Johann Adam Hiller was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 and writer on music, regarded as the creator of the Singspiel

Singspiel

A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...

, an early form of German opera. In many of these operas he collaborated with the poet Christian Felix Weiße

Christian Felix Weiße

Christian Felix Weiße was a German writer and pedagogue. Weiße was among the leading representatives of the Enlightenment in Germany and is regarded as the founder of German children's literature.-Life:...

. Furthermore, Hiller was a teacher who encouraged musical education for women, his pupils including Elisabeth Mara and Corona Schröter

Corona Schröter

Corona Elisabeth Wilhelmine Schröter was a German musician best known as a singer. She also composed songs, setting works by Friedrich Schiller to music.-Early life:...

.

Biography

By the death of his father in 1734, Hiller was left dependent to a large extent on the charity of friends. He came from a musical family, and also learned the basics of music from a school master in his home town, Wendisch-Ossig. From 1740 to 1745, he was a student at the Gymnasium in Görlitz

Görlitz

Görlitz is a town in Germany. It is the easternmost town in the country, located on the Lusatian Neisse River in the Bundesland of Saxony. It is opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was a part of Görlitz until 1945. Historically, Görlitz was in the region of Upper Lusatia...

, where his fine soprano voice earned him free tuition. In 1746 he went to study at the famous Kreuzschule in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. There he took keyboard and basso continuo lessons with Gottfried August Homilius

Gottfried August Homilius

Gottfried August Homilius was a German composer, cantor, and organist. He was the main representative of the empfindsamer style....

.

In 1751, he enrolled in the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

 to study law, supporting himself by giving music lessons, and also by performing at concerts both on the flute and as a vocalist. Hiller immersed himself in the rich musical life of the town, and gradually adopted music as his sole profession. He took an active role in the Grosses Concert, which was the leading concert undertaking in Leipzig. During that time he wrote several symphonies, church cantatas, and arias, as well as a fragmentary Singspiel entitled Das Orackle. Hiller also published an essay on the Mimesis of Nature in Music (Abhandlung über die Nachahmung der Natur in der Musik) in 1754. That year he got his first break when he became steward and tutor to the son of Count Brühl in Dresden. He accompanied the Count to Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 in 1758. He remained in that position until 1760 when health problems (depression) forced him to resign. It was during his stay there that he conceived the idea of reviving some subscription concerts, an attempt which ultimately led to the founding of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is one of the the oldest symphony orchestras in the world...

 of which he was the first conductor.

Back in Leipzig, Hiller became the director of the Grosse Concert, a position he held until 1771. That year he founded a singing school. Four years later, Hiller founded his own concert society, the Musikübende Gesellschaft. In his Leipzig school, he trained young musicians in singing and playing instruments. Two of his most famous students were Corona Schröter

Corona Schröter

Corona Elisabeth Wilhelmine Schröter was a German musician best known as a singer. She also composed songs, setting works by Friedrich Schiller to music.-Early life:...

 and Gertrud Elisabeth Mara

Gertrud Elisabeth Mara

Gertrud Elisabeth Mara [née Schmeling] was a German operatic soprano.She was born in Kassel, the daughter of a poor musician, Johann Schmeling. From him she learnt to play the violin, and while still a child, her playing at the fair at Frankfurt was so remarkable that money was collected to...

 née Schmeling, both acclaimed vocalists. He also taught organist and composer Daniel Gottlob Türk

Daniel Gottlob Türk

Daniel Gottlob Türk was a notable composer, organist, and music professor of the Classical Period.Born in Claußnitz, Saxony, Türk studied organ under his father and later under Johann Adam Hiller. It was Hiller who recommended Türk for his first professional position at Halle University, in...

. In 1778 Hiller was appointed music director at the Paulinerkirche

Paulinerkirche, Leipzig

The Paulinerkirche was a church on the Augustusplatz in Leipzig, named after the "Pauliner", its original Dominican friars. It was built in 1231 as the Klosterkirche St. Pauli for the Dominican monastery in Leipzig. From the foundation of the University of Leipzig in 1409, it served as the...

, the church of the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

. During that time he also organized Concerts spirituels

Concert Spirituel

The Concert Spirituel was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790; later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, London and elsewhere...

 for lent.

To Hiller has been given the credit of being the originator of the Singspiel, the beginning of German comedy opera as distinct from the French and Italian developments. The most important of his operas were: Lottchen am Hofe (Lottie at court, 1760), Der Teufel ist los (The devil is loose, 1768), Poltis, oder Das gerettete Troja (Poltis, or Troy rescued, 1782). The lyrics of all his Singspiele were of considerable musical value, and were long popular. Among his sacred compositions are: A Passion Cantata, Funeral Music in Honor of Hasse, a setting of the one hundredth Psalm

Psalm 100

Psalm 100 is part of the biblical Book of Psalms. It may be used as a canticle in the Anglican liturgy of Morning Prayer, when it is referred to by its incipit as the Jubilate or Jubilate Deo...

