Hermann Kretzschmar
August Ferdinand Hermann Kretzschmar (19 January 1848 – 10 May 1924) was a German musicologist and writer, and is considered a founder of hermeneutics in musical interpretation and study. Life and career. Born in Olbernhau, Saxony, Kretzschmar was son of the organist and cantor Karl Dankegott Kretzschmar and Karoline Wilhelmine, née Leupold. He was from 1862 a student in the Kreuzschule in Dresden, where from 1867–1868 he was twice Prefect of the Dresdner Kreuzchor. In addition, from 1870 he studied Philology at Leipzig University as well as Music at the Leipzig Conservatory and was awarded his doctorate there. From  1871 he was actively teaching in Theory, Composition, Piano and Organ at the Leipzig Conservatory, and acted as director/conductor for various musical societies. In 1876 he spent a year as theatre orchestra conductor in Metz (described as an "adventurous episode"), and undertook research expeditions in England and Italy for the study of musical history; from 1877 to 1887 he was Director of Music at the University of Rostock, and city music director there from 1880. From 1887 to 1904 he renewed his position in Leipzig as active University Music Director. From 1888-1898 he was Director of the Riedel  Choral Society. In the year 1890 he was awarded an honorary professorship, and in 1890 he founded the Leipzig Academic Concerts which he conducted until 1895. In 1904 he was appointed as regular Professor of Music at the University of Berlin, and from 1907–1922 he was Director of the Royal Institute for Church Music. From 1909 to 1920 (as successor to Joseph Joachim) he was Director of the "Königlich Akademischen Hochschule für ausübende Tonkunst" founded in 1869, later the Musikhochschule Berlin (the Berlin High School for Music). In 1912 he was elected Chairman of the (Prussian Music History Commission) and  thus the editor of the "Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst". This historical music edition was begun in 1892 by Brahms, Joachim and Philipp Spitta. He was a government privy counsellor. One of his students was composer and musicologist Walter Niemann. Hermeneutics. Kretschmar founded the discipline of musical hermeneutics in around 1900. According to the musicologist Maria Fuchs, Death. He died in Berlin-Schlachtensee in 1924, after which he was buried in a grave of honour in the of the in Berlin. Personal life. Kretzschmar was married in 1880 to the British pianist Clara Meller (Bristol, 3 February 1855 - 6 May 1903, Leipzig ). She gave her début concert at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1877, and accompanied the Austrian soprano Minna Peschka-Leutner in a number of concerts that year. In Göttingen in March she played Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata, pieces by Schumann, Liszt and Wagner arr. Tausig, and one or other of Chopin's A-flat major waltzes. In October 1878 she played Schumann's Piano Concerto in a concert at the Rostock Konzertverein, conducted by Kretschmar, who was the music director at Rostock University She continued to give concerts after their marriage; her repertoire included Brahms' 2nd piano concerto, Saint-Saëns' second , the concerto for three keyboards, BWV 1064 by J. S. Bach, and the F-sharp minor concerto by Hans von Bronsart. She died aged 48 in Leipzig. They had no children. Literary allusion. In his novel "Doktor Faustus", Thomas Mann creates the character of Dr Wendell Kretschmar, the inspirational and eccentric musicologist, lecturer and teacher of the composer Adrian Leverkühn. The name is probably given in homage to his real-life contemporary Hermann Kretzschmar, whose essays in musical interpretation were widely read and appreciated around the turn of the twentieth century.