Arro, Elmar

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Arro, Elmar

Arro, Elmar, Estonian musicologist; b. Riga, July 2, 1899; d. Vienna, Dec. 14, 1985. He studied musicology at the Univ. of Vienna, where he received his Ph.D. in 1928 with the diss. Über das Musikleben in Estland im 19. Jahrhundert. In 1933 he joined the faculty of the German Luther Academy in Dorpat; in 1939 he went to Germany and taught at the Univ. of Heidelberg (from 1955) and the Univ. of Kiel (from 1968). He was instrumental in helping to found the Ost-Europa Institut (later the J. G. Herder Forschungsstelle für Musikgeschichte). After settling in Vienna, he founded the journal Musica slavica. Arro was an authority on the music of Russia and the Baltic nations. In addition to his important articles in journals, he publ. Geschichte der estnischen Musik (Dorpat, 1933), ed. with others Muzïka sovetskoy Estonü (Tallinn, 1956), and was founder-ed. of Musik des Ostens (1962 et seq.).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire