Jean-Noël Hamal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean-Noël Hamal (born December 23, 1709 in Liège ; † November 26, 1778 ibid) was a Belgian composer of the early classical period.

Life

Palace and cathedral

After years of apprenticeship with his father Henri-Guillaume Hamal (1685-1752), a pupil of Lambert Pietkin , Hamal entered at the age of six under Henri-Denis Dumont as a choir boy in the choir of the Cathedral of St. Lambert, where his training continued . This ensemble consisted of about 30 musicians. From 1728 to 1731 Hamal stayed at the “Liège College Darchis” in Rome, where he received further instruction from Giuseppe Amadori (1670–1730). During a second trip to Italy he met the violinist and composer Niccolò Jommelli , as well as Francesco Durante in Naples . Hamal was Kapellmeister at the Liège Cathedral from 1737 to 1770 and imperial canon. From 1738 onwards, several members of the Hamal family gave regular concerts (“Grands concerts spirituels”) in the town hall of the Meuse city.

After disagreements with the cathedral chapter in 1770, his nephew Henri Hamal (1744-1820) took over the position of Kapellmeister. He held this post until the cathedral was forcibly looted and destroyed by the people of Liège in 1793 during the French Revolution .

plant

Ruins of the cathedral

Hamal lived in the transition from baroque to classicism. Influenced by the Italian style, he made himself a musical pioneer in various areas, as illustrated by his symphonies and his operas in the Liège dialect.

  • 92 motets, 34 masses, 24 psalm cantatas, 5 lamentos, 6 litanies, 4 oratorios, 5 requiems
  • 2 Te Deum, (one of them on the inauguration of Prince-Bishop Charles-Nicolas d'Oultremont )
  • 3 Opus collections of symphonies
  • 3 collections with symphonic fragments and overtures
  • 4 rural operas in the Walloon language of the time:
    • Li Voédje di Tchaufontaine (1757) (The Journey to Chaudfontaine)
    • Li Ligwè égagî (1757)
    • Li Fiesse di Houte si'Plou (1757)
    • Les Hypocontes (1758)

literature

  • Monique de Smet: Jean-Noël Hamal (1709–1778). Chanoine impérial et directeur de la musique de la Cathédrale Saint-Lambert de Liège. Vie et œuvre , Bruxelles, Académie royale de Belgique (Mémoires, tome XI, fasc. 1), 1959 (with a curriculum vitae, list of works and illustrations)
  • Henri Hamal: Annales de la musique et du théâtre à Liège de 1738 à 1806 , foreword, introduction and notes by Maurice Barthélemy (Lüttich, Ed.Mardaga 1989)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thierry Levaux: Dictionnaire des compositeurs de Belgique du moyen âge à nos jours , Ohain-Lasne: Éditions kind in Belgium, 2006, p 736, ISBN 2-930338-37-7
personal data
SURNAME Hamal, Jean-Noël
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hamal, Jean Noel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Walloon composer
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1709
PLACE OF BIRTH Liege
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1778
Place of death Liege