ABSTRACT Title of Document: THE PEDAGOGICAL LEGACY OF JOHANN NEPOMUK HUMMEL. Jarl Olaf Hulbert, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Directed By: Professor Shelley G. Davis School of Music, Division of Musicology & Ethnomusicology Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), a student of Mozart and Haydn, and colleague of Beethoven, made a spectacular ascent from child-prodigy to pianist- superstar. A composer with considerable output, he garnered enormous recognition as piano virtuoso and teacher. Acclaimed for his dazzling, beautifully clean, and elegant legato playing, his superb pedagogical skills made him a much sought after and highly paid teacher. This dissertation examines Hummel’s eminent role as piano pedagogue reassessing his legacy. Furthering previous research (e.g. Karl Benyovszky, Marion Barnum, Joel Sachs) with newly consulted archival material, this study focuses on the impact of Hummel on his students. Part One deals with Hummel’s biography and his seminal piano treatise, Ausführliche theoretisch-practische Anweisung zum Piano- Forte-Spiel, vom ersten Elementar-Unterrichte an, bis zur vollkommensten Ausbildung, 1828 (published in German, English, French, and Italian). Part Two discusses Hummel, the pedagogue; the impact on his star-students, notably Adolph Henselt, Ferdinand Hiller, and Sigismond Thalberg; his influence on musicians such as Chopin and Mendelssohn; and the spreading of his method throughout Europe and the US. Part Three deals with the precipitous decline of Hummel’s reputation, particularly after severe attacks by Robert Schumann. His recent resurgence as a musician of note is exemplified in a case study of the changes in the appreciation of the Septet in D Minor, one of Hummel’s most celebrated compositions. The Postlude assesses Hummel’s role as a teacher by also addressing his “hidden” presence. For example, core elements of his method inform the pedagogy of Isabelle Vengarova, a teacher of Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein. Her piano instruction is indebted to Hummel, revealing the far-reaching influence of his pedagogical legacy. The appendices address important aspects, for example, Hummel’s indirect impact in the US through Charles Zeuner. Hummel’s pedagogical legacy is divulged here in its significance of impact. Renewed interest is needed in a musician of eminence who suffered much bias and neglect and deserves a full reevaluation. THE PEDAGOGICAL LEGACY OF JOHANN NEPOMUK HUMMEL By Jarl Olaf Hulbert Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2006 Advisory Committee: Professor Shelley G. Davis, Chair Professor Peter U. Beicken Professor Bradford P. Gowen Professor Floyd K. Grave Professor Richard Wexler © Copyright by Jarl Olaf Hulbert 2006 Preface My decision to enter the field of musicology has its roots in the time I spent as a student in Vienna, having been given the opportunity to study piano for the academic year 1996-97 at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Merely being in the city where the composers whose pieces I played had lived and worked made a strong impression on me, as did also conversations with the husband of the landlord whose apartment I rented in Vienna’s Währing district, directly south of the site where Beethoven and Schubert were originally buried. The gentleman, Bruce Cooper Clarke, author of The Mozart Starter (Bloomington, Ill.: Medi-Ed Press, 1995) and “The Annotated Schlichtegroll” (self- published, 1997) proved to be a most informative and helpful person with whom to speak. One of his primary interests focused on the propagation of myth in biographies of Mozart, and he was perturbed that even the well-known standard historical texts were often biased. While I took what he said to heart, I was particularly moved when I read a series of biographies that he translated into English: the Music and Medicine series by Anton Neumayr (Bloomington, Ill: Medi-Ed Press, 1994). The biographies of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Weber proved especially entertaining, because the story-telling aspect of the biographies brought the composers to life for me in a new way—except for the overly brief entry on Hummel, which left me yearning for more information on the musicians about whom I had previously heard so little. Subsequently, when asked to choose a historical figure for a piano pedagogy project during my study at the University of Arizona, where I later received my Master’s degree, I eagerly requested a project on Hummel. The ii professor who was my mentor at the time, knowing the scarcity of information available on Hummel, wisely advised that I include Chopin as well. My initial findings amazed me, and I could not help but to think back to Clarke’s crusade against the Mozart myths. It appeared to me that Hummel also had been dealt with unjustly by historians. I hope my essay provides at least an initial step towards