Johann David Heinichen

Born on 17 April 1683 in Crössuln (now Krauschwitz), Johann David Heinichen was another composer helping to lend credibility to the notion that Germany fairly owned the latter baroque period, he an important link with Venice also vying for that spot. He had been a prolific composer during his relatively brief career, writing concerti grossi, concerti, works for orchestra, sonatas for chamber, keyboard solos, arias for operas, 62 cantatas, other liturgical works like Psalms in Latin and vernacular, lamentations, responsories, 58 Masses, et al. "S" numbers used in Heinechen are per Gustav Adolph Seibel's 'Das Leben' of 1913 [Google Books / IMSLP / Internet Archive]. The Seibel catalogue which doesn't represent the entirety of Heinichen's oeuvre is a thematic directory beginning with masses ('Missa No.1' as S 1) a decade after his first datable works in 1711, the cantatas 'Bella se pur gradite' S 191 and 'La bella fiamma ò Tirsi' S 183. As for 'HWV' numbers in Heinichen, these refer to instrumentals as catalogued in Günther Hausswald's 'Johann David Heinichens Instrumentalwerke' of 1937.

'La Bella Fiamma ò Tirsi'   Cantata by Johann David Heinichen

1711   Score

Soprano: Soledad Molina   Tiorba: Laura Fainstein Sestopal

Violoncello: Paula Sadovnik   Clave: Juana Victoria Torres Varela

Buenos Aires   2022

Heinechen's father was a cantor and pastor. After graduating from Thomasschule in Leipzig, where he studied music, Heinichen matriculated into the University of Leipzig in 1702. Qualified to practice law in 1705-06, that he did in Weissenfels (meanwhile marrying) until his first known operatic work was performed per 'Der angenehme Betrug oder der Carneval von Venedig' in 1707 or 1709. I'm guessing that Heinichen is credited less for composing the opera itself than contributing an aria or so to Reinhard Keiser's opera by the same title [Opera One] found in a manuscript dated 1707 [Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek]. This is the more curious due that some sources estimate that Heinechen's opera, or at least that to which he contributed, may have been performed in Weißenfels as early as 1705, music for which is lost. In any case, Christoph Graupner is named a collaborator in 'Keiser's 'Der angenehme Betrug oder der Carneval von Venedig' by contributing arias along with others. Whether Heinichen was among them I leave undetermined. References for this opera are below for who may wish to pursue it.

In 1711 Heinichen published his first treatise in music theory, 'Grundliche Anweisung' ('Basic Instruction'), in which he presented his circle of fifths, a geometrical representation of the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale. The first circle of fifths [Dummies] had appeared sometime in the 6th century BC per the Greek mathematician, Pythagoras, upon his discovery of 12 pitches and the octave intervals that are the Pythagorean scale. Another circle of fifths appeared twenty-one centuries later in Nikolay Diletsky's 'Grammatika Musikiykago Peniya' of 1679 to far less fanfare than Heinichen's thirty-two years later.

Heinichen might have easily continued his career in Germany when he was compelled toward destinations south, traveling in Italy and, especially, Venice. While in Italy he was employed as of 1712 by Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen in Rome. Moving onward to Venice, two of his operas appeared in 1713, 'Mario' and 'Le passioni per troppo amore'.

While in Venice Heinichen met Augustus III of Poland in 1716 who helped him acquire employment with his father at the court of Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, in Dresden. Heinichen was there appointed Kapellmeister in 1717, sharing that position with Johann Christoph Schmidt and there remaining until his death.

Titles below are stacked per Seibel number, not chronologically. His 'Mass in D Major' S 9 arrived in 1721, that a second version of his first 'Mass in D Major' which begins the Seibel catalogue (Missa No.1' S 1). 'Requiem' in E flat major S 18 is dated to 1726. 'Warum toben die Heiden' in D major S 39 was composed sometime in Dresden. When he wrote the concerti is unknown.

'Missa'   D major   S 9   Johann David Heinichen

1721   Digital Copy   Score

Kammarkören Högalid w the Barockorkester / Benedikt Melichar   Dec 2021

'Requiem'   E flat major   S 18   Johann David Heinichen

1726   Digital Copy

Das Kleine Conzerte / Herman Maxx   Soprano: Maria Zadori

'Warum toben die Heiden'   D major   S 39

Cantata by Johann David Heinichen sometime at Dresden

'Why are the heathen raging'

Musica Antiqua Köln / Reinhard Goebel   Bass: Raimund Nolte

'Concerto Grosso'   G major   S 215   HWV I:3   Johann David Heinichen

Musica Antiqua Köln / Reinhard Goebel

'Violin Concerto'   A minor   Seibel deest   Johann David Heinichen

International Baroque Players   Violin: Johannes Pramsohler

Heinichen published his second volume of music theory, 'Der General-Bass in der Composition', in 1728. He died the next year on 16 July 1729 in Dresden of tuberculosis at age forty-six.