Jacques Handschin

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Jacques Handschin (born April 5, 1886 in Moscow , † November 25, 1955 in Basel ) was a Swiss organist , musician and musicologist .

biography

Jacques Handschin first attended a grammar school in Moscow and later the business school in Neuchâtel . During his high school in Moscow he received organ lessons from the organist Friedrich Brüschweiler from St. Gallen. He then studied history , philology and economics at the University of Basel and at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . This was followed, expressly contrary to the wishes of his parents, studying music with Max Reger , Karl Straube and Charles-Marie Widor .

In 1909 he became a teacher at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory . In the summer of 1912 he was temporarily organist at the Bern Minster . He renounced the final election to this office and became organist at the Evangelical Lutheran Petri Church in St. Petersburg . In 1914 he was appointed professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Between 1919 and 1920 he managed the scientific-theoretical music department of the People's Commissariat for Education . In 1921 he had to emigrate to Switzerland for political reasons.

In 1921 he received his doctorate in Basel with a thesis on polyphonic music of the 13th century. Between 1922 and 1924 he was the organist of the Linsebühl Church in St. Gallen . In 1924 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on the polyphonic music of the St. Martial era at the University of Basel. In the same year he moved to the St. Peter Church in Zurich , where he held the office of organist until 1935. In 1930 he was appointed associate professor at the University of Basel. In 1935 he took up the position of organist at the Martinskirche in Basel and was appointed to a full professorship for musicology at the University of Basel in the same year.

Scientific work

In 1919 Handschin and the Russian mathematician Valentin Kowalenkow founded an acoustic laboratory in which tempered scales were researched at the instigation of the scientific-theoretical music department of the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment. In addition to occasional monographic work, he stood out primarily through his preoccupation with medieval music. His late work on tone psychology is fundamental.

Publications

  • The tone character: an introduction to tone psychology. Atlantis, Zurich 1948 (various new editions).
  • An overview of music history. Räber, Lucerne 1948.
  • The ceremonial work of Emperor Constantine and singable poetry. F. Reinhardt, Basel 1942.
  • About studying musicology. Hug & Co., Zurich / Leipzig 1936.
  • Stravinsky: An attempt at an introduction. Hug & Co., Zurich / Leipzig 1933.
  • Camille Saint-Saens. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1929.
  • About the polyphonic music of the St. Martial era as well as the connections between Notre Dame and St. Martial and the connections between a third style and Notre Dame and St. Martial. Habilitation thesis University of Basel, Basel 1924.
  • Mussorgsky: An attempt at an introduction. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1924.
  • Choral arrangements and compositions with rhythmic text in the polyphonic music of the XIII. Century. Dissertation from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Basel, Basel 1923.
  • On the history of the organ in Russia: On a new conception of the music of the XIV. – XVI. Century. St. Petersburg 1916.

Appreciations

Since 2009, the Swiss Music Research Society (SMG) has been awarding the Jacques Handschin Prize, endowed with 10,000 Swiss francs, to young academics every two years .

literature

Web links