Bartha, Dénes

Bartha, Dénes, eminent Hungarian musicologist; b. Budapest, Oct. 2, 1908; d. near there, Sept. 7, 1993. He studied at the Univ. of Berlin with Abert, Blume, Horn-bostel, Sachs, Schering, and Wolf (Ph.D., 1930, with the diss. Benedictus Duds und Appenzeller; publ. in Wolfen-büttel, 1930). Returning to Budapest, he was a librarian in the music division of the Hungarian National Museum (1930–42), a lecturer (1930–47) and prof. (from 1947) at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and a Privatdozent at the Univ. (from 1935). After serving as ed. of Magyar zénei szemle (1941–44), he was co-ed, of Zénei szemle (1947–49), Zenetudományi tanulmányok (1953–61), and Studia musicologica (1961–93). He was a visiting prof. at Smith Coll. (1964), Harvard Univ. (summers 1964–65), Cornell Univ. (1965–66), the Univ. of Pittsburgh (1966–67), where he subsequently was the Andrew W. Mellon Prof. (1969–79), and the Univ. of Wash, in Seattle (1980–81). In 1963 he received the Dent Medal of England, and in 1982 the Ehrenkreuz für Kunst und Wissenschaft of Austria. In 1982 he was made a corresponding member of the American Musi-cological Soc, and in 1990 of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Writings

(all published in Budapest unless otherwise given): Das Musiklehrbuch einer ungarischen Klosterschule aus 1490 (1934); Lehrbuch der Musikgeschichte (1935); Franz Liszt (Leipzig, 1936); Beethoven (1939); with Z. Kodály, Die ungarische Musik (1943); Anthologie der Musikgeschichte (1948); J.S. Bach (1956; 2^nd éd., 1960); Beethoven kilenc szimfóniája (1956; 5^th éd., rev., 1975); with L. Somfai, Haydn als Opernkapellmeister (1960); ed. /. Haydn: Gesammelte Briefe und Aufzeichnungen (Kassel, 1965); ed. Zénei Lexikon (2^nd ed., 3 vols., 1965–66).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire