Niemann, Walter

Niemann, Walter, German writer on music and composer; b. Hamburg, Oct. 10, 1876; d. Leipzig, June 17, 1953. He was a pupil of his father, Rudolph (Friedrich) Niemann, and of Humperdinck (1897). From 1898 to 1901 he studied at the Leipzig Cons, with Reinecke and von Bose, and at the Univ. with Riemann and Kretzschmar (musicology), receiving a Ph.D. in 1901 with the diss. Über die abweichende Bedeutung der Ligaturen in der Mensuraltheorie der Zeit vor Johannes de Garlandia (publ. in Leipzig, 1902; reprint, Wiesbaden, 1971). From 1904 to 1906 he was ed. of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in Leipzig, and in 1906–07 he was a teacher at the Hamburg Cons. From 1907 to 1917 he was again in Leipzig as a writer and critic of the Neueste Nachrichten, then gave up this position to devote himself to composition. Besides a Violin Sonata and a few works for orch. and string orch., he wrote numerous piano pieces (over 150 opus numbers).

Writings

(all publ. in Leipzig unless otherwise given): Musik und Musiker des 19. Jahrhunderts (1905); Die Musik Skandinaviens (1906); Das Klavierbuch (1907; 5^th ed., 1920); with G. Schjelderup, Edvard Grieg: Biographie und Würdigung seiner Werke (1908); Das Norlandbuch (Weimar, 1909); Die musikalische Renaissance des 19. Jahrhunderts (1911); Taschenlexikon für Klavierspieler (1912; 4^th ed., 1918, as Klavierlexikon); Die Musik seit Richard Wagner (1913; 5^th and later eds. as Die Musik der Gegenwart seit Wagner); Jean Sibelius (1917); Die nordische Klaviermusik (1918); with O. Klauwell, Die Formen der Instrumentalmusik (2^nd ed., 1918); Die Virginalmusik (1919); Meister des Klaviers (1919); Brahms (1920; 14^th ed., 1933; Eng. tr., N.Y., 1929).

—Nicolas Slomnisky/Laura Kaun/Dennis McIntire