restoring and securing both the name and the contributions of Johann Nepomuk Hummel in our history books. * Much of the research for this project consisted of looking through nineteenth- century source material. This material tends to be inconsistent in spelling and grammar. I have decided to be faithful to the original texts and reproduce them as they have been recorded. As with English, nineteenth-century German contains a number of spellings that are different from those of today, and that appeared to be the case in the Italian letter and the three French letters as well. I have attempted to reproduce the French accent marks in letters of John Field as he indicated them. Those markings appear to be wrong in some cases. In regard to Hummel’s treatise, unless otherwise noted, all quotations come from the authorized English translation. And, in cases where there is a foreign language translation, unless otherwise noted, I am the translator. Perhaps the most challenging part of this project has been to grapple with handwritten letters in German—letters which were written in a style of handwriting not used today. In a few cases, transcriptions of the letters had already been published in Benyovszky’s monograph, and in some cases there were typed or iii handwritten transcriptions included in the folio of the letter in question at the Goethe- Museum, Düsseldorf. For the others, a few of which have been transcribed in this work for the first time, I received assistance from my aunt in Germany and her circle of friends. iv Manuscript Sources British Library Manuscript Collection: ADD. 47843 29-30b, 31-31b Goethe-Museum, Düsseldorf. Katalog der Musikalien (KM): 568, 2127, 2164, 2165, 2184, 2195, 2200, 2219, 2225, 2226, 2242, 2244 +N61, 2251, 2265, 2266, 2269, 2284, 2298, 2401, N56, N67 Hummel-Katalog: 161 Goethe-und-Schiller-Archivs Weimar GSA 96/4868 Library of Congress, Washington, DC Newland Zeuner Collection: Box 49, Box 56 Northwestern University Music Library MSS 244. v Dedication To Avagail vi Acknowledgements The blossoming of this project has been due to the efforts of a good number of distinguished people. I owe thanks first to Bruce Cooper Clarke for introducting me to Hummel through his translation of Neumayr’s books and starting me on the road towards this fascinating study. Drs. Rex Woods and Jay Rosenblatt of the University of Arizona were both very encouraging in the first stages of the study. Thanks are due to Dr. Woods for the initial pedagogical building blocks, and to Dr. Rosenblatt for the initial guidance in navigating the world of musicology. An acknowledgement is due as well to Sandra Rosenblum for initial guidance on aspects of the Hummel/Chopin relationship, and to Manfred Kanngießer of the Hummel Society of Weimar for guidance in helping me locate appropriate archives. A special thanks is due to all the librarians who have been essential in locating documents: to the staff of the Library of Congress for their valuable assistance; the members of the inter-library loan department at the University of Maryland, who have made many things possible; the staffs of the Northwestern University Music library, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, British Library, and Goethe-Schiller Archive in Weimar, who have facilited this project with their willingness to forward photocopied documents; and in particular, Regine Zeller of the Goethe-Museum of Düsseldorf, who was kind and helpful beyond the call of duty during a personal visit to that institution. My family was of particular help during this project. Many thanks to my aunt, Inger Marie Tönnessen of Nürnberg, and Simon Kinsky and his grandmother, who assisted in deciphering manuscripts and in translating; to my mother, Wenche Hulbert, who helped with travel arrangements; and my wife, Irene Hulbert, who helped with the writing process and just about everything else. The encouragement of Ruth Waalkes and the staff at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center has also been cherished and appreciated. I’d also like to thank the Dissertation Committee for their time and patience in overseeing this project: to Dr. Peter Beicken for taking the time despite summer travels—his expertise in German is much appreciated, and he went above and beyond in helping with final edits; to Prof. Bradford Gowen, who has always been a great pleasure to work with, for his extraordinary knowledge and expertise in issues related to piano pedagogy; to Dr. Floyd Grave, who committed to traveling all the way from New Jersey for this project—his expertise in Hummel’s teacher Haydn and related issues is highly valued; to Dr. Richard Wexler, whose insightful Beethoven class gave me much to work with, and who has earned the greatest respect from me for his overall knowledge of music history; and especially to Dr Shelley Davis, without whom the project would not have had its same impetus, passion, or refinement.