Martin Ruhnke (14 June 1921 – 25 September 2004) was a German

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

. His main areas of research were the music theory of early baroque music, Italian baroque opera and the life and work of

Georg Philipp Telemann Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hi ...

Life

Born in

Koszalin Koszalin (pronounced ; csb, Kòszalëno; formerly german: Köslin, ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-stat ...

, Ruhnke was appointed in Kiel where he gained his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

in 1954 with a thesis on

Joachim Burmeister Joachim Burmeister (1564 in Lüneburg – 5 May 1629 in Rostock) was a north German composer and music theorist. He was the oldest of five children born to a beadworker and townsman of Lüneburg. His brother Anton (d. 1634) became the cantor of St ...

's music theory. Afterwards he was Wissenschaftlicher Assistent at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in poli ...

and habilitatetd in 1961. In 1964 he was appointed to the chair of musicology at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, which he held until he became

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

in 1986. From 1968 to 1974 Ruhnke was president of the

Gesellschaft für Musikforschung The ''Gesellschaft für Musikforschung'' (GfM) is a professional association of musicologists and institutes active in study, research and teaching in Germany. It has over 1600 members. The association is based in Kassel, Hesse. History The soc ...

and from 1991 to 1997 president of the ''International Telemann Society''. From 1960 to 2003 he was responsible for the Telemann edition of the ''Zentrum für Telemann-Pflege und -Forschung Magdeburg''. In 1984, 1992 and 1999 his three-volume

Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis The Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis (Telemann Works Catalogue), abbreviated TWV, is the numbering system identifying compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann, published by musicologist Martin Ruhnke. The prefix TWV is generally followed by a genre numbe ...

was published, in which he completed the ''Telemann-Vokalwerke-Verzeichnis'' by Werner Menke (1982/1983) with the instrumental works. Ruhnke "influenced ..Telemann research as a whole, which he introduced into academic discourse and for which he set important standards" (Ute Poetzsch).Ute Poetzsch: ''Die Editionen der Werke Georg Philipp Telemanns''
p. 190
In Reinmar Emans, Ulrich Krämer (ed.): ''Music editions in the course of history''. Berlin/Boston 2015 In 1995 he received the Georg-Philipp-Telemann-Preis der Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg. He also studied the music history of his home

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to t ...

and became a member of the .

References

External links

''Zum Tod von Prof. Dr. Martin Ruhnke''
(University of Erlangen, 28 September 2004) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruhnke, Martin 20th-century German musicologists Academic staff of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg 1921 births 2004 deaths People from Koszalin