Abert, Hermann

(b Stuttgart, 25 March 1871; d Stuttgart, 13 Aug

1927). German musicologist. His father was court Kapellmeister at
Stuttgart and composed operas, seven symphonies and other works.
From 1890 to 1895 Abert studied classics and then music in Berlin
under Bellermann, Fleischer and Friedlaender. He took the doctorate
at Berlin in 1897 with a dissertation on Greek music, and in 1902 he
completed his Habilitation at the University of Halle with a work on
the basis of the aesthetics of medieval melody. He was appointed
honorary professor in 1909 and reader in 1911. In 1920 he was
appointed professor at the University of Leipzig (succeeding
Riemann) and in 1923 he became professor at Berlin University
(succeeding Kretzschmar). In 1925 he was elected an ordinary
member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences at Berlin, the first
musicologist to have earned this distinction.
Abert was one of the leading German musicologists of his
generation, and he did much to increase regard for his subject
among followers of more traditional university disciplines. His
numerous distinguished pupils include his daughter anna Amalie,
Blume, Fellerer, Gerber and Vetter. Much of his work was influenced
by the humanism of classical antiquity and concerned itself with the
effect of music on man and of the way in which social patterns and
cultural ideals were expressed in the music of various epochs. He
later turned towards dramatic music, particularly research into the
history of opera. He was not interested in the purely archival and
theoretical aspects of musicology. In his later years he frequently
returned to the music of Greek antiquity with studies that eventually
led him to specific problems of musical aesthetics in ancient times,
the Middle Ages and his own time. His interest in 19th-century and
contemporary music, shown in studies of Beethoven, Schumann, the
Romantic era and Meyerbeer, led him to confront specific problems
of opera. Exemplary editions of important operatic works, his
editorship of the Gluck-Jahrbuch (191318), the MozartJahrbuch (19239) and many monographs (from 1905, and
including Niccol Jommelli als Opernkomponist, 1908) preceded his

great Mozart biography (191921), which, although it made use of

new research methods, was still in the tradition of the great 19thcentury musical biographies of Jahn, Chrysander and Spitta. Abert
modestly called his work the fifth edition of Jahn's biography, but it is
in almost every respect an entirely independent work. He presented
Mozart in his full stature and in lively, human terms, at the same time
revealing in imposing breadth the sources of the various aspects of
Mozart's art. Although Mozart scholarship since Abert's time has
advanced in the field of source study and in terms of detailed insight
and general understanding, this monumental biography is still one of
the great standard works of music literature.
WRITINGS
Die Lehre vom Ethos in der griechischen Musik (diss., U. of
Berlin, 1897; Leipzig, 1899/R)
Der neue Aristoxenosfund von Oxyrhynchos, SIMG, i (1899
1900), 33340
Zu Cassiodor, SIMG, iii (19012), 43953
Die sthetischen Grundstze der mittelalterlichen
Melodiebildung (Habilitationsschrift, U. of Halle, 1902; Halle,
1902)
Robert Schumann (Berlin, 1903, 4/1920)
Die Musikanschauung des Mittelalters und ihre
Grundlagen (Halle, 1905/R)
Geschichte der Robert-Franz-Singakademie zu Halle a. S.,
18331908 (Halle, 1908)
J.G. Noverre und sein Einfluss auf die dramatische
Ballettkomposition, JbMP 1908, 2945
Niccol Jommelli als Opernkomponist (Halle, 1908)
Antike Musikerlegenden, Festschrift Rochus Freiherrn von
Liliencron (Leipzig, 1910/R), 116
Piccinni als Buffokomponist, JbMP 1913, 2942
Glucks italienische Opern bis zum Orfeo, Gluck-Jb 1915, 1
25
Johann Joseph Abert (18321915): sein Leben und seine
Werke (Leipzig, 1916)
Giacomo Meyerbeer, JbMP 1918, 3752
Der neue griechische Papyrus mit Musiknoten, AMw, i (1918),

31329
Paisiellos Buffokunst und ihr Beziehung zu Mozart, AMw, i
(191819), 40221
J.C. Bachs italienische Opern und ihr Einfluss auf
Mozart, ZMw, i (191920), 31328
Joseph Haydns Klaviersonaten, ZMw, ii (191920), 55373;
continued as Joseph Haydns Klavierwerke, iii (192021), 535
52
W.A. Mozart, ii (Leipzig, 191921, 3/195566; It. trans., 3/1984
6) [enlarged 5th edn of O. Jahn: W.A. Mozart, Leipzig, 18569]
[essay on Don Giovanni, Eng. trans., 1976]
Goethe und die Musik (Stuttgart, 1922)
Kunst, Kunstwissenschaft und Kunstkritik, Die Musik, xvi
(19234), 110
Wort und Ton in der Musik des 18. Jahrhunderts, AMw, v
(1923), 3170
Luther und die Musik (Wittenberg, 1924) [pamphlet for the
Luther-Gesellschaft]
Zu Beethovens Persnlichkeit und Kunst, JbMP 1925, 924
Carl Maria von Weber und sein Freischutz, JbMP 1926, 930
Grundprobleme der Operngeschichte (Leipzig, 1926) [rev.
version of article in Musikwissenschaftlicher Kongress: Basle
1924]
Tonart und Thema in Bachs Instrumentalfugen, Festschrift
Peter Wagner zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. K.
Weinmann (Leipzig,1926/R), 110
Bach Beethoven Brahms, MQ, xiii (1927), 32943
ed. F. Blume: Gesammelte Schriften und
Vortrge (Halle, 1929/R)
EDITIONS
N. Jommelli: Fetonte, DDT, xxxiixxxiii (1907/R)
Ausgewhlte Ballette Stuttgarter Meister aus der 2. Hlfte des
18. Jahrhunderts, DDT, xliiixliv (1913/R)
C.W. Gluck: Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe, DTB, xxvi, Jg.xiv/2
(1914); Orfeo ed Euridice, DT, xliva, Jg.xxi/4 (1914/R)
B. Pallavicino: La Gerusalemme liberata, DDT, lv (1916/R)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
J.S. Handschin: Hermann Abert, SMz, lxvii (1927), 32027
H. Moser: Hermann Abert, ZMw, x (19278), 17
W. Vetter: Hermann Abert zum Gedchtnis, JbMP 1927, 918
F. Blume, ed.: Gedenkschrift fr Hermann Abert (Halle, 1928/R)
[incl. complete list of pubns]
K.G. Fellerer: Hermann Abert, Jahresbericht ber die
Fortschritte der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften, lvi (1930),
114
H.A. Brockhaus: Hermann Aberts Konzeption der
musikalischen Historiographie (Habilitationsschrift, Humboldt U.
of Berlin,1966)
A.A. Abert: Hermann Aberts Weg zur Musikwissenschaft, Musa
mens musici: im Gedenken an Walther Vetter (Leipzig,1969),
915 [also in DJbM, ix (1964), 716]
LOTHAR HOFFMANN-ERBRECHT/MICHAEL VON DER LINN