Albrecht Dümling (born 1949) is a German

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

and

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

Biography

Born in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

, Dümling studied

musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and earned a Ph.D. with an interdisciplinary study on

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

and

Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential liter ...

, with

Carl Dahlhaus Carl Dahlhaus (10 June 1928 – 13 March 1989) was a German musicologist who was among the leading postwar musicologists of the mid to late 20th-century. #Selected bibliography, A prolific scholar, he had broad interests though his research foc ...

as his mentor. In 1985 he published his comprehensive work on

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

’s collaboration with composers. As a co-founder of the "International Hanns Eisler Society", Dümling was instrumental in creating the new "Gesamtausgabe" (''complete edition'') of the musical and literary works of the composer. Following twenty years as music critic for the Berlin newspaper ''

Der Tagesspiegel (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington, D.C., and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, since reunificati ...

'' (1978–1998), Dümling contributed to the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

'', "Neue Musik-Zeitung" and several radio programs. He is also a "Honorary Research Associate" at the

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

, a "Research Fellow" at the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (FFAM). It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and a member of the ''Advisory Board'' to the "International Centre for Suppressed Music"' in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. As a scholar at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities Dümling created an American version of the exhibition „Entartete Musik (''degenerate music'') in 1989/90, which travelled to more than 50 locations worldwide, including the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

in London, and the

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...

. In 2007 he developed a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

version of the exhibition for the

University of Sevilla The University of Seville (''Universidad de Sevilla'') is a university in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. Founded under the name of ''Colegio Santa María de Jesús'' in 1505, in 2022 it has a student body of 57,214,U-Ranking Universidades español ...

, and a revised German version for the

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra The Berlin Philharmonic () is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. Throughout the 20th century, the orchestra was led by conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922� ...

. In 1990, Dümling was appointed chairman of "musica reanimata", a society for the promotion of composers persecuted by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

, which in 2006 was awarded the "German Critics’ Prize". 1992-99 he served as Project Consultant for the

DECCA Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

CD-series "Entartete Musik". Following a lecture tour through Australia he was the organiser of the conference “Musical Exile in Australia” in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

1996. From 2000 to 2003 Dümling continued this research project at the

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

(Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung), sponsored by the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bu ...

. 2004 he received the Harold White Fellowship from the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

. In 1992 Dümling wrote the official biography of German composer

Leon Jessel Leon Jessel, or Léon Jessel (22 January 1871 – 4 January 1942), was a German composer of operettas and light classical music pieces. Today he is best known internationally as the composer of the popular jaunty march '' The Parade of the Tin Sol ...

(1871–1942). He revised and republished the biography in 2012. Dümling was awarded the ''European Cultural Prize "KAIROS"''KAIROS Prize
/ref> of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, for the rediscovery of persecuted musicians.

Selected bibliography

*Dümling, Albrecht. ''Laßt euch nicht verführen! Brecht und die Musik''. München: Kindler, 1985 *Dümling, Albrecht. ''Die verweigerte Heimat: Leon Jessel, der Komponist des "Schwarzwaldmädel"'' (''The Denied Homeland: Leon Jessel, Composer of "Black Forest Girl"''). Düsseldorf: Der kleine Verlag, 1992. Revised in 2012 and published by Lukas Verlag. *Dümling, Albrecht. ''Die verschwundenen Musiker: Jüdische Flüchtlinge in Australien''. Böhlau Verlag, 2011. * Albrecht Dümling/Peter Girth (eds). ''Entartete Musik: Dokumentation und Kommentar zur Düsseldorfer Ausstellung von 1938''. Düsseldorf: Der Kleine Verlag, 1988. Expanded edition 1993. * *Dümling, Albrecht. ''The Vanished Musicians. Jewish Refugees in Australia''. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2016.

References

External links

*
trinity.unimelb.edu.au
biography of Albrecht Dümling

biography of Albrecht Dümling {{DEFAULTSORT:Dumling, Albrecht German music critics German musicologists German music historians Historians of Nazism Opera scholarship 1949 births Living people German male non-fiction writers Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Brahms scholars Hindemith scholars Schoenberg scholars Webern scholars Weill scholars