●As a composer, Hummel stands at the boundary of an era. His reputation today is largely that of a virtuoso piano composer, a salon composer, characteristic of the 19th century. However, this view of him is grossly erroneous. Overlooking not only well-known works (several piano concertos, piano pieces, chamber music containing piano; trumpet concertos in the most recorded works), but also little-known unpublished works and a large number of printed works. A look reveals that his work spanned nearly every genre and medium of performance that was popular at the turn of the century. operas, singspiels, orchestral masses, other sacred music, occasional music (serenades, dances, etc.), chamber music, songs (lieds, concert arias, etc.) and, of course, concertos, piano solos and numerous arrangements. be. The conspicuous absence of a symphony is the only indication that he had a strong rivalry with Beethoven. Moreover, Hummel had a strange mixture of old craftsman composers and new entrepreneurial composers. While composing an enormous amount of music as part of his job, he also worked as a freelance musician, and was almost always in demand, unable to satisfy all the demands of his publishers. His extraordinary knack for serving the needs of the music market is evident in his relationship with Edinburgh folk collector George Thomson. Haydn and Beethoven were also requested to arrange these folk songs, but Beethoven's arrangement for Thomson was too difficult and sold poorly, but Hummel's was well received. . However, Hummel, like Beethoven, was a composer who naturally demanded a high level of technique.

 

●Stylistically, Hummel's music is the best of the late Classical period. It basically has a homophonic texture and features a virtuoso splendor underpinned by a newly refurbished Alberti Bass, with an Italian melody with a lot of decoration. His style, which shows the most avant-garde tendencies in his piano works, continued throughout his life, although the range of expression in his works was considerably expanded in terms of diversity and splendor of harmony and melody after he resumed his performance activities in 1814. did not change through But despite these proto-Romantic elements, the new style is still distinctly Classical in nature, and the tone is largely consistent with that of the younger generation. It is completely different from the confrontation of emotions that I wanted. The clarity of transitions between phrases and sections is still of primary importance, and the relatively slow harmonic rhythms found throughout are not enough to keep the listener from being swept away by the dizzying changes in harmony. It seems that young romantics often took advantage of this dizzying harmony change. In his autograph manuscript there is an inscription showing figured bass notes, suggesting that Hummel thought of music as fleshing out harmonic progressions. This seemingly archaic composition method did not preclude the use of imaginative new chords. Especially after 2014, he favored the use of relational thirds, second dominants, third dominants, and chromatic transitions. Good examples can be found in the Piano Trio Op.83 and Sonata Op.81.

 

●Although he tended to think about music centered on harmony, Hummel excelled in melodic writing, especially in his mature works, where it was difficult to predict what would come next in the melodic line, and even in symmetry. lost. The long phrases, with their splendid embellishments and varied new harmonies, are of the highest standard of the period, except for Beethoven. These melodies are underpinned by textures devoted to the accompaniment, and since this accompaniment is always placed under the melody rather than being free, his music is born from the pianist's experience as a "right-handed man." It is often said that it is the music of But in fact, the clear sound of the Viennese piano, which has influenced his music in general, makes the effect of the page filled with notes subtle and transparent, even in the virtuosic part. , quite a bit of counterpoint is used. There are two types of this counterpoint: one that is purely ornamental (e.g. the various levels of melodic embellishment common in his later works, which is part of Schumann's piano technique). However, it has become an important part), and the other is more related to the structure itself (such as fugato, which inevitably appears when the development reaches a dead end).

 

●Like many composers of his generation, Hummel's weakness was in how to construct large musical units. For this reason, his variations are often the most successful large-scale works, even when they lack musical ideas. His two favorite large-scale forms, the "Sonata Allegro" movement and the structure of the rondo, undeniably give the impression of a jumble of melodies and textures. In this respect, it is very similar to Domenico Scarlatti's technique, although the style and overall composition are different. The charm of Hummel's musical ideas lies in the richness of the melody that develops freely, but the talent for writing this very melody was a disaster. In contrast to Beethoven's musical ideas, which gradually reveal their potential and organically develop into a large-scale composition, Hummel's self-contained and long musical ideas lack the possibility of true development. Because of its verbosity, it tends to produce excessively long movements. This is especially true of chamber music, where the overall form is further compromised by Hummel's euphoria assigning each player a lengthy melody. He tried to overcome this weakness by contrasting lyric passages with virtuosic passages, but this was largely unsuccessful, as the top voice always dominated. But he acquired a certain lyricism and flamboyance, comparable to Rossini's achievements in vocal music.

 

●Despite his shortcomings, Hummel's outstanding craftsmanship has made him one of the most important composers in the European mainstream. His studies with Mozart, and his style, which was said to be classical even in his lifetime, made him an old member of the Viennese Classicism. However, as the Classical school came to be considered obsolete, its reputation began to decline rapidly. Suddenly he was an anachronism. His virtuosity led to the creation of an inquisitive new audience, who sought much more spectacular technical stimulation than the old audience of educated music lovers. As a teacher, Hummel is also a man of the past. Czerny's simple etudes were far more acceptable than Hummel's counterpoint, and Czernyi's use of a metronome to teach the correct tempo was an attempt to remove the intangible of 'musicality'. It was more familiar than Hummel's assertion, which he emphasized. The waning of his creativity in his later years may have been due to his acknowledgment that his time was over, rather than, as Liszt thought, to a comfortable life in Weimar.

 

● Hummel's music has reached the highest standards for a man who was not blessed with supreme talent. His works are not immortal, but they, and his style of playing, have long been valued. He was perhaps the best composer of the post-classical period, and the school's most famous representative during his lifetime, translating the styles of Clementi and Mozart, not through Beethoven, into Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Chopin. , an early list, conveyed to Schumann et al. However, some of them, who owed much to Hummel in their formative years, were hostile. His essential conservatism brought Viennese Classicism to a high degree of perfection and decline. This is because by focusing on complementing the legacy of the 18th century, it caused a strong backlash from the next generation. But Hummel's true importance is determined not by the fame of those who have followed him, but by his position as a true representative of the era in which he lived. The classical style is decisively losing its effectiveness as the old virtues of clarity, symmetry, grace, and 'education' give way to newer trends of 'inspiration', sentimentalism, commercialism, and bombast. The stages may be seen in Hummel rather than Beethoven.