Concerto F major for 2 Horns (Corni da caccia) (Seibel 231, Haußwald I:15)
Johann David Heinichen was born on April 17, 1683 in Crössuln, a village near Weißenfels (today Saxony-Anhalt), as the son of the Protestant pastor David Heinichen (1652–1719). He received his musical training in Leipzig at the Thomasschule. There he was a student of the Thomaskantor Schelle and the organist Johannes Kuhnau, who later (1701) became Schelle's successor as Thomaskantor and 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 clear whether Heinichen subsequently settled as a lawyer in Weißenfels, but it is known that he had contact with the musicians Johann Philipp Krieger (1649–1725) and Gottfried Grünewald, who were active at the Weißenfels court.
Heinichen composed several operas on behalf of Samuel Ernst Dobricht, the Leipzig opera director. He also took over the management of the Collegium musicum in the Lehmannisches Kaffeehaus am Markt, which was re-founded in 1708 by Johann Friedrich Fasch. In 1711 he published his music treatise "Newly invented and thorough instructions ... for the perfect learning of the figured bass", in which the circle of fifths he had developed (already published in 1710) was integrated.
In 1709 Heinichen received a job with Duke Moritz Wilhelm of Saxe-Zeitz. In the same year he traveled to Italy; little is known about the details of this trip. In Venice, the heir to the throne, Elector Prince Friedrich August, who later became Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony (1696–1763), met him.
This encounter resulted in his employment as court music director at the Dresden court in 1717. In this position he composed numerous works such as masses, cantatas and concertos that met the requirements of the Dresden court. Due to his tuberculosis illness, he was often sickly and had to be represented by his colleagues Jan Dismas Zelenka and Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1692–1755). Heinichen had married in Weißenfels in 1721; in January 1723 he became the father of a girl. In his last years he taught composition to Johann Georg Pisendel and Johann Joachim Quantz. He died on July 16, 1729 in Dresden and was buried in the Johannes cemetery.
