
Karl Franz Brendel (26 November 1811 – 25 November 1868) was a German music critic, journalist and musicologist born in
Stolberg, the son of a successful mining engineer named
Christian Friedrich Brendel.
Biography
He was a student at the
University of Leipzig
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...
,
University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany.
The university was established by Frederick Will ...
, and
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württe ...
up until the year 1840. In 1846 he began teaching
music history
Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view.
In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history ...
at the
Leipzig Conservatory
The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig (Saxony, Germany). Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn ...
, and in 1852 he published a well-regarded general history of European music. Brendel also published a book on
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
.
He was the editor of the ''
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
'Die'' (; en, " heNew Journal of Music") is a music magazine, co-founded in Leipzig by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Its first issue appeared on 3 April 1834.
Histo ...
'',
taking over in 1845 the position relinquished by
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
(in 1844) and remaining in post until his death in 1868.
Brendel coined the phrase ''Neudeutsche Schule'' (
New German School
The New German School (german: link=no, Neudeutsche Schule, ) is a term introduced in 1859 by Franz Brendel, editor of the ''Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'', to describe certain trends in German music. Although the term has frequently been used in ...
) to describe the progressive musical movement in Germany headed by Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt in the middle of the nineteenth century. He died in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
.
Literature
* Johannes Besser: ''Musikgeschichtler, Musikästhetiker und Musikpolitiker Carl Franz Brendel'' in: Sächsische Heimatblätter Issue 1/1971, pp. 415–419
* Golan Gur: ''Music and ‘Weltanschauung’: Franz Brendel and the Claims of Universal History'' in: Music & Letters Issue 93(3)/2012, pp. 350–373
*
Wendelin Weißheimer: ''Erlebnisse mit Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt und vielen anderen Zeitgenossen'', Stuttgart/Leipzig 1898
*
Don Randel Don Michael Randel (born December 9, 1940) is an American musicologist, specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain and France. He is currently the Chair of the Board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a trustee ...
: ''The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music''. Harvard 1996, p. 106.
See also
*
Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein
*
War of the Romantics
The "War of the Romantics" is a term used by some music historians to describe the schism among prominent musicians in the second half of the 19th century. Musical structure, the limits of chromatic harmony, and program music versus absolute musi ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brendel, Franz
German music critics
1811 births
1868 deaths
19th-century German journalists
German male journalists
German journalists
19th-century German male writers
19th-century German musicologists