; and a few symphonies.

In the 1780s he acquired new positions with increased alacrity. In 1781 he became conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts. During the same year he visited the court of Duke of Courland

Courland

Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...

 in Mitau, a journey that resulted in Hiller's appointment as Kapellmeister there four years later. In addition to his posts at the Gewandhaus and the Paulinerkirche, in 1783 he also became the music director of the Neukirche which made him a top authority on music in Leipzig. However when taking up his new job in Mitau in 1785 he resigned all his posts in Leipzig. Due to the unstable political situation at the court of Courland he resigned from his position there after only one year. Since he no longer had any occupation in Leipzig he had to organize concerts to earn his living, but fortunately he was able to secure for himself the post of music director of the city of Breslau in 1787. He spent two years in Breslau and returned to Leipzig in 1789 to become cantor at the Thomaskirche, conducting the Thomanerchor

Thomanerchor

The Thomanerchor is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. At present, the choir consists of 92 boys from 9 to 18 years of age...

, a position filled by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 before. Hiller held the post until 1801 when he resigned due to his age.

He also edited many important collections of music, and wrote considerably concerning musical topics. He was one of the most important German musical scholars and writers of the eighteenth century. He died in Leipzig.

He was the father of the composer Friedrich Adam Hiller (c.1767-1812), but he was not related to the musician Ferdinand Hiller

Ferdinand Hiller

Ferdinand Hiller was a German composer, conductor, writer and music-director.-Biography:Ferdinand Hiller was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main, where his father Justus was a merchant in English textiles – a business eventually continued by Ferdinand’s brother Joseph...

.

Literary work

Hiller's major contribution in this field include the Wöchentliche Nachrichten, a music journal in which he published reviews of performances, new music publications, and essays on various music related topics. From his articles in this journal it becomes clear that Hiller was open to new trends in music, and that he preferred Hasse

Johann Adolph Hasse

Johann Adolph Hasse was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a considerable quantity of sacred music...

 over J. S. Bach and Gluck

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...

.

Hiller's aesthetical writings include the Abhandlung über die Nachahmung der Natur in der Musik (1754) and Über die Musik und deren Wirkungen (1781), which is a translation from Chabanon’s Observations sur la musique.

As a historian Hiller published a series of anecdotes and biographies, the Anecdoten zur Lebensgeschichte grosser Regenten und berühmter Staatsmänner and Lebensbeschreibungen berühmter Musikgelehrten und Tonkünstler neuerer Zeit and the Lebensbeschreibungen berühmter Musikgelehrten und Tonkünstler neuerer Zeit.

The majority of his writings concern pedagogy. In these publications Hiller presents himself as a highly competent teacher who regarded knowledge of music an essential part of everyone's education.

List of writings

• "Abhandlung über die Nachahmung der Natur in der Musik" in Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg: Historisch-kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1754)
• Anecdoten zur Lebensgeschichte grosser Regenten und berühmter Staatsmänner (Leipzig, 1766–72)
• As an editor: Wöchentliche Nachrichten und Anmerkungen die Musik betreffend (Leipzig, 1766–70)
• Anweisung zur Singekunst in der deutschen und italienischen Sprache (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1773)
• Musikalisches Handbuch für die Liebhaber des Gesanges und Claviers (Leipzig, 1773)
• Anweisung zum musikalisch-richtigen Gesange (Leipzig, 1774, enlarged 1798)
• Exempel-Buch der Anweisung zum Singen (Leipzig, 1774)
• Anweisung zum musikalisch-zierlichen Gesange (Leipzig, 1780)
• Lebensbeschreibungen berühmter Musikgelehrten und Tonkünstler neuerer Zeit (Leipzig, 1784). Includes autobiography.
• Über Metastasio und seine Werke (Leipzig,1786)
• Nachricht von der Aufführung des Händelschen Messias, in der Domkirche zu Berlin den 19. May 1786(Berlin, 1786)
• Fragmente aus Händels Messias, nebst Betrachtungen über die Aufführung Händelscher Singcompositionen"" (Leipzig, 1787)
• Über Alt und Neu in der Musik (Leipzig,1787)
• Was ist wahre Kirchenmusik? (Leipzig, 1789)
• Co-authored with J. A. Hasse: Beyträge zu wahrer Kirchenmusik (Leipzig, 2/1791)
• Kurze und erleichterte Anweisung zum Singen (Leipzig, 1792)
• Anweisung zum Violinspielen für Schulen und zum Selbstunterrichte (Leipzig, 1792)
• Erinnerungen gegen das Melodien-Register in Freyes kleiner Lieder-Konkordanz (Leipzig, 1798)

External links

• Johann Adam Hiller biography