Early life Hummel was born in
Pressburg, Kingdom of Hungary (now Bratislava,
Slovakia). Unusually for that period, 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 served in the household orchestra of Count Grassalkovich and later as orchestra director at the Pressburg Theatre before becoming music director at the military academy in Wartberg (now Senec, Slovakia) around 1780. Following the dissolution of this institution under Joseph II's reforms, the family relocated to Vienna in late 1786 or early 1787, where Johannes became music director at the Theater auf der Wieden and later at the Apollo-Tanzsaal. His mother, Margarethe Sommer Hummel, was the widow of the wigmaker Josef Ludwig. The couple married just four months before his birth. Hummel was a child prodigy. At the age of eight, he was offered music lessons by the classical composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was impressed with his ability. Hummel was taught and housed by Mozart for two years free of charge. He made his first concert appearance at the age of nine, at one of Mozart's concerts. Hummel's father then took him on a European tour, arriving in
London in 1790, where he received lessons from
Muzio Clementi. He played to much acclaim at the
Hanover Square Rooms, performing a Mozart piano concerto and a sonata of his own. In 1791, at the same venue, the thirteen-year-old Hummel premiered a piano trio by Haydn. He returned to Vienna in 1793, giving concerts along his route. Upon his return, he was taught by
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger,
Joseph Haydn, and
Antonio Salieri. At about this time, young
Ludwig van Beethoven arrived in Vienna and also took lessons from Haydn and Albrechtsberger. The two men became friends, and Hummel took part in several performances of Beethoven's orchestral work
Wellingtons Sieg. On 16 May 1813, he married the opera singer
Elisabeth Röckel. The following year, at her request, was spent touring Russia and the rest of Europe. The couple had two sons. The younger,
Carl (1821–1907), became a well-known landscape painter. The older, , worked as pianist, conductor, and composer; he moved to the U.S. and died in
Troy, New York. Hummel visited Beethoven in Vienna on several occasions with his wife Elisabeth and his pupil
Ferdinand Hiller. Hummel would later perform at Beethoven's memorial concert. Hummel had made friends with
Franz Schubert, who dedicated his
last three piano sonatas to Hummel. However, both men had died by the time of the first publication of the sonatas, and the publishers changed the dedication to
Robert Schumann.
Career , c. 1814, Goethe-Museum, Düsseldorf In 1804, Haydn appointed Hummel as his successor as
Konzertmeister of
Nikolaus II, Prince Esterházy's estate at
Eisenstadt. Although he had taken over many of the duties of
Kapellmeister because Haydn's health did not permit him to perform them himself, he continued to be known simply as the
Konzertmeister out of respect to Haydn, receiving the title of
Kapellmeister, or music director, to the Eisenstadt court only after the older composer died in May 1809. He remained in the service of Prince Esterházy for seven years altogether before being dismissed in May 1811 for neglecting his duties. Hummel later held the positions of
Kapellmeister in Stuttgart from 1816 to 1818 and in
Weimar from 1819 to 1837, where he formed a friendship with
Goethe. Hummel brought one of the first musicians' pension schemes into existence, giving
benefit concert tours to help raise funds. In his fight against unethical music publishers, Hummel also was a key figure in establishing the principles of intellectual property and copyright law. In 1825, the Parisian music-publishing firm of
Aristide Farrenc announced that 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 "sought Hummel's comments on her keyboard technique". In 1832, at the age of 54 and in failing health, Hummel began to devote less energy to his duties as music director at Weimar. In addition, after Goethe's death in March 1832 he had less contact with local theatrical circles and as a result was in partial retirement from 1832 until his death in 1837. Hummel bequeathed a considerable portion of his famous garden behind his Weimar residence to his masonic lodge. His grave is in the
Historical Cemetery, Weimar. Although Hummel died famous, with a lasting posthumous reputation apparently secure, he and his music were quickly forgotten at the onrush of the
Romantic period, perhaps because his classical ideas were seen as old-fashioned. Later, during the classical revival of the early twentieth century, Hummel was passed over. As with
Franz Joseph Haydn, whose musical revival had to wait until the second half of the twentieth century, Hummel was overshadowed by Mozart and especially, Beethoven. Due to an increasing number of recordings and live performances, his music has become reestablished in the classical repertoire. Notable students include
Ferdinand Hiller and
Alexander Müller. == Music ==