Henry Edward Krehbiel (10 March 1854 – 20 March 1923) was an American
music critic
''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...
and
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 ...
who was the
chief music critic of ''
The New York Tribune
The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the dom ...
'' for more than forty years. Along with his contemporaries
Richard Aldrich,
Henry Theophilus Finck
Henry Theophilus Finck (22 September 1854 – 1 October 1926) was an American music critic and author. Among "the most prolific and influential critics of his day", he was List of chief music critics, chief classical music critic of both the ''N ...
,
W.J. Henderson and
James Huneker
James Gibbons Huneker (January 31, 1857 – February 9, 1921) was an American art, book, music, and theater critic. A colorful individual and an ambitious writer, he was "an American with a great mission," in the words of his friend, the critic Be ...
, Krehbiel is considered part of the 'Old Guard', a group of leading New York-based music critics who first established a uniquely American school of criticism. A critic with a strong bend towards empiricism, he frequently sought out first hand experiences, accounts and primary sources when writing; drawing his own conclusions rather than looking to what other writers had already written. A meliorist, Krehbiel believed that the role of criticism was largely to support music that uplifted the human spirit and intellect, and that criticism should serve not only as a means of taste making but also as a mode to educate the public. His book ''How to Listen to Music'' (in print from 1896 to 1924) was widely used as an instructional guide by the music consuming public in the United States during the last years of the 19th century and first several decades of the 20th century.
As a critic he was particularly complimentary of German romanticism, and was a great admirer and promoter in the United States of Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and especially
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
and his musical theories. He was a close friend and admirer of the conductor
Anton Seidl
Anton Seidl (7 May 185028 March 1898) was a famous Hungarian Wagner conductor, best known for his association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and the New York Philharmonic.
Biography
He was born in Pest, Austria-Hungary, where he ...
who greatly enhanced his appreciation for Wagner and his music, and whose work he gave his most complimentary reviews. He was not so complimentary to Wagner's main successors:
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
and
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
, and was also critical towards French impressionism and works of the Italian school.
Krehbiel was a champion of the music of
Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...
whom he hoped would help establish an authentically American school of music when Dvořák was appointed head of the
National Conservatory of Music of America
The National Conservatory of Music of America was an institution for higher education in music founded in 1885 in New York City by Jeannette Meyers Thurber. The conservatory was officially declared defunct by the state of New York in 1952, altho ...
in New York City in 1892. Already an admirer of folk music, Krehbiel was inspired by Dvořák's work as a folk song collector and composer, and spent many years researching and collecting folk songs from Americans and immigrants. He collected the folk songs of Magyars, Scandinavians, Russians, Native Americans, and African Americans. This work resulted in numerous publications, including the first book published on African-American spirituals ''Afro-American folksongs: a study in racial and national music'' (1914). He also served as annotator for the programs of the concerts by the
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...
, and translated several German opera libretti for performance or publication in English. He also translated
Alexander Wheelock Thayer
Alexander Wheelock Thayer (October 22, 1817 – July 15, 1897) was an American librarian and journalist who became the author of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, still after many updatings regarded as a standard work of refer ...
's seminal three volume German language biography on Beethoven for its 1921 English language publication. Thayer had left a planned fourth volume unwritten at the time of his death, and Krehbiel wrote a fourth volume to complete the series in his final years. It was published posthumously in 1925 for the second publishing of his English translation.
Biography
Krehbiel was born in
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...
in 1854, the son of a German clergyman of the
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
. A first generation American, he was educated by his father, and grew up in a bilingual household speaking, reading, and writing in both German and English. He later mastered the French, Italian, Russian, and Latin languages. In 1864 his family moved to Cincinnati where his father took up the post of clergyman at a Methodist Church. There, Henry became the conductor of the church's choir while just a youth. In 1872 he began the study of law in
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
. In June 1874, he was attached to the staff of the ''Cincinnati Gazette'' where he began his career as a writer on sports and crime, reporting mainly on baseball games and murders. He quickly progressed to reporting on music events, and remained with the paper in that post until November 1880.
He then went to New York, where he joined the staff of ''
The New York Tribune
The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the dom ...
'', initially as a journalist attached to the city desk who occasionally wrote editorials. As in Cincinnati, he quickly progressed to covering music events and rapidly rose to post of musical editor. He became an influential music critic, writing many articles for the ''Tribune'', ''
Scribner's Monthly
''Scribner's Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine for the People'' was an illustrated American literary periodical published from 1870 until 1881. Following a change in ownership in 1881 of the company that had produced it, the magazine was relaunch ...
'', and other journals. In researching his articles, he would often seek out first hand experiences, and do his own unique research exhuming primary sources. For example, when writing on Wagner's ''
Die Meistersinger
Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life.
Die may also refer to:
Games
* Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers
Manufacturing
* Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
'', he traveled to Nuremberg, and when writing on cantorial chant, he attended synagogues.
