Hans Robert Hermann Hickmann (b.

Roßlau Rosslau (in German orthography: Roßlau) was until 30 June 2007 a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, belonging to the district Anhalt-Zerbst. After a fusion with the town of Dessau it became eponym of the newly founded town of Dessau-Roßlau and a qua ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, May 19, 1908; d.

Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ) is a market town in Dorset, England, on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour, north-west of Poole. It had a population of 10,355 at the United Kingdom 2021 census, 2021 census. The town is notable for its Georgian archit ...

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, September 4, 1968) was an eminent 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 lived in Egypt and specialized in the music and

organology Organology (; ) is the science of musical instruments and their classifications. It embraces study of instruments' history, instruments used in different cultures, technical aspects of how instruments produce sound, and musical instrument classi ...

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

, and survivals thereof in Egyptian traditional music. He wrote about Egypt's tradition of

cheironomy Cheironomy or chironomy is a form of Conducting, music conducting, typically with choral music and choral groups (choirs), where the use of hand gestures directs musical performance. In the modern artform, conductors tend to hoist baton (conducti ...

(as practiced in Ancient Egypt and still found in Coptic music) for the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. He studied at the University of Berlin, studying with Curt Sachs and Erich von Hornbostel, and graduating in 1934. He also played the piano and organ, and conducted Hickmann first investigated Egyptian music in 1932–33, during a visit to the Siwa Oasis, and settled in Egypt in 1933. He operated a conservatory called Musica Viva, located at 1 Seket el Fadl in downtown Cairo. His notable students included the composer Rifaat Garrana.

References

Books by Hans Hickmann

*Hickmann, Hans (1980). ''Miscellanea musicologica (Vies et travaux)''. Organization des antiquites de l'Egypte, Service des musees. . .

Articles by Hans Hickmann

*Hickmann, Hans. "Un Zikr Dans le Mastaba de Debhen, Guîzah (IVème Dynastie)." ''Journal of the International Folk Music Council'', v. 9 (1957), pp. 59–62. *Hickmann, Hans. "La chironomie dans l'Egypte ancienne." ''Zeitschrift fur ägyptische Sprache und Altertumkunde'', vol. 83, no. 2 (1958).

Obituaries

*"Hans R. H. Hickmann (1908 - 1968)." ''Ethnomusicology'', v. 13, no. 2 (May 1969), pp. 316–319. 1908 births 1968 deaths People from Dessau-Roßlau People from the Duchy of Anhalt Writers from Cairo Humboldt University of Berlin alumni 20th-century German musicologists German expatriates in Egypt {{Germany-musicologist-stub