Hermann Kretzschmar

August Ferdinand Hermann Kretzschmar ( born January 19, 1848 in Olbernhau, † May 10, 1924 in Berlin- Schlachtensee ) was a German musicologist and writer and is considered the founder of hermeneutics in music.

Life

Kretzschmar was the son of the organist and choirmaster Karl Thank God Kretzschmar. He was from 1862 students of the Cross School in Dresden, where he was from 1867 to 1868 second prefect of the Cross choir. Subsequently, he studied until 1870 Philology at the University of Leipzig as well as music at the Leipzig Conservatory and received his PhD here. In the summer of 1868 he became a member of the Leipzig University singers shaft to St. Pauli (today German singer shank ), its director from 1887 to 1898. From 1871 he worked as a teacher of theory, composition, piano and organ at the Conservatory of Leipzig and worked as a conductor for various music companies. In 1876 he was theater conductor in Metz and made music history study trips to England and Italy, from 1877 to 1887 he was an academic and Director of Music in Rostock. From 1887 to 1904 he was once again working as a university music director in Leipzig. From 1888 to 1898 he was conductor of the Riedel 's Male Chorus. In 1890 he was appointed associate professor in 1890, he founded the Leipzig Academic concerts, which he headed until 1895. In 1904 he was appointed as professor of music at the Berlin Friedrich- Wilhelms-Universität.

From 1907 to 1922 he was director of the Royal Institute for Church Music, where his student Carl Thiel became his successor. Hermann Kretzschmar was 1909-1920, in turn, successor of Joseph Joachim, founded in 1869 as director of the School of Music. He was Privy Councillor.

Kretzschmar was married to the British pianist Klara Meller since 1880.

He died in 1924 and was buried in an honorary grave in the Protestant Cemetery Nikolasee in Berlin.

Works

• Guide to the concert hall, Leipzig 1887-90
• Suggestions for the promotion of musical hermeneutics I, Leipzig 1902
• New suggestions for the promotion of musical hermeneutics, Leipzig 1905
• History of the New German song, Leipzig 1911
• History of Opera, 1919
• Introduction to the History of Music, 1920