Christoph Wolff (born 24 May 1940) is 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 is best known for his works on the music, life, and period 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 ...

. Christoph Wolff is an emeritus professor of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and was part of the faculty since 1976, and former director of the

Bach Archive 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 Leipzig from 2001 to 2014.

Life and career

Wolff was born in Solingen, the son of theologian Hans Walter Wolff. He studied organ and historical keyboard instruments, musicology, and

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

at the Universities of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

, and the Music Academy of Freiburg, receiving a performance diploma in 1963 and a PhD in 1966. Wolff taught music history at Erlangen,

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Princeton, and Columbia Universities before joining the Harvard faculty in 1976 as Professor of Music and retiring in 2014. He was also on the graduate faculty of the Juilliard School from 2010 to 2018. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Saxon Academy of Sciences, the Akademie für Mozart-Forschung (he chaired it from 1996 to 2006) and since 2015 a member of the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and the Arts, he also holds an honorary professorship at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Publications and media

Wolff's books include ''Bach: Essays on His Life and Music'' (Cambridge, 1991), ''Mozart's Requiem'' (Berkeley, 1994), ''The New Bach Reader'' (New York, 1998), ''Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician'', which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 (New York, 2000), and ''Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work'' (W.W. Norton, 2020). In 2013, his ''Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune'' won an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. Wolff was interviewed about Bach's '' The Art of Fugue'' in the documentary film '' Desert Fugue''.

Awards and recognition

Wolff was awarded the IRC Harrison Medal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland in 2004 and the Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize in 2006. Also he was awarded the Dent Medal of the International Musicological Society in 1978, the Humboldt Research Prize in 1996, the Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society in 2000 for ''Johann Sebastian Bach; the Learned Musician''''.''

References

External links

Home page at Harvard University

Home page of the Bach Archive in Leipzig

''Bach & Friends'' documentary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Christoph 1940 births 21st-century conductors (music) American musicologists Bach musicians Bach scholars Columbia University faculty German emigrants to the United States German musicologists Harvard University faculty Hochschule für Musik Freiburg alumni Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Living people People from Belmont, Massachusetts People from Solingen Princeton University faculty Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Winners of the Royal Academy of Music/ Kohn Foundation Bach Prize Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Buxtehude scholars