Search Results

[Johannes Maria]

(b Frankfurt, June 24, 1955). German musicologist. After studying musicology in Marburg with Brinkmann and Sieghart Döhring (1977–81), he attended the Technical University of Berlin (1982–6) and took the doctorate under Dahlhaus with a study on Schreker's opera Der Schatzgräber. From 1981 to 1986 he worked as an assistant at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Budde and Schnebel. In 1992 his Habilitationsschrift on the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk during the July Monarchy was accepted by the Technical University and he became professor at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen the same year. His main areas of study are French music from the 18th to the 20th centuries, music aesthetics in the 19th and 20th century and the history of opera. A pioneering scholar of opera, he has contributed important articles to Pipers Enzyklopädie des Musiktheaters and Metzlers Komponisten-Lexikon.

(Robert)

(b Pforzheim, April 23, 1891; d Stuttgart, Oct 17, 1969). German musicologist, teacher and composer. He studied under Philipp Wolfrum at Heidelberg (1909–11) and under Riemann at Leipzig (1911–13), where he took the doctorate in 1913 with a dissertation on musical form. In 1914 he studied composition with Bodanzki in Mannheim, and after war service he taught at the Röhmeyer Conservatory, Pforzheim (1919–23). He was lecturer in music theory at Gurlitt’s musicology institute at Freiburg University (1923–5), deputy director of the Academy for Speech and Music, Münster (1925–7), director of the music department of the Folkwang-Schule at Essen (1927–35) and director of the Folkwangschulen for Speech, Dance and Music (1935–43). His final post was as director of the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Stuttgart (1943–5, 1952–6), where he taught composition. His works include several large-scale choral pieces, folksong cantatas, string quartets, violin sonatas, songs and choruses. His writings, mostly designed for teaching purposes, have had a more lasting influence and show, in his dissertation as in his final book, a penetrating understanding of form. His practical gifts, which he was able to develop in Münster, are reflected in his textbooks on harmony and orchestration....

[Christian Reinhard ]

(b Adelebsen, nr Göttingen, Aug 11, 1900; d Hanover, March 15, 1980). German theologian and musicologist. He studied the piano, the organ and the cello before taking a degree in theology and musicology with Ludwig, Schering and Abert at the universities of Göttingen and Leipzig (from 1918). In 1923 he took the doctorate with a dissertation on Scheidt. While working as a pastor and head of the administration department of the Landeskirchenamt, Hanover (1930–65), he established his reputation as a highly respected church music scholar through his teaching and many publications. He was a lecturer at Göttingen University, where he was made honorary professor in 1946 and awarded an honorary doctorate in 1948, and was co-editor of the journal Musik und Kirche (from 1929), the music collection Handbuch der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenmusik (1933–74), the multi-volume history of church music Handbuch zum evangelischen Kirchengesang...

(Philipp)

(b Berlin, Aug 11, 1801; d Karlsruhe, Oct 4, 1877). German theatre historian, librettist and baritone. Eduard Devrient, nephew of the actor Ludwig Devrient, had two brothers who became actors: Karl (first husband of Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient) and Emil. At the age of 17 he entered the Berlin Singakademie and studied singing and thoroughbass with Zelter. He gave his first solo public performance in 1819 in Berlin in C.H. Graun’s Der Tod Jesu and on 18 April 1819 he sang the part of Thanatos in Gluck’s Alceste; after his performance as Masetto in Don Giovanni, he was engaged as a baritone at the Royal Opera.

In 1822 Devrient went on a tour to Dresden, Leipzig, Kassel and Frankfurt (where he was influenced by J.N. Schelble). Later he visited Vienna to hear the Italian opera in which Lablache and other famous singers were performing under Barbaia’s direction. He met Mendelssohn in ...

[Marcus Fabius Quintilianus]

(b Calagurris, Spain, 30–35 ce; d Rome, after c94 ce). Roman orator and writer on rhetoric. He may have begun his studies in Spain; he completed them at Rome and there went on to gain both fame and wealth. In recognition of his remarkable skill at teaching rhetoric, he received a regular income from the imperial treasury, the first of his profession to be granted this honour. The literary testimonial to his gifts is the Institutio oratoria (completed c95 ce), a treatise in 12 books on the training of the ideal orator from earliest childhood to maturity. In this one surviving work the references to music form an unusual commentary, since they are based on wide reading and sympathetic interest rather than deep knowledge.

The recognition of a relationship between music and rhetoric goes back to earlier Roman writers such as Marcus Tullius Cicero, and beyond them to ...

(b Strasbourg, c1478–80; d Freiburg, Sept 5, 1537). German theorist and composer. He studied from 1494 to 1496 in Heidelberg, later in Leuven and, from 1505, in Vienna. There he took organ lessons from the cathedral organist, Wolfgang Grefinger. Luscinius particularly admired the playing of Hofhaimer, the imperial organist, praising him in his Musicae institutiones and discussing his pupils, among them Hans Buchner and Kotter. Luscinius continued his studies (which were not only in music) in many centres in Europe and the Near East, and gave music lectures at Vienna University. In 1510 he met Virdung at the Reichstag in Augsburg. Further journeys took him to Konstanz and Melk. Between 1511 and 1514 he studied Greek and theology in Paris and then returned to Strasbourg, where he was organist at St Thomas from 1510 to 1520. In 1519 he took the degree of Doctor of Canon Law from Padua University. As a result of the Reformation he lost his organist’s post and was prevented from obtaining a canonry. In ...

[Richard de Bellengues]

(b Rouen, c1380; d Brussels, Feb 25, 1470). French singer and composer. He was a priest, and appears as a singer in the Burgundian chapel between 1415 and 1419. He was in the Papal Chapel from 1422 to 1425. In 1422 he received a canonry in Notre Dame in Ligny and also became rector of St Willibrodus, near Antwerp. He later held ecclesiastical offices in Beauvais, Picquigny and possibly Rouen. By 1430 he may again have been active at the Burgundian court since his name appears in the list of singers in Binchois’ motet Nove cantum melodie, composed in Burgundy in that year. His name is found in the lists of singers from 1434 to 1464. He died in Brussels and was interred in Ste Gudule. His motto ‘Fais tout ce que tu vouldras/Avoir faist quand tu mourras’ served as his epitaph. His single surviving work is a rondeau for three voices ...

[Susato, Johannes de]

(b Unna, nr Soest, 1448; d Frankfurt, May 2, 1506). German composer and writer on music. He described his career in a rhymed autobiography (ed. in Fichard): as a boy he sang at St Patroklus in Soest, he was briefly kidnapped for his voice by a juggler, and then he joined the ducal chapel in Cleves. He studied in Bruges with two English musicians and subsequently held posts in Hardenbergh (Overijssel), Maastricht and Kassel. In 1472 Soest went to Heidelberg; on 22 November the Elector Palatine Philipp appointed him Sängermeister for life and established a choir for him to direct (see Žak). In 1476 Soest matriculated at the University of Heidelberg; he studied there and in Pavia and had become a physician by 1490. In 1495 he became municipal doctor in Worms and later held similar positions in Oppenheim and Frankfurt. He was also active as a poet....

(b Erfurt, April 21, 1864; d Munich, June 14, 1920). German social economist and sociologist . He held professorial appointments in economics and sociology at the universities of Berlin (1893), Freiburg (1894), Heidelberg (1897–1903) and Munich (1920). He is regarded as the founder of comprehensive sociology which he developed from the social theories of Hegel, Comte and Marx and the historical philosophies of Dilthey, Windelband and Simmel. He avoided monocausal interpretations and stressed the concrete relationships between a spiritual climate and the corresponding material (economic and political) historical data. The range of his writings reflects his sharp distinction between the sociologist’s freedom of evaluation and socially relevant comment (which he considered a non-scientific process and not a task of the sociologist), for the conservative outlook of his political writings frequently conflicts with the perspective of his scientific works. In his only substantial musico-sociological work, ‘Die rationalen und soziologischen Grundlagen der Musik’ (Eng. trans., ...

(b Colditz, Saxony, c1590; d Zeitz, Sept 4, 1636). German music theorist and teacher. From 1609 he attended the Thomasschule, Leipzig, under Sethus Calvisius. About 1613 he became Kantor at Rochlitz, near his birthplace, and in 1618 at Zeitz. He is known by a school textbook, Musica nova, Newe Singekunst, so wol nach der alten Solmisation, als newen Bobisation und Bebisation (Leipzig, 1626/R). It begins with traditional elementary rules, but as early as the first theoretical part, solmization is contrasted with the new seven-step systems of bocedization (described by Calvisius) and bebization (after Hitzler), through which the difficulties of mutation could be avoided. The treatment of organ tabulation is also unusual for a school textbook. As the second, practical part Gengenbach published a self-contained collection of practice examples graded from the simple to the difficult. In the third part, which became a pattern for numerous appendixes in later school treatises, he explained Greek, Latin and Italian musical terms; he relied here on the third volume of Michael Praetorius's ...

[Vincenzo, Vinko]

(b Fiume [now Rijeka], 1596; d Zabern [now Saverne], Alsace, 1636). Croatian composer . His birthplace is sometimes indicated as Flumen Sancti Viti, or St Veit am Pflaum, which are descriptive names for Fiume. The original form of his surname was Jeličić (Jelicich). In 1606 he became a choirboy in Archduke Ferdinand's chapel at Graz, where he was taught by Matthia Ferrabosco. After a brief return to Fiume (1609–10) he was back in Graz, in the Ferdinandeum, studying first at the Gymnasium and then at the Jesuit University. From 1615 he was an instrumentalist in the court chapel, where he furthered his musical studies, possibly at first under Reimundo Ballestra. In 1618 he went to the court of Ferdinand's brother Leopold at Zabern, Alsace, where Ballestra had been appointed Kapellmeister in 1616. He entered Leopold's service first as an instrumentalist, but after taking holy orders he combined his musical duties with those of vicar and later canon of the church of Ste Marie. There are no references to him in documents at Zabern or elsewhere after ...

The opera-based fantasy for the piano flourished during much of the 19th century. In an era when operatic music had a strong and immediate popular appeal, as well as an aura of glamour, yet was not generally accessible to a large part of the musical public, it is not surprising that alternative means were derived for its dissemination, mostly through the most popular domestic instrument. The repertory of operatic adaptations, of one kind or another, was very large, and used not only for domestic music-making but also at concerts by virtuoso pianists.

The simplest form of piano music derived from opera is seen in the variations composed during the Classical era, for example those by Mozart on opera themes by Salieri, Paisiello, Gluck and others, or by Beethoven on themes by Dittersdorf, Grétry, Salieri and others. Chopin continued this tradition in his variations on ‘Là ci darem la mano’ from ...

(b Kronstadt [now Braşov], Romania, Oct 31, 1927). German musicologist . He studied musicology with Thrasybulos Georgiades, Greek philology with Otto Regenbogen and philosophy with Hans Georg Gadamer at Heidelberg University (1948–54). He took the doctorate at Heidelberg in 1956 with a dissertation on the Vatican organum treatise. From 1958 to 1961 he was an assistant lecturer in the musicology department of Munich University, and subsequently, as the holder of an award from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, he concentrated on research in ancient music and contributed to the 12th edition of the Riemann Musik Lexikon. Between 1968 and 1991 he was director of the historical department of the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung of the Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, where he edited a comprehensive history of music theory; in 1973 he also became a lecturer in musicology at the Free University and in 1982 at the Technical University of Berlin. Among the publications he has edited are ...

(b Bad Iburg near Osnabrück, 30 Oct 1668; d Hanover, 1 Feb 1705). Princess of Hanover, Electress of Brandenburg, and Queen in Prussia. Musical culture in and around Berlin flourished at the turn of the 18th century as a direct result of her activities as a musical patron, performer, composer, and collector.

Sophie Charlotte was the only daughter of Ernst August of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Sophie of the Palatinate. She was thrust into a lifestyle of courtly competition from an early age. The court at Osnabrück was relatively obscure, overshadowed by the wealthier and more politically prominent seat at Hanover ruled by her father’s brother, Johann Friedrich. Her mother determined to overcome this by immersing Sophie Charlotte in the arts. As a child she received instruction in singing, courtly dance, and religion, and in French, Italian, English, and Latin. During the 1670s and into the 1680s, the family visited Versailles, Venice, Brussels, and The Hague. These visits included recurring attendance at opera and ballet performances, and provided the foundation for Sophie Charlotte’s cultivation of music as a courtly and sociopolitical tool later at Hanover and Berlin....

(Christian Friedrich)

(b Cologne, Jan 6, 1838; d Friedenau, Berlin, Oct 2, 1920). German composer. The son of a police official, Bruch received his first musical education from his mother, herself a singer. He began to compose from the age of nine; a Septet, written when he was 11, bears early hallmarks of his future style and assured scoring. At 14 he won the coveted Frankfurt Mozart-Stiftung Prize, which enabled him to study with Hiller, Reinecke, and Ferdinand Breunung. His first substantial work was an opera based on Goethe’s Scherz, List und Rache, written and performed in Cologne in 1858 (no orchestrated version survives), after which his teachers encouraged him to travel throughout Germany. He went to Leipzig, a city where musical life was still dominated by Mendelssohn’s influence, but settled in Mannheim between 1862 and 1864. There he wrote two works which would bring his name before the German public, the opera ...

(b Ottobeuren, Aug 10, 1947). German musicologist , son of the musicologist Ernst Fritz Schmid. Born to a musical family (he is also related to the composers Emil Kauffman and Ernst Friedrich Kauffman) he studied the violin with Koeckert at Augsburg Conservatory, musicology with Croll and Georgiades at Salzburg and Munich universities respectively, and music theory with Peter Förtig at the Freiburg Musikhochschule. He took the doctorate in Munich in 1975 with a dissertation on Mozart and the Salzburg musical tradition. After a period as assistant lecturer at Munich University, he became curator of the instrument collection of the Munich Stadtmuseum in 1979. He completed the Habilitation in 1980 at Munich University with an investigation of works by Weber, Schumann and Wagner. He was appointed professor of musicology at Tübingen University in 1986. He is chairman of the Musikhistorische Kommission of Das Erbe deutscher Musik and the Deutsches musikgeschichtliches Archiv, Kassel, and is a member of the advisory committee for the Gesellschaft für Musikgeschichte in Baden-Württemberg; he is also founder and editor of the journal ...

(b Berlin, Dec 29, 1925; d Detmold, Germany, March 10, 2011). German musicologist. He was educated in Berlin: from 1947 to 1950 he studied music (with the piano as his main subject) at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory and the Hochschule für Musik; from 1950 he studied musicology with Gerstenberg, Adrio and Dräger at the Freie Universität, where he took the doctorate in 1957 with a dissertation on the late works of Praetorius. From 1956 to 1960 he was director of the department of music education at the John Petersen Conservatory, Berlin, and from 1959 to 1967 he was an assistant lecturer in the musicology department of the Free University, where he completed his Habilitation in musicology (1967) with studies on musical thought in the early 19th century. From 1960 to 1969 he was also a lecturer at the Berlin-Spandau School of Church Music. In 1972 he was appointed professor at the Music Academy of Detmold. He founded a music department in ...

(Ger. Charakterstück)

A piece of music, usually for piano solo, expressing either a single mood (e.g. martial, dream-like, pastoral) or a programmatic idea defined by its title. The term is usually applied to pieces written since the early 19th century, although a number of harpsichord pieces by Couperin and Rameau and other earlier composers anticipate the genre. An early use of the term occurs in Beethoven, who called his Leonore Overture no.1 a ‘characteristic overture’, by which he must have implied that it was characteristic of operatic overtures and dramatic in style. The two marches by Schubert published posthumously as op.121 (d968 b) were called ‘marches caractéristiques’ by the publisher Diabelli, no doubt to suggest that they were characteristic of Schubert’s marches, many of which had already been published; at that time (1830) the term was still unusual. An early frequent use of the term is in the piano music of Stephen Heller. He gave titles to many pieces, sometimes of a general nature, e.g. Four Arabesques (op.49) or Three Albumleaves (op.157), and others more definite in their implications, as in ...

(b Lüneburg, c1542; d Hanover, Jan 8, 1623). German composer and theorist. He matriculated at the University of Wittenberg on 12 July 1565, but he took no degree. On 28 March 1568 he was appointed Kantor of the Lateinschule and of the Marktkirche, the two most important musical positions in Hanover, and he held them until he retired in 1616. His output reflects his activities in these posts. His three masses, which are parody masses, and his motets (1572 and 1581) show that he was a competent composer of polyphony, and his three-part songs (1594) are more contrapuntal than such pieces often were. His primer of 1599, dedicated to 54 of his pupils, including the infant Melchior Schildt, contains 14 canons as exercises.

(b Meissen, nr Dresden; fl 1614). German theorist. He was a teacher at Beuten. His Musica mathematica was published at Altenburg in 1614 as the second part (pp.89–175) of Heinrich Zeising's Theatri machinarum. Bartolus's treatise is basically speculative in nature. He relied heavily on the horoscope in his interpretation of the effects of music, suggesting that the composer's choice of tonalities, as well as their effect on the listener, could be determined astrologically. Although the monochord tuning which he propounded had been devised by Andreas Reinhard in his ...