Schenk, Erich
Schenk, Erich
Schenk, Erich, eminent Austrian musicologist; b. Salzburg, May 5, 1902; d. Vienna, Oct. 11, 1974. He studied theory and piano at the Salzburg Mozarteum and musicology with Sandberger at the Univ. of Munich (Ph.D., 1925, with the diss. Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli: Sein Leben und seine Werke; publ. in Salzburg, 1928), and completed his Habilitation at the Univ. of Rostock in 1929 with his Studien zur Triosonate in Deutschland nach Gorelli, where he subsequently founded its musicology dept. (1936). From 1940 until his retirement in 1971 he was a prof. of musicology at the Univ. of Vienna. He was particularly esteemed for his studies of Baroque and Classical music. In 1947 he revived the Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich series, overseeing its progress until 1972. In 1955 he also took over the valuable Studien zur Musikwissenschaft. Festschrifts honored him on his 60th (Vienna, 1962) and 70th (Kassel, 1975) birthdays.
Writings
Johann Strauss (Potsdam, 1940); Musik in Kärnten (Vienna, 1941); Beethoven zzvischen den Zeiten (Bonn, 1944); 950 Jahre österreichische Musik (Vienna, 1946); Kleine wiener Musikgeschichte (Vienna, 1946); W.A. Mozart: Eine Biographie (Vienna, 1955; Eng. tr., 1960, as Mozart and His Time; second Ger. ed., aug., 1975, as Mozart: Sein Leben, seine Welt); Ausgewählte Aufsätze: Reden und Vorträge (Vienna, 1967); ed. Beethoven-Studien (Vienna, 1970).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire