Guido Adler
Guido Adler (1 November 1855 – 15 February 1941)[1] was a Bohemian-Austrian musicologist and writer.
Biography
Early life and education
Adler was born at Eibenschütz in Moravia in 1855 of Jewish parentage. He moved with his family to Vienna nine years later. 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".[2][self-published source]
Adler studied at the
A pioneer of musicology
In 1883 Adler became lecturer in musicology 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", 1885), which not only constitutes the first attempt at a comprehensive description of the study of music, but also famously divides the discipline into two subdisciplines, historische Musikwissenschaft (historical musicology) and systematische Musikwissenschaft ("systematic musicology"). In Adler's article, systematic musicology included Musikologie or vergleichende Musikwissenschaft (comparative musicology), which later became an independent discipline (cf. ethnomusicology). Although these subfields do not exactly line up with current practice, they are roughly maintained in modern European musicology and roughly correspond to the North American division of musicology into music history (often called "musicology"), music theory, and ethnomusicology.[3]
In 1885 he was called to the newly established
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.).[5] Between 1894 and 1938 he was editor of Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, a seminal publication in music history.
Adler was the first
National Socialist period
After the Anschluss in 1938, Adler was forced to resign from his position as editor of Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich. Following his death in Vienna in 1941, his library was taken from his daughter, Melanie Karoline Adler,[7][8] and subsumed into the collections of the University of Vienna.[9] At the end of World War II, the large part of Adler's library was returned to his son. Much of his library is now housed at the University of Georgia and other important items are in the Houghton Library at Harvard University.[10]
Reputation
Adler was one of the founders of musicology as a discipline (Musikwissenschaft). He was also among the first scholars in music to recognize the relevance of sociocultural factors to music (Musiksoziologie), thereby providing a broader context for aesthetic criticism which, with biography, had been the primary focus of 19th century music scholarship. 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.
Texts
- 1911. Der Stil in der Musik. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.
See also
References
Citations
- ISBN 0-674-37299-9.
- ^ Adler, Tom, and Anika Scott. Lost to the World. 1st ed. USA: XLibris, 2003.
- ^ a b 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.
- .
- ^ Adler, Guido (1892). Musikalishe Werke der Kaiser Ferdinand III., Leopold I., and Joseph I. Vienna, Austria: Antaria & Company.
- ^ "Guido Adler | Austrian musicologist".
- ^ Melanie Karoline Adler: "Ausgezeichnete Herren beraten mich", doew.at. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ Melanie Karoline Adler (1888–1942), uibk.ac.at. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ Rick Gekoski, Lost, Stolen or Shredded: Stories of Missing Works of Art and Literature, Profile Books, 2013, chapter 11,"Lost to the World: The Library of Guido Adler".
- ^ Guido Adler - Musicology Then and Now at Harvard University Symposium, Exhibitions, & Concert on Friday, October 13, 2017 Archived April 13, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, harvard.edu. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
Sources
- Adler, Guido (1885). Umfang, Methode und Ziel der Musikwissenschaft. Vierteljahresschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 1, 5-20.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Guido Adler". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
External links
- Guido Adler: eine Kurzbiographie Archived 2012-04-21 at the Wayback Machine at musicalconfrontations.com
- Adler, Guido: AEIOU: Österreich-Lexikon im Austria Forum
- Adler, Guido at www.jewishencyclopedia.com
- Guido Adler papers, at Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries