Isoz, Kálmán

Isoz, Kálmán, Hungarian musicologist; b. Budapest, Dec. 7, 1878; d. there, June 6, 1956. He studied piano and theory at the Budapest Cons. (1895–99), and later completed his training at the Univ. of Budapest (Ph.D., 1921, with the diss. Latin zenei paleográfia és a Pray-kódex zenei hangjelzései [Latin Musical Paleography and the Musical Notation of the Pray Manuscript]; publ. in Budapest, 1922). In 1897 he joined the staff of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, where he was its general secretary (from 1920); from 1908 he also taught at the Univ. of Budapest. From 1924 to 1934 he was chief librarian of the Széchényi Library in Budapest, and then served as secretary of the Hungarian Royal Academy of Music from 1934 to 1943. With D. Bartha, he ed. Musicologica Hungaria. His writings on Hungarian music and musicians remain valuable sources.

Writings

(all publ. in Budapest): With I. Mészáros, A filharmóniai târsasâg multja és jelene, 1853-1903 (Past and Present of the Philharmonic Society, 1853-1903; 1903); Arnold György (1908); Erkel és a szimfónikus zene; Erkel emlékek és levelezés (Erkel and Symphonic Music; Erkel Documents and Correspondence; 1910); Erkel Ferenc (1910); Doppler Ferenc levelei Erkelhez (Ferenc Doppler’s Letters to Erkel; 1911); Buda és Pest zenei müvelödése, I: 1686-1873 (The Musical Culture of Buda and Pest, I: 1686-1873; 1926); Magyar zenemüvek könyvészete: Petőfi dalok (Hungarian Bibliography of Music: Petőfi Songs; 1931); A Pest-Budai Hangaszegyesület es nyilvános hangversenyei, 1836-1851 (The Musical Society of Pest-Buda and its Public Concerts, 1836-1851; 1934); Erkel Ferenc “Bátori Máriá”-ja (1944).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire