| Johann Adam Hiller (December 25, 1728 – June 16, 1804) was a German composer, conductor and writer on music, regarded as the creator of the Singspiel, an early form of German opera. In many of these operas he collaborated with the poet Christian Felix Weisse. Furthermore, Hiller was a teacher who encouraged musical education for women, his pupils including Elisabeth Mara and Corona Schröter.[1]
Hiller learned the basics of music from a school master in his home town, Wendisch-Ossig. From 1740 to 1745 he was a student at the Gymnasium in Görlitz, and in 1746 he went to study at the famous Kreuzschule in Dresden. There he took keyboard and basso continuo lessons with Gottfried August Homilius. In 1751 he moved to Leipzig where he enrolled in the university to study law. Hiller immersed himself in the rich musical life of the town and took an active role in the Grosses Concert, which was the leading concert undertaking in Leipzig. During that time he wrote several symphonies, church cantatas, and arias, as well as a fragmentary Singspiel entitled Das Orackle. Hiller also published an essay on the Mimesis of Nature in Music (Abhandlung über die Nachahmung der Natur in der Musik) in 1754, the year he became steward to Count Brühl in Dresden. He remained in that position until 1760 when health problems (depression) forced him to resign.
Moving back to Leipzig, Hiller became the director of the Grosse Concert, a position he held until 1771. Four years later, Hiller founded his own concert society, the Musikübende Gesellschaft. In Leipzig he also founded a school in which he trained young musicians in singing and playing instruments. Two of his most famous students were Corona Schröter and Gertrud Elisabeth Mara née Schmeling, both acclaimed vocalists. In 1778 Hiller was appointed music director at the Paulinerkirche, the church that belonged to Leipzig University. During that time he also organized Concerts spirituels for lent. |
