HUMMEL, Johann Nepomuk
b Pressburg, Bratislava, 24 November 1778
d Weimar, 27 October 1837, aged fifty-eight

He was the son of the director of the Imperial School of Military Music. Unsuccessful with the violin, he began to study piano, and in 1785 he went to Vienna, where he was a pupil of Mozart for two years. From

1804 to 1811 he was Kapellmeister to Prince Esterhazy; from 1816 to 1820 he worked in Stuttgart, and then moved to Weimar. He gave many concert tours, visiting St Petersburg, Paris and London.

He composed about one hundred and thirty works, including sonatas, variations, rondos, waltzes, fantasias, seven concertos and other piano works. He also wrote some church music, ballets, nine operas, cantatas and masses; but he is best known for his book, Piano School, published in 1828.