Karl Gustav Fellerer

Karl Gustav Fellerer (born July 7, 1902 in Freising / Bavaria; † January 7, 1984 in Munich ) was a German musicologist .

Life

After graduating from high school, Fellerer studied first at the church music school in Regensburg , then at the University of Munich , where he was a student of Joseph Haas , and in Berlin. Here he completed his studies in 1925 with a doctorate to become Dr. phil. from. After completing his habilitation, he was initially a private lecturer at the University of Münster. In 1932 he was offered a professorship at the University of Friborg / Switzerland and in 1934 he became a full professor.

As a student, Fellerer became a member of Catholic student associations, in Regensburg at Agilolfia, at K.St.V. Ottonia Munich, then at Südmark and Isaria-Freising , in Berlin at K.St.V. Askania-Burgundia . In Friborg / Switzerland he became an honorary philistine at Carolingia-Friborg , all in the KV , to which he remained loyal throughout his life.

In 1939 Fellerer was appointed professor at the University of Cologne , where he became director of the musicological institute. Fellerer was very close to National Socialism, even if he did not join the NSDAP until 1941 . Fellerer's behavior during the Nazi era is essentially undisputed, but his motives are interpreted differently.

Fellerer wrote for the Nazi magazine Musik im Kriege . Fellerer was a soldier from 1943 to 1945 and was taken prisoner by the Americans at the end of the war. In 1947 Fellerer was again entrusted with the management of the musicological institute at the University of Cologne, but his appointment as professor did not take place until June 27, 1949 after the denazification process had been completed , because “the Ministry in Düsseldorf demanded an additional decision to reinstate all of the“ categorized teachers ” "At universities, Fellerer was classified in category V -" exonerated "."

In the following years he supported the further expansion of the musicological institute of the university, which has since been one of the largest such institutions. The library has been extensively expanded and departments for ethnomusicology and musical acoustics have been set up. Fellerer has made great contributions to the “scientia musicae”.

From 1956 to 1958 Fellerer was Dean of the Philosophical Faculty, from 1967 to 1968 he was Rector of the University of Cologne. In 1970 Fellerer retired.

Act

The scientific works of Fellerer are very numerous, more than 600 publications. His research focused primarily on Catholic church music, Italian music from 1600 to the beginning of the 20th century and the history of music in the 19th century. He has written monographs on Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina , Georg Friedrich Händel , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Max Bruch . From 1930 to 1946 he was the editor of the Church Music Yearbook , from 1955 also the Cologne Contribution to Music Research and other periodicals.

Fellerer also researched connections between musicology and sociology, medicine and politics. He also dealt with free improvisation or the use of computers in music.

From 1939 to 1970 Fellerer also headed the “Collegium musicum vocale et instrumentale” of the university.

Fellerer worked for many scientific societies and institutions. From 1949 to 1967 he was president of the Joseph Haas Society, from 1951 to 1975 of the Working Group for Rhenish Music History, from 1973 to 1976 he was chairman of the supporting association of the Joseph Haydn Institute in Cologne, and since 1964 he has headed the working group of the music history Fritz Thyssen Foundation and from 1971 to 1980 the Central Institute for Mozart Research in Salzburg.

At WDR , Fellerer was chairman of the program advisory board from 1967 to 1972.

Honors

Fellerer was a full member of the Rhenish-Westphalian Academy of Sciences in Düsseldorf, a corresponding member of the British Academy in London and a member of the Academies of Science in Copenhagen and Brussels. In 1973 he was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Cross of Honor for Science and Art 1st Class of the Republic of Austria and the Commander's Cross of the Papal Order of St. Gregorius , and in 1968 he received the Austrian Mozart Medal.

Two commemorative publications were published for Fellerer's 60th and 70th birthday.

Fonts (selection, chronological)

Books

• Organ and organ music. Augsburg, 1929
• Palestrina , 1930. 2nd edition 1960
• Gregorian Chant , 1936
• History of Catholic Church Music , 1939. 3rd edition 1972/76
• German Gregorian chant in the Franconian Empire , 1941
• Edvard Grieg ( Immortal Music Art ), 1942
• Mozart's church music , 1955
• Sociology of Church Music , 1963
• The New Music Problem , 1967
• The Style Change in Western Music , 1972
• Futurism in Italian Music , 1977
• Studies of 19th Century Music , 1984 posthumously

Essays

• Holland in 19th century European music . In: Musik im Kriege , vol. 1, issue 3/4 (June / July 1943), p. 49f.
• To the research area of ​​musicology . In: Musik im Kriege , 1st year, issue 7/8 (October / November 1943), pp. 129f.
• The style change in the music of the 16th century . In: Musik im Kriege , 2nd year, issue 1/2 (April / May 1944), p. 16f.

literature

• Heinrich Hüschen (Ed.): Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer for his 60th birthday. Regensburg 1962.
• Heinrich Hüschen (Ed.): Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer for his 70th birthday. Cologne 1973.
• Dietrich Kämper: Karl Gustav Fellerer 70 years. In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . New episode. No. 4, 1972.
• Dieter Gutknecht : Fellerer, Karl Gustav. In: The music in past and present Volume 6. Kassel 2001, Sp. 932–938.
• Willem de Vries: Special staff music. Organized looting in Western Europe 1940–45. Cologne 1998.
• Pamela M. Potter: The most German of the arts. Musicology and society from the Weimar Republic to the end of the Third Reich. Stuttgart 2000.

estate

Letters from Karl Gustav Fellerer are in the holdings of the Leipzig music publisher CF Peters in the Leipzig State Archives .

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Gustav Fellerer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Karl Gustav Fellerer  in the German Digital Library
• Rector portraits of the University of Cologne

Individual evidence

1. ^ Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon des KV. 1st part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 2). SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 1991, ISBN 3-923621-55-8 , p. 31 f.
2. ^ Willem de Vries: Special staff music. Organized looting in Western Europe 1940–45. Cologne 1998
3. ↑ Review by Michael Walter
4. ↑ "The assessment of this activity [special scientific assignments as' expert at the task force of Reichsleiter Rosenberg '] and his position on the Nazi regime (party member, member of the Nazi teachers' association, defense of music policy) and its ideology is controversial today: a regime-compliant membership, which can also be read from the jargon-like diction (de Vries, FAZ , Aug. 28, 2001), the explanation of his behavior as an alibi for family reasons [...] and the reference to the simultaneous enthusiasm of other prominent professors such as M. Heidegger ( Rector's speech, Freiburg; PM Potter 2000, p. 138). From a report by the Gaudozentenbundführer Dr. Falke (January 13, 1939, archives of the University of Cologne) it emerges that Fellerer's ' pol. Attitude should be impeccable ' , but there is no evidence of Aryan, which was issued shortly before (December 6, 1938). "Gutknecht: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart , Volume 6, Kassel 2001, Sp. 934. Fellerer's behavior as" To interpret alibi behavior ”seems far-fetched, while the“ enthusiasm of other prominent professors ”cannot even serve as an explanation.
5. ^ Dieter Gutknecht: Fellerer, Karl Gustav. In: Music in the past and present . Volume 6. Kassel 2001, Sp. 932-938, here Sp. 933.
6. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed May 27, 2020 .