Johannes Wolf (musicologist)

Johannes Wolf (born April 17, 1869 in Berlin , † May 25, 1947 in Munich ) was a German musicologist , librarian and university professor . His name is closely linked to the beginnings of musical notation studies and to research into Ars nova .

Life

From 1888 to 1892 Wolf first studied German language and literature and music history with Philipp Spitta and Heinrich Bellermann at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität , in addition composition with Woldemar Bargiel at the Berlin Conservatory . In 1893, he was with a thesis on an anonymous musical treatise from the 11th to the 12th century doctorate . Following his studies, Wolf traveled to France and Italy to examine medieval music manuscripts in the libraries. From 1899 to 1903 he worked as secretary of the International Music Society, which he and Oskar Fleischer co-founded . Until 1904 he published their annual anthologies. His successor was Max Seiffert .

In 1902 Wolf completed his habilitation at the Berlin University for Early Music History and in the subject of church music . In 1907 he was appointed professor , in 1922 he became honorary professor at the university. From 1908 to 1927 he was also a lecturer in music history and Protestant liturgy at the Academy for Church and School Music. In 1915, Wolf took over the management of the early music collection at the Prussian State Library . After Wilhelm Altmann left the company, the entire music department was under his control. Wolf was one of the founders of the German Music Society in 1917. From 1927 to 1933 he was its chairman. From 1918 to 1926 Wolf was a member of the Princely Institute for Musicological Research in Bückeburg . During the same time he edited the publications of the Archives for Musicology.

In 1934 Wolf retired , but continued to work as a freelance scientist. In 1947 he took part in the constituent assembly of the Society for Music Research in Göttingen , which was to be newly founded in the Federal Republic . The trip made his health so much worse that Wolf died shortly afterwards.

plant

Johannes Wolf is considered to be one of the last great universal musicologists of the early 20th century. His philologically oriented research and editing work ranged from the music of the Middle Ages to Romanticism . His main research interests were Protestant church music of the Reformation , the history of music theory , notation studies and Ars nova . While Wolf continued Carl von Winterfeld's studies in the history of church music and Hugo Riemann's theoretical studies, he did pioneering work in his other research areas. The decoding of the mensural notation of the 14th century is essentially based on Wolf and Friedrich Ludwig's historical-philological research, which included methods such as comparing manuscripts. He also examined the music of the ars antiqua in this way. In addition, research on tablature began in Johannes Wolf's work. Finally, Wolf published a large number of historical manuscripts. Some of his publications such as B. the two-volume Handbuch der Notationskunde (1913/19) belong to the standard works of historical musicology even today.

Publications (selection)

• History of mensural notation from 1250–1460 . Leipzig 1904
• Handbook of notation studies . 2 vol. Leipzig 1913-1919
• History of music in a generally understandable form . 3 vol., Leipzig 1925–1929
• Musical tablets . Bückeburg / Leipzig 1927

literature

• Peter Wackernagel : Johannes Wolf in memory. Address to d. Work colleagues d. Public Knowledge Bibl. On July 3, 1947 , in: ZfB 61 (1947), pp. 205-207.
• Peter Wackernagel: From the happy times of the Prussian State Library. Memories of colleagues and friends of yore , in: Festschrift for Friedrich Smend on his 70th birthday, presented by friends and students .- Berlin (1963), pp. 61–65

Web links

• Literature by and about Johannes Wolf in the catalog of the German National Library