Ludwig Nohl (born 5 December 1831 in

Iserlohn Iserlohn (; Westphalian: ''Iserlaun'') is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city by population and area within the district and the Sauerland region. Geography Iserlohn is locat ...

; died 15 December 1885 in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

) was a German music scholar and writer best known for discovering and publishing

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 ...

's famous

bagatelle Bagatelle (from the Château de Bagatelle) is a billiards-derived indoor table game, the object of which is to get a number of balls (set at nine in the 19th century) past wooden pins (which act as obstacles) into holes that are guarded by woode ...

, "

Für Elise Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor ( WoO59, Bia515) for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" (, ), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. It was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig Nohl) 40 ye ...

Life

After graduation from the Gymnasium in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

, Nohl studied jurisprudence at the universities in Bonn, Heidelberg, and Berlin, where he received instruction in music from

Siegfried Dehn 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 diplo ...

and

Friedrich Kiel Friedrich Kiel (8 October 182113 September 1885) was a German composer and music teacher. Writing of the chamber music of Friedrich Kiel, the scholar and critic Wilhelm Altmann notes that it was Kiel’s extreme modesty which kept him and his ex ...

. From 1853 to 1856 he was a

referendary Referendary is the English form of a number of administrative positions, of various rank, in chanceries and other official organizations in Europe. Pre-modern history The office of ' (plural: ', from the Latin ', "I inform") existed at the Byzan ...

and undertook journeys to France and Italy, and he also taught music in Heidelberg. In 1860 he wrote his thesis on Mozart and earned the rank of privatdozent for "History and Aesthetic of Musical Art." In 1864 he moved to Munich and made an introduction to

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

, whose works he had praised in his writings. In 1865 he was awarded by King Ludwig II the title of Professor of Music at the University of Munich for his compilation of Mozart's letters. The university faculty, however, was disinclined to Nohl, and he was not given any teaching duties. In that year he discovered through the "industrial teacher" Babeth Bredl in Munich the now-lost autograph of Beethoven's Bagatelle Für Elise. The work was first published in 1867 in Nohl's book "New Beethoven Letters" (Neue Briefe Beethovens). From 1868 to 1872 he lived in Badenweiler and eventually returned to Heidelberg. In 1875, he was a Dozent at the polytechnic in Karlsruhe (predecessor to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and became a full professor in 1880. He was one of the most widely read writers on music of his time. His many books went through many printings. His main legacy is as a Beethoven scholar, and a portion of his writings are housed at the state archive in

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nohl, Ludwig 1831 births 1885 deaths 19th-century German composers 19th-century German musicians Beethoven scholars German writers about music 19th-century musicologists