Altmann, Wilhelm
Altmann, Wilhelm
Altmann, Wilhelm, German music librarian and scholar; b. Adelnau, near Posen, April 4, 1862; d. Hildesheim, March 25, 1951. He studied with Otto Lustner (violin and theory) in Breslau, took courses in medieval history and classical philology in Marburg and Berlin (1882–85), and received training in library science at the Royal Univ. Library in Breslau. He was a librarian (1889–1900) and a lecturer in medieval history and library science (1893–1900) at the Univ. of Greif-swald. In 1900 he became a librarian at the Royal (later State) Library in Berlin, where he was director of its music dept. (1915–27). In 1906 he helped to found the Deutsche Musiksammlung in Berlin. Among his useful books were Kammermusik Katalog (1910; 6th ed., 1945); Orchester-Literatur-Katalog (vol. I, 1919; 2nd ed., aug., 1926; vol. II, 1919; 3rd ed., 1936); rev. eds. of Frank’s Kleines Tonkünstlerlexicon as Kurzegefasstes Tonkünstlerlex-ikon (12th ed., 1926; 15th ed., 1948–49); Handbuch für Streichquartettspieler (1928–31); Handbuch für Klaviertri-ospieler (1934); Handbuch für Klavierquartettspieler (1937); with V. Borissowsky, Literaturverzeichnis für Bratsche und Viola d’Amore (1937); Verzeichnis von Werken für Klavier vier- und sechs-handig sowie für zwei und mehr Klaviere (1943).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire