Oscar George Theodore Sonneck (October 6, 1873 – October 30, 1928) was a U.S.

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

, 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 ...

. Sonneck was born in

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and musicology in Germany at the universities of

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

and

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. From 1902 to 1917, he was head of the music division of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

, and as such created a significant music library. Since 1915, he was also editor of ''

The Musical Quarterly ''The Musical Quarterly'' is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928. Sonneck was succeeded by a number of editors, including Car ...

''. As a writer, he specialized in the history of early (before the 19th century) American music. He died in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, aged 55. The

Society for American Music The Society for American Music (SAM) was founded in 1975 and was first named the Sonneck Society in honor of Oscar George Theodore Sonneck, early Chief of the Music Division in the Library of Congress and pioneer scholar of American music. The S ...

was created in his honor, and initially named after him.

Works

* ''A Bibliography of Early Secular American Music'' (1905, rev. ed. 1945) * ''Early Concert-Life in America'' (1907) * ''Report on "The Star-Spangled Banner", "Hail Columbia", "America", "Yankee Doodle"'' (1909) * ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' (1914) * ''Catalogue of Opera Librettos Printed before 1800'' (2 vol., 1914) * ''Early Opera in America'' (1915) * ''Vier pessimistische Lieder, op. 17'' (Universal-Edition Ä.G., Vienna & New York, 1922)

External links

* *
Sonneck's books
at the Internet Archive
Picture of Sonneck
1873 births 1928 deaths American librarians {{US-music-bio-stub