Philipp Joseph Hinner

Philipp Joseph Hinner

Philipp Joseph Hinner (born February 18, 1755 in Wetzlar , † April 3, 1784 in Versailles , France; often also spelled Phillipe Joseph Hinner) was a German composer and harpist . Philipp Joseph Hinner spent most of his professional career at the French royal court, where he was the harp teacher ("maître de harpe") of the French Queen Marie-Antoinette .

Life

Hinner's student: Marie-Antoinette dans sa chambre , 1776, Versailles , Musée national du château

Philipp Joseph Hinner was born in Wetzlar as the son of the musician Johannes Hinner and his wife Catharina Hinner. When Philipp Joseph Hinner was eight years old, the family was recruited to take part in the French Kourou expedition to French Guiana . In the registration forms of the French recruiters it says about his musical abilities: "Plays the harp as well as his father".

The emigration to Guyana in 1763 ended in a fiasco: Hinner lost his parents and siblings in South America in 1765. At the age of ten he was an orphan. The young musician was entrusted to the governor of Guyana, Étienne-François Turgot, who brought Hinner to Paris and introduced him to the music world there.

In Paris, Hinner was a harp student of Francesco Petrini . Thanks to his virtuosity on the harp, Hinner was soon accepted into the “ Concert spirituel ”. As a diverse musician, he also worked as a harpist and alto in the “Chapelle Royale” from 1774, for which he was rewarded with a salary of 2,000 livres a year.

In the same year 1774 the Habsburg Marie-Antoinette became Queen of France and Hinner became her harp teacher. Until his death, Hinner was allowed to call himself “maître de harpe” (harp teacher) of the French queen. Hinner also became a "harpiste de la musique du roi et de la rein" and a member of the "quintes de la musique du roi".

On December 30, 1775, in Versailles, Hinner married Louise Marguerite Emilie Quetpée de la Borde, who was only 15½ years old, a noble chambermaid of the French queen. The church wedding was celebrated by the Bishop of Saintes in the Versailles church of Saint-Louis.

In 1776 Hinner played in the castle of Brunoy at the court of King Louis XVI's brother, Louis de France, Count of Provence, who later became King Louis XVIII. of France . In the same year, Hinner's opera “La Fausse Délicatesse” was performed in the Théâtre-Italy in Paris .

From 1777 to 1779 Hinner traveled through Italy. He had received an invitation from Marie-Antoinette's sister, Maria Karolina of Austria , Queen of Naples, to audition at the royal court in Naples. On his way back to Paris he was accepted into the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna in 1779 .

In 1781 Hinner undertook a concert tour to London, where he was particularly celebrated for his interpretation of adagias on the harp.

At the French court in 1782, Hinner took over the position of "officier de la chambre de la rein", for which he received an additional annual salary of 3,000 livres. Although Hinner subsequently left the “Musique du Roi”, he was compensated for it with another annual pension of 3,000 livres.

In May 1783 Hinner played a harp newly developed by Jean-Henri Naderman and certified its advantages.

On April 13, 1784, Hinner died in Versailles at the age of 30 for reasons unknown until now. He left behind his 23½-year-old wife and four children, the youngest of whom was born after the father's death. Hinner's eldest daughter Louise Antoinette Laure Hinner (born May 23, 1777 in Versailles) later became known as Laure de Berny, muse and lover of Honoré de Balzac .

