Julius August Philipp Spitta (27 December 1841 – 13 April 1894) was a German music historian 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 m ...

best known for his 1873 biography of

Johann Sebastian 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 wo ...

Life

He was born in , near Hoya, and his father, also called Philipp Spitta, was a

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and wrote the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

collection of

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn ...

s entitled ''Psalter und Harfe''. As a child, the younger Spitta learnt the piano,

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

, and

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

. He studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

and classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

from 1860, graduating in 1864 with a Ph.D. for a dissertation on

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

(''Der Satzbau bei Tacitus'', 1866). While at university, he composed, wrote a biography of

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

, and became friends with

Johannes 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 wit ...

. He became a teacher of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

and

Latin language Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of ...

in, successively,

Reval Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ''m ...

Sondershausen Sondershausen is a town in Thuringia, central Germany, capital of the Kyffhäuserkreis district, situated about 50 km north of Erfurt. On 1 December 2007, the former municipality Schernberg was incorporated by Sondershausen. Until 1918 i ...

, and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, while pursuing his interest in and lecturing on music history in general and Johann Sebastian Bach in particular. His Bach study began to be published in 1873, and was followed by an appointment as professor of music history 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 o ...

in 1875, and a further appointment as administrative director of the

Berlin Hochschule für Musik The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

, at which posts he remained for the rest of his life. The students he taught include

Oskar Fleischer Oskar Fleischer (2 November 1856 – 8 February 1933) was a German musicologist. Life Born in Zörbig Anhalt-Bitterfeld, after attending the Latin secondary school at the Francke Foundations in Halle, Fleischer studied ancient and modern lan ...

, Max Friedlaender,

Carl Krebs Carl Immanuel Krebs (11 February 1889, Aarhus – 15 May 1971, Slagelse) was a Danish medical doctor, humanitarian aid worker and explorer. He was the third child of First Lieutenant (later Major General) Frederik Christian Krebs (1855–19 ...

Max Seiffert Maximilian Seiffert (9 February 1868 – 15 April 1948) was a German musicologist and editor of Baroque music. Biography Seiffert was born in Beeskow an der Spree, Germany, the son of a teacher. He was first educated at the Joachimsthal Gymna ...

Agnes Tschetschulin Agnes Tschetschulin (24 February 1859 – 23 April 1942) was a Finnish composer and violinist who toured internationally. Tschetschulin was born in Helsinki to Feodor and Hilda Eckstein Tschetschulin. She had three sisters: Maria, Melanie, and E ...

Emil Vogel __NOTOC__ Emil Wilhelm Vogel (20 July 1894 – 1 October 1985) was a German general during World War II who commanded the XXXVI Mountain Corps. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. Life and career Emil Vogel ...

, Peter Wagner, and Johannes Wolf. He founded one of the first scholarly music periodicals, the ''Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft'', with

Friedrich Chrysander Karl Franz Friedrich Chrysander (8 July 1826 – 3 September 1901) was a German music historian, critic and publisher, whose edition of the works of George Frideric Handel and authoritative writings on many other composers established him as a ...

and

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 ...

in 1885, and also had an important role in the publication of the '' Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst''.

Work

He left a strong influence on the new fields of historical criticism and

musicology 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 ...

; his work spanned periods of music history from the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

to his own time, and embraced research, teaching, writing, and editing of musical editions to a very rigorous degree, including the use of source-critical studies. He was influenced by neo-Kantian philosophy. In his Bach biography, he wrote the first major study of German choral and

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

music of the 17th century (early

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

Books

Most of his papers are divided between the library of the

, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and the library of the University of Łódz. He contributed many scholarly articles to periodicals, and wrote articles on

Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

Spontini Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini (14 November 177424 January 1851) was an Italian opera composer and conductor from the classical era. Biography Born in Maiolati, Papal State (now Maiolati Spontini, Province of Ancona), he spent most of his ...

, and Weber for ''

Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'' in 1886. *''Ein Lebensbild

s'' (Leipzig, 1862) *''

'' (Leipzig, 1873–1880, 1962; English translation: ''Johann Sebastian Bach. His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685 - 1750'' (Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller-Maitland, transl.), 1884–1885, 1899) *''Zur Musik'' (Berlin, 1892) - 16

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

s *''Musikgeschichtliche Aufsätze'' (Berlin, 1894) - collected essays

Editions

* Dietrich Buxtehude: Orgelwerke (Leipzig, 1876–1877) *

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

: Sämtliche Werke (Leipzig, 1885–1894) * Friedrichs des Grossen: Musikalische Werke (Leipzig, 1889)

Notes

Sources

Christoph Wolff Christoph Wolff (born 24 May 1940) is a German musicologist. He is best known for his works on the music, life, and period of Johann Sebastian Bach. Christoph Wolff is an emeritus professor of Harvard University, and was part of the faculty sinc ...

: 'Spitta, (Julius August) Philipp', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-06-13), http://www.grovemusic.com/

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spitta, Philipp 1841 births 1894 deaths People from Nienburg (district) People from the Kingdom of Hanover German music historians Musicologists from Berlin University of Göttingen alumni Bach scholars 19th-century composers 19th-century German musicians 19th-century German historians 19th-century German musicologists