Carl Engel (6 July 1818 – 17 November 1882) was a German writer of music, and a collector of musical instruments.

Biography

Engel was born in Thiedenwiese, near

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, and studied the pianoforte under Hummel. He emigrated to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

around 1844-45, and in 1850 settled in

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 ...

, where he attained success as a teacher of music and writer on musical subjects. He owned a large collection of rare musical instruments, many of which were given after his death to the South Kensington Museum, with which he had been connected for many years. One of his nephews (a son of his sister Elisabeth) was

Carl Peters Carl Peters (27 September 1856 – 10 September 1918), was a German colonial ruler, explorer, politician and author and a major promoter of the establishment of the German colony of East Africa (part of the modern republic Tanzania). Life H ...

(1856–1918). Peters came to London in 1881 and lived in his uncles' house. Engel offered Peters to procure for him a

British citizenship British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...

, which would have come with many advantages, but Peters refused for nationalistic reasons. Engel later committed suicide and bequeathed his fortune to Peters.zeno.org: ''Mein erster Aufenthalt in England''
/ref>

Works

His books treat of the music of different nations at different periods. Among them may be mentioned: * ''The Music of the Most Ancient Nations, particularly of the Assyrians, Egyptians and Hebrews'' (Murray, 1864)
''An Introduction to the Study of National Music''
(Longmans, 1866)
''Researches into the Early History of the Violin Family''
(1883) An extensive account of the musical instruments of the world was still unpublished in 1888.

Notes

References

* Attribution * 1818 births 1882 deaths English musicologists German emigrants to England Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom People from the Kingdom of Hanover 19th-century German musicologists {{UK-musician-stub