Johann David Heinichen | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1683-04-17)April 17, 1683 Teuchern,Saxony-Anhalt, Germany |
| Died | July 16, 1729(1729-07-16) (aged 46) |
| Known for | Circle of fifths |
| Children | 1 |
Johann David Heinichen (17 April 1683 – 16 July 1729) was a GermanBaroquecomposer andmusic theorist who brought the musical genius ofVenice to the court ofAugustus II the Strong inDresden. After he died, Heinichen's music attracted little attention for many years. As a music theorist, he is credited as one of the inventors of thecircle of fifths.
Johann David Heinichen was born in 1683 in the small village of Krössuln (currently part of the townTeuchern, inSaxony-Anhalt) nearWeissenfels. His father, Michael Heinichen, had studied music at the celebratedThomasschule Leipzig associated with theThomaskirche, served ascantor inPegau and waspastor of the village church in Krössuln. Johann David also attended theThomasschule Leipzig.[1] There he studied music withJohann Schelle and later received organ and harpsichord lessons withJohann Kuhnau. The future composerChristoph Graupner was also a student of Kuhnau at the time.[citation needed]
Heinichen enrolled in 1702 to studylaw at theUniversity of Leipzig and in 1705–1706 qualified as a lawyer (in the early 18th century the law was a favored route for composers; Kuhnau, Graupner andGeorg Philipp Telemann were also lawyers). Heinichen practiced law in Weissenfels until 1709.[citation needed]
However, Heinichen maintained his interest in music and was concurrently composing operas. In 1710, he published the first edition of his major treatise on thethoroughbass. He went toItaly and spent seven formative years there, mostly in Venice, with great success with two operas,Mario andLe passioni per troppo amore (1713).[2]Mario was staged again in Hamburg in 1716 with the German title,Calpurnia, oder die romische Grossmut.[citation needed]
In 1712, he taught music toLeopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, who took him as composer. The same prince would appointJohann Sebastian BachKapellmeister at the end of 1717. In 1716, Heinichen met inVenice PrinceAugustus III of Poland, son of KingAugustus II the Strong, and thanks to him was appointed theRoyal-Polish and Electoral-SaxonKapellmeister in Dresden.[3] His pupils includedJohann Georg Pisendel. In 1721, Heinichen married in Weissenfels; the birth of his only child is recorded as January 1723. In his final years, Heinichen's health suffered greatly; on the afternoon of 16 July 1729, he was buried in the Johannes cemetery after finally succumbing totuberculosis.[citation needed]
His music began to be better known after 1992 whenMusica Antiqua Köln underReinhard Goebel recorded a selection of Dresden Concerti (Seibel 204, 208, 211, 213–215, 217, 226, 231–235, 240), followed by a recording of Heinichen'sLamentationes andPassionsmusik (1996). His sole opera for Dresden,Flavio Crispo (1720), was never performed and was not recorded until 2018. Two "passion oratorios",L'aride tempie ignude (1724?) andCome? S'imbruna il cieli Occhi piangete (1728) (classified in the catalogue as the cantatas Seibel 29 and 30), were recorded in 2021 by theKölner Akademie.[4]
Heinichen is credited with independently inventing thecircle of fifths (German:Musicalischer Circul) in hisNeu erfundene und gründliche Anweisung (1711),[5] though he was not the earliest inventor. The circle of fifths had previously been inventedbyNikolay Diletsky in the late 1670s (of which Heinichen was unaware). Heinichen creditedAthanasius Kircher as a predecessor, specifically hisMusurgia universalis (1650).[citation needed]
