Hans Mersmann (6 August 1891 – 24 June 1971) was a German

music historian Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history o ...

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 teacher of music.

Life

Born in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, Mersmann studies in Munich and Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1914. One year later he was commissioned by the Prussian Folk Song Commission to create a folk song archive. From 1924 to 1933, he was editor-in-chief of the magazine "Melos". In 1926, he became a professor at the

Technical University of Berlin The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

. In 1933, after the Nazi takeover, he was dismissed from the university on the grounds that he had worked in the field of

Neue Musik Neue Musik (English ''new music'', French ''nouvelle musique'') is the collective term for a wealth of different currents in composed Western art music from around 1910 to the present. Its focus is on compositions of 20th century music. It is char ...

. He was then obliged to give private music lessons. In 1935, he was still stigmatized as " Bolshevik of Music" by the

Militant League for German Culture The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

. From 1947 to 1957, he taught at the

Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln The Cologne University of Music ( is a music college in Cologne, Germany. Founded in 1850, it is Europe's largest academy of music. History The academy was founded by Ferdinand Hiller in 1850 as ''Conservatorium der Musik in Coeln''. In 1895 Ger ...

. Mersmann died in Cologne aged 79.

Works

* ''Kulturgeschichte der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen''. Berlin 1921–25 * ''Angewandte Musikästhetik''. Berlin 1926 * ''Die Tonsprache der neuen Musik''. Mainz 1928 * ''Die Kammermusik'' (Führer durch den Konzertsaal, begonnen von Hermann Kretzschmar), 4 volumes. Leipzig 1930, also 1933. * ''Eine deutsche Musikgeschichte''. Sanssouci, Potsdam / Berlin

934 Year 934 ( CMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring and Summer – The Hungarians make an alliance with the Pecheneg ...

* ''Musikhören''. Sanssouci, Potsdam / Berlin 1938, 2nd edition 1952 * ''Musikgeschichte in der abendländischen Kultur''. Hans F. Menck Verlag, Frankfurt, 1955.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mersmann, Hans German music educators 20th-century German musicologists Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln German music historians 1891 births 1971 deaths Musicians from Potsdam

Life

Works

References

Further reading

External links