Willi Apel
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Willi Apel (10 October 1893 – 14 March 1988) was a German-American
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 ...
and noted author of a number of books devoted to music. Among his most important publications are the 1944 edition of '' The Harvard Dictionary of Music'' and ''French Secular Music of the Late Fourteenth Century''.


Life and career

Apel was born in
Konitz Unterwellenborn is a municipality in the district Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe af ...
,
West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...
, now Chojnice in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. He studied mathematics from 1912 to 1914, and then again after
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
from 1918 to 1922, in various universities in
Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is als ...
. Throughout his studies, he had an interest in music and taught piano lessons. He then turned to music full-time, and essentially taught himself about musicology. He received his Ph.D. in 1936 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 ...
(with a dissertation on 15th and 16th century tonality) and immigrated to the USA the same year. He taught at Harvard from 1938 to 1942, but moved on to spend twenty years at
Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...
beginning in 1950. In 1972 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university. Apel's work of the 1940s included books of broad scope, such as '' The Harvard Dictionary of Music'' (1944), which he edited, and '' Historical Anthology of Music'' (1947–1950, co-authored with Archibald Thompson Davison). His approach was to give as much attention to Medieval, Renaissance and world music as was given to familiar subjects such as Mozart and
Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
; this influenced the higher music education in the USA. His book on the
notation In linguistics and semiotics, a notation is a system of graphics or symbols, characters and abbreviated expressions, used (for example) in artistic and scientific disciplines to represent technical facts and quantities by convention. Therefore, ...
of early polyphonic music was also written in the 1940s, and still serves as one of the essential works on the subject. In 1950 Apel's interest in early polyphonic notation resulted in an important edition, ''French Secular Music of the Late Fourteenth Century''. In 1958 he published a large work on
plainchant Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text ...
, which provided a comprehensive guide of the repertoire and its sources. In early 1960s he founded the Corpus of Early Keyboard Music (CEKM), a series of editions devoted to early keyboard music. Over the years, CEKM presented the music of less known composers such as Johann Ulrich Steigleder, Bernardo Storace, Peeter Cornet, and others, and also included modern editions of various important manuscripts such as the 16th century Jan z Lublina
tablature Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...
. Apel was the general editor for CEKM and edited a total of ten volumes; his pupils provided dozens more. 1967 saw the publication of ''Geschichte der Orgel- und Klaviermusik'', a large work on the history of keyboard music. An English translation (by Hans Tischler) appeared in 1972. Apel's last book was a collection of essays from 1973–81, all dedicated to Italian violin music of the 17th century. Willi Apel died at age 94 in
Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...
.


Major works

* ''The Notation of Polyphonic Music 900–1600'' (1942) * ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'' (1944) (editor) * ''Masters of Keyboard'' (1947) * ''Historical Anthology of Music Volume I: Oriental, Medieval and Renaissance Music'', (1947) (with Davison) * ''Historical Anthology of Music Volume II: Baroque, Rococo and Pre-Classical Music'', (1950) (with Davison) * ''Gregorian Chant'' (1958) * ''The History of Keyboard Music to 1700'' (1967, English edition published 1972) * ''Italian Violin Music of the Seventeenth Century'' (1983, English edition published 1990)


References

*


External links


Willi Apel page at the Indiana University website
includes a comprehensive list of Apel's writings.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apel, Willi 1893 births 1988 deaths People from Chojnice American musicologists Musicologists from Berlin Harvard University faculty Indiana University faculty German emigrants to the United States People from West Prussia Musical notation Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America 20th-century German musicologists