Karl Geiringer

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Karl Geiringer (April 26, 1899 – January 10, 1989)

musicologist, educator, and biographer of composers. He was educated in Vienna but at the beginning of the Nazi years he emigrated to England and ultimately the United States, where he had a lengthy and distinguished career at several universities. He was a noted authority on Brahms, Haydn, and the Bach family
, and a prolific author.

Life

Geiringer was born in

University of Berlin under Curt Sachs.[3] He received his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Vienna in 1923.[3] The topic of his doctoral thesis was the musical instruments appearing in Renaissance painting.[1] Following his degree he worked as an editor for Adler's journal Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich; he remained on the editorial board of this publication for the rest of his life.[3]

In 1930 he won a top position in the musicological field, as the curator of the archives at the

Haydn's head
.

In 1938, Austria was incorporated into

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; according to his later colleagues he was "in all but name a co-editor".[3]

In 1940, Geiringer moved to America,

University of California at Santa Barbara, in order to establish the graduate program in musicology.[3]
Throughout this time, he continued to publish extensively.

In 1973 he became an

emeritus professor, but continued to be very active: his colleagues said of him, "His 'retirement' ... proved to be more of a technicality than a reality—his teaching and research continued unabatedly and were interrupted only by death itself."[3] He died in Santa Barbara at the age of 89 of complications from injuries sustained in a fall.[1]

Geiringer was twice married. His first wife, and longtime coauthor, was Irene Geiringer (1899–1983).[2][6][7] He was later married to Bernice Geiringer (née Abrams, 1918–2001), a concert pianist and student of Arnold Schoenberg.[8] He had twin sons, Martin and Ludwig.[9]

Scholarship

Geiringer served twice as president of the American Musicological Society. In 1959 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His last university, UC Santa Barbara, established a lecture program in his name in 1994[10] and named a concert hall in his honor.[11]

As Crutchfield notes, "It was Mr. Geiringer's habit to take on the largest topics".

Bach family, which went through multiple editions. He also wrote many scholarly articles. He was responsible for the rediscovery of minor works by Brahms and by Hugo Wolf
that had gone missing.

Following his death, his colleagues assessed his research as follows:

[His] prolific scholarly output, when viewed in its totality, is remarkable for its great scope and depth. His writings and editions span practically the complete range of music history and all carry the mark of a discipline he must have possessed as a student and an excellence we know he had as a teacher. His most significant achievements, if they can at all be pinpointed, lay in the areas of Bach and Haydn research, in his studies of these two masters written, revised and enlarged over a period of a halfcentury in collaboration with his brilliant first wife, Irene, and in his lifelong effort to see that a collected edition of Haydn's works be realized for the first time in our century.[3]

Geiringer himself assessed his career as follows: "It seems to me that, as far as my fate allowed it, I have made adequate use of the modest resources with which nature endowed me".[12]

Notable works

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Will Crutchfield, January 12, 1989, Obituary of Karl Geiringer. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
  2. ^ a b http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/tomita/bachbib/review/bb-review_Freeman-Geiringer.html Published online on 17 May 2003
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Freeman et al. (1989)
  4. ^ a b Anonymous (1989)
  5. ^ Geiringer, Karl; Irene Geiringer (1984). Brahms: His Life and Work - Third Enlarged Edition. New York: Da Capo Press.
    ISBN 978-0-306-80223-2
    .     (bio on back cover)
  6. ^ Cole (2003, 436)
  7. ^ The Opera Quarterly
  8. ^ Cole (2003, 436); website of Arnold Schoenberg Center
  9. ^ Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, BPD Wien, Historische Meldeunterlagen
  10. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-18. Retrieved 2009-06-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ Geiringer talks bring top music scholars to UCSB
  12. ^ Geiringer (1993, 181)

References

  • Anonymous (1989) "Music conference endowed to honor professor," press release issued by the University of California, Santa Barbara. On line at [1].
  • Cole, Malcolm (2003) Review of Joseph Haydn and the Eighteenth Century: Collected Essays of Karl Geiringer. Notes, December 2003.
  • Freeman, Robert N., Dolores M. Hsu, Martin Silver, and Carl Zytowski (1989) "Karl Geiringer, Music: Santa Barbara". Obituary published in 1989, University of California: In Memoriam, University of California. Available on line at [2]
  • Müller, Erich H. (ed.): Deutsches Musiker-Lexikon. Wilhelm Limpert, Dresden 1929, S.1644.
  • Sadie, Stanley Sadie (Hrsg.): The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians. Macmillan, London 1980.
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