A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Brendel, Karl
BRENDEL, Dr. Karl Franz, musical critic, born Nov. 25, 1811, at Stollberg in the Harz; educated at the Gymnasium of Freiberg in Saxony, where his father was Berg-Rath, and at the universities of Leipsic and Berlin. Music always formed his special pursuit, in which he was mainly assisted by Anacker and Wieck. He began his public career with lectures on the history of music, delivered in Freiberg and in Dresden. In 1844 he settled in Leipsic as proprietor of Schumann's 'Neue Zeitschrift,' which he edited from Jan. 1, 1845, at the same time teaching musical history and æsthetics in Mendelssohn's newly established Conservatorium. Here he delivered the public lectures on which he founded his most comprehensive work, 'Geschichte der Musik in Italien, Frankreich, und Deutschland' (1852; 4th edition 1867), an attempt to treat the various historical developments of the art from one practical point of view. More important however were his articles in the 'Neue Zeitschrift,' written as a strenuous advocate of modern ideas in music. His first efforts were devoted to the recognition of Schumann; but in time the paper became the organ of Wagner and Liszt. Brendel certainly had a rare power of appreciating the ideas of the real leaders of the movement, and of illustrating and developing them effectively, and thus materially assisted the movement. His treatment is dry, logical, and didactic; but what it wants in directness and poetical force is made up for by the perseverance with which he urges his arguments.
In 1850 he began to issue another periodical, entitled 'Anregungen für Kunst, Leben, und Wissenschaft,' which for several years supported the propaganda of the Zeitung in favour of Liszt and Wagner. But the most open exposition of the views of the party is to be found in his 'Musik der Gegenwart und die Gesammtkunst der Zukunft,' which must be regarded as a completion of his History, and is not free from considerable party spirit. With the year 1859 Brendel began to labour for the reconciliation of the contending parties, on the basis of the general progress of modern times. The field for this effort was the 'Allgemeine deutsche Musik-Verein,' or 'German musical union,' which arose out of a festival of musicians held on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 'Neue Zeitschrift,' and was founded in 1861. Brendel was not only one of the chief founders of the 'Verein,' but as its president he worked for it with restless energy to the time of his death, and his Zeitung was its official organ. Brendel died Nov. 25, 1868. The Zeitung continued to follow the same path as before, but lost its old eminence. Besides the works already mentioned Brendel issued various smaller publications, all more or less distinguished by a tendency for the New German School—'Liszt als Symphoniker' (1858), 'Organisation der Musik durch den Staat' (1866). An abridgment of his history, for schools, was published under the title of 'Grundzüge der Geschichte,' etc., and has been translated into several languages.