Dahlhaus, Carl
Dahlhaus, Carl
Dahlhaus, Carl , eminent German musicologist and editor; b. Hannover, June 10, 1928; d. Berlin, March 13, 1989. He studied musicology at the Univ. of Göttingen with Gerber; also at the Univ. of Freiburg with Gurlitt; received his Ph.D. from the Univ. of Göttingen in 1953 with the diss. Studien zu den Messen Josquins des Pres. He was a dramatic adviser for the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen from 1950 to 1958; from 1960 to 1962, was an ed. of the Stuttgarter Zeitung; then joined the Inst. für Musikalische Landesforschung of the Univ. of Kiel; completed his Habilitation there in 1966 with his Untersuchungen uber die Entstehung der harmonischen Tonalität (publ. in Kassel, 1968; Eng. tr., 1991, as Studies on the Origin of Harmonic Tonality). In 1966–67 he was a research fellow at the Univ. of Saarbrücken; in 1967 he became prof. of music history at the Technical Univ. of Berlin. In 1984 he was made a corresponding member of the American Musicological Soc. He was the ed.-in-chief of the complete edition of Wagner’s works, which began publication in 1970; he was also an ed. of the Supplement to the 12th edition of the Riemann Musik-Lexikon (2 vols., Mainz, 1972, 1975); with Hans Eggebrecht, of the Brockhaus-Riemann Musik-Lexikon (2 vols., Wiesbaden and Mainz, 1978–79); and of Pipers Enzyklopadie des Musiktheaters (from 1986); in addition, he was co-ed, of the Neue Zeitschrift fur Mésik (1972–74), Melos/NZ fur Musik (1975–78), Musik und Bildung (1978–80), and Musica (from 1981). He was one of the foremost musicologists of the second half of the 20th century. A scholar of great erudition, he wrote authoritatively and prolifically on a vast range of subjects, extending from the era of Josquin to the present day.
Writings
Musikästhetik (Cologne, 1967; 4th ed., 1986; Eng. tr., 1982, as Aesthetics of Music)- Studien zur Trivialmusik des19. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg, 1967); Analyse und Werturteil (Mainz, 1970; Eng. tr., 1983, as Analysis and Value Judgment); Das Drama Richard Wagners als musikalisches Kunstwerk (Regensburg, 1970); Richard Wagner: Werk und Wirkung (Regensburg, 1971); Wagners Konzeption des musikalischen Dramas (Regensburg, 1971); Richard Wagners Musikdramen (Velber, 1971; 2nd ed., 1985; Eng. tr., 1979, as Richard Wagner’s Music Dramas); Wagner’s Ästhetik (Bayreuth, 1971); Zwischen Romantik und Moderne: Vier Studien zur Musikgeschichte des spateren 19. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1974; Eng. tr., 1980, as Between Romanticism and Modernism: Four Studies in the Music of the Later Nineteenth Century); Grundlagen der Musikgeschichte (Cologne, 1977; Eng. tr., 1983, as Foundations of Music History); Die Idee der absoluten Musik (Kassel, 1978; Eng. tr., 1989, as The Idea of Absolute Music); Schonberg und andere: Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Neuen Musik (Mainz, 1978; Eng. tr., 1988, as Schoenberg and the New Music); Die Musik des 19. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden, 1980; 2nd ed., 1988; Eng. tr., 1989, as Nineteenth Century Music); Musikalischer Realismus: Zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts (Munich and Zürich, 1982; Eng. tr., 1985, as Realism in Nineteenth Century Music); with H. de la Motte- Haber, Systematische Musikwissenschaft (Laaber, 1982); Vom Musikdrama zur Literaturoper: Aufsätze zur neueren Operngeschichte (Munich and Salzburg, 1983); with J. Deathridge, Wagner (London, 1984); Die Musiktheorie im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert: Erster Teil: Grundzüge einer Systematik (Darmstadt, 1984); Die Musik des 18. Jahrhunderts (Laaber, 1985); with R. Katz, Contem-plating Music: Source Readings in the Aesthetics of Music (N.Y., 1987); Ludwig van Beethoven und seine Zeit (Laaber, 1987; 2nd ed., 1988; Eng. tr., 1991, as Ludwig van Beethoven: Approaches to His Music); Klassische und romantische Musikasthetik (Laaber, 1988).
Bibliography
H. Danuser et al., eds., Das musikalische Kunstwerk: Geschichte, Ästhetik, Theorie: Festschrift C. D. zum 60. Geburtstag (Laaber, 1988); M. Zimmermann, ed., Oper nach Wagner: In memoriam C. D. (Laaber, 1993).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire