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Ferdinand Hiller memoir

Started by Double-A, Sunday 03 April 2016, 16:10

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Double-A

A quick post to alert people who can read German that a Kindle edition of Hiller's memoir ("Erinnerungsblätter") is presently available for $1.69 from Amazon.  (They advertise it as $1.00, but then charged me 69 cents for the download, maybe if you happen to be in the US--or Germany?--they let you download for free).  From initial browsing I'd conclude that the book is written in a significantly more refined language than Spohr's.  If it is as entertaining as Schnyder von Wartensee's remains to be seen.
Typesets of Hiller's quartets 1 and 2 are presently underway--I can't find any commercial source for the sheet music, so they'll be posted on IMSLP.  Once I know more about the music I'll report.

Double-A

Having read a chapter I can give some more details:  The book is not an autobiography but a series of chapters about events in his life, not even chronologically arranged.
The writing is very good, often quite witty, if sometimes too rich in detail.  The writer comes across as likable, a rather modest man who can mock himself though he is confident in his craft. 
I suspect there are not so many strictly musical themes dealt with in the book.  It is more a book by an elderly man reminiscing.

Double-A

There is some musical stuff in the book after all.  A chapter on "Frankfurter Tonkünstler vergangener Zeit" (Frankfurt composers of the past) featuring Hiller's teachers and some other figures from the musical life of the city of Frankfurt (where Hiller grew up): notably  Aloys Schmitt, Hiller's piano teacher;  I.A. André; Karl Guhr (Hiller's spelling); Schnyder von Wartensee; Hiller gives a description that matches the impression of the man one gets from his autobiography and has an accurate judgement of his artistic temperament and merit (IMO);  I.N. Schelble.

All of these characters are described as composers in Wikipedia.  Of these the following have composer pages on IMSLP:  SchmittAndré, Guhr, Schnyder.

And threads on this forum:
Schmitt:  Mentioned in various contexts, Schmitt being a common name makes exact identification impossible sometimes, no thread on his own.
André:  No appearance I can find.
Guhr:  No appearance I can find.
Schnyder:  Well represented.
Schelble:  Mentioned once in a Hiller thread.

Moreover there are small chapters on Ignaz Moscheles and Friedrich Kalkbrenner (no links required for people on this forum).  Also included is a piece by Sir Julius Benedict (apparently a friend of C. M. v. Weber) about the first performance of Freischütz.