Guido Adler

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Guido Adler (November 1, 1855, Ivančice (Eibenschütz), Moravia – February 15, 1941, Vienna) was a Bohemian-Austrian musicologist and writer.

His father Joachim, a physician, died of typhoid fever in 1857. Joachim contracted the illness from a patient, and therefore told his wife Franciska to "never allow any of the children to become a doctor".[1]

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[edit] Education

Adler studied at the University of Vienna and--at the same time--the Vienna Conservatory of Music (where he studied music theory and composition under Anton Bruckner and Otto Dessoff). He received an arts diploma from the conservatory in 1874. In 1878, he graduated from University of Vienna as doctor of jurisprudence, and in 1880 as doctor of philosophy. His dissertation, Die Grundklassen der Christlich-Abendländischen Musik bis 1600 (The Chief Divisions of Western Church Music up to 1600), was reprinted in Allgemeine Musikzeitung.

[edit] Musicology Pioneer

In 1883 Adler became lecturer on musical science at University of Vienna, on which occasion he wrote Eine Studie zur Geschichte der Harmonie (An Essay on the History of Harmony), published in the "Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen Klasse der Wiener Academie der Wissenschaften", 1881.

In 1884 he founded (with Friedrich Chrysander and Philipp Spitta) the Vierteljahresschrift für Musikwissenschaft (Musicology Quarterly). Adler provided the first article of the first issue, "Umfang, Methode und Ziel der Musikwissenschaft" ("The Scope, Method, and Aim of Musicology"), which not only constitutes the first attempt at a comprehensive description of the study of music, but also famously divides the discipline into three subfields: historische ("historical"), systematische ("systematic"), and vergleichende ("comparative"). Although these subfields do not exactly line up with current practice, they do roughly represent the current division of musicology into music history, music theory, and ethnomusicology.[2]

In 1885 he was called to the newly established German University of Prague, Bohemia, as ordinary professor of the history and theory of music, and in 1898, in the same capacity, to the University of Vienna, where he succeeded Eduard Hanslick. His students at the Musikwissenschaftliches Institut included Anton Webern.

In 1886 he published Die Wiederholung und Nachahmung in der Mehrstimmigkeit; in 1888, Ein Satz eines Unbekannten Beethovenischen Klavierkoncerts. In 1892-93 he edited a selection of musical compositions of the Emperors Ferdinand III, Leopold I, and Joseph I (two vols.). Between 1894 and 1938 he was editor of Denkmäler der Tonkunst für Österreich, a seminal publication in music history.

[edit] Social Sphere

[edit] Der Anschluß

[edit] Lost to the World

[edit] Assessment

Adler was one of the founders of modern musicology. He was one of the first musicologists to recognize the sociological aspect of music, thereby moving it beyond the aesthetic criticism which was the focus of 19th century musicology. Empirical study was for him the most important part of the discipline. His own emphasis was on the music of Austria, specifically the music of the First Viennese School: Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Adler, Tom, and Anika Scott. Lost to the World. 1st ed. USA: XLibris, 2003.
  2. ^ Erica Mugglestone, "Guido Adler's 'The Scope, Method, and Aim of Musicology' (1885): An English Translation with an Historico-Analytical Commentary," Yearbook for Traditional Music vol. 13 (1981), 1-21.

[edit] External links

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