Works

• Recueil d'ariettes de différents auteurs avec accompagnement de harpe (op.IV), publisher: Bignon (Paris), date of publication: 1780
• Quatre Sonates pour la harpe avec accompagnement de violon ad libitum (op.VI), publisher: Cousineau (Paris), date of publication: 1781
• Quatrième Recueil d'airs non connus avec accompagnement de harpe et une sonate avec accompagnement de violon (op.VII), publisher: Cousineau (Paris), date of publication: 1780
• Trois Duos pour deux harpes (op.VIII), publisher: Cousineau (Paris), date of publication: 1781
• Quatre Sonates pour la harpe avec accompagnement de violon (op.IX), publisher: Cousineau / Salomon (Paris), date of publication: 1782
• IV Duo pour deux harpes dans lesquels l'auteur a inséré des airs connus. Ces duos peuvent aussi s'exécuter sur le piano-forte (op.X), publisher: Naderman (Paris), date of publication: 1783
• Recueil de douze airs de chant avec accompagnement de harpe (op.XI), publisher: H. Naderman (Paris), date of publication: 1783
• Recueil de diférens airs avec accompagnement de harpe, un duo pour 2 harpes et plusieurs airs variés, dédié à la Reine, date of publication: 1776 (Versailles)
• Trois Sonates pour la harpe avec accompagnement de violon ad libitum, un duo et plusieurs petits airs variés, publisher: Cousineau (Paris), date of publication: 1777
• Deuxième Recueil contenant neuf romances non connues avec accompagnement de harpe et trois sonates pour la harpe avec accompagnement de violon ad libitum, publisher: Cousineau (Paris), date of publication: 1777
• Six sonates pour la harpe dont plusieurs peuvent s'exécuter sur le clavecin avec accompagnement de violon, publisher: Naderman (Paris), date of publication: 1779
• Complainte d'Amadis avec accompagnement de harpe, publisher: Naderman (Paris), date of publication: 1780
• “La Fausse Délicatesse”, Opéra Comique in 3 acts, libretto: Benoît-Joseph Marsollier des Vivetières , music: Philipp Joseph Hinner, first performance: 1776, Opéra-Comique-Italy, Paris
• “Les Trois Inconnues”, Drame lyrique, comédie mêlée d'ariettes in 3 acts, libretto: François-Georges Fouques Deshayes, known as Desfontaines or Desfontaines-Lavallée, music: Philipp Joseph Hinner, first performance: 7 February 1783, Théâtre de la Cour, Versailles

Illustrations

A picture by Hinner is in the archive of the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna in Bologna . The oil painting attributed to the painter Angelo Crescimbeni shows Hinner leaning on a harp with the inscription in the painting: M. HINNER MAITRE DE HARPE / DE SA MAIESTE LA REINE DE FRANCE. The picture was probably taken in 1779 on the occasion of Hinner's visit to Bologna. After the inventory description in the archive of the music library, Hinner also met the Italian composer and music theorist Giovanni Battista Martini OFM , known as Padre Martini, in Bologna .

Hinner is possibly also shown in the picture Marie-Antoinette dans sa chambre by Jean-Baptiste André Gautier-Dagoty (1776) to the right behind Marie-Antoinette, with the music in his hands.

Web links

• Information on Philipp Joseph Hinner in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .

swell

• François-Joseph Fétis : Biography universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique, deuxième édition. Paris 1866, Volume 4, pp. 336–337, entry: HINNER (no first name).
• Youri Carbonnier: Philippe Joseph Hinner, maître de harpe de Marie-Antoinette, 1755–1784. In: Recherches sur la musique française classique, XXIX (1996–1998), pp. 223–237.
• Catherine Michel, François Lesure: Répertoire de la musique pour harpe, publiée du XVIIe siècle au début du XIXe siècle. Paris 2000, pp. 128-130.
• Antonia Franser: Marie Antoinette - biography. Munich 2006. p. 16.
• Marion F. Godfroy, Kourou, 1763. Le dernier rêve de l'Amérique française. Paris 2011, p. 123.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Archives départementales du Bas-Rhin (Strasbourg) C 263 Fam. Hinner: "pince aussi bien la harpe que son père."
2. ↑ Carbonnier (see sources), p. 224: "du mérite de la nouvelle harpe de Naderman"
3. ↑ http://www.bibliotecamusica.it/cmbm/scripts/quadri/scheda.asp?id=130