Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/524

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connected Liedertafeln—the editor of the former being Heinrich Pfeil (d. 1899), and of the latter for about 10 years the poet Konrad Müller [von der Werra] (d. 1881), who was the projector of the Sängerbund; and the Musikalisches Wochenblatt, founded in 1870 by Oscar Paul and Ernst Wilhelm Fritzsch, and conducted by the latter in the interest of the newest ideas and workers.

The cantorate of the Thomasschule, involving the control of the music in the four city-churches, was filled by a dignified series of scholars:—from 1800 by the organist and composer A. E. Muller (d. 1817); from 1810 by the composer J. G. Schicht (d. 1823); from 1823 by the excellent theorist Theodor Weinlig (d. 1842); from 1842 by the greater theorist Hauptmann (d. 1868); from 1868 by Hauptmann's colleague at the conservatory, E. F. Richter (d. 1879); from 1879 by the conductor, composer and scholar Wilhelm Rust (d. 1892); and from 1892 by the composer Gustav Schreck.

At the University prominent musical directors were from 1842 Gottfried Wilhelm Fink (d. 1846); from 1843 (at first as organist) Hermann Langer (d. 1889); from 1887 the noted organist, composer and critic Hermann Kretzschmar; from 1898 the eminent conductor and composer Heinrich Zöllner; and from 1907 Max Reger. Among the university professors who have investigated and published in musical fields are C. F. Michaelis (d. 1834), who wrote on æsthetics and pedagogy from 1795; Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann (d. 1848), the author of important works on metrics from 1796; the physiologist Ernst Heinrich Weber (d. 1878), with works on acoustics from 1820; the medical professor Karl Ludwig Merkel, who discussed the apparatus of the voice from 1856; the physicist Gustav Theodor Fechner (d. 1887), with works on psycho-physics and æsthetics from 1860; and the prolific and learned Hugo Riemann, with discussions of history and theory from 1878.

In addition, may be mentioned several literary workers not holding institutional positions, such as from 1825 the organist, historian and book-collector Karl Ferdinand Becker (d. 1877), who left his library to the city, with his successor in the care of the music section of the City Library, the critic and editor Alfred Dörffel; for a few years (1847-51) the great archæologist and biographer Otto Jahn (d. 1869), later of Bonn; the critic and lexicographer Eduard Bernsdorf (d. 1901); from 1866 the historian, theorist and piano-expert Oscar Paul (d. 1898); the teacher, lecturer and essayist Albert Karl Tottmann, author of a fine summary of violin and viola music (1873); the intelligent editor of essays Paul von Waldersee (d. 1906); and from 1880 for some years the industrious historian, lexicographer and composer August Reissmann (d. 1903), who here completed his lives of Bach, Handel, Gluck and Weber, and his account of the Opera.

In estimating the importance of Leipsic as a centre, the activity of the purely artistic workers mentioned later (secs. 195-7) must also be considered.