The University of Pennsylvania hosts images of an 1820 A.P. Heinrich autograph letter to John Rowe Parker. King College in Bristol, Tennessee hosts some fine Heinrich pages, including a biographical sketch. American music performer and archivist Benjamin Robert Tubb hosts extensive Heinrich pages, including bibliography and MIDI sequences.

Anthony Philip Heinrich was born in what is now the Czech Republic in 1861. He was heir to a flourishing family business, and had benefit of excellent musical training as a child and young man, mastering both piano and violin. He came to America around 1805, seeking new markets for his family's mercantile business. His family's fortune was wiped out by bank failures during the Napoleonic wars.

Around 1817, after his wife died, Heinrich left his young daughter in care of trusted family friends in New York and made his way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he had been offered work as an orchestra conductor. He walked from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. The job fell through, and Heinrich made his way to Lexington, Kentucky. In the course of his travels he had befriended the wealthy and influential Speed family of Kentucky, as well as John James Audubon. In 1817, he conducted the second American performance of Beethoven's First Symphony in Lexington. In early 1818 he rented a rundown log cabin near Bardstown, Kentucky and began composing.

He published Op. 1, The Dawning of Music in Kentucky in 1820. After returning to New York seeking musical employment to continue supporting his daughter, he became a musical celebrity. He eventually became known among professional musicians as "The American Beethoven", or "Kentucky's Beethoven", or among familiars as "Papa Heinrich". He made numerous trips to Europe, and conducted some of his orchestral compositions there to great acclaim.

Heinrich was chairman of the first meeting of the New York Philharmonic Society. He is credited also as the first American "Indianist" composer, basing some works upon Native American themes. Many of his musical titles are quintessentially American, such as The Barbeque Divertimento. Heinrich's music as well as his titles often conveyed great humor and satire, and always conveyed great enthusiasm for America and American musical themes. Heinrich largely self-published, and many of his works and papers survive in the Library of Congress.

Heinrich dedicated Texas and Oregon Grand March "To His Excellency John Tyler, President of the United States", hoping to encourage President Tyler to grant him government patronage. The march is scored for piano, with an incidental piccolo entrance in the final four bars. But President Tyler declined to provide government largess. In response, Heinrich published the satirical mock heroic Tyler's Grand Veto Quick Step. The Quick Step was a popular two step ballroom dance at the time.

Valentine Wedding Waltz is a minute, joyous and sweet waltz in the romantic style.

In 1849, after the New York Philharmonic Society Orchestra declined to perform his symphonic works, Heinrich resigned the Society, and sent each member the score of A Valentine to the New York Philharmonic Society, a short scherzo for pianoforte in three movements. The Valentine is a virtuoso romp, filled with tart musical rasberries. To this day, the New York Philharmonic Society's orchestra has not performed a single note of Heinrich's music

The three movements are to be performed attaca, or following without pause. As with most of his published works, Heinrich indicated tempo strictly, with Maezel's Metronome markings. The movements are:

St. Valentine's Salutation, marked Moderato.

Rondino Valentino, marked Vivace. It approximates a formal rondo, with some surprises. Like much of Heinrich's music, it is in classical form yet based upon folk themes.

St. Valentine's Dance of Adieu, marked Brilliante Quasi Presto. It carries the note"Equally applicable to the Violin as a Reel." It is indeed a reel.

Is Heinrich's use of a reel here remotely related to President Tyler's remark, "That may all be very fine, sir, but can't you play us a good old Virginia reel?" in an incident recounted by John Hill Hewitt? American music archivist and performer Benjamin Robert Tubb provides Hewitt's account of that incident. A possible connection makes an amusing speculation, and seems consistent with Heinrich's reputed humor.

Heinrich died in 1861, impoverished after returning from a trip to Europe. During that last trip a very successful series of concerts of his works was performed in Prague. Heinrich was buried in the Audubon family vault. His brilliant music was forgotten until the middle of the 20th century. Some modern critics consider that Heinrich presaged Charles Ives.