Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/745

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HERZ.
HEXACHORD.
733

there is no mention of Herz in that part of hia Journal, yet we have Herz's own testimony[1] that Moscheles had much influence in the improvement of his style. For the next ten years he enjoyed an immense reputation in Paris both aa a writer and a teacher, and his compositions are said to have fetched 3 or 4 times the prices of those of much better composers. In 1831 he made a tour in Germany with Lafont, but to judge from the notices in the Allg. Zeitung Lafont made the better impression of the two. In 1833 he made his first visit to London, played at the Philharmonic on June 10, and gave a concert of his own, at which he played duets with Moscheles and with J. B. Cramer. In 1842 he was made Professor of the Pianoforte in the Conservatoire. He returned the following year, appeared again at the Philharmonic May 5, and took a long tour, embracing Edinburgh and Dublin. About this time he was tempted to join a pianoforte-maker in Paris named Klepfa, but the speculation was not successful, and Herz lost much money. He then established a factory of his own, and to repair his losses and to obtain the necessary capital for this made a journey through the United States, Mexico, California, and the West Indies, which lasted from 1845 till 1851, and of which he has himself written an account ('Mes voyages,' etc., Paris 1866). He then devoted himself to the making of pianos, and at the Exposition of 1855 his instruments obtained the highest medal, and they now take rank with those of Pleyel and Erard. In 1874 he relinquished his Chair at the Conservatoire. [App. p.672 "date of death, Jan. 5, 1888."]

Herz has left 8 concertos for P.F. and orchestra, and other compositions for his instrument in every recognised form, reaching to more than 200 in number, and including an immense number of Variations. His Etudes and his P.F. Méthode are the only things out of this mass that are at all likely to survive their author. His brilliancy and bravura and power of execution were prodigious, but they were not supported by any more solid qualities, as in the case of Thalberg, Liszt, Tausig, Bülow, and other great executants. Herz found out what his public liked and what would pay, and this he gave them. 'Is Herz prejudiced,' says Mendelssohn,[2] 'when he says the Parisians can understand and appreciate nothing but variations?'

Schumann was never tired of making fun of his pretensions and his pieces. His Gesammelte Schriften contain many reviews, all couched in the same bantering style. In fact Herz was the Gelinek of his day, and like that once renowned and popular Abbé is doomed to rapid oblivion.

[ G. ]

HERZOG, Johann Georg, an eminent German organ-player, born Sept. 6, 1822, at Schmölz in Bavaria. His earlier career was passed in Munich, where in 1842 he became organist, in 1849 cantor, and in 1850 professor at the Conservatorium. In 55 he removed to Erlangen, where he still lives as teacher in the University and Director of the Singakademie. His 'Präludienbuch' and his 'Handbuch für Organisten' are widely and deservedly known. His Organ school is a work of very great merit, and his Fantasias are fine and effective compositions.

[ G. ]

HESELTINE, James, a pupil of Dr. Blow, was in the early part of the 18th century organist of St. Katherine's Hospital, near the Tower. In 1711 he was elected organist of Durham Cathedral, retaining his London appointment. Heseltine composed many excellent anthems, etc., a few of which are still extant in the books of some of the cathedrals, but the major part were destroyed by their composer upon some difference between him and the Dean and Chapter of Durham. He died in 1763. A portrait of him is in the Music School, Oxford.

HESSE, Adolph Friedrich, great organ-player and composer, son of an organ-builder, born Aug. 30, 1809, at Breslau. His masters in the pianoforte, composition, and the organ, were Berner and E. Köhler. His talent was sufficiently remarkable to induce the authorities of Breslau to grant him an allowance, which enabled him to visit Leipzig, Cassel, Hamburg, Berlin, and Weimar, in each of which he played his own and other compositions, and enjoyed the instruction and acquaintance of Hummel, Rinck, and Spohr. In 1831 he obtained the post which he kept till his death, that of organist to the church of the Bernhardins, Breslau. In 1844 he opened the organ at S. Eustache in Paris, and astonished the Parisians by his pedal playing. In 1851 he was in London, and played on several of the organs in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park—protesting much against the unequal temperament in some of them. But his home was Breslau, where he was visited by a constant stream of admirers from far and near up to his death, Aug. 5, 1863. Hesse was director of the Symphony-Concerts at Breslau, and left behind him a mass of compositions of all classes. But it is by his organ works that he will be remembered. His 'Practical Organist,' containing 29 pieces—amongst them the well-known variations on 'God save the King'—has been edited by Lincoln and published by Novello. A complete collection of his organ works was edited by Steggall and published by Boosey.

[ G. ]

HEWE, John, in 1485, received 13s. 9d. for repairing the organ at the altar of the Virgin in York Minster, and for carrying it to the House of the Minorite Brethren and bringing it back to the cathedral. This is probably the earliest instance to be found, though afterwards common, of one church lending another its organ.

HEXACHORD. In order to remove certain grave difficulties connected with the Tetrachords of the Greek tonal system, Guido Aretinus is said to have proposed, about the year 1024, a new arrangement, based upon a more convenient division of the scale into Hexachords—groups of six sounds, so disposed as to place a diatonic semitone between the third and fourth notes of each series, the remaining intervals being

  1. In Fétis's Biographie.
  2. 'Goethe und Mendelssohn.' p. 48.