Harald Heckmann (6 December 1924 – 5 November 2023) 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 focused on source documentation, particularly supported by

electronic data processing Electronic data processing (EDP) or business information processing can refer to the use of automated methods to process commercial data. Typically, this uses relatively simple, repetitive activities to process large volumes of similar information ...

, and music iconography. Besides teaching at the Musikhochschule Freiburg, he established in 1954 and led until 1971 the German Archive for the History of Music, and afterwards was chairman of the

German Broadcasting Archive The German Broadcasting Archive (''Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv''; DRA) is a non-profit foundation supported by the ARD. It was founded in 1952 as "German sound archive". The DRA covers essential aspects of the development of German broadcasting. Tod ...

. He held leading positions of international organisations such as the

International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres The International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML)Also known as ''Association Internationale des Bibliothèques, Archives et Centres de Documentation Musicaux'' (AIBM) and ''Internationale Vereinigung der M ...

(IAML),

Répertoire International des Sources Musicales The Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM, English ''International Inventory of Musical Sources'', German ''Internationales Quellenlexikon der Musik'') is an international non-profit organization, founded in Paris in 1952, with ...

(RISM), and

Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (International Repertory of Music Literature; Internationales Repertorium der Musikliteratur), commonly known by its acronym RILM, is a nonprofit organization that offers digital collections and ...

(RILM).

Biography

Born in

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

on 6 December 1924, Harald Heckmann studied in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, musicology with Reinhold Hammerstein, and

Wilibald Gurlitt Wilibald Gurlitt (1 March 1889, Dresden – 15 December 1963, Freiburg) was a German musicologist. Gurlitt, son of the art historian Cornelius Gurlitt, attended the St. Anne Semi-Classical Secondary School (''Annenrealgymnasium'') in Dresde ...

as well as art history with Kurt Bauch, history of

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

with Walther Rehm and history with

Gerd Tellenbach Gerd Tellenbach (17 September 1903 – 12 June 1999) was a German historian and scholar of medieval social and religious history, particularly of the Papacy and German church during the Investiture Controversy and reform movements of the eleventh ...

and

Gerhard Ritter Gerhard Georg Bernhard Ritter (6 April 1888 – 1 July 1967) was a German historian who served as a professor of history at the University of Freiburg from 1925 to 1956. He studied under Professor Hermann Oncken. A Lutheran, he first became well ...

. During his studies, he became a member of the ''AMV Alt-Strasbourg Freiburg'' (). He received his doctorate in 1952 with a dissertation about Wolfgang Caspar Printz and his teaching about rhythm.
Wolfgang Caspar Printz (1641–1717) und seine Rhythmuslehre
' He was then assistant to Wilibald Gurlitt until 1954. Heckmann contributed to the ''Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie'' (Handbook of musical terminology) of the

Academy of Sciences and Literature The Academy of Sciences and Literature () is a scientific academy in Mainz, Germany. It was established in 1949 on an initiative of Alfred Döblin. The academy's goal is to support science and literature, and in doing so to help preserve and pro ...

in Mainz. He taught Protestant

church music Church music is a genre of Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. History Early Christian musi ...

history and

hymnology Hymnology (from Greek ὕμνος ''hymnos'', "song of praise" and -λογία ''-logia'', "study of") is the scholarly study of religious song, or the hymn, in its many aspects, with particular focus on choral and congregational song. It may be m ...

at the Musikhochschule Freiburg. From 1954 he established the German Archive of the History of Music (Deutsches Musikgeschichtliches Archiv) in Kassel, which he headed until 1971. From 1971 until his retirement in 1991, he was chairman of the

in Frankfurt, a foundation of the ARD. His work focused on source documentation, particularly supported by electronic data processing, and music iconography, and the collaboration and exchange of information between libraries internationally. Heckmann died in

Kronberg Kronberg im Taunus (, ) is a town in the Hochtaunuskreis district, Hesse, Germany and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Before 1866, it was in the Duchy of Nassau; in that year the whole Duchy was absorbed into Prussia. Kronberg lies ...

on 5 November 2023, at age 98, after a serious illness.

Honorary positions

From 1959 to 1974, Heckmann was first secretary general, then until 1977 president of the

(IAML). After his presidency he was appointed honorary president of the association. Between 1960 and 1980, he was secretary, then until 2004 president of the

(RISM), where he was also honorary president. In 1967 he was co-founder and until 1992 vice president of the

(RILM). From 1971 to 2002 Heckmann was a member of the Deutsche Musikgeschichtliche Kommission (German commission of music history). In 1971, he was, with Barry S. Brook and

Geneviève Thibault de Chambure Geneviève, comtesse Hubert de Chambure Thibault (20 June 1902, Neuilly-sur-Seine – 31 August 1975, Strasbourg) was a French musicologist associated with the revival of interest in early music. Life and career She graduated from the Universi ...

, a founder of the

Répertoire international d'iconographie musicale Repertory or repertoire () is the list or set of works a person or company is accustomed to performing. Whether the English or French spelling is used has no bearing, but it was the French word, with an accent on the first e, , that first took ho ...

at IAML, where he was vice president from 1989. Heckmann belonged to the library commission of the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bud ...

from 1985 to 1991. He was president of the International Schubert Society from 1990 to 2003, and afterwards its honorary member. He was member and then president of the music advisary board of the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

. Heckmann was, together with Gerhard Mantel, responsible for the chamber music programs of the Robert Schumann Society Frankfurt from 1983 to 2009, and was afterwards an honorary member of the society.

Awards

Heckmann received the Kassel City Medal in 1979, the Golden Mozart Pin of the International Mozarteum Foundation in 1988 and the Officer's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

in 2000.

Publications

Heckmann's publications are held by the

: ;Books * ''Wolfgang Caspar Printz (1641–1717) und seine Rhythmuslehre''. Dissertation,

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

1952 * ''Elektronische Datenverarbeitung in der Musikwissenschaft'', Regensburg 1967 ;Editions *
Katalog der Filmsammlung
'' Deutsches Musikgeschichtliches Archiv, Kassel/Basel, continuously from 1953 to 1972 * ''Documenta Musicologica'', series I ''Druckschriften–Faksimiles'', Kassel among others 1953; series II ''Handschriften–Faksimiles'', 1955ff. (from 1961 to 1972 chairman of the respective editorial committees of both series) * ''Catalogus Musicus, Eine musikbibliographische Reihe'' (1963 to 1969 chairman of the publication committee, from 1969 until 1973 together with H. Heussner) *

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

. ''Mélanges offerts à Vladimir Féderov à l'occasion de son soixante-cinquième anniversaire'', introduction, ''Fontes Artis Musicae'' 13/1, 1966 (with

Wolfgang Rehm Wolfgang Rehm (3 September 1929 – 6 April 2017) was a German musicologist active mostly in music publishing, especially the ''Neue Mozart-Ausgabe''. He was on the board of its editorial team for decades, and personally edited operas and piano m ...

) *
Das Tenorlied. Mehrstimmige Lieder in deutschen Quellen 1450–1580
'' Dt. Musikgesch. Arch. Kassel and Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz Berlin, vol. 1: Drucke, Kassel among others 1979, vol. 2: Handschriften, 1982, vol. 3: Register, 1986 (with Norbert Böker-Heil and Ilse Kindermann) * ''Musikalische Ikonographie'', conference report. Hamburg 1991, Laaber 1994 (with Monika Holl and Hans Joachim Marx) * ''Nachschlagewerke zur Musik. Internationale Musik-Sach-Lexika vom 17. bis zum frühen 19. Jh.'', microfiche edition, Munich 1999. ;Music editions * W. A. Mozart
Choruses and entre-acts
of '' Thamos, König in Ägypten'', K. 345 (336a), ''

Neue Mozart-Ausgabe The ''Neue Mozart-Ausgabe'' (''NMA''; English: ''New Mozart Edition'') is the second complete works edition of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A longer and more formal title for the edition is ''Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Neue ...

'' (NMA) II/6, vol. 1, Kassel among others. 1956, 2/1973; 1958. * W. A. Mozart
Music for pantomimes and ballets
NMA II/6, vol. 22, 1963. * Christoph Willibald Gluck,
La rencontre imprévue
' ('' Die Pilger von Mekka''); NMA IV, vol. 7, 1964.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heckmann, Harald 1924 births 2023 deaths Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg German music publishers (people) German musicologists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Writers from Dortmund