DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

HILLER HILLER 403
were held at Cologne, chiefly contributed to gain
him his high reputation as a conductor. As a
teacher his career "was closely connected with
the history of the Cologne Conservatorium.
Among his numerous pupils there, the best
known is Max Bruch. He occasionally left
Cologne to make concert-tours in Germany, or
longer excursions abroad. He conducted the
Italian opera in Paris for a time (1852-53),
and visited Vienna and St. Petersburg, where in
1870 he conducted a series of concerts by the
Russian Musical Society. England he visited
several times, first in 1852, when he conducted
a work of his own at the London Philharmonic
Concert of June 28 ;
and again in 1870, when
his cantata, 'Nala und Damajanti,' was performed
at the Birmingham Festival, and in
1872, when he was enthusiastically received
both as a pianist and conductor of his own works
at the Monday Popular and Crystal Palace
Concerts, and also in Liverpool and Manchester.
Hiller's published works are very numerous.
They include. Chamber music—five PF. quartets
; five trios ; five string quartets ; Sonatas
for PF. alone, and with violin and violoncello ; a
suite 'in Canone' for PF. and violin; Serenade
for PF. and violoncello ;
' Moderne Suite ' for
PF. ; and a mass of other pianoforte compositions,
including twenty-four Etudes, 'rhythmische
Studien,' Impromptu 'zur Guitarre,
operettas without words, etc. etc. Orchestral
works— four overtures, including that to ' Demetrius
'
; a Festival March for the opening of
the Albert Hall ; three symphonies, including
that with the motto ' Es muss doch Friihling
werden '
; etc. etc. A^ocal compositions—two
oratorios, ' Die Zersti-irung Jerusalems ' and
' Saul ' ; five operas, including ' Die Kata-
many smaller
comben,' ' and Der Deserteur, '
works ; Lieder ; choruses, mixed and for men's
voices only ; motets, psalms, etc. ; a number of
cantatas for soli, chorus, and orchestra, especially
' weint um Sie ' from Byron's Hebrew
Melodies, op. 49, 'Ver sacrum,' op. 75 ; 'Nala
und Damajanti,' written for Birmingham ;
'Israels Siegesgesang,' op. 151 ; 'Prometheus,'
op. 175; and 'Rebecca,' op. 182. His literary
works include a crowd of interesting articles,
biographical, critical, and miscellaneous, con-
tributed to the Kolnische Zeitung, many of
them republished under the title Aus clem
TonUlen unserer Zcit, two volumes in 1867,
with a NrAie Folge in 1871, and a fourth vol.,
Pcrsonliches uml MusiJcalisrhes, in 1876. He
has also published his recollections of Mendelssohn—which
appeared in JIacmillan's Mngazine,
and were reprinted sejiarately with a dedication
to Queen Victoria—and a very interesting paper
on Cherubini, first printed in the same periodical.
He edited a volume of letters by Hauptmann
to Spohr and other well-known musicians.
complete the list, we may add— additional
To
ac-
companiments for Handel's ' Deborah
' (for the
Lower Rhine Festival, 1834), and 'Theodora';
and an instruction hook Uebungcn xum Stiidiuni
dcr Sarmonie nnd des Contrapuncts (2nd ed.
1860). A. M.
HILLER, JoHANN Adam, whose real name
was HuLLEE, born Dec. 25, 1728, at Wendisch-
Ossig near Giiirlitz in Prussia, the son of a
schoolmaster and parish-clerk. He lost his
father when barely six, and had a hard struggle
to obtain his education. He possessed a fine
treble voice, and had already acquired considerable
facility on various instruments, and he
quickly turned these talents to account. He
passed in 1747 from the Gymnasium at Gbrlitz
to the Kreuzschule at Dresden, where he studied
the harpsichord and thorough-bass under Homilius.
It was, however, the operas and sacred
compositions of Hasse and Graun which exercised
the most lasting influence upon him. Hasse's
operas, of which he had the opportunity of
hearing excellent performances, had a special
attraction for him, and he copied the scores of
several. In 1751 he went to the University
of Leipzig, where, besides his legal studies, he
devoted much attention to music, ' partly from
choice, partly from necessity,' as he himself
relates. He took part in the so-called ' Grosses
Concert ' both as flautist and singer, and began to
make his way as a composer and author. In
1754 he entered the household of Count Briihl,
the Saxon minister, as tutor, and in this capaoit}'
accompanied his pupil to Leipzig in 1758. A
hypochondriacal tendency, which overshadowed
his whole life, caused him not only to resign this
appointment, but also to refuse the offer of a
Professorship at St. Petersburg. Henceforward
he lived independently at Leipzig, engaged in
literature and music, and actively employed in
promoting the revival of public concerts, teniiior-
arily given up during the war ; and it is largely
owing to his exertions that they afterwards
reached so high a pitch of excellence. He was
appointed director in 1763, when the concerts
were called ' Liebhaber-concerte, ' and imme-
diately took steps to improve the choruses.
In 1771 he founded a school for the cultivation
of singing, which he supported from 1775 by
giving performances of the oratorios of Handel,
Graun, etc. As paid director of a society for
the practice of music, he established ' Concerts
Spirituels '
' in 1776 (so called after the Paris
concerts of that name), which took the pilace
left vacant by the failure of the old ' Grosses
Concert.' In 1781 this ' Concert- Institut'
moved into the newly-built hall of the ' Gewandhaus,'
and thus originated the ' Gewandhaus
' Concerts of world-wide celebrity (see vol. i. p.
712, and ante, pp. 163, 164). Not content
with this he composed for the then flourishing
theatre at Leipzig, a series of ' Singspiele,'
which are sufficient of themselves to perpetuate
his name in the history of music. 'Though
doubtless an adaptation of the French operetta,