Bellermann, (Johann Gottfried) Heinrich

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Bellermann, (Johann Gottfried) Heinrich

Bellermann, (Johann Gottfried) Heinrich, German music teacher and theorist, son of Johann Friedrich Bellermann; b. Berlin, March 10, 1832; d. Potsdam, April 10, 1903. He studied with Eduard Grell. From 1853 he taught singing at Graues Kloster and in 1861 he was appointed Royal Musikdirektor; in 1866 succeeded Marx as prof. of music at Berlin Univ. His book Die Mensuralnoten und Taktzeichen des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1858; 4th enl. éd., Berlin, 1963) gives an excellent exposition of the theory of mensural music; his treatise Der Kontrapunkt (1862; 4th ed., 1901) revives the theories of J.J. Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum. Bellermann attempted to justify his adherence to Fux in a pamphlet, Die Grösse der musikalischen Intervalle ais Grundlage der Harmonie (Berlin, 1873). He also contributed valuable articles to the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung (1868–74) and publ. a biography of Eduard Grell (1899).

Bibliography

O. Schneider, H. B., Gedachtnisrede (Berlin, 1903).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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