Publications

Robert Eitner, an autodidact in matters of music, began his musicological activities in 1868 with the foundation of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, which is still in existence today. He initiated several publication series before devoting himself to the seminal Quellen-Lexikon—a pioneering work in its size and ambition. At the time when Eitner conducted his work in libraries throughout Europe, many of them did not have a separate music catalogue. Eitner’s achievement was truly remarkable, especially in that he recognized the necessity of establishing an inclusive indication of sources. He was a pioneer in music source documentation, coining the famous phrase that “music bibliography is the foundation of all historical knowledge” (Preface). Eitner’s work retains its validity even today, even though the premises for source documentation have fundamentally changed through revolutionary technological developments. Numerous collections cited by Eitner were lost or destroyed during the wars, and thus his references remain the only ones (many not even included in RISM). The work is much more than a listing of manuscripts and prints. With its perspective on the sources in their local and supraregional context, it provides insights about known and unknown compositions, personalities, and music institutions. In turn, it is itself a piece of music history. A lexicon of sources, the “Eitner”, as it has become known, is a classic in musical source study and an essential reference for musicologists.

Le Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie est un lexique consacré à la formation, à l’histoire et à la signification des termes musicaux. Après un important travail préparatoire, il a paru entre 1971 et 2006 sous forme de recueil à feuillets mobiles, en livraisons périodiques, sous la direction d’abord de Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (1919–99), puis, après sa mort, du musicologue Albrecht Riethmüller. Le projet a été interrompu avec la 40e livraison de feuillets, à l’automne 2005. Le Handwörterbuch compte 247 termes sur plus de 3 700 pages (organisées à l’origine en six classeurs). La rigueur lexicographique des contributeurs est remarquable ; les résumés placés en tête des articles les plus complexes sont particulièrement utiles.

Riemanns Musik-Lexikon is one of the last comprehensive music encyclopedic endeavors undertaken by a single person: German musicologist and theorist Hugo Riemann (1849–1919). He published the first edition in 1882. Subsequent editions constantly expanded scope and, until the eighth edition of 1916, were largely edited and published by Riemann himself. His last edition, the ninth of 1919, appeared after his death. Musicologist Alfred Einstein completed it, and also enlarged and revised the subsequent editions, until his forced emigration from Nazi Germany. Because of Einstein’s later work in the English-speaking world, the lexicon became known and respected in Anglo-American musicology. The eleventh edition is of note because it is the first to appear in two volumes, showing the lexicon’s ever expanding scope. Yet at the same time, Einstein eliminated a great number of biographical entries from the previous edition, for names he deemed more important; this edition thus represents both expansion and selection in accordance with the zeitgeist of the late 1920s. It is an excellent source of information for research on musical life in Germany (and to some extent also other European countries) in the 1920s.

After Ernst Ludwig Gerber (1746–1819) completed the two-volume Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler (1790–92), J.F. Reichardt and E.F.F. Chladni, among others, contributed substantial additions. Combined with new materials that Gerber himself assembled (in particular the work of Martini, Burney, Forkel, Reichardt, and Chladny), these formed the basis for the four-volume Neues historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler. The content of Neues historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler was rethought in light of the new material. Some entries are entirely rewritten, others contain additions; many of the entries found in the Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler are omitted. Gerber did not aim at a critical approach: He created a historical and biographical dictionary of musicians that contains news of the life and works of music scholars, famous composers, singers, accomplished amateurs, music publishers, manufacturers of organs, and instruments of ancient and modern times and of all nations. In spite of some flaws, the lexicon has been considered since its publication a unique and valuable source, especially for late-eighteenth-century music, because of the quantity of material drawn from Gerber’s personal contacts with the great musicians of his time. Portions of it can be found in translation in music dictionaries by Choron-Fayolle, Sainsbury, and Lichtenthal. It continued to hold the interest of the scholarly world; Gerber himself compiled further additions, and Carl Mainberger (1816) and F.S. Kandler (1817–20), among others, provided supplementary material. A new edition announced in 1825, however, did not come to fruition.