Nägeli, Hans Georg

Nägeli, Hans Georg, Swiss music publisher, writer on music, and composer; b. Wetzikon, near Zürich, May 26, 1773; d. there, Dec. 26, 1836. He founded a music shop and lending library, and then his own publ, firm (1792). The management of the latter passed to J.C. and Kaspar Hug in 1807, and Nägeli left it to form his own firm in 1818. He founded in Zürich the Singinstitut (1805), the Sangerverein (1826), and the Musikalischer Frauenverein (1828). He taught in a primary school and championed the Pestalozzian system, and wrote a singing manual and many pamphlets, his most significant essays appearing in Vorlesungen über Musik mit Berücksichtigung der Dilettanten (1826). W. Reich ed. a collection of his articles as Von Bach zu Beethoven (Basel, 1945). In spite of disagreements, he was a close friend of Beethoven. He publ, the periodical Repertoire des Clavecinistes (from 1803), in which he brought out piano pieces by contemporary composers, including the first ed. of Beethoven’s op.31 sonatas. As a composer, he wrote some estimable choral works and solo songs, the latter presaging Schubert.

Bibliography

Biographical sketches by Ott (1838), Bierer (1844), Keller (1848), and Schneebeli (1873); H. Kling, Beethoven et ses relations avec N. (1912); R. Hunziker, H.G. N.: Gedächtnisrede (Winterthur, 1924); idem, H.G. N. (Zürich, 1938); A. Cherbuliez, Der unbekannte N. (Chur, 1938); J. Hassan, Die Welt- und Kunstanschauung H.G. N.s mit besonderer Berücksichtingung der Musik (diss., Univ. of Zürich, 1947); H. Schattner, Volksbildung durch Musikerziehung: Leben und Wirken H.G. N.s (diss., Univ. of Saarbrücken, I960).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire