Alfred Dürr (3 March 1918 – 7 April 2011) was a German

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

. He was a principal editor of the

Neue Bach-Ausgabe The New Bach Edition (NBE) (; NBA), is the second complete edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, published by Bärenreiter. The name is short for Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): New Edition of the Complete Works (''Johann Sebastian ...

, the second edition of the complete works of

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

Professional career

Dürr studied

musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

and

Classical philology Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen from 1945 to 1950. He wrote his thesis about Bach's early

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...

s. From 1951 until his retirement in 1983 he was an employee of the

Johann Sebastian Bach Institute The Johann Sebastian Bach Institute (German: Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institut) was an institute dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach in Göttingen, Germany. It was founded in 1951 as one of two institutes preparing the New Bach Edition, the second compl ...

in Göttingen, West Germany, from 1962 to 1981 its deputy director. His work involved collaboration with colleagues in East Germany. He was a principal editor of the

, a project which was divided between the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute and the

Bach-Archiv Leipzig The Bach-Archiv Leipzig or Bach-Archiv is an institution for the documentation and research of the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Bach-Archiv also researches the Bach family, especially their music. Based in Leipzig, the city wher ...

in East Germany. From 1953 to 1974 Dürr was editor of the ''

Bach-Jahrbuch The ''Bach-Jahrbuch'' ("Bach yearbook" or according to the publication's website "Bach Annals") is an Periodical literature, annual publication related to the composer Bach. It is published in German by the Neue Bachgesellschaft in Leipzig. It is t ...

'' (Bach almanach), together with

Werner Neumann Werner Neumann (21 January 1905, Königstein – 24 April 1991, Leipzig) was a German musicologist. He founded the Bach-Archiv Leipzig on 20 November 1950 and was a principal editor of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of the complete ...

, the founder and director of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. Dürr received honorary doctorates of music from the

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt, ...

, the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and

Baldwin–Wallace College Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private university in Berea, Ohio, United States. Established in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin, it merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallac ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

.Catalogue of the Oxford University Press
/ref> His 65th birthday was marked by a Festschrift ''Bachiana et alia musicologica'' (ed. W. Rehm, Kassel, 1983). Alfred Dürr died on 7 April 2011 in Göttingen.

Research and editing

Dürr wrote standard works on the

Bach cantata The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas ( German: ), are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest can ...

s (1971) and on ''

The Well-Tempered Clavier ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time ''clavier'' referred to a variety of keyboard instruments, ...

'', which are of interest not only to specialists, but also to the general public. In 1957 he published in the Bach-Jahrbuch ''Zur Chronologie der Leipziger Vokalwerke J. S. Bachs''. In his 1988 book on Bach's ''

St John Passion The ''Passio secundum Joannem'' or ''St John Passion'' (), BWV 245, is a Passion or oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, the earliest of the surviving Passions by Bach. It was written during his first year as director of church music in Leipzi ...

'', ''Die Johannes-Passion von Johann Sebastian Bach'', he explored theological aspects as well as the four versions of the work.

Dating of Bach's works

Many of Bach's works have uncertain composition dates, and the standard catalogue, the

Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis The (, ; BWV) is a Catalogues of classical compositions, catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990 and the third edition in ...

, is not a chronological one. Nevertheless, modern scholarship has been able to throw light on the chronology. Dürr's "painstaking work" changed the accepted chronology of Bach's works, especially his cantatas. The musicologist John Butt remarked:

If one had to single out the scholar who has done most to establish the new chronology of Bach's vocal works and who appears most often as an editor within the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, this would surely have to be Dürr.

Selected publications

* ''Johann Sebastian Bach. Die Kantaten.'' Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999. ** translation: The Cantatas of J. S. BachThe Cantatas of J. S. Bach
Oxford * ''Johann Sebastian Bach. Das Wohltemperierte Klavier''. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2002.
Entries for Alfred Dürr in the Library of CongressEntries for Alfred Dürr in WorldCat

References

External links

*
Alfred Dürr
International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory *

Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (5 January 1919 – 30 August 1999) was a German musicologist and professor of historical musicology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg. Life Eggebrecht was born in Dresden. His father was a Protestant mini ...

and

Konrad Küster Konrad Küster (born 11 March 1959) is a German musicologist. Born in Stuttgart, Küster studied musicology, Medieval and Modern History and Comparative Regional Studies at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen and received his doctorate in 198 ...

.
Dürr, Alfred
. ''Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.''

Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, Konrad Küster

encyclopedia.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Durr, Alfred Musicologists from Berlin 1918 births 2011 deaths Bach scholars Musicians from Berlin People from Charlottenburg Scholars of Baroque music