Oscar Paul (8 April 183618 April 1898) was a German musicologist and a music writer, critic, and teacher.

Biography

Oscar Paul was born in Freiwaldau in Silesia (now

Gozdnica Gozdnica (german: Freiwaldau) is a town in Żagań County, Lubusz Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,036 inhabitants (2019). Situated close to Lower Silesian Voivodeship, na north-west of Żagań and east of Przewóz, Żary County, Przewóz. Voivodesh ...

in the

Województwo lubuskie Lubusz Voivodeship, or Lubuskie Province ( pl, województwo lubuskie ), is a voivodeship ( province) in western Poland. It was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra Voivodeships, pursuant to the ...

of the Poland). He studied at

Görlitz Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...

, and under Louis Plaidy, Ernst Richter and Moritz Hauptmann at the University of Leipzig.''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', 5th ed, 1954, Vol. VI, p. 596 He commenced a career as a pianist, but soon found himself unsuited to it. After spending time in different German towns, he returned to Leipzig in 1866 to give private lessons in harmony. In 1869 he became a teacher at the Leipzig Conservatory, and in 1872 a professor at the university. His students included: Felix Weingartner, Leoš Janáček, Fanny Davies, Cornelis Dopper, Alfred Hill, Hans Huber,

Ferdinand Pfohl Ferdinand Pfohl (; 12 October 1862, Elbogen, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, now Loket n.O., Czech Republic – 16 December 1949, Hamburg-Bergedorf), was a German music critic, music writer and composer. Pfohl studied law at Prague, then in Leip ...

, Anna Diller Starbuck, Theodore Baker, W. Waugh Lauder (the only Canadian student of

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

), Rudolf Breithaupt, Johannes Gelbker, Emil Kronke, Heinrich Ordenstein, Albert Ross Parsons, and Otto Schweizer. He died in 1898 at the age of 62.

Writing

In 1866 Paul published ''Die absolute Harmonik der Griechen''. He edited Hauptmann's ''Lehre von der Harmonik'' (1868), and wrote ''Geschichte des Klaviers'' (1869) and ''Handlexikon der Tonkunst'' (1871–72). In 1872, he produced his magnum opus, his translation and elucidation of the five-volume work ''De institutione musica'' by Boethius. His ''Lehrbuch der Harmonik'' came out in 1880. Paul was a contributor to the ''Niederrheinische Musik-Zeitung'' (1853–1867). He founded and edited the periodical ''Tonhalle'' which was merged into ''Musikalisches Wochenblatt'', which he also edited. He was the music critic of the ''Leipziger Tagblatt'' for many years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Oscar 1836 births 1898 deaths People from Jeseník German writers about music German music critics German music educators Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Leipzig University Academic staff of the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig 19th-century German journalists German male journalists 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German musicologists