Reich, Willi

views updated

Reich, Willi

Reich, Willi , Austrian-born Swiss music critic and musicologist; b. Vienna, May 27, 1898; d. Zürich, May 1, 1980. He studied at the Univ. of Vienna, receiving his Ph.D. (1934) with the diss. Padre Martini als Theoretiker und Lehrer, also studied privately with Berg and Webern. He ed. a modern music magazine, 23—Eine Wiener Musikzeitschrift (1932–37). In 1938 he settled in Switzerland, and in 1948 became music critic of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung; in 1961, became a naturalized Swiss citizen. In addition to editing numerous documentary vols., he publ. the studies Wozzeck: A Guide to the Words and Music of Alban Berg (N.Y., 1932), Alban Berg (Vienna, 1937), Romantiker der Musik (Basel, 1947), Alexander Tscherepnin (Bonn, 1961; 2nd ed., 1970), Alban Berg: Leben und Werk (Zürich, 1963; Eng. tr., 1965), and Arnold Schonberg oder der konservative Revolutionär (Vienna, 1968; Eng. tr., 1971, as Schoenberg: A Critical Biography).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

More From encyclopedia.com