Krehbiel wrote many books about various aspects of music, including ''Afro-American folksongs: a study in racial and national music'' (1914); one of the earliest examinations of
African American music
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Their origins are in musical forms that first came to be due to the condition of slaver ...
. His interest in the music was African-Americans dates back to his attendance of
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordi ...
where he was enthralled with performances of music by black musicians at the
Midway Plaisance
The Midway Plaisance, known locally as the Midway, is a public park on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is one mile long by 220 yards wide and extends along 59th and 60th streets, joining Washington Park at its west end and Jackson Park ...
. He annotated concert programs (including many of
Paderewski's recitals).
![Highland Echo 1915-1925 (1915) (14598141739)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Highland_Echo_1915-1925_%281915%29_%2814598141739%29.jpg)
Krehbiel translated some opera
libretti
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...
, including: Nicolai's ''
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor
''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' (German: ''Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor'') is an opera in three acts by Otto Nicolai to a German libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal based on the play ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' by William Shakespeare.
The ...
'' (1886), Paderewski's ''
Manru
''Manru'' is an opera (lyrical drama) in three acts, music by Ignacy Jan Paderewski composed to the libretto by Alfred Nossig based on the novel ''A Hut Behind the Village'' (1854) by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski.
The libretto was written in German ...
'' (1902), and Mozart's ''
Der Schauspieldirektor
' (''The Impresario''), K. 486, is a comic ''singspiel'' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, set to a German libretto by Gottlieb Stephanie, an Austrian ''Schauspieldirektor''. Originally, it was written because of "the imperial command" of the Holy Roma ...
'' (1916). (Dates given are the first performance of the English translation.) When Mozart's ''
Così fan tutte
(''All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers''), K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte w ...
'' was performed for the first time in the US, in 1922, it was in a new English version with a text by Krehbiel.
[Aldrich, Richard]
"Henry Edward Krehbiel"
''Music & Letters'', July 1923, pp. 266–268 He also translated the three volume German language biography of
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
written by
Alexander Wheelock Thayer
Alexander Wheelock Thayer (October 22, 1817 – July 15, 1897) was an American librarian and journalist who became the author of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, still after many updatings regarded as a standard work of refer ...
, for its first English language publication in 1921. A fourth volume had been planned but was left uncompleted by Thayer at the time of his death in 1897. Krehbiel penned his own fourth volume numbering 1,137 pages which was included in the 1925 republication of his English language translation.
Krehbiel was a strong supporter of music by
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
,
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
,
Dvořák, and
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
when they were not yet well known in America. He detested French music, and together with his assistant,
Richard Aldrich, he waged a continuing campaign against it. After
Debussy's ''
La mer'' was introduced in the US in 1907, Krehbiel wrote:
It caused some amusement when after Debussy's work became a staple of the orchestral repertoire Krehbiel felt obliged write in 1922 that ''La mer'' was "a poetic work in which Debussy has so wondrously caught the rhythms and colors of the seas." He was also highly critical of Gustav Mahler, both as a conductor and composer, once describing him as "a prophet of the ugly", and attacked Strauss for embracing hedonist themes in his works which he viewed as an amoral subject that did not uplift humanity as great music should.
When Krehbiel died in March 1923, still in post as critic of ''The New York Tribune'', Aldrich wrote in a tribute that Krehbiel had been "the leading musical critic of America" who raised musical criticism to an eminence it had never previously enjoyed in the US.
[
]
Publications
*''The Technics of Violin Playing'' (1880)
*''Notes on the cultivation of choral music and the Oratorio Society of New York'' (1884)
*''Studies in the Wagnerian drama'' (1891)
*''How to listen to music; hints and suggestions to untaught lovers of the art'' (1896)
*''Music and manners from Pergolese to Beethoven'' (1898)--essays
*''Famous songs; standard songs by the best composers'' (1903) - editor/compiler, in four volumes
*''Chapters of opera'' (1908)--revised 1911
*''A Book of operas'' (1909)
*''Pianoforte and its music'' (1911)
*''Afro-American folksongs: a study in racial and national music'' (1914)
*''A second book of operas'' (1917)
*''More chapters of opera'' (1919)
*''The life of Ludwig van Beethoven'', by Alexander Wheelock Thayer
Alexander Wheelock Thayer (October 22, 1817 – July 15, 1897) was an American librarian and journalist who became the author of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, still after many updatings regarded as a standard work of refer ...
(1921)--Edited by Krehbiel
References
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Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Krehbiel, Henry Edward
American musicologists
American music critics
Opera critics
1854 births
1923 deaths
Writers from Ann Arbor, Michigan
American translators
New-York Tribune personnel
Scribner's Magazine
American people of German descent
American male non-fiction writers
19th-century musicologists