Rudolf (von) Ficker (until 1919, Rudolf Ritter Ficker von Feldhaus; * 11 June 1886 in Munich; † 2 August 1954 in Igls) was an Austrian musicologist.
Life
Rudolf von Ficker was the son of the historian
Julius von Ficker
Julius von Ficker, or Johann Kaspar Julius Ficker von Feldhaus (30 April 1826 – 10 June 1902) was a Roman Catholic German historian. In 1898 he was awarded the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.Ludwig von Ficker and meteorologist/physicist Heinrich von Ficker. In 1905 he began his composition studies with Ludwig Thuille and
Walter Courvoisier
Walter Courvoisier (7 February 1875 – 27 December 1931) was a Swiss composer.
Life
Born in Riehen, Courvoisier was a son of the surgeon Ludwig Georg Courvoisier. He initially studied medicine and worked as a doctor after obtaining his doctora ...
in Munich. He then continued his music studies with the musicologist
Guido Adler
Guido Adler (1 November 1855, Ivančice (Eibenschütz), Moravia – 15 February 1941, Vienna) was a Bohemian-Austrian musicologist and writer.
Biography
Early life and education
Adler was born at Eibenschütz in Moravia in 1855. He move ...
in the Department of Music at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich h ...
, where he received his doctorate in 1913. He habilitated at the University of Innsbruck in 1920, and in 1922/23 he was appointed associate professor at the University of Innsbruck. There he established the study and teaching materials library, which in 1926 became the Department of Music.
In 1927 Ficker accepted a position, as co-chair with R. Lach, in the Department of Music in Vienna, and in 1927 he organized the performances of "Musik der Gotik" on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the death of Beethoven. From 1928 to 1938 he was a member of the executive board of the Monuments of Fine Austrian Music ( DTÖ, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, cf. also
IMSLP article
The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project, which uses MediaWiki softwar ...
). From 1927 to 1931 he was a member of the directorate of the
International Musicological Society
The International Musicological Society (IMS) is a membership-based organisation for musicology at the international level, with headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. It seeks the advancement of musicological research through international coope ...
.
He was the successor to
Adolf Sandberger
Adolf Wilhelm August Sandberger (19 December 1864 in Würzburg – 14 January 1943 in Munich) was a German musicologist and composer, with a particular interest in 16th-century music. He founded the School of Musicology at the University of M ...
as professor and head of the Music Department at the University of Munich beginning in 1931.
In 1948 Ficker returned to Innsbruck. His work concentrated on Medieval Music, and he is considered to be a pioneer scholar in research in this area.
With Adler, Ficker was co-author of the 83 volume work "Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich" (cf. above).
Ficker achieved international recognition with his researches on the
Trent Codices The Trent Codices are a collection of seven large music manuscripts compiled around the middle of the 15th century, currently kept in the northern Italian city of Trent. They contain mostly sacred vocal music composed between 1400 and 1475. Contai ...
, whose seventh volume (TrentM 93) he discovered.
His scholarly estate is located at the
Brenner Archives Research Institute Brenner may refer to:
* Brenner (surname)
* Brenner (crater)
* ''Brenner'' (TV series), a television series from 1959 to 1964
* Brenner, South Tyrol, a municipality in South Tyrol, Austria
* Brenner, Kansas, a community in the United States
* Bre ...
of the University of Innsbruck.
Selected works
* "Die Chromatik im italienischen Madrigal des 16. Jahrhunderts", dissertation, Vienna 1913.
* "Beiträge zur Chromatik des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts", in: " StMw" 2 (1914).
* "Die Kolorierungstechnik der Trienter Messen", in: " StMw" 7 (1920).
* "Primäre Klangformen", in: "Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters" (1929).
*
* "Guido Adler und die Wiener Schule der Musikwissenschaft", in: " ÖMZ" 1 (1946).
* "Epilog zum Faburdon", in: "
Acta Musicologica
''Acta Musicologica'' is the official peer-reviewed journal of the International Musicological Society, which has its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. It contains articles on musicological research of international importance in five different l ...
", vol. 25, issue 4 (Oct.-Dez. 1953), S. 127-131.
* "The Transition on the Continent", in: "New Oxford History of Music" 3 (1960).
* "Die Grundlagen der abendländischen Mehrstimmigkeit" (incomplete).
Sources
* Jeppesen, Knud: "Rudolf von Ficker in Memoriam", in "
Acta Musicologica
''Acta Musicologica'' is the official peer-reviewed journal of the International Musicological Society, which has its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. It contains articles on musicological research of international importance in five different l ...
", vol. 26, issue ¾ (Aug.-Dec. 1954), pp. 65–66.
* "Rudolf Ficker." In: Rudolf Flotzinger (ed.): "
Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon
The ''Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon'Oesterreichisch'' with ''Oe'' is the spelling of the print and online output. is a five-volume music encyclopedia founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Commission for Music Research. It was officiall ...
." Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2002, (volume 1), p. 443.
Austria-Forum
Austria-Forum is a freely accessible online collection of reference works in both German and English about Austria-related topics.
Background
The predecessor of Austria-Forum, the AEIOU project was launched in 1996 by the Austrian Federal Minist ...
(im AEIOU-
Österreich-Lexikon
Austria-Forum is a freely accessible online collection of reference works in both German and English about Austria-related topics.
Background
The predecessor of Austria-Forum, the AEIOU project was launched in 1996 by the Austrian Federal Minist ...
Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) 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 colle ...