Arnold Schering (2 April 1877 in Breslau,

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

– 7 March 1941 in Berlin) was a German musicologist. He grew up in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

as the son of an art publisher. He learned violin at the from which he graduated in 1896. Thereafter he studied violin at the Berlin School of Music under Joseph Joachim. From 1898 until 1902 he studied music in Berlin and Leipzig and wrote his dissertation on the instrumental concertos of

Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...

(in German, ''Geschichte des Instrumentalkonzertes bei Antonio Vivaldi'') and this work was influential in resurrecting the music of this composer.

Fred K. Prieberg Fred K. Prieberg (3 June 1928 in Berlin – 28 March 2010 in Neuried) was a German musicologist. He was a pioneer in the field of history of music and musicians under the Nazi regime. Works Independent publications * ''Musik unterm Strich. Pano ...

: ''Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945'', CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, pages 6.084–6.086. In 1907 he made his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

and was made a professor of music in 1915. In 1920 Schering gathered evidence that composer Johann Sebastian Bach usually used 12 singers in his cantatas and other vocal works. This insight eventually became influential in the early music movement. From 1928 onward he taught as a professor of musicology in Berlin. After the Nazis rose to power, Schering became a member of the National Socialist Teachers League and the executive council of the Reichsmusikkammer. Until 1936 he served as president of the German Society for Musicology (until 1933 the German Music Society), which was transformed according to Nazi principles: "The employment of young Nazis was encouraged, but

Alfred Einstein Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880February 13, 1952) was a German-American musicologist and music editor. He was born in Munich and fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's ''Machtergreifung'', arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for b ...

(1880-1952) was forced to resign from the editorship of the ''Journal of Musicology'', which he had led since its first appearance in 1918. The "Führerprinzip" followed, especially in 1936 or 1937 under Ludwig Schiedermair (1876–1957), who succeeded him as president". In January 1934, Schering delivered a lecture at the ''German Society for Education'' about "The Germanic in German music" In the same year appeared his book "Beethoven in a New Interpretation" in which he parallels in the works of Beethoven scenes from Shakespeare's plays, and where Schering put forward the bold claim that this formal design along the line of Shakespeare scenes was intentional. Also in the same year he wrote an article in the Journal for Musicology where he characterized Beethoven's famous 5th symphony as a "Symphony of National Rising," much in the sense of the rising of the National Socialist regime. Finally in 1936, he wrote, in ''Beethoven and Poetry'', "If a brutal, sensual, and to us, racially-foreign music threatens to alienate us from the insoluble relationship between high music and high art, it is in Beethoven we can once again make a new ideal covenant."Quoted by Ernst Klee: ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich'', p. 520. In August 1940 he took leave from his work due to illness. He died the following year and was buried in the Friedhof Heerstraße. The location of his grave is unknown.

References

External links

*
Arnold Schering on "Who Sang the Soprano and Alto Parts in Bach's Cantatas"
*
Arnold Schering
in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig
Entry on Arnold Schering
in the ''Catalogus Professorum Halensis'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Schering, Arnold 1877 births 1941 deaths Musicologists from Berlin 20th-century German musicologists Musicians from Wrocław People from the Province of Silesia