Hüllmandel, Nicolas-Joseph

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Hüllmandel, Nicolas-Joseph

Hüllmandel, Nicolas-Joseph, Alsatian composer; b. Strasbourg, May 23, 1756; d. London, Dec. 19, 1823. He was an illegitimate son of Michel Hüllmandel, organist at the Strasbourg Cathedral and nephew of the composer Jean-Joseph Rodolphe. Around 1776 he went to Paris, where he taught piano and the glass harmonica; among his pupils in composition were Onslow and Aubert. After the French Revolution he went to London, where he remained until his death. There he publ, a manual, Principles ofMusic, Chiefly Calculated for the Pianoforte (1795). He composed in a typical manner of his time; Mozart, in one of his letters to his father, expressed appreciation of Hullmandel’s sonatas. He publ. 25 keyboard sonatas between 1773 and 1790, some with violin accompaniment; also other works for piano or harpsichord.

Bibliography

R. Benton, N.-J. H. and French Instrumental Music in the Second Half of the 18th Century (diss., Univ. of Toronto, 1961).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire