Concerto in F major for 2 Horns (Corni da caccia) and Orchestra (Seibel 231, Hausswald I:15)
Johann David Heinichen was born on 17 April 1683 in Crössuln near Weißenfels (now in Saxony-Anhalt), the son of the Lutheran pastor David Heinichen (1652–1719). He received his musical training at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where he studied with Thomaskantor Johann Schelle and the organist Johann Kuhnau, who succeeded Schelle as Thomaskantor in 1701 and also served as university music director.
From 1702 to 1705 Heinichen studied law in Leipzig. During this time he played in the Collegium musicum directed by Georg Philipp Telemann and took part in performances at the Leipzig opera house, which had existed since 1693. It is not clearly documented whether he subsequently practised as a lawyer in Weißenfels, but he is known to have been in contact with musicians of the Weißenfels court, including Johann Philipp Krieger (1649–1725) and Gottfried Grünewald.
Commissioned by Samuel Ernst Dobricht, director of the Leipzig opera, Heinichen composed several operas. He also took over the direction of the Collegium musicum at the Lehmann coffee house on the market square, which Johann Friedrich Fasch had re-founded in 1708. In 1711 he published his treatise "Neu erfundene und gründliche Anweisung … zu vollkommener Erlernung des General-Basses" (A Newly Invented and Thorough Instruction in the Complete Study of Thoroughbass), which incorporated the circle of fifths he had developed (already published in 1710).
In 1709 Heinichen entered the service of Duke Moritz Wilhelm of Saxe-Zeitz and travelled to Italy in the same year; little is known about the details of this journey. In Venice he met the Saxon Electoral Prince Friedrich August, later Elector Friedrich August II (1696–1763).
This encounter led to his appointment as Kapellmeister of the court in Dresden in 1717. There he composed numerous masses, cantatas and concertos for the needs of the Dresden court. Suffering from tuberculosis, he was often in poor health and was represented by his colleagues Jan Dismas Zelenka and Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1692–1755). He married in Weißenfels in 1721, and in January 1723 became the father of a daughter. In his final years he taught composition to Johann Georg Pisendel and Johann Joachim Quantz. Heinichen died in Dresden on 16 July 1729 and was buried in the Johannisfriedhof.
