Gustav Wilhelm Becking (4 March 1894 – 9 May 1945) 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 ...

who studied with

Wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

and

Hugo Riemann Karl Wilhelm Julius Hugo Riemann (18 July 1849 – 10 July 1919) was a German musicologist and composer who was among the founders of modern musicology. The leading European music scholar of his time, he was active and influential as both a mus ...

. Becking did his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in 1920. He worked as a professor at

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

from 1929, in

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 1930 according to ''The

New Grove ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and th ...

''. Becking was, along with

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

and Otmar Rutz,

Eduard Sievers Eduard Sievers (; 25 November 1850 – 30 March 1932) was a German philologist of the classical and Germanic languages. Sievers was one of the '' Junggrammatiker'' of the so-called "Leipzig School". He was one of the most influential historical ...

, and Alexander Truslit, one of the pioneers of composer pulse theory. This theory combines the rhythmic patterns in music with physical movement. The latter can be represented with conducting curves, so called Becking curves. Becking classified these curves into three categories in which all composers can be placed (Rink 1995 : 64-77).

References

* Gustav Becking (1928/2011): ''How Musical Rhythm Reveals Human Attitudes. An Annotated Translation'' by Nigel Nettheim, Peter Lang. (URL: http://www.peterlang.com/) * Rink, John (editor) (1995): ''The Practise of Performance'', Cambridge University Press * Geiringer/Turner/Potter (2006): 'Gustav Becking', Grove Music Online. L. Macy (ed.). (URL: http://www.grovemusic.com ) 1894 births 1945 deaths Academic staff of Charles University German expatriates in Czechoslovakia Writers from Bremen (city) 20th-century German musicologists Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities {{Germany-musician-stub