Bitter, Carl Hermann

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Bitter, Carl Hermann

Bitter, Carl Hermann, German writer on music; b. Schwedt-an-der-Oder, Feb. 27, 1813; d. Berlin, Sept. 12, 1885. He studied at the Univ. of Berlin and at Bonn Univ. He pursued a career in government, serving in the finance dept.; in 1879 he was appointed Prussian Minister of Finance by Bismarck. He retired in 1882. He publ. a book on Bach in 2 vols. (Berlin, 1865; 2nd ed., 1880; abr. Eng. ed., 1873). Other books were Mozarts Don Juan und Glucks Iphigenia in Taurus (Berlin, 1866), C.Ph.E. Bach und W.Fr. Bach und deren Brüder (2 vols., Berlin, 1868), Beitrage zur Geschichte des Oratoriums (Berlin, 1872), and Die Reform der Oper durch Gluck und R. Wagner’s Kunstwerke der Zukunft (Braunschweig, 1884).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire