Curt Sachs

Curt Sachs (German: [zaks]; June 29, 1881 February

5, 1959) was a German-born but American-domiciled
musicologist. He was one of the founders of modern
organology (the study of musical instruments), and is
probably best remembered today for co-authoring the
Sachs-Hornbostel scheme of musical instrument classication with his fellow scholar Erich von Hornbostel.

Sachs died in 1959 in New York City. In honor of Sachs

legacy, the American Musical Instrument Society established the Curt Sachs Award in 1983, which it gives each
year to an individual who has made signicant contributions to eld of organology.

2 See also
1

Berlin Musical Instrument Museum

Biography

State Institute for Music Research

Born in Berlin, Sachs studied piano, music theory and
composition as a youth in that city. However, his doctorate from Berlin University (where he was later professor
of musicology) in 1904 was on the history of art, with
his thesis on the sculpture of Verrocchio. He began a career as an art historian, but promptly became more and
more devoted to music, eventually being appointed director of the Staatliche Instrumentensammlung, a large
collection of musical instruments. He reorganised and
restored much of the collection, and his career as an organologist began.[1]

3 References
[1] Curt Sachs Encyclopaedia Britannica.
7 August
2014.
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/
515266/Curt-Sachs)
[2] Allen, Warren Dwight (1962), Philosophies of Music
History - A Study of General Histories of Music - 16001960, pg vi, Dover 0-486-20282-8
[3] Marcel-Dubois, Claudie. Curt Sachs. Journal of the International Folk Music Council 12 (1960): 88-9. (Stable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/835452)

In 1913, Sachs saw the publication of his book RealLexicon der Musikinstrumente, probably the most comprehensive survey of musical instruments in 200 years.
The following year, he and Erich Moritz von Hornbostel
published the work for which they are probably now
best known in Zeitschrift fr Ethnologie, a new system of
musical instrument classication. It is today known as the
Sachs-Hornbostel system. It has been much revised over
the years, and has been the subject of some criticism, but
it remains the most widely used system of classication
by ethnomusicologists and organologists.

4 Further reading
Bredow, Moritz von. 2012. Rebellische Pianistin.
Das Leben der Grete Sultan zwischen Berlin und
New York. (Biography). Schott Music, Mainz,
Germany. ISBN 978-3-7957-0800-9 (Contains important references to Curt Sachs, who became a
most helpful friend of pianist Grete Sultan, as Professor in Berlin and New York).

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Sachs was dismissed from his posts in Germany by the Nazi Party because he was a Jew. As a result, he moved to Paris, and
later to the United States, where he settled in New York
City. From 1937 to 1953 he taught at New York University, and also worked at the New York Public Library.

5 External links

His numerous books include works on rhythm, dance and

musical instruments, with his The History of Musical Instruments (1940), a comprehensive survey of musical instruments worldwide throughout history, seen as one of
the most important. The long relationship he had with
W. W. Norton & Company began with The Rise of Music in the Ancient World (1943).[2] Although these works
have been superseded by more recent research in some
respects, they are still seen as essential texts in the eld.[3]

Works by or about Curt Sachs at Internet Archive

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