Wolf, Johannes
Wolf, Johannes
Wolf, Johannes, eminent German musicologist; b. Berlin, April 17, 1869; d. Munich, May 25, 1947. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He took courses in musicology at the Univ. of Berlin with Philipp Spitta and Heinrich Bellermann, and then with Rie-mann at the Univ. of Leipzig, where he received his Ph.D. in 1893 with the diss. Ein anonymer Musiktraktat des 11. bis 12. Jahrhunderts; he completed his Habilitation at the Univ. of Berlin with his Florenz in der Musikgeschichte des 14. Jahrhunderts in 1902, and then taught the history of early music and church music. He also was on the faculty of the Berlin Akademie für Kirchen- und Schulmusik from 1908 to 1927. He was appointed director of the early music collection of the Prussian Library in Berlin in 1915; from 1927 to 1934 he was director of its entire music collection. He was a leading authority on medieval and Renaissance music; his writings on the history of notation are especially important. He ed. a complete edition of the works of Obrecht (Leipzig, 1908-21); for Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst, he selected vocal works of J.R. Ahle (vol. V, 1901) and G. Rhau’s Newe deudsche geistliche Gesenge für die gemeinen Schulen (vol. XXXIV, 1908); for Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, he ed. H. Isaac’s secular works (vols. XXVIII, Jg.XIV/1, 1907, and XXXIII, Jg.XVI/1, 1909); also ed. Der Squarcialupi-Codex aus dem Nachlass herausgegeben von H. Albrecht (Lippstadt, 1955).
Writings
Geschichte der Mensuralnotation von 1250 bis 1460 nach den theoretischen und praktischen Quellen (Leipzig, 1904); Handbuch der Notationskunde (2 parts, Leipzig, 1913, 1919); Musikalische Schrifttafeln (Leipzig, 1922-23; 2nd ed., 1927); Die Tonschriften (Breslau, 1924); Geschichte der Musik in allgemeinverständlicher Form (3 vols., Leipzig, 1925-29).
Bibliography
W. Lott, H. Osthoff, and W. Wolffheim, eds., Musikwissenschaftliche Beiträge: Festschrift für J. W. zu seinem 60. Geburtstag (Berlin, 1929).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire