Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Life

Life

Hummel was born in Pressburg, Kingdom of Hungary, then a part of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy (now Bratislava in Slovakia). His father, Johannes Hummel, was the director of the Imperial School of Military Music in Vienna and the conductor there of Emanuel Schikaneder's theater orchestra at the Theater auf der Wieden; his mother, Margarethe Sommer Hummel, was the widow of the wigmaker Josef Ludwig. He was named after St John of Nepomuk. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart offered the boy music lessons at the age of eight after being impressed with his ability. Hummel was taught and housed by Mozart for two years free of charge and made his first concert appearance at the age of nine, at one of Mozart's concerts.

Hummel's father then led him on a European tour, arriving in London, where he received instruction from Muzio Clementi and stayed for four years before returning to Vienna. In 1791, Joseph Haydn, who was in London at the same time as young Hummel, composed a sonata in A-flat for Hummel, who played its premiere in the Hanover Square Rooms in Haydn's presence. When Hummel finished, Haydn reportedly thanked the young man and gave him a guinea.

The outbreak of the French Revolution and the following Reign of Terror caused Hummel to cancel a planned tour through Spain and France. Instead, he returned to Vienna, giving concerts along his route. Upon his return to Vienna he was taught by Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Joseph Haydn, and Antonio Salieri.

At about this time, young Ludwig van Beethoven arrived in Vienna and took lessons from Haydn and Albrechtsberger, becoming a fellow student and a friend. Beethoven's arrival was said to have nearly destroyed Hummel's self-confidence, though he recovered without much harm. Despite the fact that Hummel's friendship with Beethoven was often marked by ups and downs, the mutual friendship developed into reconciliation and respect. Hummel visited him in Vienna on several occasions, with his wife Elisabeth and pupil Ferdinand Hiller. Following Beethoven's wishes, Hummel improvised at the great man's memorial concert. It was at this event that Hummel became good friends with Franz Schubert. Schubert dedicated his last three piano sonatas to Hummel. However, since both composers had died by the time of the sonatas' first publication, the publishers changed the dedication to Robert Schumann, who was still active at the time.

In 1804, Hummel became Konzertmeister to Prince Esterházy's establishment at Eisenstadt. Although he was performing many of the duties of Kapellmeister because Haydn was not not healthy enough to perform them, he was still called the concertmaster in honor of Haydn. But when Haydn died in May 1809, Hummel started to be called the Kappellmeister, or music director, of the Eisenstadt court. He was in the service of Prince Esterházy for seven years before being dismissed in May 1811 for neglecting his duties. He then returned to Vienna. After composing for two years, he married the opera singer Elisabeth Röckel in 1813. The next year, he toured Russia and Europe at the request of his wife. They had two sons.

Hummel later held the position of Kapellmeister in Stuttgart from 1816 to 1819 and in Weimar from 1819 to 1837, where he formed a close friendship with Goethe. He learned about the aesthetic quality of the poetry of Schiller, who had died in 1805. During Hummel's stay in Weimar, he made the city into a European musical capital, inviting the best musicians of the day to visit and make music there. He started one of the first pension programs for fellow musicians, giving benefit concert tours when the musicians' retirement fund ran low. Hummel was one of the first to fight for musical copyrights against intellectual pirating. In 1832, at the age of 57, Hummel started to dedicate less energy to being the music director at Weimar, for he was too sick to continue his responsibilities there fully. Also, Goethe had died in March 1832, so he had fewer people to converse with at the Weimar theater. As a result, he was in a period of partial retirement from 1832 until his death in 1837.