Guido Adler

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

His father, Joachim Adler, a physician, died in 1857, whereupon his mother removed to Jihlava. He was educated in Vienna, where he studied music theory and composition at the conservatory under Anton Bruckner and Desoff. In 1878 he was graduated from the Vienna University 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 "Allgemeide Musikzeitung", 1880. In 1883 Adler became lecturer on musical science at Vienna University, 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 Philip Spitta the "Vierteljahresschrift für Musikwissenschaft".

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 the editor of "Denkmäler der Tonkunst für Österreich", an important publication for the history of music.

Adler was one of the founders of modern musicology. He was one of the first musicologists to recognize the sociological aspect of music, and to move beyond the aesthetic criticism which was the focus of 19th century musicology. Empirical study was for him the most important aspect 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).

Bibliography

*Hugo Riemann, "Musik-Lexikon", 1899

References

*http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=818&letter=A

See also & External links

*AEIOU
*Viennese School