6 divertissements ou 2e suite de petits airs pour le piano forte ou le clavecin op. 7 - Hüllmandel, Nicolas-Joseph 1756-1823 (Paris Hüllmandel, 1783)
Dedicated to Madame La Baronne De Grant de Blairfindy
Last page is signed autograph by the composer (manuscript)
Nicolas-Joseph Hüllmandel came from a family of musicians; his father Michel Hüllmandel was a violinist at Strasbourg Cathedral, and members of his mother's family were also professional musicians. Hüllmandel studied in Strasbourg with Joseph Garnier and Franz Xaver Richter, both of whom were Kapellmeisters at the cathedral during his childhood and youth. François-Joseph Fétis, who knew Hüllmandel personally, stated that Hüllmandel was a pupil of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, which is also supported by the fact that Hüllmandel counted C. P. E. Bach among the few musicians who could properly use the sound possibilities of the fortepiano. Several concerts in London are documented for the years 1771 and 1773, and in 1775 he lived in Milan. At the age of about 20, Hüllmandel settled in Paris. There he quickly gained access to aristocratic circles and the important private salons, as illustrated by the illustrious dedicatees of his first publications, Queen Marie-Antoinette, the Baroness Talleyrand or the Duc de Guines. Hüllmandel caused a particular stir in Parisian society with his playing of the glass harmonica. Among Hüllmandel's most important pupils were George Onslow and Hyacinthe Jadin. After the outbreak of the Revolution, Hüllmandel moved to London, losing a large fortune he had acquired through his marriage to Camille-Aurore Ducazan. For this loss, according to Fétis, who met him in Paris in 1806, he was later paid compensation that enabled him to live a financially carefree life in England. His son Charles Joseph Hullmandel became a well-known English lithographer. His daughter Evalina published a piano school in 1827.
All of Hüllmandel's compositions were self-published in Paris before 1790 and up to and including op. 8; only his pianomethod was published in London in 1796. His works were widely distributed in the early 19th century and were reprinted by numerous European publishers. After 1790, Hüllmandel no longer composed, but he arranged works by other composers, such as Johann Christian Bach, Grétry, Giovanni Battista Viotti or François-Joseph Gossec.
Keywords: 18th Century (1701-1800); Keyboard music