Heinrich, Anthony Philip (EN)

Heinrich Anthony Philip, Anton Philipp, *11 March 1781 Schönbüchel (present-day Krásný Buk, Czech Republic), †3 May 1861 New York, American composer of Bohemian origin. As a child, he was adopted by his uncle, from whom he inherited a considerable fortune and a thriving business in 1800; he lost everything following the financial crash of 1811. He visited the United States for the first time in 1805; during his second stay there between 1810 and 1813, he attempted (unsuccessfully) to establish a trade in Czech glass. In 1813, he returned with his Bostonian wife to Bohemia, where their daughter was born.

In 1814, following the couple’s prompt return to America and the death of his wife, Heinrich decided to settle permanently in the United States and turn his attention to music. In his youth, he had learnt to play the violin and the piano; in terms of composition, he was essentially self-taught. From as early as 1810, he conducted at the Southwark Theatre in Philadelphia – without demanding any remuneration. In 1817, he organised a concert in Lexington (Kentucky) and conducted the first American performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major. In 1818, he settled in a log cabin surrounded by trees near Bardstown (Kentucky). Fascinated by the Romantic ideal of communing with nature, he undertook a walking journey through the wilderness from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, followed by a 250-kilometre expedition down the Ohio River to Kentucky. During these expeditions, he came into contact with Native American communities, which was reflected in his work. In 1820, his Opus 1 was published: a collection of songs entitled The Dawning of Music in Kentucky, or the Pleasures of Harmony in the Solitudes of Nature.

Between 1823 and 1826, Heinrich lived in Boston, where he gave numerous concerts; from 1826 to 1832 he resided in London, having presumably travelled there to study music; he worked as first violinist in the orchestras of the Drury Lane Theatre and Vauxhall Gardens. In 1831, he composed Pushmataha, a Venerable Chief of a Western Tribe of Indians, described as the first musical tribute to the American Indians. From 1832, Heinrich was organist at Old South Church in Boston; he performed actively and composed a major piano piece dedicated to F. Mendelssohn, entitled The Rubezahl Dance on the Schneekoppe, and a second, The First Labour of Hercules, dedicated to F. Liszt. In 1833, he worked again in London as a violinist in an orchestra, a music teacher and a composer; he travelled around Europe and visited Prague. At a concert in Graz (1836) he performed The Combat of the Condor (the third movement of the grand symphony The Ornithological Combat of Kings); in Bordeaux (1837) The Combat of the Condor and the fantasia Pocahontas were performed again in his presence.

In 1837, the composer settled in New York, where he soon became very popular; he was known as “Father” Heinrich. He was one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society (1842) in New York. His orchestral works were performed at festivals in 1842, 1846 and 1853 in New York, and in 1846 in Boston. In April 1853, a farewell concert in honour of Heinrich was organised at the Metropolitan Hall. The orchestra was conducted by the composer himself, together with the conductor Theodor Eisfeld, a representative of the German musical emigration. Between 1856 and 1859, he visited Europe for the last time; in 1857, he gave three monographic concerts at the Žofin Palace and the Conservatory in Prague; for the first time, he had the opportunity to hear his great works in their full orchestral versions. Before returning to New York, he worked briefly in Dresden.

Heinrich – one of the few 19th-century American composers known outside America at the time – favoured Native American themes in his programme music; he drew inspiration from American history, depicted nature, and drew on his own experiences. He readily employed dance forms and variations, introducing self-quotations and quotations from patriotic melodies. He often returned to earlier compositions, which he revised on numerous occasions. He drew upon the creative experiences of Haydn and Beethoven. He considered the symphony The Ornithological Combat of Kings to be his finest work.

Many of Heinrich’s orchestral works were written for a very large ensemble, which made them difficult for fledgling American orchestras to perform. These compositions met with greater understanding and acceptance in Europe than in America. Heinrich’s particular significance for the development of American music lies in his introduction, for the first time, of national themes into large-scale symphonic and vocal-instrumental forms. The composer did not live to see his orchestral works published. The most complete collection of Heinrich’s compositions is held in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in Washington. In 2014, The International Anthony Philip Heinrich Society was established in Prague, dedicated to documenting the composer’s work and promoting knowledge about him.

Literature: W.T. Upton Anthony Philip Heinrich. A Nineteenth Century Composer in America, New York 1939, 2nd edition 1967; F.N. Bruce The Piano Pieces of Anthony Philip Heinrich contained in “The Dawning of Music in Kentucky” and “The Western Minstrel”, thesis University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 1971; D. Barron The Early Vocal Works of Anthony Philip Heinrich, thesi University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 1972; D.W. Shade Anthony Philip Heinrich. Hapless Wanderer, in: Orchestrating the Nation, Oxford University Press 2015; P. Farsky Anthony Philip Heinrich. American Beethoven from Krásná Lípa, Krásná Lípa 2018; P.J.F. Herbert The Western Minstrel – Voyager through the life of Anthony Philipp Heinrich, The Dvořák Society for Czech and Slovak Music 2020.