![Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Siegfried_Wilhelm_Dehn.jpg)
Siegfried Wilhelm (von) Dehn (24 or 25
February 1799 – 12 April 1858) was a German music theorist, editor, teacher and librarian.
Born in
Altona, Dehn was the son of a banker and learned to play the cello as a boy. Intent on becoming a diplomat, he studied law in
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 wel ...
but also took music lessons from J. A. Dröbs. While attached to the Swedish embassy in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, Dehn developed an interest in musical research, studying with
Bernhard Klein
Bernhard Joseph Klein (6 March 1793 – 9 September 1832) was a German composer.
Life
Klein was born in Cologne. He married Lili Parthey (1800–1829) who was the sister of Gustav Parthey (1798–1872) and the granddaughter of Friedrich Nicolai ...
. He was left destitute by the failure of the family bank in 1830 and decided to devote himself to music; he soon became known and respected widely as a musical theorist and teacher.
[Warrack and Deaville, ''New Grove (2001)'', 7:140.]
In 1842, composer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le di ...
recommended Dehn to fill the post of custodian of the Prussian royal library. Dehn threw himself into cataloging the collection, bringing it into order and adding to it copiously from libraries all over
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
. Among the collections he amassed were those of
Anton Schindler
Anton Felix Schindler (13 June 1795 in Medlov – 16 January 1864 in Bockenheim (Frankfurt am Main)) was an Austrian law clerk and associate, secretary, and early biographer of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Life
Schindler moved to Vienna in 1813 to st ...
and
Georg Pölchau; the latter was especially notable for its manuscripts by
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 w ...
and
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...
. Dehn was also editor of ''Cäcilia'' from 1842 to 1848 and professor of the Royal Academy of the Arts from 1849. On the death of
Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl
Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl (10 December 1782 – 6 April 1849) was a German Germanist, pedagogue, musicologist and conductor.
Life
Griepenkerl was born in Peine the son of a preacher, he first attended the school in Peine and changed in ...
in 1849, Dehn helped edit J.S. Bach's instrumental music for the Peters Edition. He was responsible for, among other works, the first publishing of the
Brandenburg concertos
The ''Brandenburg Concertos'' by Johann Sebastian Bach (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, BWV 1046–1051), are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg ...
. He also edited a large number of
Lassus
Orlande de Lassus ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palest ...
motets.
Dehn was widely respected as a teacher. His students included
Albert Becker,
Ludwig Bussler
Ludwig Bussler (26 November 1838 – 18 January 1900) was a German musical instructor, critic and conductor. He was born in Berlin. His father, Robert Bussler, was a painter, author and privy counsellor. He was a pupil of A.E. Grell, Siegfried ...
,
Peter Cornelius
Carl August Peter Cornelius (24 December 1824 – 26 October 1874) was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator.
Life
He was born in Mainz to Carl Joseph Gerhard (1793–1843) and Friederike (1789–1867) Cornelius, actors i ...
,
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka ( rus, link=no, Михаил Иванович Глинка, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka., mʲɪxɐˈil ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡlʲinkə, Ru-Mikhail-Ivanovich-Glinka.ogg; ) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recogni ...
,
Heinrich Hofmann,
Gustav Nottebohm
Martin Gustav Nottebohm (12 November 1817, Lüdenscheid, Westphalia – 29 October 1882, Graz) was a pianist, teacher, musical editor and composer who spent most of his career in Vienna. He is particularly celebrated for his studies of Beethoven
...
, and
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sai ...
.
He died in Berlin.
Works
* ''Theoretisch-praktische Harmonielehre mit angefügten Generalbaßbeispielen'', Berlin, 1840
* ''Analyse dreier Fugen von S. Bach und einer Vocalfuge von A. M. Bononcini's'', 1858
* ''Lehre vom Contrapunkt, Canon und Fuge'', 1859
* ''Orlandus Lassus Psalmi VII poenitentiales'' o.J. (Hg.)
* ''12 Hefte mehrstimmiger Gesänge des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts'', o.J. (Hg.)
;Editions
*
Bach, J. S.,
WV 211Joh. Seb. Bach. ''Komische Cantaten. No. I. Schlendrian mit seiner Tochter Liefsgen (Coffee-Cantate:).'' Herausgegeben von S. W. Dehn. Interdum et Socrates equitabat arundine longa,
a. 1830 31 pp. (Partitur)
* Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750),
WV 1042
West Virginia is a U.S. state, state in the Appalachian Mountains, Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Burea ...
''Deuxieme Concerto en Mi majeur pour le Violon avec Accompagnament de deux Violons, Viola et Basse…'', publie pour la premiere fois par S. W. Dehn
artitur Leipzig, Peters (V. Nr. 3888)
a. 1875 20 lithogr.
Bibliography
*Warrack, John and James Deaville, ed. Stanley Sadie, "Dehn, Siegfried (Wilhelm)," ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition'' (London: Macmilian, 2001), 29 vols. .
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dehn, Siegfried
1799 births
1858 deaths
German music theorists
Musicologists from Berlin
19th-century German musicologists
German librarians