Hellmut Federhofer (August 6, 1911 – May 1, 2014) was an Austrian
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 ...
. Born in
Graz
Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...
, he studied music there and in Vienna at the
University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna
The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university established in 1817 located in Vienna. With a student body of over three thousand, it is the largest institution of its kind in Austria, and one of t ...
, graduating in 1936. In 1937, he became a librarian at the library of the
Technische Hochschule Graz (BTH) and later the
Universitätsbibliothek Graz. He became director of the BTH in 1940. In 1959 he became professor of
music theory
Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "Elements of music, ...
. From 1962 until 1979 he was director of the musicology Institute of
Mainz University
The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...
, where he became Emeritus Professor of musicology.
Federhofer was an honorary member of the
Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft and the
Akademie für Mozart-Forschung (founded in 1931 as Zentralinstitut für Mozart-Forschung) In 2001 he received an honorary doctorate from the Philosophy department of the
University of Graz
The University of Graz (, formerly: ''Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz'') is a public university, public research university located in Graz, Austria. It is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-old ...
. He
turned 100
A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...
in August 2011.
He died in 2014 at the age of 102.
References
External links
Honorary PhD from Graz University. Includes biography(in German)
1911 births
2014 deaths
20th-century Austrian musicologists
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna alumni
Writers from Graz
Austrian men centenarians
Academic staff of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
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