme by Anton Diabelli for part 2 of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein.
Hummel was deeply interested in the guitar and wrote many pieces for it. His guitar works began with Op. 7 and ended with Op. 93. Other guitar compositions include Opp. 43, 53, 62, 63, 66, 71, and 91, which were written for a mix of instruments.
A notable feature of Hummel’s body of work is the absence of a symphony.
Influence
While in Germany, Hummel wrote a book titled A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instruction on the Art of Playing the Piano Forte (Anweisung zum Pianofortespiel, 1828). The book sold thousands of copies soon after it was published and introduced a new way of using fingers and playing musical decorations.
Hummel influenced piano playing styles in the late 1800s through his teaching of Carl Czerny, who later taught Franz Liszt. Czerny had studied with Beethoven for three years before joining Hummel. Liszt admired Hummel and often performed his music, especially the Septet Op. 74.
Hummel’s influence can also be seen in the early works of Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin, and Robert Schumann. Chopin’s piano concertos may have been inspired by Hummel’s Piano Concerto in B minor and Piano Concerto in A minor. This is likely because Chopin heard Hummel perform during his tours to Poland and Russia and included Hummel’s concertos in his own performances. Harold C. Schonberg, in The Great Pianists, noted that the openings of Hummel’s A minor concerto and Chopin’s E minor concerto are very similar. Schonberg also suggested that Chopin was familiar with Hummel’s Op. 67, a set of 24 preludes in all major and minor keys, starting with C major.
Schumann studied Hummel’s Anweisung zum Pianofortespiel and considered becoming his student. Liszt’s father, Adam, refused to pay the high tuition fees Hummel charged, so Liszt studied with Czerny instead. Hummel’s most famous students included Czerny, Friedrich Silcher, Ferdinand Hiller, Sigismond Thalberg, and Adolf von Henselt. He also briefly taught Felix Mendelssohn.
According to Schubert’s friend Albert Stadler, Schubert’s Trout Quintet was based on an earlier work by Hummel, the quintet version of Hummel’s Septet in D minor for flute, oboe, horn, viola, cello, bass, and piano, Op. 74. It may also have been influenced by Hummel’s Quintet in E-flat, Op. 87.