August Wilhelm Ambros (17 November 181628 June 1876) Blom, Eric (2005) ''Everyman's Dictionary of Music'', Kessinger Publishing. p. 15. . was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n music historian, critic and composer of

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descent.

Life

He was born in Mýto, Rokycany District,

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

. His father was a cultured man, and his mother was the sister of (1773–1850), the musical archaeologist and collector. Ambros studied at the University of Prague and was well-educated in music and the arts, which were his abiding passion. He was, however, destined for the law and an official career in the Austrian civil service, and from 1839 he occupied various important posts under the ministry of justice, music being an

avocation An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...

. From 1850 onwards, he became well known as a critic and essay-writer, and in 1860 he began working on his magnum opus, his ''History of Music'', which was published at intervals from 1862 in five volumes, the last two (1878, 1882) being edited and completed by Otto Kade and . Ambros was a professor of the history of music at

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

from 1869 to 1871.Meinong, Alexius & Adler, Guido (1995) ''Eine Freundschaft in Briefen Alexius'', Rodopi. p. 8. . Also in Prague, he sat on the board of governors in the Prague Royal Conservatory. By 1872, he was living in Vienna and was employed by the Department of Justice as an officer and by Prince Rudolf's family as his tutor. Through his work in Vienna, he was given a leave of absence for half the year in order to let him travel the world to collect musical information to include in his ''History of Music'' book. He was an excellent pianist, and the author of numerous compositions reminiscent of

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

. Ambros died at Vienna in 1876, aged 59.

Selected writings

References

External links

* Works by August Wilhelm Ambros at the

International Music Score Library Project The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project uses MediaWiki software, and ...

(IMSLP) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ambros, August Wilhelm 1816 births 1876 deaths People from Mýto Composers from the Austrian Empire Composers from Austria-Hungary 19th-century Austrian classical composers Charles University alumni German Bohemian people Romantic composers Josquin scholars 19th-century Austrian musicologists