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Johann Nepomuk Hummel
November 14, 1778 - October 17, 1837
born in Pressburg, Austria, composed during the Classical period
Biography
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) was an important composer from the late Classical period primarily known for his solo piano compositions and piano concertos. In recent years, however, attention has been given to his chamber music, operas, and sacred works. He tended to write long-breathed melodies, often used Alberti bass accompaniments and dotted rhythms, and favored the sonata-allegro and rondo forms. Among his greatest works in the keyboard genre are the Sonata in A Flat, for piano 4 hands, Op. 92, and the Sonata in F Sharp, Op. 81. His Mass, Op. 111, and some of his cantatas are also important works. Hummel wrote a highly-regarded three-volume treatise on pianism, entitled A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course on the Art of Pianoforte Playing.

Hummel was born on November 14, 1778, in Bratislava (then Pressburg), Slovakia. Young Johann's first musical studies came on the violin at the behest of his father, a player of string instruments himself, and director of the local Imperial School of Military Music. By the age of five Hummel could play the violin with proficiency. But he would abandon it in favor of the piano, on which he developed an astonishing technique by age six.

When the family moved to Vienna in 1786, Johann studied with Mozart, with whom he lived for two years.