Karl Geiringer (April 26, 1899 – January 10, 1989)Will Crutchfield, January 12, 1989

Retrieved 2013-08-10. was an

Austrian-American Austrian Americans (, ) are Americans of Austrian descent, chiefly German-speaking Catholics and Jews. According to the 2000 U.S. census, there were 735,128 Americans of full or partial Austrian descent, accounting for 0.3% of the population. The ...

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 m ...

, educator, and biographer of composers. He was educated in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

but at the beginning of the Nazi years he emigrated to England and ultimately the United States, where he had a lengthy and distinguished career at several universities. He was a noted authority on

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 ...

Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...

, and the

Bach family The Bach family refers to several notable composers of the baroque and classical periods of music, the best-known of whom was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). A family genealogy was drawn up by Johann Sebastian Bach himself in 1735 when he ...

, and a prolific author.

Life

Geiringer was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, the son of Louis and Martha (''nee'' Wertheimer) Geiringer.http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/tomita/bachbib/review/bb-review_Freeman-Geiringer.html Published online on 17 May 2003Freeman et al. (1989) He studied music history at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

under

Guido Adler Guido Adler (1 November 1855, Ivančice (Eibenschütz), Moravia – 15 February 1941, Vienna) was a Bohemian-Austrian musicologist and writer. Biography Early life and education Adler was born at Eibenschütz in Moravia in 1855. He moved ...

and

Curt Sachs Curt Sachs (; 29 June 1881 – 5 February 1959) was a German musicologist. He was one of the founders of modern organology (the study of musical instruments). Among his contributions was the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which he created with Er ...

, and studied composition under

Hans Gál Hans Gál OBE (5 August 1890 – 3 October 1987) was an Austrian composer, pedagogue, musicologist, and author, who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1938. Life Gál was born to a Jewish family in the small village of Brunn am Gebirge, Low ...

. He also studied at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

under

. He received his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Vienna in 1923. The topic of his doctoral thesis was the musical instruments appearing in Renaissance painting. Following his degree he worked as an editor for Adler's journal '' Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich''; he remained on the editorial board of this publication for the rest of his life. In 1930 he won a top position in the musicological field, as the curator of the archives at the

Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien (), also known as the Wiener Musikverein (German for 'Viennese Music Association'), is an Austrian music organization that was founded in 1812 by Joseph Sonnleithner, general secretary of the Court Thea ...

in Vienna, a position previously held by his mentor

Eusebius Mandyczewski Eusebius Mandyczewski ( uk, Євсевій Мандичевський, translit=Yevsevii Mandychevskyi, ro, Eusebie Mandicevschi; 18 August 1857, in Molodiia – 13 August 1929, in Vienna) was a Romanian musicologist, composer, conductor, and t ...

and other distinguished scholars. The job gave Geiringer access to much valuable primary source material on Western music, which he used extensively in his scholarship. An unusual responsibility Geiringer bore at the Gesellschaft archives was the curatorship of Joseph Haydn's skull, which had been stolen from his grave in 1809. In the first English edition of his Haydn biography (1946), Geiringer reminisced about bringing forth the skull to show to visitors; see ''

Haydn's head The celebrated composer Joseph Haydn died in Vienna, aged 77, on May 31, 1809, after a long illness. As Austria was at war and Vienna occupied by Napoleon's troops, a rather simple funeral was held in Gumpendorf, the parish in Vienna to which Hay ...

''. In 1938, Austria was incorporated into

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 ...

in the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

. With the Nazi occupation, the Gesellschaft was closed.Anonymous (1989) Geiringer, although he had been baptized a Roman Catholic, was the child of Jewish parents; hence he and his family were in grave danger, and they fled the country. He first went to London, where he taught at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...

and served as a broadcaster for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Scholarship

American Musicological Society The American Musicological Society (AMS) is a musicological organization which researches, promotes and produces publications on music. Founded in 1934, the AMS was begun by leading American musicologists of the time, and was crucial in legitim ...

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

His work included extensive biographies of

, and of the

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...

family, which went through multiple editions. He also wrote many scholarly articles. He was responsible for the rediscovery of minor works by Brahms and by Hugo Wolf that had gone missing. Following his death, his colleagues assessed his research as follows:

isprolific scholarly output, when viewed in its totality, is remarkable for its great scope and depth. His writings and editions span practically the complete range of music history and all carry the mark of a discipline he must have possessed as a student and an excellence we know he had as a teacher. His most significant achievements, if they can at all be pinpointed, lay in the areas of Bach and Haydn research, in his studies of these two masters written, revised and enlarged over a period of a halfcentury in collaboration with his brilliant first wife, Irene, and in his lifelong effort to see that a collected edition of Haydn's works be realized for the first time in our century.

Geiringer himself assessed his career as follows: "It seems to me that, as far as my fate allowed it, I have made adequate use of the modest resources with which nature endowed me".Geiringer (1993, 181)

Notable works

*(1936) ''Brahms: His Life and Work'', Houghton Mifflin. *(1945) ''Musical Instruments, Their History in Western Culture from the Stone Age to the Present'', Oxford University Press. . *(1946 (1st ed.), 3rd and final edition 1984 with Irene Geiringer) ''Haydn: A Creative Life in Music,'' W. W. Norton. *(1954) ''The Bach Family: Seven Generations of Creative Genius'', Oxford University Press. *(1966) ''Johann Sebastian Bach: The Culmination of an Era'',

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 ...

. . *(1981) with Irene Geiringer, ''

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

and

Nancy Storace Anna (or Ann) Selina Storace (; 27 October 176524 August 1817), known professionally as Nancy Storace, was an English operatic soprano. The role of Susanna in Mozart's ''Le nozze di Figaro'' was written for and first performed by her. Born in ...

in Vienna'', in ''Essays on the Music of J.S. Bach and other divers subjects: a tribute to Gerhard Herz'', pages 235-244. Edited by Eobert L. Weaver.

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one o ...

, Louisville, Kentucky. *(1993) ''This I Remember''. Santa Barbara, CA: Fithian Press. *(2002) ''Joseph Haydn and the Eighteenth Century: Collected Essays of Karl Geiringer''. Edited by Robert N. Freeman. Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press. . *(2006) with George S. Bozarth, ''On Brahms and his circle: Essays and documentary studies, revised and enlarged by George S. Bozarth with a foreword by Walter Frisch.'' Sterling Heights, Mich.: Harmonie Park Press. .

Notes

References

*Anonymous (1989) "Music conference endowed to honor professor," press release issued by the University of California, Santa Barbara. On line a

*Cole, Malcolm (2003) Review of ''Joseph Haydn and the Eighteenth Century: Collected Essays of Karl Geiringer''. ''Notes'', December 2003. *Freeman, Robert N., Dolores M. Hsu, Martin Silver, and Carl Zytowski (1989) "Karl Geiringer, Music: Santa Barbara". Obituary published in ''1989, University of California: In Memoriam'', University of California. Available on line a

*Müller, Erich H. (ed.): ''Deutsches Musiker-Lexikon''. Wilhelm Limpert, Dresden 1929, S.1644. *Sadie, Stanley Sadie (Hrsg.): ''The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians''. Macmillan, London 1980. {{DEFAULTSORT:Geiringer, Karl Austrian male writers Haydn scholars Jewish musicians Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United States after the Anschluss Writers from Vienna 1899 births 1989 deaths 20th-century Austrian musicologists Brahms scholars