Henri Herz

In 1816 Herz entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied piano with Louis-Barthélémy Pradher, harmony with Victor Dourlen and composition with Anton Reicha.

In the first of many extended concert tours, Henri Herz—along with the violinist Charles Philippe Lafont—visited Germany and England in 1831 and 1834, respectively, winning great acclaim.

The characteristic sound of Frédéric Chopin's grand pianos, to which the labor-intensive, hand-made hammers after Herz's patents make a distinctive contribution, disappeared with mid-century developments in the USA (Steinway).

In the second half of the 19th century, simplification and impoverishment of the piano's sound variety occurred with two-layer, industrially produced Dolge hammers.

To Herz's work as a piano maker can also be attributed the implementation of a simplified version of Sebastian Erard's double repetition.

In 1849, the Academy of San Juan de Letrán launched a convocation, with the object of acquiring a suitable letter for a hymn that represented Mexicans, especially abroad.

In this call, three compositions were received, of which two were chosen: that of the American composer Andrew Davis Bradburn, and that of the Mexican poet Félix María Escalante, which was set to music by the Austrian Henry Herz; however, this hymn was not to the taste of the people.

[14] He wrote a book about his experiences abroad, Mes voyages en Amérique (Paris: Achille Faure, 1866), translated by Henry Bertram Hill as My Travels in America (1963).

[16] Herz was also an inventor of a mechanical device he named a dactylion, designed to loosen and strengthen a pianist's fingers.