Jüngst came from an af­flu­ent, mid­dle class mer­chant fam­i­ly in Dresden, his father own­ing a fac­to­ry and ware­house for French mill­stones. Hu­go re­ceived his first pi­ano les­sons at age sev­en, and in 1871, he en­tered the Roy­al Con­serv­a­tory of Mu­sic in Dres­den for a six-year pro­gram of stu­dy, spe­cial­iz­ing in pi­a­no and com­po­si­tion. He stu­died with Ju­li­us Rietz, Emil Bahr, Ar­min Boehme, Paul Jans­sen, Gust­av Mer­kel, and Will­iam Risch­bie­ter. In 1876, he found­ed the Dres­den Män­ner­ge­sang­ve­rein (Men’s Choir) which he head­ed un­til 1903. In 1891, he was ap­point­ed Kö­nig­lichen Mu­sik­di­rek­tor (roy­al mu­sic di­rect­or), and in 1898, Kö­nig­lich­en Mu­sik­pro­fess­or (roy­al pro­fess­or of mu­sic). He re­ceived sev­er­al awards in his life­time, and per­formed in­ter­na­tion­al­ly in Eu­rope and Amer­i­ca.

1. How Great Our Joy