Theodore Baker

Theodore Baker ( born June 3, 1851 in New York City; † October 13, 1934 in Dresden ) was a acting in Germany and America, American musicologist, translator, publishing editor and lexicographer.

Life

Baker was initially designed as a businessman and worked casually as an organist in Concord (Massachusetts ). He decided to study music and went to Germany for 1874. He became a pupil of Paul Oscar at the University of Leipzig and here 1882 Dr. phil. doctorate. In his dissertation he examined the songs of the Seneca, one Iroquois people in New York State. With this first scientific study of the music of the North American Indians at all, he was also the first American, who received a doctorate in musicology. About Henry Franklin Gilbert came to study at the teacher Edward MacDowell, who found in it motifs for his Suite No. 2 (Indian Suite).

1891 Baker returned back to the U.S. and was in the following year publishing editor at the music publisher G. Schirmer, Inc. In this position, he worked for 34 years until his retirement in April 1926. Retirees as he went back to Germany and lived in Leipzig.

Work

Baker was an important mediator German and European music in the United States at different levels. He translated songs, books, libretti and articles and distributed them in the scores and the Schirmer publishing magazines such as the Musical Quarterly. As an editor he was responsible for a whole series of handbooks and encyclopedias, including a glossary of musical terms (1895 ) and his most famous work, a biographical handbook (1900), which has been until now reissued again and again.

From his song translations, some have rapidly become popular and have been preserved until today, We gather together ( We come to pray ), which is sung at Thanksgiving, and Christmas Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming ( It is a Ros sprung ) and While by My sheep I Watch at Night ( when I wake up in my sheep ).

Writings

• About the music of the North American savages. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel 1882 ( at the same time Diss Leipzig; digitized )

• Dictionary of Musical Terms: Containing upwards of 9,000 English, French, German, Italian, Latin and Greek words and phrases used in the art and science of music, care fully defined, and with the accent of the foreign words marked; Preceded by rules for the pronunciation of Italian, German, and French. New York: Schirmer 1895 231923

• [ Baker's ] Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. New York: Schirmer 1900

• A Pronouncing Pocket Manual of Musical Terms. New York: Schirmer 1905 ( digitized ) 21947