Franz Hünten, also known as François Hünten (26 December 179222 February 1878), was a German pianist and composer of

salon music Salon music was a popular music genre in Europe during the 19th century. It was usually written for solo piano in the Romantic music, romantic style, and is often performed by the composer at events known as "Salon (gathering), Salons". Salon compo ...

. He was born in

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

, the son of the organist

Daniel Hünten Daniel Hünten (1? September 1760, in Treis-Karden – 1 April 1823, in Koblenz) was a German organist, guitarist and composer. He was baptised on 3 September 1760, probably one to three days after his birth. In 1784 Hünten was engaged as an orga ...

, who taught

Henri Herz Henri Herz (6 January 1803 – 5 January 1888) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and piano manufacturer, Austrian by birth and French by nationality and domicile. He was a professor in the Paris Conservatoire for more than thirty years. Among his ...

. Like Herz, he moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and entered its Conservatorium in 1819. He wrote pleasant and technically undemanding piano music: rondos, fantasies, variations, dances, etc. Of Hünten’s 267 published works, the vast majority were written for piano solo or duet. His first success was ''Variations militaires à 4 mains'', op. 12, a simple imitation of

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Co ...

's variations on the ''Alexandermarsch'', and soon his popularity was such that for one work of ten pages he was paid 2000 francs. Two years after publishing the instruction book ''Nouvelle méthode pour le piano-forte'', op. 60 (1833), he moved back to Koblenz, where he continued to compose; he moved back to Paris after a few years but retired for good in 1848. Hünten's music was wildly popular throughout France, Germany, and England, but critical notices inevitably described it as trifling and later assessments have been much the same. His brothers, Wilhelm Hünten, a piano teacher in Koblenz, and Peter Ernst Hünten, a piano teacher in

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

, also composed piano music of a similar character. His son, Emil Hünten, was a painter.

Bibliography

*Gerd Zöllner: ''Franz Hünten. Sein Leben und Werk.'' Beiträge zur rheinischen Musikgeschichte 34, Köln 1959 (Diss. Köln) * *

External links

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunten, Franz 1792 births 1878 deaths 19th-century German pianists German Romantic composers Composers for piano Pianists from the Kingdom of Prussia