Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880February 13, 1952) was a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

and music editor. He was born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and fled

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

after

Hitler's Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Machtergreifung Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...

'', arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for being the editor of the first major revision of the

Köchel catalogue The Köchel catalogue (german: Köchel-Verzeichnis, links=no) is a chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, originally created by Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, in which the entries are abbreviated ''K.'', or ''KV''. The nu ...

, which was published in the year 1936. The Köchel catalogue is the extensive catalogue of the works of

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

Biography

Einstein was born in

. Though he originally studied law, he quickly realized his principal love was music, and he acquired a doctorate at

Munich University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

, focusing on instrumental music of the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and early

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

eras, in particular music for the

viola da gamba The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

. In 1918 he became the first editor of the ''

Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft The ''Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft'' was a musicology magazine which was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig, from 1918 to 1935. It was edited by the German Music Society or German Society for Musicology. Since its first publicatio ...

''; slightly later he became music critic for the ''Münchner Post''; and in 1927 became music critic for the ''Berliner Tageblatt''. In this period he was also a friend of the composer Heinrich Kaspar Schmid in Munich and Augsburg. In 1933, after

rise to power, he left

, moving first to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, then to Italy, and finally to the United States in 1939, where he held a succession of teaching posts at universities including

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and the

Hartt School of Music The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford located in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, that offers degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded in 1920 by Julius Hartt and ...

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. Einstein not only researched and wrote detailed works on specific topics, but wrote popular histories of music, including the ''Short History of Music'' (1917), and ''Greatness in Music'' (1941). In particular, due to his depth of familiarity with

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

, he published an important and extensive revision of the

of Mozart's music (1936). It is this work for which Einstein is most well known. Einstein also published a comprehensive, three-volume set ''The Italian

Madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...

'' (1949) on the secular Italian form, the first detailed study of the subject. His 1945 volume ''Mozart: His Character, His Work'' was an influential study of Mozart and is perhaps his best known book.

Relationship to Albert Einstein

While one source (1980) lists Alfred as a cousin of the scientist

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, another claims (1993) that no relationship has been verified. Some websites claim they were both descended from a Moyses Einstein seven generations back, hence they were sixth cousins. In 1991, Alfred's daughter Eva stated that they were not related. On the other hand, she wrote in 2003 that they were fifth cousins on one side, and fifth cousins once removed on the other, according to research by George Arnstein. They were photographed together in 1947 when Albert Einstein received an honorary doctorate from Princeton, but they did not know that they were distantly related.

Works

* ''Gluck'' (Master Musicians Series-Series Editor Eric Blom), translated by Eric Blom, J. M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1936 * ''A Short History of Music'', translation of ''Geschichte der Musik'', 1937, rev. 1938, 1947 * ''Canzoni Sonetti Strambotti et Frottole. Libro Tertio ( Andrea Antico, 1517).'' Smith College: Northampton, MA, 1941 * ''Golden Age of the Madrigal: Twelve Five-Part Mixed Choruses.'' G. Schirmer: New York, 1942 * ''Greatness in Music'', translation of ''Grösse in der Musik'' by

César Saerchinger César Saerchinger (October 23, 1884 – October 10, 1971) was a French-born American broadcaster, musicologist, and writer. ''The New York Times'' referred to him as a "a pioneer in transatlantic radio broadcasting". His books included ''The Way Ou ...

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1941 * ''Mozart: His Character, His Work'', translated by

Arthur Mendel Arthur Mendel (June 6, 1905 – October 14, 1979) was an American musicologist, known as a Bach scholar. He was born in Boston and died in Newark, New Jersey. Education He graduated from Harvard University in 1925 before going to study with ...

and Nathan Broder, Oxford University Press, 1945 * ''Music in the Romantic Era: A History of Musical Thought in the 19th Century'', 1947, rev. 1949 * ''The Italian Madrigal'', translated by Alexander H. Krappe, Roger H. Sessions, and

Oliver Strunk William Oliver Strunk (March 22, 1901 – February 24, 1980) was an American musicologist. Charles Rosen called him one of the most influential American musicologists of the 1930s–1960s.Rosen, Charles. "The Discipline of Philology: Oliver Strunk ...

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

, 1949 (3 volumes) * ''Schubert'', translated by David Ascoli, Cassell & Co., 1951

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Einstein, Alfred 1880 births 1952 deaths American musicologists American music critics Jewish musicologists Smith College faculty Columbia University faculty Princeton University faculty University of Michigan faculty Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States German music critics Jewish American writers Writers from Munich Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Mozart scholars Schubert scholars University of Hartford Hartt School faculty German biographers 20th-century American biographers American male biographers 20th-century German musicologists