Wolff, Christoph (Johannes)

Wolff, Christoph (Johannes), eminent German musicologist; b. Solingen, May 24, 1940. He was educated at the univs. of Berlin (1960-63), Freiburg im Breisgau (1963-65), and Erlangen (Ph.D., 1966, with the diss. Der stile antico in der Musik Johann Sebastian Bachs: Studien zu Bachs Spätwerk; publ in Wiesbaden, 1968). After lecturing at the Univ. of Erlangen (1966-69), he was an asst. prof, at the Univ. of Toronto (1968-70). He was assoc. prof. (1970-73) and prof. (1973-76) of musi-cology at Columbia Univ. In 1973 and 1975 he was a visiting prof, at Princeton Univ. From 1974 he served as ed. of the Bach-Jahrbuch. In 1976 he became prof, of musicology at Harvard Univ., where he was chairman of the musicology dept. (1980-88; 1990-91), the William Powell Mason Prof, (from 1985), and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (from 1992). In 1990 he was made honorary prof, at the Univ. of Freiburg im Breisgau. In 1978 he was awarded the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Assn. of London and in 1982 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Wolff discovered 31 unknown organ chorales by Bach in the Neumeister Collection of the music library at Yale Univ. in 1984, which were publ. in 1985. He has ed. critical editions of works by Scheidt, Buxte-hude, Bach, Mozart, and Hindemith, and has written extensively on the history of music from the 15^th century to the present.

Writings

Ed. The String Quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven: Studies of the Autograph Manuscripts (Cambridge, Mass., 1980); ed. with H.-J. Schulze, Bach Compendium: Analytisch-bibliographisches Repertorium der Werke ]ohann Sebastian Bachs (7 vols., Leipzig and Dresden, 1986-89); Bach: Essays on His Life and Music (Cambridge, Mass., 1991); Mozart’s Requiem: Historical and Analytical Studies, Documents, Score (Berkeley, 1993); éd. Wereld van de Bach-cantates: The World of the Bach Cantatas (N.Y., 1997 et seq.); ed. The New Bach Reader (N.Y., 1998).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire