Hiller, Johann Adam (EN)

Hiller, Hüller, Johann Adam, *25 December 1728 Wendisch-Ossig (near Görlitz), †16 June 1804 Leipzig, German composer, music writer and organiser of musical life. He received his early education, including lessons in violin and harpsichord, from A. Berndt, a teacher from his home village. Between 1740 and 1745, Hiller attended secondary school in Görlitz, where he learnt to play the harpsichord, violin, flute, oboe and trumpet from his classmates, and played the double bass (Bassgeige) at the school’s Collegium musicum. From 1745 to 1746 he worked as a clerk in Spreewald. In 1746 he received a scholarship which enabled him to study at the Kreutzschule in Dresden. There he studied harpsichord and the principles of thoroughbass with G.A. Homilius, and the flute with J.A. Schmidt; he acquired his knowledge of composition by analysing the scores of J.A. Hasse’s operas, which were staged at the court theatre under the composer’s direction. It was during this time that Hiller composed his first works: songs, arias, occasional cantatas and instrumental music. In 1751 he moved to Leipzig, where he studied law at the university until 1754; he also performed professionally as a singer (bass) and as a flautist in public concerts at Das Grosse Konzert, gave harpsichord lessons, composed musical and poetic works, and wrote Abhandlung über die Nachahmung der Natur in der Musik. In the spring of 1754, he returned to Dresden as tutor to Count H.A. Brühl von Martinskirch. In 1758, he travelled with him to Leipzig, but in early 1760 he resigned from his post due to worsening symptoms of depression. Once his illness had passed, Hiller embarked on an exceptionally active and wide-ranging career. In the summer of 1762, he organised a series of public subscription concerts in Leipzig, and between 1763 and 1771 he directed the Das Grosse Konzert series, which had been revived following the Seven Years’ War. He founded a three-year singing school for girls and boys, and wrote textbooks and pedagogical works. Between 1766 and 1771, he published the music journal “Wöchentliche Nachrichten”, whilst also authoring or translating most of the texts contained therein. In 1775, he organised the Musikübende Gesellschaft, comprising pupils from his school, professionals and amateurs, which gave 30 concerts a year. In 1778 he became music director at the Paulinerkirche, and in 1783 also at the Neukirche. During Lent he organised concerts spirituels, and in 1781 he initiated a series of concerts at the Gewandhaus, which he directed until 1785. All his stage works were composed between 1766 and 1779. Although he was the most prominent figure in Leipzig’s musical circles, in 1785 he unexpectedly left the city and took up a modest post as Kapellmeister at the provincial court of the Duke of Courland in Mitau. In 1786, Hiller returned to Leipzig, but found all his former posts taken; he therefore left for Berlin, where in 1786 he conducted Handel’s Messiah in his own arrangement. Between 1787 and 1788, he worked in Wrocław as the city’s music director and also conducted a series of concerts spirituels. Following an unsuccessful attempt to take up the post of music director in Hamburg (following the death of C.P.E. Bach), in 1789 the Leipzig city council offered him the position of music director at the Thomaskirche and cantor at the Thomasschule. At that time, Hiller focused his compositional work on sacred music, whilst at the school he implemented a series of progressive reforms. In 1792, he prepared a performance of W.A. Mozart’s Requiem with his pupils. In 1800, due to poor health, Hiller resigned from both posts. He died four years later and was buried in St John’s Cemetery. His son Friedrich Adam (*1767 Leipzig, †23 November 1812 Königsberg) was a composer and singer. In 1784 he became director of the musical society in Schwerin, and in 1796 of the theatre orchestra in Altona; from 1799 until his death, he served as musical director of the theatre in Königsberg. He composed theatre music, songs and instrumental works. Together with the poet C.F. Weiss, Hiller is the founder of the German national form of comic opera. His singspiels — today regarded as “trivial” (C. Dahlhaus) – became a model for other composers of the time, such as J. André, J.A. Benda and C.G. Neefe. His first works – Die verwandelten Weiber and Der lustige Schuster – are adaptations of texts from English ballad operas, and the music consists of solo pieces of a very simple form, with folk-like melodies and extremely modest instrumentation. It was precisely these features that contributed to the works’ enormous success with a wide audience. Hiller’s subsequent singspiels are modelled, in their literary content, on French comedies, whilst the music is a conglomeration of formal and stylistic devices drawn from Italian opera buffa and seria, French opéra-comique and German Lied. Hiller’s finest singspiels were considered to be Lottchen am Hofe, Die Liebe auf dem Lande and Die Jagd. They were a staple of the repertoire in German theatres of the time, and the songs and arias from these works became widely known. Hiller’s singspiels were also performed at the public theatre in Warsaw (Die Muse 1775, Die Jagd 1781) and at the Sułkowski family’s court theatre in Rydzyna (Lottchen am Hofe, n.d.). Hiller composed songs – both secular and sacred – for educational purposes (to improve the skills of professional singers and to popularise singing among amateurs), as well as with the intention of creating a national repertoire. His Allgemeines Choral-Melodienbuch was still in use in Saxony as late as the 20th century. However, the formulaic nature of the form (usually a verse structure) and the lack of melodic inventiveness mean that these works are overshadowed by songs from singspiels. Today, Hiller’s compositional output is of purely historical interest, whereas his significance as one of the era’s principal chroniclers and ‘reporters’ has grown immensely. “Wöchentliche Nachrichten” was the first modern music magazine. Aimed not only at professionals but also at amateurs, it had a significant influence on the development of the tastes of the German middle classes. The primary task of the magazine was to record current events and opinions, for the benefit not only of contemporary readers but also of future generations. The publications were divided into three sections: documentary (reports on performances, concerts, orchestral line-ups, and the repertoire of various centres), critical (reviews of published and performed works), and theoretical (theoretical and aesthetic works, including translations of J.J. Rousseau, J. Le Rond d’Alembert and J.F. Marmontel). In his aesthetic views, Hiller was not original. Abhandlung über die Nachahmung is based on the ideas of C. Batteaux; later, Hiller came under the influence of the aesthetics of “sentimental style” (Empfindsamkeit). His entire career is characterised by Enlightenment didacticism and rationalism, evident both in his strictly pedagogical work (practical and theoretical – numerous textbooks), as well as in his organisational activities (ensembles established for the benefit of the general public and directed by him, with the Gewandhaus Orchestra at the forefront), publishing (promoting piano reductions, popularising the works of other composers), compositional (works for children and amateurs) and journalistic activities.

Literature: C. Naumann Johann Adam Hiller. Eine bescheidene Würdigung seiner Verdienste als Mensch, Künstler und Schulmann, Leipzig 1804; K. Peiser Johann Adam Hiller, Leipzig 1894; M. Friedlaender Das deutsche Lied im 18. Jahrhundert, 2 vols., Stuttgart 1902, reprint 1970; G. Calmus Die ersten deutschen Singspiele von Standfuss und Hiller, Leipzig 1908; H. von Hase Johann Adam Hiller und Breitkopfs’, “Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft” II, 1919/20; A. Schering Musikgeschichte Leipzigs, vol. 3, Leipzig 1941; G. Sander Das Deutschtum im Singspiel Johann Adam Hillers, Würzburg 1943; W. Serauky Johann Adam Hiller als Erwecker der Händel-Tradition im 18. Jahrhundert, in a commemorative publication marking the 175th anniversary of the Gewandhauskonzerte, Leipzig 1965; K. Kawada Studien zu den Singspielen von Johann Adam Hiller (1728–1804), Marburg 1969; V. Duckies Johann Adam Hiller’s “Critical Prospectus for a Music Library”, in: Studies in Eighteenth Century Music, Festschrift for K. Geiringer, ed. C.R. Landon, R.E. Chapman, New York 1970.