Peter Branscombe

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Peter John Branscombe (born December 7, 1929 in Sittingbourne , Kent ; † December 31, 2008 in St Andrews ) was an English German studies scholar and expert on Austrian cultural history .

Life

Branscombe first attended Dulwich College , where he also emerged as a particularly talented cricket player. After spending his military service in Vienna, he studied literature at Worcester College Oxford and soon met well-known Austrian exiles, including the composer Egon Wellesz and the cultural historian and Schubert researcher Otto Erich Deutsch .

In 1959 Branscombe was offered a professorship in German at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland , to which he remained loyal throughout his life. Since 1979 he has mainly devoted himself to Austrian Studies ; An institute dedicated to this specialty was set up at his university, the only one in Great Britain.

He was particularly interested not only in the popular theater of the Biedermeier period ( Raimund and Nestroy ) and the Viennese suburban theater in general, he also wrote many special studies on Joseph Haydn , Mozart and Franz Schubert . But he campaigned for unknown composers with great commitment - not least as a long-time reviewer of concerts and recordings as well as a committed contributor to cultural studies encyclopedias (for example in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the Wagner Handbook ), researching numerous personalities of the 19th century, including many unjustifiably forgotten like Ethel Smyth . He also made a name for himself as a stylistically sensitive translator of poetry ( Heinrich Heine ) and scientific texts.

Between 1996 and 2001, Branscombe published six antics or opera parodies as part of the new historical-critical complete edition of Johann Nestroy's Complete Works : Free of charge! , Tannhäuser , Lohengrin / Pastime , Former Conditions / Chief Abendwind (vol. 35–38).

Since 1967 he was married to the Germanist Marina Branscombe and had three children with her.

Works (selection)

  • Branscombe's dissertation is a previously unpublished two-volume study on the interrelationships between Viennese folk theater and opera: The connexions between drama and music in the Viennese popular theater from the opening of the Leopoldstädter Theater (1781) to Nestroy's opera parodies (ca 1855), with special reference to the forms of parody . Dissertation (typewriter) 1976 ( Vienna library in the town hall )
  • Heinrich Heine : Selected Verse by Heine. Translated by Peter Branscombe. Penguin Books. 1967/1968.
  • Austrian Life and Literature, 1780-1938 . Eight essays. Scottish Academic Press 1978.
  • With Eva Badura-Skoda : Schubert Studies. Problems of Style and Chronology. Cambridge 1978, ISBN 0-521-22606-6 .
  • WA Mozart: The Magic Flute . Cambridge Opera Handbooks. Cambridge 1991, ISBN 0-521-31916-1 .
  • Numerous articles and reviews in: Forum for Modern Language Studies and Austrian Studies as well as Nestroyana .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Branscombe, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Branscombe, Peter John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English German studies scholar and particular expert on Austrian cultural history
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Sittingbourne , Kent
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 2008
Place of death St Andrews