Birtner, Herbert

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Birtner, Herbert

Birtner, Herbert, German musicologist; b. Hamburg, June 16, 1900; d. in battle at Voronezh, Russia, Sept. 27, 1942. He first studied medicine, then took courses in musicology with Gurlitt and Kroyer. He was an asst. lecturer at the Univ. of Leipzig (1924–28), and then a prof. at the Univ. of Marburg (1938-^0). In 1940 he was drafted into the German army. He contributed important studies on the music of the Reformation. His publ. works include Joachim à Burck als Motettenkomponist (Leipzig, 1924) and Studien zur niederlandischhumanistischen Musikanschauung (Marburg, 1929).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire