Jonas, Oswald
Jonas, Oswald
Jonas, Oswald, Austrian-American musicologist; b. Vienna, Jan. 10, 1897; d. Riverside, Calif., March 19, 1978. He studied musicology with Schenker (1915–22), and also studied law at the Univ. of Vienna (Ph.D., 1921). He taught at Berlin’s Stern Cons. (1930–34), then worked at the Schenker Inst. at the New Vienna Cons. (1935–38). After the annexation of Austria by the Nazis in 1938, he went to the U.S., where he taught at Roosevelt Univ. in Chicago and associated schools (1941-64). Following a sojourn as a teacher at the Vienna Academy of Music (1964–65), he became a prof. at the Univ. of Calif. at Riverside (1966). He publ. Das Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerks (Vienna, 1934; 2nd ed., rev., 1973 as Einfìihrung in die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers); also wrote numerous articles on Schenker’s theories and ed. several of his works.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire